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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 10/29/2021 9:44:59 AM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 21 and the Soviets are beginning to put heavy pressure on the near flanks of AGC's spearhead facing Moscow. I've been forced to pull back 19. Panzer from a very vulnerable advanced position near Klin, and am struggling to close a gap on the right flank. I've shut down my offensive operation which was pushing into the Moscow suburbs to focus on defending what I've already taken. Infantry are at last starting to get forward, with two divisions in fair condition coming up the highway from Mozhaysk which will relieve the panzers in their now static positions, and at the same time the Soviet positions west and northwest of Tula are collapsing, which should eliminate the threat from the south. I still have a lot more to do if I want to seriously threaten Moscow before the rains.




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< Message edited by golden delicious -- 10/29/2021 9:45:11 AM >

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"What did you read at university?"
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Post #: 31
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 10/30/2021 12:09:23 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 22 and I'm hit by a 50% movement bias penalty, slowing my forces to a crawl; at this time I don't know how long the effect last. Nevertheless, Panzer Group 4's new offensive is ploughing on ahead, extending the large salient at Demyansk which I hope to cut off completely in the next couple of turns. There are more strong Soviet positions in front of PG4 between here and Kalinin, but there are also more and more Soviet units arriving north of PG4 as the PO continues to pour troops into the Volkhov front, which may attempt to clear my blocking positions around Novaya Ladoga and relieve the siege of Leningrad.

Elsewhere, PG2 captured Tula this turn, but there are enemy forces in all directions here and I will need a few turns to clear my rear before I can turn this into a threat to Moscow's southern flank. The siege of Sevastopol is becoming increasingly costly as my infantry divisions are overextended and the fortress units here incredibly powerful, but with just 4 MPs each now it would be far too time consuming to withdraw them back out of range of the guns, so they press on with heavy artillery support. I'm coming to regret pushing early into the Crimea.




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"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 32
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 10/30/2021 12:11:39 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
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From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
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quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Wow. Good on you. BUT...one quick question: how long ( for how many turns ) are the supply points good for. I seem to want to guess about 15 turns? I'm pretty sure supply runs dry from those supply points at some future turn. It would be super cool if they were good for the rest of the game.


I just now (turn 28 in my match) lost the Pskov supply point- that's more than 20 turns after I captured it. I'm not sure if the same range applies to all of these supply points but 20 turns is a good long time and it means I'll have the supply point at Kharkov up to about turn 40, which is good as I'm relying on it to resupply AGS.

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

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Post #: 33
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 10/31/2021 6:07:12 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		The situation in Crimea on turn 23. Several German divisions have already been through the wringer at Sevastopol- you can see 170. Infanterie there in particular is just a shell at under 1/3 of full strength- but the bloodshed here is close to paying off. I'm not so fussed about Sevastopol per se (I don't think the Bulgarians exist in this version), but clearing the supply points here will enable me to easily cut off the Soviet troops in the southwestern part of the peninsula. Over in the direction of Feodosia, I've also been badly handled, with a few units eliminated as the Soviets repulsed by badly-supplied lead troops, and now I'm on the defensive. With this theatre now slowed down, I'm removing the two mechanised divisions which have been with 11. Armee since Rumania entered the war; they will now support AGS in occupying the Donbas.

Elsewhere, I have pulled back three panzer divisions from AGC's north flank outside Moscow, as they've now been relieved by infantry. This is the first time any of my ground units have been allowed to rest since the beginning of the scenario; it's badly needed but the main reason for it is that my movement bias is still 75% and I'm not sure how long this is going to last. They won't actually gain much supply as the railhead has only just reached Smolensk, but at least they're not overextended. Ideally, I'll get all of the panzertruppen back off the line and then use them to swing around north and south of Moscow once my movement bias has recovered.




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"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

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Post #: 34
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/1/2021 6:55:10 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		As requested by Larry, the loss report as of turn 23.

