Providence Lost: A 42-45 multiplayer grand campaign game

[Mynok]

Agreed. I'll have an update to mine (long overdue) tomorrow night. Right now, I can't run fast enough. [:D]

[fiva55]

NOTABLE EVENTS

III Panzer Corps and LVII Panzer Corps, composed out of 6 Panzer divisions and 2 Panzer
Grenadier divisions, were tasked to break out their entrapped comrades.

Their opponent consisted out of the outer ring, in the form of 1st Tank army, and the inner
ring, formed by 5th Guards Tank army.

The attack went well, and 1st Tank Army was brushed away with relative ease. 5th Guards
Tank Army proved to be a more resilient opponent, but even they could not withstand the
determined assault of the German attackers.

Attack on the inner ring


In the end, a 20 miles gap was opened, allowing the entrapped Germans divisions to fight
another day.

End of turn: Anticipating a renewed assault next turn, the bulk of
Germany's panzer forces has been redeployed in this sector.

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 60
8/14/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.244.244
Guns: 17.574
AFV: 3.367
Air: 1.690

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.239.665
Guns: 104.683
AFV: 9.247
Air: 15.065

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.494.771
Guns: 39.926
AFV: 8.177
Air: 5.873

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.184.550
Guns: 112.432
AFV: 25.833
Air: 33.402

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
04 held
12 retreated
21 AF bombed

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 538.653
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 17.981/Dam 480

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 74.120 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 43 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]The Soviets decide to spare their tank forces for another day, and withdraw their tank armies around Kursk.

[*]Kerch has been under repeated attacks this summer. It has held until now, but the garrison is at the verge of breaking. Unfortunately, no reinforcements can be spared.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRONTLINE OVERVIEW

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 61
8/21/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.245.739
Guns: 18.003
AFV: 3.433
Air: 1.689

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.323.790
Guns: 106.547
AFV: 9.312
Air: 15.440

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.508.362
Guns: 40.272
AFV: 8.293
Air: 6.040

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.199.229
Guns: 112.976
AFV: 26.185
Air: 33.946

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
08 held
12 retreated
20 AF bombed

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 534.298
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 17.649/Dam 410

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 56.756 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 50 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
The battle for the Valdai Hills has begun. Intending to make the Soviets pay dearly for
the capture of these hills, XXXXVII PzCrps, composed of 6th, 7th Pz Div and Wiking SS,
Totenkoph SS PzGren Div have been transferred to this sector.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF TURN 61

NOTABLE EVENTS
All sectors were able to retreat successfully, with no divisions cut off.
An overview of the southern sector:

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 62
8/28/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.265.527
Guns: 17.863
AFV: 3.540
Air: 1.727

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.371.409
Guns: 107.480
AFV: 9.188
Air: 15.588

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.532.342
Guns: 40.878
AFV: 8.427
Air: 6.141

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.232.463
Guns: 114.006
AFV: 26.696
Air: 34.477

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
13 held
15 retreated
22 AF bombed

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 489.856
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 18.918/Dam 607

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 123.683 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 30 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]Elements of 1st Tank Army and 5th Guards Tank army have been detected massing near the Valdai Hills.


[*]The Soviet 51st Army has finally forced back VII Rum. Corps. Kerch has fallen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF TURN 61

NOTABLE EVENTS
XXXXVII PzCrps has launched an spoiling attack on 1st Tank Army and 5th Guards Tank Army,
managing to cut off 2 tank corps.

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 63
9/4/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.288.960
Guns: 17.965
AFV: 3.596
Air: 1.767

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.395.477
Guns: 108.261
AFV: 9.103
Air: 15.855

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.557.547
Guns: 41.589
AFV: 8.593
Air: 6.278

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.270.807
Guns: 115.058
AFV: 27.115
Air: 34.976

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
20 held
18 retreated
20 AF bombed

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 463.037
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 19.778/Dam 517

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 87.762 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 25 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]Around the Valdai Hills, the main body of 5th Guards Tank Army arrives and counter attacks XXXXVII PzCrps, managing to force the Germans back and relieve their entrapped comrades.



[*]Down south in the Crimea, VII Rum Corps keeps retreating before the Soviet 51st Army. Elements of 3rd Rum. Army are en route to delay the Soviets as long as possible, but a evacuation of the peninsula is inevitable.

[fiva55]

The summer of 1943 saw the rise of the Red Air Force, when the Soviets started systemically
bombing the airfields of the Germans.

The first attack caught the Germans by complete surprise, who until then had at least always
enjoyed local air superiority. The large numbers of Soviet bombers during these first
attacks, complete overwhelmed the air defences of the Germans, and in many cases the Soviets
managed to damage considerable numbers Luftwaffe bombers on the ground.

