2x3+ Team Side Game - BOTH SIDES

[xhoel]

The first part is from the Kursk offensive if I recall correctly. The book is really good, glad to see someone else that has read it.

[Neogodhobo]

Northern Front

On the 22nd June of 1941, the 256th Inf. Div made their way to the town of Varena.
A brutal battle started at dusk, and ended in the morning. It was to be the last battle fought on the 22nd June.
The deadly invasion of the USSR had started. Battles were fought all over the frontline.

Riga, a port-city bordering the Daugava river, and the Gulf of Riga, was encircled by the 41st Panzer Corps. Cutting all escape possible for any Soviet Division east of the Bay of Danzig.
Fortunately for the Soviet, these were only a few divisions; Elements of the 8th and 27th armies.

The Northern Soviet defensive plans was to retreat all forces to the Pskov - Vitesbk Line. Whatever orders came in by phone from Stalin were to be followed to the letter. Orders were given to attack
the enemy Sporadically to keep them busy while retreating. A second line of defense, from Narva to Novgorod was to be establish and to defend it aggressively.

Northern Defensive Plan


Marshal DoctorKing had this to say about the defensive plan..

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking
I concur with your plan. I am going to try to hold Novgorod strongly, maybe not so determined to hold on to Vitebsk. I think of the main line of resistance as the Luga/Lake Ilmen/Pola and that rough terrain down to Vyazma.
I'm assuming that the Germans are going to go all-out for Moscow but if they are pushing more strongly against me I'll hold forward of that position at the southern end of my line (around Velikye Luki) and putting my main
effort on the Luga. I plan to fortify Novgorod heavily. I could use some admin points to build fortified regions (and equip them with MG-Mortar artillery and sapper battalions) around there. Maybe down the Luga too but I
realize that would run quickly into cash. I hope to hold Leningrad.

...

ORIGINAL: Neogodhobo
Commander,

I will allow you some resources to build fortified regions. How many yet, is unknown. How much do you think you will require ? ( 4 admin points per fortified region )

Hold Velikie Luki at all cost as it protects the flank of Commander Drakken's Central front. Vitesk is also very important for the same reason.

Commander, you WILL hold Leningrad at all cost or we will be having your head.

...
Orders were then given to hold Velikie lukie at all cost as it protected the flank of Central front of Marshal Drakken. The first threat were made at this moment in the game. Stalin ordered Marshal Doctor King to hold Vitesbk
and Velikie Lukie at all cost, or else it would be his head. At this moment, Stalin knew, they were no turning back.
Marshal DoctorKing was, however more bold than Stalin thought. He had sent a letter to Stalin explaining the reality of things to come...

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking

So just to clarify:

- I need to put up a good fight for Velikiye Luki because it covers the flank of the Central front. OK, I'll do it but I will have to abandon it at some point in order to preserve my strength for the fighting along the Luga. I will try to give you at least a turn's advance warning of when my position there is about to collapse. I will commit an army.

- I would say that holding the Dnepr from Kiev to Smolensk would be a better idea than the Chernigov-Smolensk line laid out in your directive for Central front. The more effort the fascists have to put into crossing the Dnepr the less pressure they will be able to put on me and the southern front in July-August. If we are still holding that line at the beginning of September we will be golden. Again, though, not your main line of resistance.

- In general, I am opposed to no retreat orders. I think that saving our troops is more important than holding territory, as long as we can move the factories to the east.

- Remember that the capitalists will be sending us lots of armament points as long as we hold the connection to Arkhangelsk/Murmansk and through Persia. I intend to put a lot of effort into holding the position at the northern end of Lake Ladoga; my understanding is that if the Finns break through there it cuts our Lend-Lease? I'm going to retreat both armies from the Finnish front to the north, leaving a screen behind the "Finnish no attack" line. The Finns don't have nearly the offensive power that the Germans do, and the terrain up there is difficult.

- I believe that fortified zones in the early game cost 8 AP, so pretty hefty cost. Also, I would spend another four or so on creating support units to go in each one, probably a MG-Mortar Artillery regiment (whatever they're called, the bottom ones on the list, of stuff we have plenty of) and a Sapper Battalion. I'd add an AT gun regiment (the cheap one with the 45L's) if the Germans look likely to attack with tanks. Then add two decent infantry divisions and it's really hard to move.

- To the extent that we are going to have garrisons hold on in surrounded locations, let's make sure to put our long-range bombers on night mission duty so they can do supply missions. Isn't that how it works? I've done this in games against the AI and I've gotten two divisions through to the rainy season cut off in the Carpathians and the Pripyat Marshes.

To wich Stalin answered..

ORIGINAL: Neogodhobo

1) Priority to defend North of Vitesk. Defend Velikie Luki if you have to retreat.

2) CENSORED TOP SECRET MATERIAL CONCERNING THE SOUTHERN FRONT

3) I am opposed to No retreat too in General, but, at the oubreak of the war, its important to slow down the German as much as we can. And launch plenty of counter strokes just to keep them on their toes. Historically, its what the soviet did, and it worked, so Im gonna go for that for the starting turns. We need to hold as much as possible to slow them.

4) Sounds good for the defense of our Lend Lease. I dont know anything about that so I will go with what you say

...