The headline number here is always the HRS. A loss of 17,095 means I'm averaging 743 a turn, or a 312 net, so in theory I have 7,176 fewer squads than if I'd not done any fighting at all. I calculated on turn 8 that I had a bit over 6,000 excess squads to start with so now I'm in negative territory, with the big pool of on-hand squads representing recent turnover from combat and equipment which should be going to units which are overextended and so can't receive replacements right now. The assigned strength is also 1,600 lower than it was on turn 11.

If I go on at this rate of loss then in another 25 turns I'll lose a further 7,800 HRS. Most of this can be met from the on-hand pool, but I still expect to dip below 30,000. On the other hand, I have a further 7 German divisions (including reconstitutes) slated to arrive in that time, which should give me a bit of a boost to that figure, especially if they continue to arrive overstrength.

I already noted the rather worse state of replacements for the Rumanians, and this also seems to be true of many of the other squad types, all of which are hurting worse than HRS. On the other hand, Motorcycle, SMG and Rifle squads are all doing better, and I even have a nice pool of Motorcycles (though I think mainly due to mechanised units being overextended).

There's not too much heavy equipment on this report as it's driven by the big numbers, but if I scroll down I can see my main Luftwaffe types are a bit below full strength, with a net loss of 3 Me-109, 3 Ju-88 and 6 He-111 each turn. Armoured vehicles are a lot lower down, but with correspondingly lower (or zero) replacement rates these are a bit of a concern; I'm probably below 80% of my starting tank strength and this will only continue to fall, especially as my armour continues to be heavily engaged in Army Group Centre.

Overall it feels like while the Wehrmacht is slowly being worn down, the rate is such that I should still be in a good position by the end of the campaign season, especially with some reinforcements coming on line.




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< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/1/2021 6:59:22 PM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
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"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
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Post #: 35
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/2/2021 6:47:04 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 24 and Movement Bias is back to normal, so the panzer divisions which were pulled back to rebuild just last turn go back into action, pushing into a gap northwest of Klin with the hopes of getting around to the north of Moscow. At the same time, the Soviet forces around Tula which I've been tied up with for the last several turns are fading away, freeing up Panzer Group 2 to push north. If both these drives succeed I can turn Moscow into a deep salient.

Also this turn, AGN drives the starving Soviet defenders out of Leningrad. This gives me my first really concrete achievement over and above what the Germans managed historically.




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"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

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Post #: 36
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/4/2021 7:17:48 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 25 and Panzer Group 4's Drang Nach Kalinin is still bogged down. There are strong Soviet forces on both flanks here, with the loose pocket around Demyansk only just closed off and the Volkhov front building considerable strength as the troops that should be screening the approaches to the Leningrad Life road arrive too late to save the city: this is the only place besides Moscow itself where the Soviets are present in real force.

AGN is probably suffering more than the others from the diabolical supply situation, with the regiments of 122. and 126. Infanterie either side of Ostashkov in extremely bad condition due to being overextended and not receiving any replacements. The rail head is not moving towards these units (their closest rail line is actually AGC's route through Smolensk) so the only relief they will get will be when the Demyansk pocket is cleared and they can either move to greener pastures or get better supply from the northwest- with Leningrad gone I plan to route the rail east via Novgorod.

Elsewhere, Panzer Group 3 has reached the Moscow-Volga canal, putting 7. and 19. Panzer in place to drive southeast into Moscow's rear next turn. The south flank of the city continues to collapse, too. 11. Armee is in the final stages of the assault on Sevastopol although this battle has been some of the costliest fighting of the entire campaign.




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< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/4/2021 7:18:59 PM >

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"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

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Post #: 37
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/4/2021 7:30:29 PM   
larryfulkerson


Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005
From: Tucson, AZ
Status: offline 		Wow. Your game is a LOT more exciting than the one I'm playing. Also, I see that only a rare few of your units is green heathwise and I'm wondering what the average supply number your units have. I'm guessing less than 50% force-wide. Am I right? Do you have an absolute limit on a unit's supply level where if it's below that trigger-point it goes to the rear to rest? And speaking of supply, what's the supply level at the tip of your spears? Enquiring minds want to know. Also, what's the tempo of your air war? My guess is that Soviet planes are disappearing faster than a Russian journalist. You've recently captured Leningrad!!! Congratulations dude. Keep up the good work. I'm subscribed to this AAR for sure.




