1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet)

1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (Full Version)

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Zovs -> 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/7/2021 7:27:23 PM)
1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) Playing the 1941 Campaign - No Early End - Steam version MP Server Game General Notes Both *thedoctorking* and I (*zovs) will be writing this AAR together from both the Axis and Soviets perspective. We are both beta testers and for myself I wanted this AAR to also be a test ground when new development patches need to be tested for future releases and for any balancing tweaks that the development team needs feedback on (this may not be possible with the Steam version but I think we can switch to a test version and then back to the Steam version, will need to check with the development team on this). So, my hope for this AAR is to: a) have some fun b) let the public and development team see if they spot anything that may or may not be addressed c) we don’t see too many two-sided AAR’s simultaneous running in the same thread. I get it in that competitive player may not want to show their cards and in some of those cases we may delay a turn but in general the idea and spirit of this AAR is for us to both chime in as we go along and write this out turn by turn. I may censor some of my back-end units, but in general I’ll just turn on the unit names instead of displaying CV's or zoom out a bit to hide that info when needed. So, the general idea is to hopefully have a two sided AAR with both of us posting and perhaps even sharing some thoughts as we go along on strategies, tactics or game play. I don’t claim to be an expert and I know there are far more competent and competitive players then I, but I would like to think I know the current system well after testing it for a few years. So, ask questions, but I can’t guarantee I’ll know the answers but maybe others will, and it also depends on my time on how much I can add to this AAR. At any rate I hope you all enjoy. Lastly, I am running my system via a 4k HD monitor so I have had to scale the images down so that they fit within the Matrix forums restrictions, but for those that might think it useful I'll also post an html link to where the the images are hosted so you can zoom in and see the images in more clarity without the scaling distortion. Options* Playing with FOW/Movement FOW, No AI Air Assist and with Enhanced Player TB Control. Starting and using version 1.02.08_Beta (development version future release on steam) NOTES: The version 1.02.08_Beta is now in the public domain (except for the future Steam version which is likely to come out soon). I have been reading and following a lot of AAR's and even though I have been on Beta since 2019, there is always so much to learn from others. I wanted to post a shoutout to *HardLuckYetAgain* not only for his informative AARs but also for his 'mentoring' me in some of the finer aspects of playing as the Axis/Germans. Personally, I think we are a good fit since he is a Jarhead, and I am a Dumb A$$ Tanker (DAT for short), so thank you *HLYA* for all your helpful insights and tutoring and putting up with my DAT questions lol. CAMPAIGN GOALS General Destruction of Soviet Air and Ground forces. AGN Soviet Supply depots at Riga, Daugavpils, Jelgava, Vilnius, and Kaunas. AGC Soviet Supply depots at Minsk, Grodno, Bialystok, Baranovichi, Brest Litovsk, and Kobrin. AGS Soviet Supply depots at Lvov, Kovel, and Sambor. Turn 1 - 22-Jun-1941 Air Phase: Air Attack is based on my document I created for the manual air war located here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5101678 I setup 41 AD (one more than my document above) and this is the overall results from those AD's: [img]https://i.imgur.com/RsWJS8Zh.png[/img] This was one air ground attack from Luftflotte 2 (AGC) that did not go so well, all these losses should be Me 110. [img]https://i.imgur.com/yXwa35jh.png[/img] The Romanians lost almost three-quarters their fighters and near half their bombers with the attack on Ochakov. [img]https://i.imgur.com/EZM3NAxh.png[/img] Here are the overall losses from the turn 1 airfield ground attack: [img]https://i.imgur.com/iD4mCW0h.png[/img] My losses are a little higher than I would have liked as far as airframe's go, but my overall Pilot KIA is good at 74 to 685. Unfortunately, I lost 15 fighter pilots (only 2 of which were German and the rest were Romanians flying the Hurricane I). I did lose 19 Fighter Bombers (17 of which were Bf 110E-2). I lost 3 tactical bombers, but all were Romanian or Hungarian. The biggest losses were the 112 level bombers, with the Germans loosing 53 and the remaining 59 from the Axis minors. The Soviet loss in Pilots is pretty good at 685 and I am happy with destroying 3,982 on the ground and shooting down 29 in air combat. What may seem a mystery to you is the 38 Last Action losses for the Soviets and 2 level bombers for the Axis. My guess is that those losses are from damaged planes from the air execution phase. Overall, I am pleased with the first turn air strikes and only more Soviet Pilots will be KIA during my ground phase. Ground Phase At start actions Generally, I look at the turn summary, weather report, logistics and battle locations. For turn 1 obviously the turn summary, logistics report and battle locations are not very useful. Weather Report Weather is clear, some rain in the Baltics. Logistic