Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: K62

In the Southern Front sector Ochakov and Odessa ended turn 6 isolated and they were both attacked, with the two-division Ochakov garrison surrendering quite easily. In Odessa Timoshenko had been locked up with his 12th Army since the T4 pocket, which was partly attributable to his failure to commit reserves against the German breakthrough. The garrison was a mishmash of escapees from the pocket with a high proportion of armored units. But somehow Timoshenko managed to whip it into shape and hold off three determined attacks this turn. During the Soviet air phase the VVS also manages to break the blockade and some badly beat up armored units are evacuated and replaced with infantry from the Kherson area, which is relatively quiet. Nikolaev is abandoned with a small garrison and a (hopefully) strong line is formed at Kherson using the swamps and major river.

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

I absolutely "love" what you have done in the South. Those PZ's have been through hell and back and should be in the 60 TOE area I bet. I like the defense of the lower Dnepr too. You are making the German pay for every inch on the coast, again I "love" it.

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ORIGINAL: tyronec
Am getting my fighters shot to bits around Odessa, maybe because he is using the altitude settings better… For me manually setting altitudes is out of place in a strategic game like this though clearly some players like that amount of detail - but does it make sense to be specifying what altitude your aircraft are going to be flying at for the week, shouldn’t that be a tactical decision from sortie to sortie ???

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ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
...

The altitude settings seem to have some very significant limitations due to the fact that the air doctrine setting only applies the designated altitude to those planes sent on Escort during the actual combat air mission. For Patrol, the AI uses a series of pre-selected altitudes that the human player cannot manipulate. ...

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ORIGINAL: tyronec
Am getting my fighters shot to bits around Odessa, maybe because he is using the altitude settings better… For me manually setting altitudes is out of place in a strategic game like this though clearly some players like that amount of detail - but does it make sense to be specifying what altitude your aircraft are going to be flying at for the week, shouldn’t that be a tactical decision from sortie to sortie ???


The altitude settings seem to have some very significant limitations due to the fact that the air doctrine setting only applies the designated altitude to those planes sent on Escort during the actual combat air mission. For Patrol, the AI uses a series of pre-selected altitudes that the human player cannot manipulate. So if you get a case like the one below where the AI just selects all fighters for Patrol and none on Escort, in effect the altitude setting for GS becomes useless. I'd be curious to see if your battle results reflect this, or if you are just losing a number of inferior Rumanian planes and pilots.

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ORIGINAL: tyronec
The Axis Interdiction went fine. The AS failed, it intercepted some of the 90 x 6 bomber Soviet sorties but 80+% of the Soviet bombers are getting through. So Odessa no longer isolated.

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ORIGINAL: tyronec

I conceded the game at this point.

Overall progress is OK and the Soviets have been taking heavy losses for their aggressive defense. I think the game is close apart from in the South.

The Odessa situation is a disaster. Axis have three possibilities from here:
1. Continue to assault Odessa without attaining Isolation; I am confident this will fail baring an exceptionally lucky combat result. In this game you cannot take a well garrisoned city fort without isolating it first.
2. Continue to attempt Isolation while leaving enough infantry behind to assault when the Isolation happens. I don't think this is going to happen, the Soviets have enough LBs to keep the Interdiction up until the weather turns. Maybe not enough for both Tallinn and Odessa but am pretty sure they have enough for one of them.
3. Leave a few units to screen Odessa and push on. This is probably the best option but really prospects are not good. It would be difficult to advance into the Crimea with the supply blockage at Odessa and I don't know if Axis could even get enough supplies forwards to attempt to Isolate Sevastapol. If PG4 shifts to join PG3 then the rail line to Stalino is going to be over burdened, they are probably better use with AGC. Axis need the supplies along the rail line to Nikolaev and to the ports, at least on the strategy that I adopted.

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ORIGINAL: tyronec

The Odessa situation is a disaster.

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It would be difficult to advance into the Crimea with the supply blockage at Odessa.

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ORIGINAL: KenchiSulla

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ORIGINAL: tyronec
The Axis Interdiction went fine. The AS failed, it intercepted some of the 90 x 6 bomber Soviet sorties but 80+% of the Soviet bombers are getting through. So Odessa no longer isolated.

I am not sure I like this game feature. In this case the soviet ability to interdict (in real life) would not affect the Axis ability to interdict Odessa.

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ORIGINAL: Beethoven1
It's almost as though it's historical for Odessa to hold out at least a bit, and if the game is supposed to be roughly historical, then it is almost as if that is what one would think should happen much more often (whereas in no other AAR I have seen has Germany been unable to take Odessa several months before it fell historically).

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It is not enough to isolate 1 hex to the right from Odessa and setup AS there? In my game vs human I am able to isolate 1 port hex in Leningrad area to keep Leningrad isolated by using naval interdiction and AS.

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So historically the Rumanians and 11th Army never took Odessa. The Soviets gave it up to protect Sevastopol. You could either attempt to isolate it and assault it, assault it directly with a reinforced German Corps and attrit the garrison to death or push on towards the Crimea and push away the VVS....