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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/5/2021 9:34:50 AM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
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From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Wow. Your game is a LOT more exciting than the one I'm playing. Also, I see that only a rare few of your units is green heathwise and I'm wondering what the average supply number your units have. I'm guessing less than 50% force-wide. Am I right? Do you have an absolute limit on a unit's supply level where if it's below that trigger-point it goes to the rear to rest? And speaking of supply, what's the supply level at the tip of your spears? Enquiring minds want to know.


Supply is pretty low across the board, that's for sure, I would say a lot below 50% on average. I don't habitually rest units, though I intend to do so once I reach the end of the favourable offensive shock, so that my forces are in a better condition when the Soviet winter offensive begins.

I'll aim to post a screenshot showing supply levels for the next turn. Generally, it's around 5 on the frontline, but at this point the Axis player has quite a few supply units to play with, and there are also forward supply points at, for example, Tula and Kharkov. So in some places force supply is more like 10-12.

quote:

Also, what's the tempo of your air war? My guess is that Soviet planes are disappearing faster than a Russian journalist.


The Luftwaffe is getting used more and more heavily as I continue to push the advance. The VVS is concentrated in two areas; around Moscow and in Karelia where they actually have air superiority over the Finnish air force (despite having all my Me-110s around Leningrad to support them as much as possible). Because most of my German fighters are in good condition (dark green), I've been consistently hitting the Soviet fighters around Moscow, sometimes causing these units to evaporate- my bombers are too busy doing combat support and I rest them when their health is amber so I very rarely use them for airfield attacks. The VVS is doing a small amount of interdiction near the front (particularly in Karelia) but their airstrikes and combat support are very costly and ineffective. I don't have the game in front of me but I think at this point (turn 25) Soviet air strength is beginning to deteriorate again having reached a temporary high of about 1:3 air inferiority around turn 20.

quote:

You've recently captured Leningrad!!! Congratulations dude.


Thanks, the key thing for me here was to cut the life road and get the supply point at Oranienbaum. With this done, capturing the city itself was only a matter of time. I could have taken this more slowly and potentially saved losses, but with the city's guns shelling AGN every turn I judged it better to just get on with it. Clearing the rest of the garrison will still take a couple more weeks though.

< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/5/2021 9:35:57 AM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to larryfulkerson)
Post #: 39
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/5/2021 7:35:21 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 26 and AGS is making steady progress into the Donbass region, with Stalino encircled; to the north are 9. and 11. Panzer which are due to move southeast to secure Voroshilovgrad. As requested by Larry I've left the supply trace on this screenshot, you can see how bad the supply situation is generally across the front; the nearest railhead all the way back west of Nikolayev is pretty irrelevant. Instead these troops are drawing supply from forward supply points: in the south, the 50% point at Zaporozhe and in the north the 75% point at Kharkov (you can see how much better supply is up in this direction in the top left of the screenshot), and the airfield northeast of Stalino, taken this turn, also has a 50% point though this won't show on the trace yet.

Army Group Centre's Moscow pincer movement continues to develop, with the Moscow salient now only six hexes wide behind the city.




Attachment (1)

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 40
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/6/2021 2:49:58 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		As it's now only a few turns until the anticipated Autumn mud, I'm planning for a move into an operational pause. I intend to occupy a stop line running from Rostov north to the Don near Rossoh, then along the Don to Voronezh, northeast to the Volga at Tambov and then along the Volga-Oka to Moscow, from Moscow then north along the Volga to Rybinsk reservoir and ultimately Lake Onega. I'm already in contact with this stop line in a few places, but there are large distances to cover to Tambov and the Rybinsk reservoir.

