RE: Middle of blizzard season

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the East Series >> After Action Reports >> RE: Middle of blizzard season

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RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/13/2012 3:13:59 PM

821Bobo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

60 Cav Divisions?!? That can't be, unless he purchased ALOT.

If he didnt lost any Cav divisions it is possible. Once I had 17-18 Cavalry corpses in December 41 w/o purchasing any division.

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Post #: 31

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/13/2012 3:20:54 PM

sj80

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Hey Q-Ball,
that's a really quick response from you.

I did a fast check on the map and found the 17. Cav Corps. I'm very sure that I've seen some turns ago in a combat result the 62. or 63. Cav Div. 17 or more Cav Corps means that he is having at least 51 Cav Divs.
What you described is exactly my plan for 1942. Lauching a massive Panzer offensive in the south. Creating good defense lines in the north and doing many attacks to rebuild the morale level. 1 plan to use 1 Inf Corps for AGN/AGC as army group reserve and to rotate other units out of the front line. Especially some divs of the 18. Army are currently very week because they were fighting outside of railhead range in the Vladai hills and received only low replacements until now.
The Grossdeutschland Regiment with 96 morale is placed together with 13. Panzer and 25. Mot in Kharkov and is ready to do some counter attacks.
I'm now really under pressure to perform successful offensive actions in 1942 to weaken the red monster.

Edit: I have seen 821Bobo's posting too late. :) Glvaca lost 12 Cav divs until now.

< Message edited by sj80 -- 4/13/2012 3:22:34 PM >

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Post #: 32

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/13/2012 4:21:58 PM

Scook_99

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Joined: 6/20/2007
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Just keep prepared for March Madness! If you can grab a nice bundle of Soviets in March, it is a great place to build morale on troopers that aren't too low and you want to build back up to good levels. Your opponent will have stronger formations than 1941, but you are in control, as Soviet power really doesn't ramp up until 1943 (with massive amounts of corps). If March sees you not too far from Moscow, that might be your target. However, most times Moscow is lost to you and the south is your killing grounds, with vast clear land hexes.

Good luck, and may Fortune favor the foolish!

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Post #: 33

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/13/2012 7:36:41 PM

Q-Ball

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Now it makes sense. I thought you said he had 13 Cav Corps and over 60 Cav Divisions, which would be the equivalent of 99 Cavalry Divisions! No way without massive builds.

The Cav Corps are numbered consecutively, so if you see "17th Cav Corps", there are indeed at least 17.

Cav Divisions are NOT however; so, the fact you saw "62nd Cav Division" means nothing

In all liklihood, he has 17 Cav coprs and a division or two left over.

PS: Sorry about the ZOC locks, I told him to do that. But alot of players do! It's how you trap Germans; ZOC lock, and push the flanks so the unit can't withdraw quick enough

< Message edited by Q-Ball -- 4/13/2012 7:37:31 PM >

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Post #: 34

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/13/2012 9:34:54 PM

sj80

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Hey Scook, unfortunatly the "march madness" is already fixed. I think the Axis attack value is halved during march. So I should only be able to launch some attacks with concentrated forces.
Q-Ball, ZOC locking is a great strategy. I would do the same as Sovjet. I thought the Cav divs are also numbered. But it seems only player created units are numbered?

Edit: It's really cool to get so many reactions, thank you! This really helps against "Blizzard Depression".
I'm afraid that my Wehrmacht will be after blizzard in a similar bad state and situation like Terje's forces.

< Message edited by sj80 -- 4/13/2012 9:38:54 PM >

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Post #: 35

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/14/2012 2:48:42 PM

Scook_99

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Sorry, it is fixed, but I am always thinking attack when I can see my CV numbers anything besides a 1.

As for the numbering process, armies had historical numbers for units and those get used 1st. When corps units were created, they started with 1, and continued until however many are created.I would really like to understand the almost mystic process nations go through to come up with the numbers for divisions, as most of the time it isn't just a basic numerical sequence, as least it doesn't appear that way to me.

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Post #: 36

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/17/2012 7:13:46 PM

krupp_88mm

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quote:

I would really like to understand the almost mystic process nations go through to come up with the numbers for divisions, as most of the time it isn't just a basic numerical sequence, as least it doesn't appear that way to me.

Just think about it form a military perspective for a moment like Sun Tzu all war is based on deception. IF it was a real life war and your enemy listed all his military divisions numerically in perfect order, you could rationalize the number of divisions he has based on the largest division number, this would be a nice intelligence coup for the other side, to know exactly how many divisions of each type the enemy has ect. To counter this, specialized elite divisions often lack numerals, and other divisions are occasionally renumbered at times to attempt to confuse the enemy. Or gaps in the number sequence are issued.

You may have also noticed this same thing with plane designation, especially russian mig's, the russians commonly skip several numbers in between mig's so the opposition has a harder time identifying how many new dsigns there are or even then reverse like the russian first skipped form mig-21 to mig-25.. then to try to fool the US they made there next mig called mig-23 then they went back to mig-27 to mig-31 then backtracked again to mig-29, remember all warfare is based on deception, and the russians seemed to use this alot, the americans i guess in ww2 seemed not to really care about it, either stupidity or just overwhelming force made it a non-issue. Also don't forget often divisions with historical history are retired and the name is preserved for later if they are reactivated, this is also a strategy used sometimes to confused the enemy shuffling division names around.

