Trippin' the Trappen

Trippin' the Trappen (Full Version)

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LiquidSky -> Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 2:40:25 AM)
Opponent: Wallas aka. Soviet Changes to game: Sevestopol gets 300 supply free per turn until axis controlled. Hardcore Supply rules in effect. Russians start at Strategic Position 4 FREE SETUP As the forces of goodness and all things Schnappes, I array my professional army (only slightly dulled from mild winter Soviet offensive). A line of infantry follows the front, with the Panzers placed in reserve behind the front. The mission of the luftwaffe is to cut the flow of supplies into Kerch/Sevastopol so that my army of Rumanians (against Sevestopol) and Hungarians/Italians (against Kerch) can take it. If he chooses not to evacuate the Crimea (silly boy), I can rail a panzer korp down for the drive on Kerch. The goal: Contain any misguided Soviet Offensives. Isolate Kerch with air. Take Kerch. Isolate Sevastopol. Take same.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 2:45:18 AM)
The first turn is in! I call this turn: Rock, Paper, Panzer. And it looks like: [image]local://upfiles/29532/F479A0904B4B4459BCB6E741B8036AF7.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 2:50:58 AM)
As my opponent is free to log in and see this information, I will usually be a turn or two out of date. My turn consists of the luftwaffe bombing Kerch, Sevastopol, and Taman, to wreck the ports. Some air-air combat occurs, where I lose about 35 fighters to down 70 fighters..not good odds. And a couple of bombers are lost to AA. The Italians and Hungarians move forward to the front line at Kerch. The Rumanians stare at the Sevastopol Fortress and cry. The rest of my army enjoys a free vacation, with shuffleboard, football, and other games to amuse themselves.