Reports Nothing on the first turn. Commanders Report The next thing I am doing is going through the Commanders Report (CR) and see what needs attention. For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). I also set the HQ's supply priority to 1 for all ground units and leave all German Luftflotte, the two Axis Minors Air HQ's as well as the TB as default (hint use the filters). When I go to the map, I set all Panzer Groups to supply priority 2. I am sending all the Bf 110E-2 to the retrain as fighters (after the turn 1 air execution phase). I am also sending all the SU up to OKH (all set to 0) and on turn 2 I'll cycle through and transfer them to where I want them to go and make sure they are locked. [img]https://i.imgur.com/EaiGfPgh.png[/img] Based off what *HLYA* has done and recommends/suggests I am transferring the two Construction units from Norway to the map (only can be done if the TB are on). [img]https://i.imgur.com/Cxq9lr2h.png[/img] Since we are playing with TB on, I am going to transfer all the units in the Reserve that are at 100% TOE to the map so that they are available in the upcoming turns. [img]https://i.imgur.com/8w1foFkh.png[/img] I'd like to have the Fuehrer Begleit on map and when the two StuG battalions achieve 100% TOE, for now I am just transferring the Fuehrer Begleit to the map. I am also transferring the 314th Coastal Fortress Construction battalion unit to the map. Several of the AA units are ready and several are not. The 2/55th SP Flak Company and 5/52nd SP Flak Company which have vehicles, so I transferred them to the map. Lastly, I am transferring the 861st, 751st LW mot. Light Flak battalions to North Africa, the 2/47th Mot. Light Flak Company to Norway, and the 772nd, and 773rd LW Light Flak Battalion to North Africa as well. That leaves five Mixed and five Heavy Flak battalions in reserve. We will see how these at start actions impact the game during upcoming turns. So, for example, at start North Africa is showing 77% ground and Norway is showing 97% ground. On turn 2 we will see what percentage (if any) has made an impact on these theaters and these transfers. Turn Summary I am not going to write a unit by unit moves or updates for each turn but instead just a basic end of turn summary of what has happened, unless its something interesting or instructive. Pilot's data Here is the list of all pilot's status: [img]https://i.imgur.com/KK55KEvh.jpg[/img] Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/KK55KEv.jpg The total Air results were 79 battles with 76 AF bombing missions and 3 Air Combat missions. For the ground all together I did 99 attacks, (96 Hasty and 3 Deliberate). End of Turn 1 End of turn map with both air and ground losses: [img]https://i.imgur.com/caomxEvh.jpg[/img] Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/caomxEv.jpg Here is a breakdown by Battle Result: Retreated 10 Shattered 50 Surrendered 17 Routed 21 Victory Points Captured 11 Bonus Victory Points (VP); Minsk, Lvov, and Riga. Total possible Soviet units encircled (based on map and detection level): 4x Army HQ 5x Rifle Corps HQ 1x Cavalry Corps HQ 4x Mech Corps HQ 35x Rifle Divisions 3x Cavalry Divisions 2x Mountain Divisions 12x Tank Divisions 6x Mech Divisions 6x Sec Battalions 1x AT battalions 18x Fort MG/Art battalions 18x Unknown, most appear to be Rifle Divisions and at least 3x HQ units Broken down by Army Group AGN Pockets: [img]https://i.imgur.com/9vvjEieh.jpg[/img] Total possible Soviet units encircled: 1x Army HQ 1x Rifle Corps HQ 9x Rifle Divisions 2x Tank Divisions 2x Mech Divisions 8x Fort MG/Art battalions 5x Unknown, most likely Rifle Divisions and maybe 1 Sec battalion and 1x HQ unit AGC Pockets: [img]https://i.imgur.com/Ul7ISvWh.jpg[/img] Total possible Soviet units encircled: 2x Army HQ 3x Rifle Corps HQ 1x Cavalry Corps HQ 4x Mech Corps HQ 19x Rifle Divisions 2x Cavalry Divisions 7x Tank Divisions 4x Mech Divisions 4x Sec Battalions 8x Fort MG/Art battalions 13x Unknown, most appear to be Rifle Divisions and 2x HQ units AGS Pockets: [img]https://i.imgur.com/PI7v1Cih.jpg[/img] Total possible Soviet units encircled: 1x Army HQ 1x Rifle Corps HQ 7x Rifle Divisions 1x Cavalry Divisions 2x Mountain Divisions 3x Tank Divisions 2x Sec Battalions 1x AT battalions 2x Fort MG/Art battalions Turn Conclusions So, all in all I have completed my objectives for the start of Barbarossa. The General Objectives will obviously be a work in progress over time, but I think with the destruction of almost 5,000 aircraft and almost 1,500 Soviet pilots I am off to a great start. While the Soviet ground losses do not seem that high with only 174,209 losses in men, 5,203 in guns and only 588 in AFV's, versus my Axis losses for the surprise attack with just over 6,000 men, 311 guns and 3 AFV for which I am quite pleased with. The next two turns will most likely be the highest Soviet losses after which I am assuming the losses will taper off and/or unless I can manage some major encirclements in August and October-November before the winter hits. All three Army Groups were able to achieve the goals I set for them, mainly the taking of Riga, Minsk, and Lvov, but more specifically with capturing the Soviet supply depots set out in the beginning of my AAR (sans AGS which did not capture of Sambor and instead pocketed several divisions behind the lines). Hopefully the mop up operations and the drive towards Pskov, Smolensk and Kiev will go well and set me up for the further drives to the east. ...to be continued...

