Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: JoeLewis

Greetings. I had a question about your operational approach in this game. Do you just launch deliberate attacks all up and down the front line every turn, or are you ever trying to mass your mechanized and cavalry corps for a deeper breakthrough behind the German lines?

quote:

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

Germany in Moscow late 1943 seems good buth the Oob is terrible. Like completely wrecked. In past aars it was often 1 million more. You should do fine.
One tip, try to always have a unit in contact to the Germans, even if it is only a weak AT brigade. It means more attrition and less fatigue reduction, both is a huge benefit. Atm you seem reluctant to send units forward to uccupy recently freed hexagons.
Oob is so lopsided you need not fear a counteraatack. If it comesy jt will benefit you.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grognard1812

quote:

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

Germany in Moscow late 1943 seems good buth the Oob is terrible. Like completely wrecked. In past aars it was often 1 million more. You should do fine.
One tip, try to always have a unit in contact to the Germans, even if it is only a weak AT brigade. It means more attrition and less fatigue reduction, both is a huge benefit. Atm you seem reluctant to send units forward to uccupy recently freed hexagons.
Oob is so lopsided you need not fear a counteraatack. If it comesy jt will benefit you.

At the beginning of 1944 the Axis still control both Leningrad and Moscow, which is worrisome as it is still a long way to Berlin for the Soviet Army, my opponent had done well in 1942 and 1943. If the Soviet Army is unable to capture Berlin by end of the game I would consider it a German victory. Very few AAR have gone till the spring or summer of 1945.

I have avoided sending single or weak units forward to occupy recently freed hexes in an attempt to try to avoid giving my German opponent too many opportunities to counter-attack and increase the morale and experience levels of his retreating units. Most of the Soviet units (especially the Guards and Corps units) have morale above their national levels as they have been winning most of their combats and rarely retreat (I tend to stack forward hexes with at least 2 Corps or 3 divisions).

quote:

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grognard1812

quote:

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

Germany in Moscow late 1943 seems good buth the Oob is terrible. Like completely wrecked. In past aars it was often 1 million more. You should do fine.
One tip, try to always have a unit in contact to the Germans, even if it is only a weak AT brigade. It means more attrition and less fatigue reduction, both is a huge benefit. Atm you seem reluctant to send units forward to uccupy recently freed hexagons.
Oob is so lopsided you need not fear a counteraatack. If it comesy jt will benefit you.

At the beginning of 1944 the Axis still control both Leningrad and Moscow, which is worrisome as it is still a long way to Berlin for the Soviet Army, my opponent had done well in 1942 and 1943. If the Soviet Army is unable to capture Berlin by end of the game I would consider it a German victory. Very few AAR have gone till the spring or summer of 1945.

I have avoided sending single or weak units forward to occupy recently freed hexes in an attempt to try to avoid giving my German opponent too many opportunities to counter-attack and increase the morale and experience levels of his retreating units. Most of the Soviet units (especially the Guards and Corps units) have morale above their national levels as they have been winning most of their combats and rarely retreat (I tend to stack forward hexes with at least 2 Corps or 3 divisions).

That is a fair reason for not doing it, but I still disagree.
In WitE the fatigue levels have significant effect on combat loss ratios.
If you keep a weak brigade in contact it means much less fatigue reduction during the logistics phase for the Germans and also more attrition/less repair of damaged elements. If they counterattack to gain morale, they will further fatigue their units (attacking a small unit fatigues not that much less than attacking a big stack, WitE doesn't model this well).
When it is your turn again you will get much higher losses since you will attack against 60+ fatigue units instead of, say, 20 fatigue units.
Counterattacking at this point suits you. The higher the fighting intensity the better. What limits ability to increase it are you are your own movement points and by counterattacking the Germans gift you theirs in a way.

It is indeed far to Berlin. What will limit you is not so much the German army as it is trucks and the rail repair speed. You should aim to always convert the maximum possible number of hexagons at your railheads, even in mud. To this end, it can be useful to prepare a deep penetration right before the snow-mud switch so you always have enough unconverted hexagons in front of the FBD so they never need to stop.

You are doing historically well in the South. You will probably get a frontline similiar to Operation bagration. A drive from Lvov Northwest will force the Germans to cede all the territory.

I know I repeat myselft, but the German OOB is extremely low, around 1 million man and 10k guns, and you are doing a great job grinding along the whole frontline. The German Army either has to run quickly or will collapse further.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pitaman

Up to this point in the game, I have not posted to this AAR, I will do so now as my opponent has been kind enough to invite me to do so.

Yes, the German OOB is very concerning. Will have to work hard on recovering it throughout the rest of the game. I will discuss this point more in the future. Don't want to give away how I am dealing with this issue right now.

My strategy in this game was to capture and hold onto the major soviet population centers for as long as possible. Several reasons for this approach. First I deny my opponent access to his population reserves in these cities, second, I gain Hiwis from the cities as well. They are also major railroad centers and the longer I can hold on to them the slower my opponents advance will be as his rail capacity will be crippled.

I have found trying to cripple the soviet's other production sources, such as armament, resources, fuel, etc does not work well. The soviets simply have too many of them. So I am trying this manpower and railroad capacity approach. Will see if my approach works.

Right now, I have several major manpower centers, Moscow, Leningrad, Smolensk, Minsk and Kiev. I am hoping to hold onto them as long as possible. It is start of 1944 and I will see how long I can hold onto each of them. I know I will lose them but when will I lose them and how much will it cost the Germans to hold onto them. Only time will tell.

Compared to where the Germans were at this point in the war, They lost Kiev in Dec 43, the siege of Leningrad ended in January 44 and never did capture Moscow. We will see if these advantages can overcome my OOB issues and allow me to hold onto Berlin until the end of the game.

Pitaman