I'm actually in touch with or close to this line in AGS, but to push it further east would extend the already excessive frontage, so I don't want to advance beyond Rostov. From there, I'm following the river lines so that I can initially screen the front quite lightly, though I'm aware that in the deep winter these rivers won't be major obstacles. Once the line is reached, I'll be pulling back perhaps 50% of my forces to the forward supply points where they will spend the unfavourable season resting and resupplying as far as possible. I may remain on the line until the Soviet winter counteroffensive, not ruling out local offensives.






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< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/6/2021 2:53:38 PM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 41
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/7/2021 5:26:45 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 27 and my pincer movement at Moscow is almost complete. 19. Panzer's unsupported attempt to seize the last supply point in the city has been repulsed with heavy losses: the Moscow Front remains in supply this turn, but more and more mechanised units are pouring in from the collapsed southern flank, to make up for the somewhat weaker northern pincer. Moscow should be firmly isolated in another couple of turns and will then be ground out of existence by heavy artillery in the same way as Leningrad.

Elsewhere, Sevastopol has finally been taken and XIX Gebirgs Korps has reached the gates of Murmansk. The only mobile Soviet forces in the area are still penned in on the Rybachi Peninsula, and will be cleared once Murmansk is taken




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_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 42
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/7/2021 5:37:11 PM   
larryfulkerson


Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005
From: Tucson, AZ
Status: offline 		Wow!!! It's only T27 and you've almost already sacked Moscow. I'm impressed. Have any of your units evaporated in combat yet? I don't remember seeing as many red-health units on the front lines ever before. I'm guessing that your losses are lower than they would have been if you had gone about your advance at a more leisurely pace. Am I right? And you say that Sevastopol has fallen already? I'm really impressed to say the least. Do I understand you correctly to have planned to stop the push to the east at Rostov? I'm wondering what advantage that gives you, or what your reason for that is. I may have been playing this game all wrong depending on your answer. Overall though, I really like what you've been able to do and I put my palms together and touch my thumbs to my forehead and bow at the waist in your direction. Keep up the good work.




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Post #: 43
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/7/2021 6:21:42 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
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From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
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quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Wow!!! It's only T27 and you've almost already sacked Moscow. I'm impressed. Have any of your units evaporated in combat yet?


I'm down quite a lot of infantry regiments. I did also lose the main unit from 25. Motorised and I lost a couple of smaller mech units. Everything reconstitutes though because, for now, I still have loads of equipment in the pool.

quote:

I don't remember seeing as many red-health units on the front lines ever before. I'm guessing that your losses are lower than they would have been if you had gone about your advance at a more leisurely pace. Am I right?


Certainly they're lower than they'd have been if I'd taken longer to get this far. I could definitely have had lower losses by letting some of the bigger Soviet pockets wither on the vine longer before attacking them.

quote:

And you say that Sevastopol has fallen already? I'm really impressed to say the least.


I think I went too hard too fast here. I don't know how much I think it was at least two divisions' worth of stuff.

quote:

Do I understand you correctly to have planned to stop the push to the east at Rostov? I'm wondering what advantage that gives you, or what your reason for that is.


Well, from about turn 32 I'm supposed to have a long phase of low mobility due to the mud, so I won't get very far anyway. Then, from turn 49 or so the shock values reverse and Soviet troops are I think initially 50% stronger than mine. If you add on the +2 bonus for the PO that makes 150% * 120% = 180%. I think the Red Army is so wrecked that I won't immediately be hit by too much but even if I'm not I don't want to be holding a line any longer than necessary. Once I go past the tip of the Sea of Azov, AGS's south flank starts to extend and I have to cover more and more frontage. Although I could hold along the Don, the super river doesn't give me anything in the deep winter. Instead I'll keep back, resupply, and be in the best possible condition when the storm hits.