jubjub -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/8/2021 9:48:11 PM)
quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read!

HardLuckYetAgain -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/8/2021 9:51:13 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Zovs I have been reading and following a lot of AAR's and even though I have been on Beta since 2019, there is always so much to learn from others. I wanted to post a shoutout to *HardLuckYetAgain* not only for his informative AARs but also for his 'mentoring' me in some of the finer aspects of playing as the Axis/Germans. Personally, I think we are a good fit since he is a Jarhead, and I am a Dumb A$$ Tanker (DAT for short), so thank you *HLYA* for all your helpful insights and tutoring and putting up with my DAT questions lol. Don't thank me, thank yourself. Takes a great deal of dedication to relearn the game to see things in a different light. I always try to share what little I know to individuals that will listen to my rumblings. Good luck to you & Thedoctorking.

HardLuckYetAgain -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/8/2021 9:53:16 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jubjub quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read! Yes, dedicated replacements to where and when you want them. I too like the formatting :)

speedyglides -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 8:30:11 AM)
Setting all units at Max TOE 50% does not weaken them too much? I've never thought of reducing the TOE so much.

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 8:44:45 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jubjub quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read! yes, don't put the HQs under 100 and no gain to SUs actually I'm not so sure of the claimed benefit of CU at 50%, as long as they never go to refit state near a depot the freight hit for manpower replacements is minimal till later in 1941. But thats one of the delights of the game, different interpretations of how to make it hand together

821Bobo -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 10:23:57 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: speedyglides Setting all units at Max TOE 50% does not weaken them too much? I've never thought of reducing the TOE so much. No, not really. Units will keep all squads/devices just won't drag any replacements until they are below 50%TOE. And in summer 41 you really need to get freight to the front and due to the limited logistic, replacements will compete with freight. In the end getting x thousands tons more of supply/fuel will you benefit more than getting some replacements here and there.

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 4:10:49 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jubjub quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read! Thank you for the kind words. Turn 2 saw me put all HQ's and SU back to 100%, thanks for the tip.