Keunert -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 6:07:19 AM)
Great to see another aar, and great to see this map mod in action. i will try this the next time myself. Are you both at the same experience level with this game? Oh and if he's building Forts on Kerch you will find what not to do with them in my AAR.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 6:23:16 AM)
The Russians attack! Some incursions are made in the Kharkov area, including the loss of Balakleja (49,29). On my Turn 2, all holes are plugged with reserve motorized/panzer units, and some local counterattacks drive the Bolshies back. The 1st Panzer Army meanwhile starts Operation Frederick pushing over the river at the south eastern armpit of the salient. Several new HQ's are ordered up at OKH, including one each of Italian, Hungarian, Romanian and German Army HQ's...with three German Korp HQ's as well...no leaders yet, cant afford the pp's. The left over pps buy a Staff card and a Truck card. The Hungarian's launch an attack towards Kerch after korp artillery prep and a lot of bombing, but are brutally repulsed. Going to have to wait a couple more turns for the supply to run out, as I dont think the SS will be coming down to take Kerch. I may have a prestige problem to overcome if I fail to take either Sevastopol or Kerch. [image]local://upfiles/29532/40A494DE690547419C3209E44336955F.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (9/30/2012 7:37:44 PM)
Turn 3: The Russians continue to pressure in the salient, however, they suffer massive command failures, so are unable to achieve much more then an arrow to the knee. The Russian navy shows up, and pushes my rowboats with panzerfausts out of the mouth of Sevastopol harbour. Using my mobile reserves, I manage to plug all but one of the holes. The 1st Panzer Army crosses the river at the armpit and is now in position to make some rapid advances towards cutting off the whole 6th army (its bad luck to be named 6th army) Losses are starting to pile up on both sides...30k infantry loss for the Russians vrs 17k infantry loss for the Germans. [image]local://upfiles/29532/0DBC89610BB6431398B8AB0DA87D6C12.jpg[/image] My opponent and I have played many, many wargames together, and would modestly rank ourselves somewhere around Manstien or maybe even Mars, the god of war [:'(] This is also our fourth attempt at a campaign. The first one (Case Blue) we gave up for the patch. The next one (trappenjagd) was loss because we realized the russians were going to get dismissed too easily. After some changes, (I added Izium to the list of cities before the Russians can go defensive) we started again. Again, the russians face dismissal and are unable to get out with Ambition, as his fails to take an objective same turn as he plays it. (gains 1 prestige, then loses some). We restart again...this time I make ambition cheap (2 points), and reduce the odds of getting a minor report from 25% to 10%. We make it to June 27th, but game ends when the Russians cannot afford ambition any more, and are dismissed (still at Strategic Position 5). This game, I remove Izium from the list. (so they cant drop anymore in position until one of the usual 5 cities are taken). However, I start the Russians at position 4, meaning if they get any minor objectives, they will be defensive. Should stop early russian dismissal...but could cause a large amount of russian prestige. Also, in the previous Trappenjagd games, my opponent decided to save his army, and ran back slowly, giving up terrain to save units. This game he is standing and fighting.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 12:34:46 AM)
Turn 4: Rain, rain, rain. Puts a stop to most offensive actions. Just a little hole plugging on my part, and not much on his. Turn 5: May 20th, 1942. The battle for Kerch has begun! The 3rd Panzer crushes the defenders on the rail-line, sending them back a hex. The italians attack the north hex, and the hungarians attack the south hex, both succeeding. My bombing campaign of his ports must be working...as I took less casualties that time then a few turns ago. After a speed card on the panzers..they push forward another hex, and exploit a hex. [image]local://upfiles/29532/80A7196604FD47CEAE9AB139F11CCFFD.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 12:40:12 AM)
The Russians are still attacking west, and have shown no signs of withdrawing. I attack north with my Panzers taking two more hexes. I am biding my time until some reinforcements from other fronts arrive to help hold the flanks. [image]local://upfiles/29532/FA80658FDF634FEEBE89526EE83A771B.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 3:28:34 AM)
Turn 6: The russians evacuate troops from the Kerch peninsula coast, and the hungarian/italian army crush the remaining soviets on the front line. The constant pressure on his supply lines has finally paid off...the panzer division drives down the road towards Kerch. [image]local://upfiles/29532/38AD09325EEB460E8E710D296E650A2C.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 3:30:30 AM)
The Russians seem to be pulling back in the salient, no more attacks and some units retreat. I attack ruthelessly along the railline to Izium taking two more hexes...and push in a bit, tightening the front. [image]local://upfiles/29532/80AD892788AB4540B8BF46D88B636149.jpg[/image] Losses are getting heavier..and I forgot to take a screenshot of it, but the russians lost around 50k infantry, to my 30k (total). I will try and give a better look at losses next turn. So far I have lost the 60th Mot tank battalion, a security regiment, and an artillery regiment for a German infantry division.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 6:30:41 AM)
Turn 7: Its the Romanians turn! After a few turns of bombarding by air and artillery (rotating 4 guns out of 12 to give them time to recharge), I attack the northern most hex of the Sevastopol bridgehead. And success! By now, they must be on half supply (because of my special event gives them that much, if the port is completely blocked). The hungarians surge forward to Kerch, in a race to beat the Italians. The German 3rd Panzer Div rails out to help out in Operation Frederick. [image]local://upfiles/29532/7769EDF30419415F868199A8187155B5.jpg[/image] I know the extra supply event I have is working because by this time, Sevastopol would normally be completely out of supply, and a troop of girl guides armed with magic markers would be able to take it.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 6:34:52 AM)
The Kharkov Salient retreats back some more, my 1st SS Mot fails to retake the forest hex on the rail line to Izium, however on the other side, the Wiking and 22nd Panzer manage to push a new hole moving north. My new reinforcing infantry divisions both get put on at Slajansk and immediately move north to help hold the line against the retreating Soviets. [image]local://upfiles/29532/5E50402CE2FB45D3B2530C3AE3495A8C.jpg[/image] sigh I forget again to check the losses on the stats graph. Oh well..maybe next time.

I�aki Harrizabalagatar -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 1:38:52 PM)
Seems difficult to bag the Russians in the Kharkov pocket

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 3:57:23 PM)
It is...but then I am playing a human all too aware of having his neck stuck out, and we used free setup, allowing him to strengthen his flanks. Of course, it also allowed me to put 2 SS mot, and 2 panzer divs on the southern salient. As well, almost my entire airforce is down in the Crimea interdicting supply to Kerch/Sevastopol.

Keunert -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 5:46:43 PM)
Did you try to bomb the bridges? it will make it difficult for his armor to retreat fast enough.

wallas -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 7:39:47 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LiquidSky I start the Russians at position 4, meaning if they get any minor objectives, they will be defensive. Should stop early russian dismissal...but could cause a large amount of russian prestige. So far I have only gotten two minor hold orders for 6 prestige which have yet to be completed

wallas -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 7:55:59 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Keunert Did you try to bomb the bridges? it will make it difficult for his armor to retreat fast enough. I have planned for that with all my command points saved, and if necessary I would play the movement cards for more AP