The only defence against the onslaught of the Soviet bombers and their escorts lay in
relocating the airfields as far away from the front as possible, ensuring that the Soviet
bombers had to fly the last part of their run unescorted. This however meant that
there was less air cover for the front line troops, allowing the Soviet ground attack
aircraft to support any Soviet push relatively unhindered.


The Soviet bombing campaign held on for almost 2 months, with a registered number of around
400 AF bombing attacks. The end results were disastrous for the Germans. Though the German
war machine managed to produce enough aircrafts to maintain a steady number of
bombers for the Eastern Front, the situation was much more serious when it came to the
number of fighters.

Coupled with some recalls because of the intensifying allied bombing campaign back home,
the number of German fighters have dwindled to about an average of 15-30 planes per Army
Group due to the constant bombing raids. With no considerable reinforcements in the
foreseeable future to boost these numbers, this means that the Red airforce has finally
managed to gain decisive air superiority over the Eastern Front.

[Kronolog]

Wow, only 15-30 fighters per AG? That seems quite harsh for late -43. [:(]

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Kronolog

Wow, only 15-30 fighters per AG? That seems quite harsh for late -43. [:(]

Ah well, I might be exaggerating a bit [:D]. With some micromanaging and 2 turns without AF bombing attacks,
I have a total of 566 Ready F/FB/NF. That's 100+ planes per AG. The Soviets still massively outnumber me though,
and their interdiction attacks are a pain in the ass, so it wasn't completely fiction [;)].

Though at the height of my opponent's bombing campaign, I believe at one point I did have a few Luftflottes with almost no fighters. That's when I manually started to redistribute squadrons and sending very damaged one to the national reserve. I recommend anyone interested in preserving their airforce to do the same and not just to rely on the AI.

Edit: I should have posted a warning: The story parts of this AAR are often dramatized. For hard facts I recommend the OKH Received Reports Summaries.

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 64
9/11/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.300.096
Guns: 18.238
AFV: 3.671
Air: 1.836

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.567.766
Guns: 109.708
AFV: 9.008
Air: 16.154

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.584.487
Guns: 42.447
AFV: 8.784
Air: 6.344

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.318.531
Guns: 116.153
AFV: 27.662
Air: 35.413

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
13 held
11 retreated

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 456.308
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 20.429/Dam 518

EVENT LOG
Unready units: 18 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]The Soviets have stopped their AF bombing campaign.

[*]The Valdai hill defence has been reinforced by III panzer korps, bringing the panzer strenght in this sector to 5 panzer divisions and 3 panzergrenadier divisions.

[*]The Romanians keep retreating in the Crimea, it wont be long until the Soviets have control over the entire peninsula.

[fcam1387]

How on earth can you maintain a front that wide with a mere 2.3 million men? You must be near collapse at this stage. Facing over 6.3 million Soviets basically means he basically can hurl you all the way to Berlin with little effort.

Why do you reckon Axis casualties have been so high? Is it a game issue or have you used them too aggressively?

[Q-Ball]

That is a critically low number of Germans, I am surprised your CVs are showing as high as they are, though there are alot of low numbers still. Manpower appears critical.

Maybe fiva55 is disbanding FBDs and airunits to stretch the manpower into more Rifles, but that's a button you can push only so many times

[hfarrish]

My experience in the same scenario was that my army had collapsed by this point, with the exception of the panzers, who stayed strong through me keeping them in the rear and using them only to attack exposed tank corps.

Not sure the issue is German losses being too high, but Soviet losses being too low (particularly in successful counterattacks, but also in successful attacks - anectdotally my impression is that the Soviets suffered very heavily even in successful operations, such as the Seelow Heights. Game mechanics don't really recreate this - a successful Soviet attack will typically have a 1:1 loss ratio or better). Also an issue with replacements not filtering through properly to the Germans, his army has crumbled and there are still 500k men in the pool

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL:  fcam1387

How on earth can you maintain a front that wide with a mere 2.3 million men? You must be near collapse at this stage. Facing over 6.3 million Soviets basically means he basically can hurl you all the way to Berlin with little effort.

Why do you reckon Axis casualties have been so high? Is it a game issue or have you used them too aggressively?

I can't maintain a coherent front with just 2,3 million men, especially since I try to avoid using unready units in the front lines. In many places I'm forced to rely on a checker board defense. Still, having the Fins occupying a 100+ mile front helps out a lot. Another fact preventing the Soviets from simply overrunning my positions is that they have trouble with their supply lines. My opponent told me that he lacks sufficient number of trucks.

As for the state of my army, my OOB has been pretty stable these last few turns, mainly because the Soviets have trouble catching up and inflicting casualties. The IDs mostly have an average of 2-3 CV, with some lucky 4 CVs.  Though luckily most of them are now in ready status, and are least capable of defending against division sized Soviet units.

My armoured units are in pretty decent shape, with Grossdeutschland having a 11 CV and my average Pz div having 8 CV. At any point of the game I am at least refitting 5 Pz / PzG divs.