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 4:11:27 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain quote: ORIGINAL: jubjub quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read! Yes, dedicated replacements to where and when you want them. I too like the formatting :) Again thank you for the kind words and support.

jubjub -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 4:14:46 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: loki100 quote: ORIGINAL: jubjub quote: For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR). This is a good move, but I recommend keeping SU's and HQ's at 100% TOE. Nice formatting. It looks nice and is easy to read! yes, don't put the HQs under 100 and no gain to SUs actually I'm not so sure of the claimed benefit of CU at 50%, as long as they never go to refit state near a depot the freight hit for manpower replacements is minimal till later in 1941. But thats one of the delights of the game, different interpretations of how to make it hand together If you don't set the TOE limit to 50%, your divisions will request replacements even if they're not on refit. This can use a lot of their trucks and reduce their MP. Also means they aren't grabbing fuel, ammo, and supply. quote: Setting all units at Max TOE 50% does not weaken them too much? I've never thought of reducing the TOE so much. They only gradually decline in strength since they only shed elements as they become damaged or destroyed. Once they get in bad shape, you can lift the limit back to 100% and refit them on a depot to regain their TOE.

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 4:15:49 PM)
Based on what both Loki and Bobo said. My understanding is that setting the TOE to max %50 keeps the freight down, and once a units TOE (divisions mainly) gets down to 50% I can put them on Refit out of the front lines. I need (want really) to keep the freight moving to the front. In my next post of Turn 2 AAR, you'll see which 'elite' units I put above 50%. Hopefully *thedoctorking* will add his half of the AAR, he is welcome to at the very least.

821Bobo -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 4:47:31 PM)
I made a mistake in my post. Basically freight arrives to a depot and there is converted to whatever is needed(supply, fuel, ammo, replacements). But the logic stays the same. You need more supply/fuel/ammo than freight being used to reinforcements.

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 5:56:11 PM)
I've started putting my infantry corps on supply #1 (Pzrs #2) so that really squashes regular replacements out of the system Agree with everyone on this - its really a case of how you frame the range of tools to hand You don't get more freight with 50% TOE, as Robert says you influence how it converts at the depot. But a low priority tends to do much the same

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 7:27:31 PM)
I think I mentioned that in my first post, but I learned the supply priorities from Loki and all my Infantry are set to 1 and Motorized to 2.

AlbertN -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 9:49:30 PM)
When I tried to put Prio1 and Prio2 to my units, their supplies were simply insufficient, fatigue recovery too small and their combat efficiency inadequate. At least if I am on the move. Morale was also being lost left right and center. But I may assume my logistic management is not as good as others.

jubjub -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 11:07:46 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: AlbertN When I tried to put Prio1 and Prio2 to my units, their supplies were simply insufficient, fatigue recovery too small and their combat efficiency inadequate. At least if I am on the move. Morale was also being lost left right and center. But I may assume my logistic management is not as good as others. This is my experience as well. I use 2/3 for infantry/panzers

AlbertN -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/9/2021 11:20:09 PM)
I got to the stage of tuning it to the need and to the terrain and freight. 1 is in general totally insufficient. It is for static formations in situations of non combat (ie. frozen in Hungary, Odessa / Sebastopol etc garrisons). Even if troops do not recover from the fatigue out of weather or so it is non relevant and their morale do not drop under national morale level. 2 is for static frontline duty in general OR if the freight simply is insufficient (ie. Soviet Winter or strenuous situations). 3 is pretty much the overall default. 4 is for offensives in good weather and plains eventually, where logistics can go a long way too (ie. Caucasus pointes to the south or dances around Voronhez) when I really need a push.

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 7:35:55 AM)
keep an eye on the army freight table in the logistics report If an army is consistently reporting receipt<demand, keep it low in priority (or lower the priority), all you are doing is setting unmeetable demand, and the units are responding by excess truck usage to do their best to solve the problem If a formation is in balance, then yes, experiment with increasing priority and review in a couple of turns - be conscious of one off issues like dropping a pri #4 rear area depot to #2 (as that will have improved the local supply grid). in general running with demand>supply is not a good idea, its a nice illusion but better to accept the situation than deny it

Stamb -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 9:21:25 AM)
Is it even possible to have freight received > freight needed as an Axis in '42 for any army on the front without a super depot? P.S Zovs sorry for offtop. Great editing :)

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 9:30:56 AM)
No reason to apologize, as long as it’s constructive and educational to the playing and learning of this game I am all for open discussion. Hopefully thedoctorking will participate in this AAR with his side of things, so we can all learn a little something from others. quote: ORIGINAL: Stamb Is it even possible to have freight received > freight needed as an Axis in '42 for any army on the front without a super depot? P.S Zovs sorry for offtop. Great editing :)

