Russia! Why not? (Morvael welcome)

[morvael]

Mogilev captured. Konev's North Caucasus Front must wait for the flanks:

[morvael]

Enemy resistance in Latvia lessens, they are probably preparing to retreat towards Riga and Dvina:

[morvael]

2nd and 3rd Tank Armies in position, ready to strike towards Parnu next week:

[morvael]

6th Army commander, Ivan Galanin, was promoted to the rank of General-Polkovnik. 11th Army commander, Rodion Malinovsky, improved his morale rating (8). 9 medium SU regiments were disbanded. There is not enough medium SUs to keep them all in required strength, so the cavalry corps will no longer have one such regiment assigned, only the tank corps will retain theirs. The formation of 5 light SU brigades was ordered.

Strength:
men: 10 146 802 vs 4 669 789
guns: 158 511 vs 46 476
AFVs: 16 074 vs 7 322
aircraft: 21 460 vs 3 063

Trucks:
in units: 266 558 / 276 069 (96.55%)
in the pool: 152 416 / 159 549 (95.53%)
in repair: 117 084

Losses:
killed: 8 992 vs 8 705
captured: 72 vs 632
disabled: -714 vs 1 242
guns: 196 vs 394
AFVs: 168 vs 49
aircraft: 88 vs 22

Including:
in combat: 36 vs 7
from AA: 22 vs 2
on the ground: 0 vs 6
operational: 30 vs 7

[loki100]

quite a change in tempo in those last updates, even if you have no clean breakthroughs that level of pressure must be hurting the good Cpt?

You have 6??? turns to mud, then he gets a respite, but it looks like you will start the summer of 1944 in a good position

and your trucks are holding up relatively well

[morvael]

We are now at turn 153, turn 141 was the last played in 2013. I delayed the AAR partly on purpose (some operations that must remain secret take long to prepare) and partly because of lack of time. I now hope to quickly report the turns up to mud. I have the materials on hand as I write an AAR about this game for my friends in Polish and it's never more than 1 turn behind real events, so it's only a question of translating some texts and doing smaller screenshots.

The pressure was quite strong, cpt flam reported that his manpower pools were exhausted just as the mud hit, so he was saved for the time being. Unfortunately no breakthrough occured, but at least I was able to make a nice dash towards a major objective on the last snow turn.

Truck situation will soon improve (completely), it was the blizzard that was killing them. Mud and snow are less severe in this aspect, plus I did everything I could to improve it.

[gingerbread]

ORIGINAL: morvael

...Truck situation will soon improve (completely), it was the blizzard that was killing them. Mud and snow are less severe in this aspect,

Hm, since you've seen the code, care to clarify? I have assumed that mud was more severe than blizzard, due to +2 extra MP/hex for motorized per 22.1 compared to blizzard. As often is the case, there seems to be something hidden beyond that.

[morvael]

This also puzzled me, but such were the multipliers in the code that calculates trucks needed to transport supplies to unit (and truck wastage per turn depends on that value). AFAIK it was 4 for Blizzard, 3 for Mud and 2 for Snow (maybe it was 3, 2 and 1.5, I don't remember that exactly now, but the order remains the same). My first idea was to exchange blizzard and mud, but I realized it would create completely different truck pressure for long periods of the game, so I left this as is.

[Walloc]

Doesnt seem off to me. Cold and in particular the severe cold that kills motors, tracks, what ever mechanical. In particular when it isnt build to withstand those conditions. In the mud periode u more so just couldnt move, not saying that wear and tear isnt worse than driving than clear in those conditions, but most would eventually be repairble.

Severe cold aka assuming blizzard are meant to represent those periode, is a thing that in it self with out even driving toke its toll, not so rain.

Rasmus

[morvael]

Yeah, I also read in one book about logistics that blizzard was harder on trucks than mud. Mainly because during mud nothing moved, so needs were lower. Also because in early winter the rail supply system had even bigger problems than wheeled one and thus it had to work extra hard.

[M60A3TTS]

The cold weather of course will kill vehicle batteries and freeze solid things that don't have lubricants rated to certain temperatures. Mud is particularly hard on the undercarriage of trucks. Between the two, the cold will be the more problematic. That's why vehicles would have to be started and run every so often to stay functioning.

[morvael]

Turn 142 (March 2nd, 1944)

Odessa is well protected by 3rd SS Panzer, so the Transcaucasus Front had to stop at the city gates. Front's aviation HQ lost it's leader in unknown circumstances:

[morvael]

Cherkassy-Odessa rail line is now in Soviet hands:

[morvael]

The weather improved from blizzard to snow and it's easier to pursue withdrawing enemy forces. Pereyaslav was captured this week, Kanev and Korsun will be next:

[morvael]

Red Army enters Gomel, the dreaded swamps of Polesia are so close. Chernigov (to the south) remains unconquered because of the defiant Hungarian 201st Reserve Division:

[morvael]

Grind towards Minsk continues. The elite Grossdeutschland division causes heavy casualties in Konev's forces:

[morvael]

Rail junction at Rezekne captured. To the south, armies of the 1st Baltic Front take Drissa and reach pre-war Polish-Soviet border:

[morvael]

Northern Estonia liberated in one fell swoop. Small German garrison remains on the Saaremaa island:

[morvael]

Transcaucasus Air Command commander Sergei Denisov was killed in action. General-Leytenant Pavel Stepanov took command. 19th Army commander, Vasily Glagolev, was promoted to the rank of General-Leytenant. 5th Shock Army commander, Konstantin Koroteev, improved his admin skills (6). 4th NKPS arrived.

Strength:
men: 10 208 606 vs 4 664 498
guns: 159 103 vs 46 280
AFVs: 16 477 vs 7 340
aircraft: 21 405 vs 3 132

Trucks:
in units: 279 686 / 279 976 (99.90%)
in the pool: 147 072 / 145 186 (101.30%)
in repair: 113 623

Losses:
killed: 20 526 vs 10 312
captured: 80 vs 392
disabled: -2 923 vs 1 530
guns: 335 vs 508
AFVs: 751 vs 129
aircraft: 133 vs 28

Including:
in combat: 72 vs 21
from AA: 13 vs 5
on the ground: 0 vs 0
operational: 48 vs 2

[morvael]

Turn 143 (March 9th, 1944)

Recon elements of 4th Tank Army reached Dnestr river, SS division in Odessa is in danger of encirclement: