PBEM game AAR

[comrade]

Scenario: Poland 1939 (10 turns)
Scenario settings: all countries on Normal
Game settings: all default
Germany controlled by: Severian
Poland controlled by: comrade (myself )

Game was played using 1.20 patch, which now goes throuh internal testing. Public beta will be available in the end of the week. As you may know PBEM will be the new feature in this patch and we already took advantage of it.

[comrade]

[align=center]FIRST TO FIGHT
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My goal: To defend longer than in history. Historically Warsaw surrendered on the 27th of Semptember (4th turn in the game) and this was the definite end of the campaign. I'd like to extend the resistance by 2-3 turns.


TURN 1

North: Lost 2 divisions near Poznan and one north of Warsaw. Poznan will most likely fall next turn.


South: I lost 3 divisions and 4th one suffered heavy casualties, i strategically redeployed it to Warsaw. One of the divisions guarding southern border has been cut off, can't move out of the pocket. Will die next  turn. If Lodz can survive to turn 3, I'll be very happy!


The only offensive action i'm going to take is a cut-off attempt in Eastern Prussia. I'll try to cut off 3 german units advancing from north by moving my two divisions in a pincer move, beyond the enemy visibility range. If he does not notice that - next turn i'll be able to cut off 1st and 19th Korps and Panzer division "Kempf".


I spent all 30 PP I started with for buying mot. division in Bialystok. Will help doing the cut-off move and - If my plan works - attack wekened Germans.

I relocated units to form main pockets of resistance: behind Vistula river, near poznan, Lodz, Krakow , north of Warsaw (using light fortification in Modlin) and around Warsaw. I moved infantry corps towards Warsaw, this will be "the Alamo"

[comrade]

TURN 2

North: Good news: Poznan holds on. Bad news: will fall next turn. My cut-off attempt failed by ONE HEX. If my motorized division from Bialystok could move one hex further - next turn three german units would be cut off. Other than that - I'm withdrawing in order, but losing the campaign decisively...





South: Krakow holds on. But with german air superiority it won't hold long. Not to mention that the garrison is cut off from Main Supply Source (Warsaw) and will get only part of supply from Krakow, resulting in lower effectivity next turn.





I have 4 units that would delay german advance, and all other remaining units were ordered towards Warsaw to form the last pocket of resistance. Remains of Polish Air Force, threatened by being overrun by enemy motorized or armoured units were moved to Bialystok.

[comrade]

TURN 3

North: Poznan fallen to enemy. Wehrmacht is rushing towards Warsaw. South: Surprisingly, Krakow holds on! It seems the enemy does not want to risk any losses while taking the city. I've reorganized the line of defence near Warsaw, threatening 3 german units with cutting off. I considered attacking  somewhat weakened Pz. division "Kempf" from 4 directions, but gave up the idea - kill was unsure and it'd disorganized the defences and hastened the fall of Warsaw... I managed to strategically redeploy Army Pomorze unit (corps) which was  on the brink of destruction (if it survives, I'll reinforce next turn). I Hope Warsaw survives till the next turn, it can be attacked from 2 directions only, on the other hand, series of Luftwaffe air strikes can soften the garrisoning unit...

[comrade]

TURN 4

That's it. Almost all units near Warsaw were wiped out. Only three survived, one of which was almost destroyed so I strategically moved it to Lublin. There's only one corps defending the capital, led by gen. Kutrzeba, who, in the fierce fighting of this campaign managed gained 2 experience points.




Warsaw is doomed to fall next turn. In a suicide mission polish AF tried to bombard Hoepner tank group. Attempt failed...





My goal failed too: I won't hold Warsaw more then one turn. Krakow holds on, blocked by the enemy, but somehow, this does not make me happier. 

[comrade]

All is lost! Warsaw has fallen and Germans are entering Eastern Poland. Krakow holds on but losing all Victory Point cities brings an end to this campaign.




First to fight... First to lose [;)] Severian turned out to be very difficult opponent, didn't give me chance for any delaying action. He played very agressively and admitted using air strikes often, this is why he suffered relatively heavy losses (11.5 points comparing to 34.2 on my side) but also prevented me from defending a turn or two longer.

[Severian]

It's time to other side relation [:)]

Begin:

Army Group "North" (Heeresgruppe Nord):
General plan - take Gdansk, destroy Polish divisions in Corridor, defeat "Poznan Army"


and Army Group "South" (Heeresgruppe "Sud")
General plan - attack towards Lodz and Warszawa, capture Krakow. Destroy all Polish units of Army "Lodz".

[Severian]

After first turn I saw Polish division attacking towards Gdansk [&:] What he is doing? But... in Gdansk I don't have any unit! To secure captured Corridor I bought 4 infantry division and redeployed them in Gdansk.


Ok:
- Poznan - no problem. 1 inf. corps, 1 inf. div & many German soldiers. It's high time to do pocket.
- Lodz - few units, but very important direction of attack, so I've used 3 corps of inf. to destroy Lodz garrison. After that tanks and motorised divisions destroyed second Polish division. Line of defense has been broken.
- Krakow - I destroyed single inf. division and started a siege of city.
- on the north units form Prussia continued offensive towards Warszawa.

Units attacking on Gdansk-direction were stopped by infantry and tanks.

[Severian]

3rd turn: Comrade ordered full back to main defense line, but some infantry can't do that. I destroyed them by my infantry. Armoured units attacked last Polish units around Warszawa.


Fourth turn - I destroyed as many divisions as I can destroy and only two remaining were in Warszawa. Siege of Krakow was in last phase - bombers attaked one more time and final rush began.

[Severian]

Fifth turn - last one. Victory is mine, but my ambition was to capture also Lwow. I ordered my parachute division air drop over city and... disaster. All my soldiers were shutted down by Polish planes. My greatest mistake of whole campany.

Full size photo

Last attacks, Warszawa mine, Krakow also. Victory, but big casualities: 1/3 of Polish. Yes, my airplanes corps have lost about 1/2 of ther total strength [8|] My fault, but Blitzkrieg has his rights.

Full size

Comrade is very good player. With small army almost destroyed whole army attacking from Prussia - 1 hex to disaster! His moves were considered. I was more spontaneous and aggresive. It was good game but as Fieldmarshall I'll be Zukow rather than Rommel [;)]

[typhoon]

Sorry to interupt. Great AAR. But the Patch news and the PBEM play is great news. I'm off to the download shop to buy. Should just give me some time to learn how to play before the PBEM becomes available. You should talk louder about this on the main forum really is the best news possible for this game.