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 11:49:27 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Stamb Is it even possible to have freight received > freight needed as an Axis in '42 for any army on the front without a super depot? ... yes, if in 1942-43 you have redundancy in your rail net then: [image]local://upfiles/43256/A5FD057999464B30939E16A7116DF6DC.jpg[/image]

Erik Rutins -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 12:18:12 PM)
I've pinned this AAR on the Steam forums as well since you all are playing with the Steam version and I figured some there would be interested in following along.

Stamb -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 12:40:07 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: loki100 quote: ORIGINAL: Stamb Is it even possible to have freight received > freight needed as an Axis in '42 for any army on the front without a super depot? ... yes, if in 1942-43 you have redundancy in your rail net then: ... 1. Are you running supply priority 1 for infantry and 2 or 1 for panzers? 2. How much supply do you get in total in turn summary? In my game vs AI i am running 2/3 for inf/panzers and i have all rail yards lvl 2 or higher connected with additional single rails repaired. And I have never enough supply. Probably you know some dirty tricks with push / pull methods and so on ;) As i actually do not understand why setting some depot behind to #4 will have better effect then setting it to #2 or #1. If freight is out of SMP it should stay in the closest depot? And it is logical to think that #4 depot will take some freight that otherwise could go further (maybe even from a depot that are nearby but just on a lower priority, and if they are closer to a front - then freight will move into a wrong direction) Lets say we have a grid (left is Berlin and other NSS - right is frontline, from Axis perspective) 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 0 1 1 2 4 3 3 4 4 - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 So in this example depot with priority #4 can draw from a #3 that is closer to a frontline, and to avoid such a case all depots to the right (once again from Axis point of view) should be set to 4? We can move to some other topic to discuss this and not to flood here.

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/10/2021 1:03:52 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Stamb quote: ORIGINAL: loki100 quote: ORIGINAL: Stamb Is it even possible to have freight received > freight needed as an Axis in '42 for any army on the front without a super depot? ... yes, if in 1942-43 you have redundancy in your rail net then: ... 1. Are you running supply priority 1 for infantry and 2 or 1 for panzers? 2. How much supply do you get in total in turn summary? In my game vs AI i am running 2/3 for inf/panzers and i have all rail yards lvl 2 or higher connected with additional single rails repaired. And I have never enough supply. Probably you know some dirty tricks with push / pull methods and so on ;) As i actually do not understand why setting some depot behind to #4 will have better effect then setting it to #2 or #1. If freight is out of SMP it should stay in the closest depot? And it is logical to think that #4 depot will take some freight that otherwise could go further (maybe even from a depot that are nearby but just on a lower priority, and if they are closer to a front - then freight will move into a wrong direction) Lets say we have a grid (left is Berlin and other NSS - right is frontline, from Axis perspective) 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 0 1 1 2 4 3 3 4 4 - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 So in this example depot with priority #4 can draw from a #3 that is closer to a frontline, and to avoid such a case all depots to the right (once again from Axis point of view) should be set to 4? We can move to some other topic to discuss this and not to flood here. for that table, I've reverted to priority 3 for all formations The main 'trick' I use is to set intermediate depots at places like Kiev and Minsk to #4, for a few turns, revert to 2 and then back to 4 - that substantially increases the freight in my front line depots over time

marius1337 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/12/2021 10:00:57 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: loki100 The main 'trick' I use is to set intermediate depots at places like Kiev and Minsk to #4, for a few turns, revert to 2 and then back to 4 - that substantially increases the freight in my front line depots over time So, this works because at 4 these big depots will store lots of supply, then when they revert to 2 they will send those out to the front line depots? Thx for sharing!