At this moment in the Red army, they were huge talks of Reorganization. The whole leadership was shaken up, inexperienced. They basically did not know what they were doing. And they were going to get crushed as a result.
The Marshals in place were Doctor King who took command of the Northern Front., Drakken with the Central front and Socket. After a couple of days in the invasion, Socket was found to possibly be a traitor ( for AAR only, not actual real information). He was then sent to the Gulag and
another General had to be promoted to Marshal. Came Marshal Psych0 to replace as the new Southern Commander.

The report in the North for the first few days were as follows :

General Polkovnik F. Kuznetsov from the Northwest Front and General Maior Aviatsii A. Ionov are trapped in Riga. Slim chances of survival
General Maior I. Nikolaev of the 10th Rifle corps is trap near Telsiai, no chances of survival.
General Maior I. Korovnikov of the 12th Mechanized Division is trap near Siauliai, no chances of survival
General Maior M. Shumilov of the 11th Rifle Corps is trap at Jelgava, slim chances of survival
_____

The German had crossed the Daugava river betwen Riga and Daugavpils, and were sure to doom any Soviet resistence in the area in the next few days..
Things were looking brim...


Stay tuned for more Northern Front details coming soon.. (Pictures, maps and whatnot)

[Neogodhobo]

ORIGINAL: xhoel

The first part is from the Kursk offensive if I recall correctly. The book is really good, glad to see someone else that has read it.

Hi ! Yes, it is my favorite book, I must have read it about 12 times.
The transcript is from the Battle of Belgorod, pages 169 trough 184.

Thanks for reading the AAR as well

[Neogodhobo]

Situation in the Northern Sector on first turn.

[Telemecus]

As requested I have threaded in the old Axis turn 1 AAR into my old posts from this AAR. So everything has been merged into this one thread. You can find the main Axis turn 1 screenshots in post 34 here

[Beria]

Encouraged by Zorch here and Seminole here I think we have persuaded Telemecus to do the Axis side of the AAR for the 2x3+ Team Game and I will do the Soviet side. I know Telemecus was interested in posting the AAR first elsewhere, but they will also update it here to show both sides of the story. That way the new guys in the game will not always be asking us what happened? We can just tell them to look here. Added to that there is a huge cloud storage of screenshots taken at the time, plus all the diagrams showing tips and techniques to others in the game by Telemecus. I think they deserve to be published for all and not left to be forgotten!

Many thanks for Neogodhobo who I took over from as Supreme Commander for the Soviet side. I know he was starting to do the turn 1 AAR for the Soviet side here, so I will carry it on from here. The AAR for Axis turn 1 was already posted on these forums and Telemcus has moved those posts to this thread. The intention we agreed is not to present all the team changes and mechanics like the 8MP team game AAR but just show the game. I have had my own crash course of how to do screen shots and how to use the picpick image program. So here we go.

(Attached is a copy of the plan for the North as shown in post 142)

[Beria]

001 Soviet Centre Plan

[Beria]

001 Soviet South Plan

[Beria]

001 Soviet Start of Turn

[Beria]

ORIGINAL: Soviet South commander
Not a very good opening by the Krauts in the south, I was able to isolate all 7 panzer/mot divisions. So I decided not to run away yet, also because Rumania stays out of the war next turn still.

The screenshot below shows one worst case scenario of what could have happened during Soviet turn 1. Pockets chain broken to leave the motorised isolated far behind friendly lines.

This did not come to pass - the unit at Vilnius did not rally. But it is a big gamble to rely on one unit not rallying for your opening.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Beria

ORIGINAL: Soviet South commander
Not a very good opening by the Krauts in the south, I was able to isolate all 7 panzer/mot divisions. So I decided not to run away yet, also because Rumania stays out of the war next turn still.

One should always be careful to be overly critical of an opponent until you understand the strategy. I try and understand first the possibilities. I can cite AAR's where the player records "that was the stupidest play ..." then 10 turns later .. resignation .. In the case of this AAR things develop quite nicely and according to plan ...

[Dinglir]

I did give some thought recently to this kind of opening (where the Soviets at the Rumanian border are not activated on turn one).

I gave it up as the Soviet mobile divisions west of the Dnestr were still activated on turn two, even if the units right next to the border was not.

It'll be fun to see if you can make it work.

[Beria]

Soviet Turn 001 End - North

[Beria]

Soviet Turn 001 End - Centre

[Beria]

Soviet Turn 001 End - South

[Beria]

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: Beria

ORIGINAL: Soviet South commander
Not a very good opening by the Krauts in the south, I was able to isolate all 7 panzer/mot divisions. So I decided not to run away yet, also because Rumania stays out of the war next turn still.

One should always be careful to be overly critical of an opponent until you understand the strategy. I try and understand first the possibilities. I can cite AAR's where the player records "that was the stupidest play ..." then 10 turns later .. resignation .. In the case of this AAR things develop quite nicely and according to plan ...

Some players have madness in their method; others have method in their madness.

Thanks for undertaking this, Beria. [&o][&o][&o]

[EwaldvonKleist]

AARs need critical analysis, harsh but non-personal discussions make things interesting. The opening in the South indeed is leaky.

[Telemecus]

[Telemecus]

T002 Axis Start of Turn