I'm not totally sure of this logic- it might be better to keep hounding the Soviets and then switch to a full retreat when the shock swaps to go back to a shorter line. You'd kill more Soviet units that way.

quote:

Overall though, I really like what you've been able to do and I put my palms together and touch my thumbs to my forehead and bow at the waist in your direction. Keep up the good work.


Thankyou kindly... the AAR's now only a few turns behind so it will slow down pretty soon.

< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/7/2021 6:22:47 PM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to larryfulkerson)
Post #: 44
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/9/2021 6:27:14 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
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From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
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quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Have any of your units evaporated in combat yet?


A mini update for you to show some reconstitutes I have coming up (anything not on green health in the below). This is a bit of an extreme turn, most turns it's 1-2 regiments coming back through the system.




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_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to larryfulkerson)
Post #: 45
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/12/2021 6:31:57 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		On Turn 28, with the Demyansk pocket now reduced to a couple of hexes, Army Group North turns its attention to the Volkhov Front- the largest concentration of Soviet forces outside the Moscow pocket. I've been able to concentrate the majority of Panzer Group 4 around Nebolchi which will advance to Tikhvin and aim to links hands with Finnish troops coming from the other direction. Completing this operation is expected to take well into the mud phase and so will likely be the last major offensive action for AGN in 1941; once complete as much as possible will be pulled back to the railhead near Novgorod to resupply before Winter.

It's notable here that despite piling up a simply huge number of troops on the Volkhov front, the Soviets have launched no attacks here since I established this position a number of turns ago. With the Leningrad garrison fully eliminated, I've been able to bring up heavy artillery to this front and have been slaughtering the densely packed Soviet troops from a safe distance.




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/12/2021 6:36:33 PM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 46
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/14/2021 5:09:03 PM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
Joined: 9/5/2000
From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Turn 29 and AGS is mopping up the Donbas, with the remaining troops around Stalino trapped and Voroshilovgrad being heavily attacked by 11. Panzer and 1. SS Division. Additional mechanised divisions are moving into this sector from north of the Donetsk river with the objective of securing Rostov quickly, but other units are moving to rest; five divisions are already resupplying at Kharkov and others are moving there or to other forward supply points, as AGS has largely reached its stopline along the entire frontage. The stopline has been reviewed and here will extend to the Donets bend area shown below, as it should be easily occupied before Winter and gives us super river line to hold until the deep winter.

Elsewhere, the ring around Moscow tightens and at the very end of the turn, German troops enter the Kremlin. Early reports of Stalin's death are contradicted by defiant broadcasts made over the radio- but he is believed to be trapped with the rest of the Moscow front, with no hope of escape...




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_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to golden delicious)
Post #: 47
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/15/2021 6:52:54 PM   
larryfulkerson


Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005
From: Tucson, AZ
Status: offline 		You've captured Moscow already? I'm impressed.



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< Message edited by larryfulkerson -- 11/15/2021 6:54:46 PM >

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Post #: 48
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/16/2021 8:05:47 AM   
golden delicious


Posts: 5575
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From: London, Surrey, United Kingdom
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

You've captured Moscow already? I'm impressed.


Yes the VP hex in Moscow; there is a large pocket of Soviet troops trapped in the west of the city but at this point there isn't much chance of them being relieved.

Without wishing to get ahead of myself, I'd attribute the success in the scenario to two factors:
1) Continuous pressure. Apart from a short period when I had a number of panzer divisions static outside Moscow, I've been constantly moving and fighting with more or less the entire force, which meant that the Soviets were never able to build up a really powerful force. This I think isn't realistic and it would be interesting to try the scenario again with the self-imposed house rule you've used which forces the Axis player to rest before each new offensive.
2) Passivity of the PO. You can see in a lot of my screenshots that the PO often has some really strong forces locally. On numerous occasions I've strung a loose bag of 3-3 infantry regiments around a fresh Soviet division rated as a 11-12 or something, and the PO has just shrugged and let the division die. Similarly, the PO had a huge number of units on the Moscow Front and was actively counterattacking west of the city every turn while I was slipping my panzer divisions behind it. The PO has attacked quite a lot in the second half of the scenario, but only ever to pick off isolated units exposed on open fronts (or immediately in front of Moscow), not to deal with threats of encirclement.