loki100 -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/12/2021 10:13:27 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: marius1337 quote: ORIGINAL: loki100 The main 'trick' I use is to set intermediate depots at places like Kiev and Minsk to #4, for a few turns, revert to 2 and then back to 4 - that substantially increases the freight in my front line depots over time So, this works because at 4 these big depots will store lots of supply, then when they revert to 2 they will send those out to the front line depots? Thx for sharing! yes, its akin to how the super-depot process works but with a few differences. They do take a while longer to fill up (say 2-4 turns depending on the wider supply situation) but they don't then pin down a rare and valuable FBD. So you get more rail repaired and more depots closer to the front. I basically let them fill up, and then when I want more supply at the front drop their priority. This can be because I'm in heavy combat, advancing or just every now and then as demand>local supplies

thedoctorking -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/23/2021 8:30:44 PM)
Sorry this has been delayed by a big crush of work at the end of the term. I haven't give up quite yet! 41GC No Early End AAR Thedoctorking (Soviets) versus Zovs (Axis) Soviet turn 1: Well, here’s my starting position. It’s a pretty standard Axis opening move. His infantry has squeezed in more on the pockets than I’ve seen in other games. This will probably work out well for him, since I have no hope of being able to either consolidate my position around airfields and send supplies by air or move to choke his supplies. He’s done this by breaking many – indeed most – of his units down to their component regiments. I’ve seen this a lot in AAR’s recently. The drawback, of course, is that he has to consolidate them at the beginning of his next move to reform them as divisions and get that three-hex wide conversion swath, or move them as regiments. Also, while a German regiment is plenty of force to take down the sleepy border guards on turn 1, Soviet divisions in heavy forest will prove a bigger challenge going forward. Annoyingly, I got two “insufficient garrison” events on turn 1, decreasing my AP total by two. That probably means fewer engineer battalions built – I prioritize construction guys in the early going for Soviet builds, because I want to be able to assign them to the fortification units I’m also going to build to try to hold Leningrad and the Dnepr cities. I’ve got a lot of building to do – for some reason, the Soviet civilian airfields that were built during the 1930s to support the large civil aviation effort during the five-year plans do not appear on the map. I guess the civil aviation guys have enough clout with Stalin that the VVS aren’t allowed to use their fields. So I will have to build airfields for the air force back where I expect to finally be fighting. [image]local://upfiles/56634/E5D91BA5EF7E4ABF9957AC71432C9F45.jpg[/image]

thedoctorking -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/23/2021 8:32:38 PM)
The air force has a lot of rebuilding to do, incidentally. Zovs’ carefully planned air attacks worked out a whole lot better than the AI’s or my clumsy efforts as the Axis in earlier games. He’s obviously a real student of how to use the Luftwaffe. A couple of things to note: he made a real effort to take out my naval air guys, presumably to prevent me from sending supplies into Odessa. Black Sea Fleet Air Command has zero bombers at the beginning of the first air phase. I will replace them with long-range bombers from Long Range Air Command. 4BAK Air Corps is right in the vicinity with 200 bombers. And I almost never seem to get any mileage out of the Long Range guys anyway. He did leave me most of the Black Sea fighters. Also, I’ve never been able to do much with holding Odessa anyway. If you cluster a bunch of infantry around the city on one turn so that they can enter the city fort on the next turn, the Romanians can cross the river and attack them and probably rout them out. If you defend the river, then the units aren’t adjacent to the town so they can’t enter the city fort. If you split your force so some can enter the city fort while others hold the river line, then both forces are weak and can be beaten. If the Axis really wants it, they can take Odessa pretty quickly, has been my experience. Another thing was that he concentrated on my higher-quality fighters. He got 672 Mig-3’s, leaving me with 439 ready on-map. I’ve got 195 Yak-1’s left on the map, and everything else is a 1930’s model I-class (I have a total of 3,522 ready fighters on-map). Axis air losses were surprisingly reasonably high for this activity. I’m guessing this is because he chose to strike at long range with unescorted bombers. Any time you get 49 Axis fighters in a turn, you’re ahead of the game. A total of 162 Axis aircraft losses, of which 75 were operational, suggesting the high pace of Axis air operations on the first turn. I’m not expecting that to continue, but a kernel of good news on this otherwise bleak turn. And, thanks to our glorious leader, the NKVD shot that incompetent Pavlov and put Filipp Ivanovich Golikov in charge of Western Front. Since he was one, as chief of the GRU, who told us that the Germans would not attack, it’s only reasonable that he should be in charge of stopping them now that he’s been proven wrong. [image]local://upfiles/56634/D7CA795D387E4DFF8D24FA1129AE3ACB.jpg[/image]