I have even used this strategy in some online games, i purposefully name my units in order and then skip some numbers and usually the other player just assumes the missing numbers are present somewhere heh.

< Message edited by krupp_88mm -- 4/17/2012 7:24:47 PM >

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Post #: 37

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/19/2012 3:21:14 AM

krupp_88mm

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quote:

the americans i guess in ww2 seemed not to really care about it,

I should point out that this was a bigoted and insensitive characterization, as the americans did use deception tactics such as d-day where they created numerous false divisions and army groups in a masterful application of deception

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude

US first army group symbol, fictional army group for landing on calis.

To be truthful the only reason i said that about the US could be characterized as trolling attempting to get a rise out of someone and i should probably be given a temporary ban for such behavior.

< Message edited by krupp_88mm -- 4/19/2012 3:22:27 AM >

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Post #: 38

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/19/2012 8:43:12 AM

randallw

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I do not recall the U.S. Army renumbering divisions to cause enemy confusion, though there were deception operations, such as you mention up there, and a notable one that led the Japanese to believe major forces had been collected in Alaska to land at those cold frosty Japanese islands like the Kurils.

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Post #: 39

RE: Middle of blizzard season - 4/20/2012 11:00:32 PM

sillyflower

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quote:

ORIGINAL: krupp_88mm

To be truthful the only reason i said that about the US could be characterized as trolling attempting to get a rise out of someone and i should probably be given a temporary ban for such behavior.

No ban: just made to visit France to eat a pony steak

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Post #: 40

Blizzard continues - 4/26/2012 1:36:29 PM

sj80

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Are you guys hijacking my AAR?

Deception of the enemy was used by Axis and Allies in WW2. As far as I know the US Army had units only for confusing the enemy with rubber armour and speakers. The Germans tried to protect their most important factories and development areas (e.g. rocket test area at Penem�nde) with "changing the landscape", e.g. create new river courses with foil to misguide the allied bombers.
This point is somewhat amusing because the Hollywood studios helped to camouflage important industry at the US west coast against possible japanese air attacks or painting the ship hulls with strange shapes and colours to protect them against u-boats.

Back to the AAR. The blizzard develops more and more to a Sovjet victory. In turn 34 (5. February 1942) he launched 64 successful attacks! The highest number so far, usual he has around 50 successful attacks the turn. The high number is partly my fault because in the areas where I'm still retreat I leave some weak units (Sec regiments, worn down Rum inf) adjacent to him. Otherwise he will do more attacks against my good inf divs and weaken them much more.
The pressure against AGN has increased, especially against the fins. The situation around Moscow is stabilizing. The highest pressure is west of Stalino, there is no chance to stop or slow down him there in the open terrain.

With resolved march madness he can push until the last blizzard turn ...

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Post #: 41

RE: Blizzard continues - 4/26/2012 2:32:24 PM

comsolut

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Excellent presentation and observations.

I don't see the normal fortification lines used by the Germans to provide some strength in Feb to fall back to, were they destroyed early on or are you not using that tactic and simply trading space for time?

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Post #: 42

RE: Blizzard continues - 4/26/2012 7:14:02 PM

sj80

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Hey comsolut,
most of my fort lines are already overrun by Sovjet.
The last remaining lines that were initially planned are around Kaluga, Novgorod, Bryansk and Kharkov. He has reached all these lines, so I have disbanded the forts and my units are holding there. Both defense lines around Stalino and the defense line from the Vladai hills towards Rzevh were easily overrun.

I didn't create new lines because I have to save the Admin Points. The forts simply need to long to dig at level 1 during blizzard.
But not creating a defense line west of Stalino was an error. I thought 2 lines with many counter attacks could stop him there ... but this was no barrier for his 3. Shock Army
I wasn't able to create as much defense lines as wanted, because I needed so many points to assemble the Moscow offensive during winter. Now I need the points to reorg my forces. I will upload the last blizzard turn including statistical info tomorrow.

< Message edited by sj80 -- 4/26/2012 7:26:09 PM >

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Post #: 43

End of Blizzard - 4/29/2012 8:45:34 PM

sj80

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Here is the update for the last blizzard turn. I introduced a morale level table to show the current state of German army. I will try to update this table every month.
Glvaca and I exchanged several mails about blizzard results and game state. Overall the blizzard was a success for the Sovjets. Attacking Moscow over the flanks was the right decision. Glvaca created 24 (!) Guard units. We both think that it will be a very interesting 1942 because we really don't know how the game will evolve.
I wrote him that I will surrender, but before he has to take Berlin.

He will fight to the end, too.
The German morale has really suffered, but I think I managed the TOE much better than in the games before.

My major question: Is the Wehrmacht strong enough to launch a major offensive in 1942?!?!? I've no clue. Now it's only up to me. If I fail he will sit in Berlin in 44/45. The battles will become much harder than in 1941. Luckily attacking is my main skill.

The major task for march is the rebuild of german morale. With resolved march madness the Wehrmacht is forced to fight with activated breakes.