Even though I've given the PO a +2 bias in this scenario, this hasn't helped the Soviets when their units are so reluctant to fight. There's absolutely no way I could have gotten away with this performance against even a moderately competent human player. If I put those red light panzer divisions in the midst of the Vyazma position with all those fresh Soviet troops, the player would have been quite prepared to abandon the fixed locations for the prize of wiping out 3-4 panzer divisions.

I'm not prepared to write the PO off yet as I'm expecting the Soviets to keep adding strength to the map and to be able to threaten my gains during the Winter; the combination of the +2 bias and the shock effects will give the Soviets overall roughly a 50% advantage. We'll see how that goes.

< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/16/2021 8:12:09 AM >

_____________________________

"What did you read at university?"
"War Studies"
"War? Huh. What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nothing."

(in reply to larryfulkerson)
Post #: 49
RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/16/2021 10:53:28 PM   
larryfulkerson


Posts: 39932
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From: Tucson, AZ
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quote:

ORIGINAL: golden delicious
quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
You've captured Moscow already? I'm impressed.

Yes the VP hex in Moscow; there is a large pocket of Soviet troops trapped in the west of the city but at this point there isn't much chance of them being relieved.

Without wishing to get ahead of myself, I'd attribute the success in the scenario to two factors:
1) Continuous pressure. Apart from a short period when I had a number of panzer divisions static outside Moscow, I've been constantly moving and fighting with more or less the entire force, which meant that the Soviets were never able to build up a really powerful force. This I think isn't realistic and it would be interesting to try the scenario again with the self-imposed house rule you've used which forces the Axis player to rest before each new offensive.
2) Passivity of the PO. You can see in a lot of my screenshots that the PO often has some really strong forces locally. On numerous occasions I've strung a loose bag of 3-3 infantry regiments around a fresh Soviet division rated as a 11-12 or something, and the PO has just shrugged and let the division die. Similarly, the PO had a huge number of units on the Moscow Front and was actively counterattacking west of the city every turn while I was slipping my panzer divisions behind it. The PO has attacked quite a lot in the second half of the scenario, but only ever to pick off isolated units exposed on open fronts (or immediately in front of Moscow), not to deal with threats of encirclement.

Even though I've given the PO a +2 bias in this scenario, this hasn't helped the Soviets when their units are so reluctant to fight. There's absolutely no way I could have gotten away with this performance against even a moderately competent human player. If I put those red light panzer divisions in the midst of the Vyazma position with all those fresh Soviet troops, the player would have been quite prepared to abandon the fixed locations for the prize of wiping out 3-4 panzer divisions.

I'm not prepared to write the PO off yet as I'm expecting the Soviets to keep adding strength to the map and to be able to threaten my gains during the Winter; the combination of the +2 bias and the shock effects will give the Soviets overall roughly a 50% advantage. We'll see how that goes.

Thank you for that analysis. I agree with you completely. I'm curious to know how it goes when the Soviet Winter Offensive arrives. That's what killed my game. I'm still backing up in T55. But my rudimentary front line(s) are coming together nicely. I'm hoping I can hold them off for about three years or so. We'll see.





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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/17/2021 8:03:16 AM   
golden delicious


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ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson


Thank you for that analysis. I agree with you completely. I'm curious to know how it goes when the Soviet Winter Offensive arrives. That's what killed my game. I'm still backing up in T55. But my rudimentary front line(s) are coming together nicely. I'm hoping I can hold them off for about three years or so. We'll see.


Well I just opened turn 32 last night with:
1) Force Supply 15 (Reduced to 12 by interdiction)
2) 75% shock
3) 50% movement bias

Almost every unit is "overextended" and my loss penalty went up 50 points from the previous turn. Now I feel less upbeat but we'll see. I guess at least some of these penalties apply to both forces.