thedoctorking -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/23/2021 8:33:15 PM)
So, here’s my closing position. I was able to reopen the big northern pocket and get out a bunch of support units, which was gratifying. I was able to choke his supplies a bit, though not isolate his armored spearheads. I’m aware that this means less in WitE2 than it did in WitE1, but it should still have some impact going into turn 3 or 4 that he had to ship supply to those forward guys through several Russian ZoC’s. I noticed that he didn’t do any air resupply on turn one, or at least not that I could see looking over the battle reports. I guess he was concerned about my fighters. I did my best to reorganize my forces such that no armies or fronts were overloaded. Western is still grossly overloaded, but most of it is inside the pockets and will probably die in the next couple of turns. Since the big pocket was broken, that situation won’t be resolved on turn 2, but by turn 4 or so, I imagine those guys currently in Volga M.D. or Moscow M.D. will be able to transition back to Western. I think turn 5 or 6 I get Bryansk Front, which will relieve the pressure on the southern end of the line, so that the guys down there now in North Caucasus or Kharkov M.D.’s will be able to be in a Front as well. Also, I hope to be able to get Koniev out of North Caucasus and give him a Front soon. I sent most of the units that got broken up in the first turn’s fighting off to Soviet Reserves or to the other theater boxes to rest up. There were only a few guys in the Belarus/Land Bridge region that I elected to hold on the map as speed bumps. [image]local://upfiles/56634/9C6187CC2C674D0BADF646808B82842D.jpg[/image]