As for why my casualties are so high, I don't think that I used my units too aggressively. If anything, I am pretty conservative, only striking when it is unavoidable. It's just that whenever I counter attack, I suffer proportionally high losses, especially compared to the Soviets. Like hfarrish I think the Soviets should suffer more losses when they attack. Anyway, at this point of the game, I don't even bother attacking guard infantry corps any more. It's just not worth the losses.

ORIGINAL:  Q-Ball

Maybe fiva55 is disbanding FBDs and airunits to stretch the manpower into more Rifles, but that's a button you can push only so many times

I have indeed disbanded 3 FBDs and cleaned up my air units. I have also at least merged 10 IDs with <2000 men.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OVERVIEW OF THE FRONT LINES END OF TURN 65

[Fishbed]

I suppose that a fighting retreat to a shortened Lagoda-Valdai line may become an option soon right?
I am a little worried by any possibility of breakthrough to the north-west in the Valdai area...

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 65
9/18/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.283.137
Guns: 18.254
AFV: 3.713
Air: 1.892

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.624.183
Guns: 110.915
AFV: 9.107
Air: 16.404

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.607.644
Guns: 43.102
AFV: 8.932
Air: 6.397

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.354.105
Guns: 117.075
AFV: 28.033
Air: 35.583

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
07 held
14 retreated

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 447.252
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 20.040/Dam 672

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 35.835 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 17 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]Around the Valdai Hills, 5 divisions got encircled by the Soviet Tank armies. A counter attack by the recently
arrived III PzCrps managed to relief their comrades, inflicting heavy tank casualties on the Soviets.


[*]The Kharkov line has finally been abandoned, it was breached at too many places.

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

I suppose that a fighting retreat to a shortened Lagoda-Valdai line may become an option soon right?
I am a little worried by any possibility of breakthrough to the north-west in the Valdai area...

It's inevitable, but I intend to delay it as long as possible.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEGIN TURN 66
9/25/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.223.599
Guns: 17.769
AFV: 3.582
Air: 1.911

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.582.804
Guns: 110.426
AFV: 8.951
Air: 16.495

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.654.015
Guns: 44.271
AFV: 9.201
Air: 6.488

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.426.282
Guns: 118.945
AFV: 28.759
Air: 36.363

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
13 held
23 retreated

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 478.293
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 18.437/Dam 706

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 48.944 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 23 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]All around the front, leading elements of the Soviets have reached our new lines, and have at some places breached our defences. All breakthrough could still be contained.

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 67
10/2/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.235.715
Guns: 18.198
AFV: 3.647
Air: 2.143

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.749.155
Guns: 113.464
AFV: 9.309

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.660.097
Guns: 44.443
AFV: 9.241
Air: 6.491

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.448.265
Guns: 119.430
AFV: 28.867
Air: 36.641

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
1 retreated

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 471.770
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 18.437/Dam 706

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 55.635 men were added to Germany's front line units
Unready units: 6 German units unready

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]Intelligence suggest that the Soviets are preparing for their winter offensive, and do not want to risk their troops getting cut off during the coming mud season. Just one attack was made in the Crimea.

[*]In the Crimea, 3rd Rum. Army is still holding the Soviet 51st Army at bay, but only barely. Should the Soviet break through, they will be able to flank the Dnepr line. To prevent this, XXXIX PzCrps and XXXI PzCrps of 1st Panzer Army have been ordered to redeploy in the Crimea, with orders to break through the thinly held flanks of the Soviet 51st Army, reach the port of Feodosiya, and isolate and destroy the Soviets before the winter.

[fiva55]

BEGIN TURN 68
10/9/1943
OKH RECEIVED REPORTS SUMMARY

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AXIS OOB
Men: 2.266.679
Guns: 18.473
AFV: 3.776
Air: 2.098

SOVIET OOB
Men: 6.875.090
Guns: 115.074
AFV: 9.559
Air: 15.996

AXIS LOSSES
Men: 2.667.790
Guns: 44.673
AFV: 9.279
Air: 6.495

SOVIET LOSSES
Men: 6.465.537
Guns: 119.961
AFV: 28.913
Air: 36.078

SOVIET ATTACKS RESULTS
4 retreated

PRODUCTION
Manpower pool: 446.461
Armaments pool: 0
Rifle Squads: Rdy 19.197/Dam 409

EVENT LOG
Refit/replacements segment: 60.035 men were added to Germany's front line units

NOTABLE EVENTS
[*]Final preparations have been made for the mud season. One PzCrps has redeployed well behind the front lines to act as strategic reserve.

[*]Crimea has been retaken by 1st Panzer, trapping large parts of the Soviet 51st Army in the process.

[Jajusha]

Mud arriving, fiva let me check the AAR for now.

Still near half a million in the manpower pool. What about your armament factories, are they all operating? Are you short on resources?