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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/19/2021 6:00:09 PM   
golden delicious


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Status: offline 		Turn 30 and AGC continues to grind down the Moscow pocket with heavy artillery. With a bounty on Stalin's head numerous mutilated moustachioed bodies have been turned in but so far the Soviet leader remains at large. As the pocket shrinks, more and more mechanised divisions are released and can be seen here pushing to reach AGC's planned stopline along the Volga river, with the newly refitted 5. Panzer earmarked to lead this drive.

To the north, elements of 3. Panzer Group are authorised to move past the stopline in the direction of Rybinsk reservoir to support AGN, which is lagging well behind along its whole front due to supply difficulties. However the Volkhov front, estimated at a strength of 14 divisions, has now been successfully cut off and will now be destroyed with the help of the fresh troops which have been holding it back along the eponymous river.

Another bad turn for Soviet industry, as Kalinin, Voroshilovgrad and Voronezh all fall this turn. The only industrial city which I still hope to capture before the winter is Rostov; Rumanian troops are only two hexes from the city.




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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/19/2021 6:09:25 PM   
larryfulkerson


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Status: offline 		I'm guessing that I've found the 5. Panzer. How long did you hold them back? 2+ turns I'm guessing.



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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/19/2021 6:12:30 PM   
golden delicious


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ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I'm guessing that I've found the 5. Panzer. How long did you hold them back? 2+ turns I'm guessing.


That's 5. Panzer alright- but I didn't hold them back, OKW did. 2. and 5. Panzer arrive for the German player on turn 30, as too many of their vehicles were out of action after heavy wear during the Balkan campaign.

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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/19/2021 6:48:59 PM   
larryfulkerson


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ORIGINAL: golden delicious
".....2. and 5. Panzer arrive for the German player on turn 30, as too many of their vehicles were out of action after heavy wear during the Balkan campaign."

Okay now I've lost track of what's going on for you. Um....did you disband them...trusting that they would be improved when they next respawn? And they were? OR this is the first appearence of these units to the game ( recently )?




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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/20/2021 5:07:22 PM   
golden delicious


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ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson


Okay now I've lost track of what's going on for you. Um....did you disband them...trusting that they would be improved when they next respawn? And they were? OR this is the first appearence of these units to the game ( recently )?


It's their first appearance. Historically, 2. and 5. Panzer weren't ready for Barbarossa so they only arrive in the scenario on turn 30.

Translated from Lexikon der Wehrmacht's page on 2. Panzer:
"The division did not immediately take part in the Russian campaign, but remained as OKH-Rserve in the Lemberg-Przemysl area. From August 10th, the division moved to France in the La Rochelle - Bordeaux area, where it acted as an occupying force. From September 16, the relocation to the eastern front in the Smolensk area took place, where the first parts arrived on September 14, 1941...."

These two divisions had been involved in the final pursuit of the Allied forces during the evacuation of Greece. Then 2. Panzer in particular lost a fair amount of heavy equipment as a result of the Balkan campaign, as it was shipped back by sea from Patras and two of the transports were sunk en-route, while 5. Panzer had contributed some elements to the fighting on Crete which stretched its deployment in Greece into May.

< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/20/2021 5:13:21 PM >

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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/21/2021 10:25:51 AM   
golden delicious


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Status: offline 		Turn 31 and AGN still has a lot on its plate as the mud phase looms, with the Volkhov front cut off but still needing much effort to eliminate- the heavy artillery from the assault on Leningrad is being brought up to assist with this. To the southeast, Panzer Group 4 begins pressing towards the planned AGN winter stopline, hinging on Rybinsk reservoir. About eighteen Soviet divisions are currently believed to be in the sector southwest of Rybinsk, which could be cut off and eliminated if 3. and 4. Panzer Groups are able to cut the remaining communication links over the Volga here- but time is against us.