Zovs -> RE: 1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet) (12/26/2021 5:29:18 AM)
Turn 2 - 29-Jun-1941 Note I held onto the text write up for a while. So it's not quite as good as it could have been. Plus I got sick with Covid and have been out of it for a the last two weeks. Turn Summary (for the end of Turn 1) My friendly losses indicated that I lost 10,494 men, 320 artillery and 213 aircraft during turn 1. [img]https://i.imgur.com/FYJrqNuh.png[/img] Breaking this down I lost during the Axis action phase (my turn): 6,028 Men 311 Guns 3 AFV The Soviets lost: 170,507 Men 5,087 Guns 588 AFV Men Captured 108,464 During my logistics phase I lost: 4,311 Men 8 Guns 8 AFV The Soviets lost: 4,896 Men 71 Guns Men Captured 4,836 During the Soviet's Logistic Phase The Soviets lost: 39,459 Men 353 Guns 229 AFV Men Captured 1,028 During the Soviet action phase (of turn 1). Axis lost: 155 Men 1 Guns 3 AFV Soviets lost: 2,200 Men Guns 40 Men Captured 1,901 Grand Total losses for the start of turn 2. [img]https://i.imgur.com/VQy30z4h.png[/img] Things of note, I lost a cargo ship and 1,047 vehicles (trucks) For the Air Losses for turn 2, the Axis lost 13 FB to 911 Soviet aircraft (the most being the LB at 791). During the Soviet Air Phase they lost 117 LB, 56 FB and 3 Fighters. During the Soviet Action Phase (i.e. turn 1) the Soviets lost 12 FB, 3 TB and 3 LB but the Axis lost 28 FB and 23 TB. What is interesting is (and I need to inspect this) that I lost 51 lost on the ground. Here is the total Air Losses at the start of turn 2. [img]https://i.imgur.com/6O55D4Rh.png[/img] Air Phase: I setup 25 AD as follows: Luftflotte 1 GND Support 4th Pz Group 4x Recon missions Luftflotte 2 GND Support 3rd and 4th Pz Group, plus 4th Army 6x Recon missions Luftflotte 4 GND Support 1st Pz Group and 17th and 11th Army, plus the Slovakian Corps 7x Recon missions Hungarian GND Support Mobile Hungarian Corps Romanian GND Support 4th Romanian Army 2x Recon missions 1x Naval Patrol Executing those AD resulted in: [img]https://i.imgur.com/9EHuN9Ih.png[/img] I am not too happy about those 129 lost aircraft from Recon missions, especially since I set then 17,000. Will need to investigate and determine a better way to do recon or scrap the missions since it does not appear to be very productive. The Naval Patrol attack was costly as well. [img]https://i.imgur.com/m0v7dyFh.png[/img] Ground Phase At start actions Looking over the Battle locations, there was not a lot of ground attacks by the Soviets but here is what is interesting. Gulf of Riga [img]https://i.imgur.com/A4LUsOTh.png[/img] Riga was bombed 10 times by the VVS. The eastern portion of the Minsk pocket was attacked but held. [img]https://i.imgur.com/11XtELbh.png[/img] The Soviets also attempted to breakout of the Sambor pocket but failed: [img]https://i.imgur.com/QNSCPohh.png[/img] It looks like the Soviets opened up the 3rd Panzer Groups northern pocket by maneuver. [img]https://i.imgur.com/nt5vX9mh.png[/img] While not isolated, I'll be able to close up that hole and destroy most of the units trapped in that pocket. Weather Report Weather looks completely clear. Logistic Reports Nothing really too interesting to post. The only two items is Gen. Kuntzen admin rating improves to 6 and Gen. Reinhard political rating improves to 7. Commanders Report During the previous turn 1 the Soviets launched 42 battles. Of these 2 were land battles. 4 were recon, 10 were city bombing, 4 were supplies and 20 were Naval Attacks. Turn Summary Based on feedback from the community I used the CR to reset all SU to 100% max TOE. I also set all the Mountain units to 75% max TOE and all Cavalry units to 100% max TOE (I am an old cavalry soldier so I have a soft spot for the cav, lol). I also set the 900th Lehr Mot. Brigade, GD Mot. Regiment, L.A.H. SS Mot. Brigade, 2nd RFSS Mot. Brigade, 1st Slov. Mot. Brigade, 1st and 2nd Hun. Mot. Brigade to 100% max TOE. I also set all SS divisions to 75% max TOE. I also spent about 3 hours moving all the SU to where I wanted them (last turn I sent the all up to OKH), I decided to go with a pretty even mix in all the infantry and motorized armies with SU. I'll move them down into the Corps when their missions dictate their usage. I mopped up a lot of pockets held over from turn 1 and drove east mainly. Total Losses for turn 2 Ground Not doing too bad, captured 285,960 men and my AFV loss ratio is specular for the turn at 2 to 2,747 and current total ratio is 16 to 3,564. In two turns I have managed to take out over a half a million men, 11 thousand guns and 3,500+ AFV. [img]https://i.imgur.com/tC6h581h.png[/img] Air Overall not doing too bad, with a Pilot KIA ratio of 188 to 1,575 and total airframes ratio of 357 to 5,448. The air combat losses this turn ratio is 10 to 129. And Pilot KIA ratio for the turn is 8 to 125. [img]https://i.imgur.com/IBPy0IGh.png[/img] Destroyed During turn 1, I destroyed 140 units (mostly Fortified MG/Arty units, plus AA and construction units). During turn 2, I destroyed 87 units. So far 22 Infantry Divisions have been destroyed. [img]https://i.imgur.com/WoMezyuh.png[/img] Pilot's data Here is the list of the top pilot aces: [img]https://i.imgur.com/9Og8uINh.png[/img] Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/9Og8uIN.png End of Turn 2 map positions [img]https://i.imgur.com/WnlCNSHh.jpg[/img] Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/WnlCNSH.jpg Total Battles The CR shows a total of 118 battles this turn. With 48 being Hasty and 16 Deliberate attacks, 2 Naval Attacks, and 15 Supplies. Sorting by Attacker Results there is 62 (i.e., held, retreated, shattered, surrender, and routed). Here is a breakdown by Battle Result: Retreated:8 (6 from HA and 2 from DA) Shattered: 6 (5 from HA and 1 from DA) Surrendered: 33 (23 from HA and 10 from DA) Routed: 14 (all from HA) Held: 1 (from DA) Victory Points None gained this turn. Turn Conclusions Overall I thought turn 2 was pretty good. AGN Could not ask for a better turn, just about finished mopping up the Baltics and am across the Dvina and 4 hexes from Pskov. AGC So far so good. Mopped up most pockets of resistance. There are a few left over. AGS I don't think I have moved far enough with AGS yet. But I feel that AGS is in a good position to drive east now. ...to be continued...

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