Elsewhere, AGS is settling in along its stopline except for a short section where five mechanised divisions are closing in on Rostov. This Army Group is in the envious position of being able to rest some troops, with five divisions resupplying at Stalino and seven at Kharkov, with others moving back to these locations at to the railhead west of Kursk.




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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/23/2021 11:53:39 AM   
golden delicious


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Status: offline 		Turn 32 and.... well I sort of spoilered this already, but everything goes to hell on turn 32. I haven't played that much TOAW IV and the "Overextended" feature was a little bit of a mystery to me until picking up this scenario. Well, it turns out that in addition to not receiving replacements, Overextended units suffer desertion effects, similar to unsupplied units. The one difference, happily, is that units which are just overextended dump their equipment into the pool rather than it being lost, which is just as well because almost every unit on the map is now overextended, and I'm bleeding about 10% of my equipment per turn.

I knew that the mud effects were coming on this specific turn (thankyou Luftwaffe weather service) but I've been caught out by their severity, which isn't at all clear from the briefing. Given where I am in the scenario now, I think this is a good thing: it throws me back into the deep end having just started to get cocky about my success.

OK, so there are two options here:
1) pull everyone back to a hex which isn't overextended (as you can see from the screenshot, this means falling back a lot), or get them over the unit supply threshold for the desertion penalty (100 - proficiency, so about 20% for most German units which aren't subdivided), which is going to mean more or less the same thing
2) hold the line, accepting that my units are going to bleed out most of their strength to the pool over the next few turns.

Relating back to the imperatives I outlined before the campaign started, keeping the Wehrmacht at strength is second only to eliminating Soviet units. Even though all this strength will notionally be coming back from the pool later, there's a real risk that in the meantime my units will be subject to attack from the Soviets at a serious disadvantage (although I think the Soviets have a lot of the same penalties as I do, their rail net is fully intact and their units are generally in a good supply state). As such, I'm going to leave units in place which are keeping Soviet units out of supply, and otherwise withdraw everything back to supply sources, leaving forward only the few units which are in a good supply condition already. Had I appreciated just how bad these mud effects would be, I would have pulled back the vast majority of my force a couple of turns ago, when I wasn't dealing with mud, refugee effects and a 50% movement bias slowing them down- but here we are.

One thing I can do to immediately improve my situation is to address the growing Soviet interdiction, which is currently cutting my force supply by 2- a lot under these conditions. The Luftwaffe has been very heavily used of late as I rely on them more and more to smash trapped units when I can't get enough artillery forward fast enough but, with my offensives largely on hold, I use their spare capacity to ramp up my attacks on VVS units which are in range of my fighter cover. Air units actually draw force supply regardless of the supply level in their hex, so the Luftwaffe is actually looking in much better shape than the Heer at this point, my challenge in this will be that a great deal of the VVS bomber force is well outside my reach in the vicinity of Archangel

AGS is in the best shape here and a number of divisions are resting in good condition at Kharkov, so these begin to crawl through the mud towards the front, to pass on the way their poorly supplied comrades moving in the other direction. I'm also going to try to secure Rostov as it has a forward supply point adjacent to it. Outside these forward supply points (Sevastopol, Rostov, Stalino, Kharkov, Orel, Tula and Moscow) and the all-too-distant railheads, supply is zero




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< Message edited by golden delicious -- 11/25/2021 6:14:05 PM >

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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/23/2021 7:24:42 PM   
Curtis Lemay


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quote:

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

I haven't played that much TOAW IV and the "Overextended" feature was a little bit of a mystery to me until picking up this scenario.


Another nice feature players will only see in TOAW-IV

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RE: Another Barbarossa AAR - 11/24/2021 8:54:57 AM   
golden delicious


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ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

Another nice feature players will only see in TOAW-IV


Yes, the other scenario I'm in the middle of is American Front 1914, as PBEM in TOAW III. The scenario would need heavy conversion- but it would seriously benefit from some of these extra features.

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