Keunert -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 9:03:07 PM)
having a rested engineer unit besides the bridge will be able to build a new bridge in one turn. well maybe Liquid can save his divebombers for more important work [:)]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/1/2012 9:21:03 PM)
At the moment, they are busy interdicting supply to Kerch/Sevastopol and bombing russians in the Crimea to help my Axis Minors. I am trying to refrain from bombing the Black Sea fleet, as their AA would kill too many of my bombers.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/3/2012 3:52:26 AM)
Turn 8: May 26, 1942. The minor axis move up to the units at Kerch...and the Hungarians take the hex just south of Kerch. Within the city are transports of the Black Sea fleet, so no doubt the russian is planning an evacuation. More interestingly, the Russians continue to pull back painfully slowly from the Kharkov salient as the vodka drunken 'soldiers' stagger about aimlessly. Trying to take advantage of the confusion, I launch several attacks....a few of which are repulsed when I discover they are not quite as drunk as they appear. However, I do manage to break through in the north part of the salient, but am unable to exploit due to lack of infantry in reserve. In the south part of the salient, my panzer army pushes up another hex, this time in fairly good order. A lack of command points prevents any further pushing. [image]local://upfiles/29532/3879690070194C73AD4C48751E30960E.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/3/2012 4:05:42 AM)
As promised...I give you a damage report: This deals with infantry only: Top Graph is INFLICTED CASUALTIES [image]local://upfiles/29532/A26E7CC9AAAA4D238E32C0CF2E764B9F.jpg[/image] Bottom Graph is SUSTAINED CASULTIES I would like to say it is mostly Axis minors, but alas...probably only 15% are.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/3/2012 7:30:34 AM)
TURN 9 Wow....his reply to turn 8 was massive counterattacking. The 1st SS alone repelled 4 divisions inflicting 1800 infantry and 600 cavalry casualties at the cost of 400 SS. But two panzer divisions were pushed back...including the 14th in the north Salient that had opened up a hole. He must not be suffering any command failures this turn! In the Crimea, the Hungarians and Romanians push on taking all hexes adjacent to Kerch. 3 Waves of attacks from the Hungarians, including the first use of 3 nebelwerfers, fail to dislodge the two militia holding the city. (The rest were evacuated by the Russians). Casualties were light on both sides however due to the lack of firepower of the milita and the fortifications of the city. The Rumanians launch two assaults to take the next two hexes adjacent to the heavy urban and light urban hexes of Sevastopol suffering massive casualties. The attack was staged using the least amount of troops possible to fufill a battlestack as it was only supposed to make the defenders use up supply faster, and was preceded by a 6 artillery brigade barrage of both hexes. (each). I will post the Axis spirit levels next turn. The Salient....as the front is getting shorter, more of my units are freed, allowing me to send the rest of III Panzer Korp to the north, while the rest of 1st Panzer Army in the south continues it's slow push north. [image]local://upfiles/29532/6FCE3AEBB85F4CC180134E14EA202BC3.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 5:51:24 AM)
Turn 11: June 1, 1942. Turn 10 was mud, so not much happened...other then the Russians trying to crawl a hex or two to safety. In the Crimea, the Rumanians elimate the last units holding Sevastopol. With the HQ evacuated, they had no source of supply, and were easy to defeat. During the mud turn, Kerch fell as it was only guarded by two weakened milita. Now the Hungarian/Italians march dutifully up the rail line, while waiting a chance to board a train for the main front. Rumanian Spirit level: 58 Hungarian Spirit level: 54 Italian Spirit level: 61 The Axis Minors took a fair bit of losses (except the Italians) but were able to take both Sevastopol (on time) and Kerch (needed to play more time card). With the luftwaffe no longer needed to assist them, it transfers during the mud turn and this turn for the main front. In the far north, Berlin orders the capture of a small town on the front, so my troops dutifully comply, despite the front being rather thin up there. It appears that the faster mechanized forces that were in the Kharkov salient have managed to escape out, but there are two rifle divisions doomed to be pocketed, and a couple more that may still be caught. The SS divisions (now stacked together) pushed north 20 km, while 3rd Panzer covers the estern flank. The 14th and 16th Panzer manage only to push forward 10km, so the whole III Panzer Korp is stacked in one hex, trying to push towards Kupyansk Da Map! [image]local://upfiles/29532/9D7336D81D674D358FB0C7CBF314D6CC.jpg[/image] Losses so far have been 53.6K infantry and about 300 tanks. Losses inflicted on the russians, however have been around 177.5k infantry.

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 6:18:23 PM)
Bah....Turn 12. Mud again. Thats it for the salient, the russians have retreated out. I managed to surround and kill 6000 riflemen. The rest of the turn was me moving forward to keep a front line. Looking at my forces I realize I need a fair bit of infantry and a large number of guns....so I am disbanding the coastal regiments, and replacing them with Ersatz Infantry (up to 8 or 9 now). They only cost command points from OKH/2 Army/6 Army. I am also disbanding my Nebelwerfers for the trucks/infantry (now that they are used up), and a large number of my artillery. I also played an infantry card for the first time. I would rather my infantry all have the ability to fire artillery then the roving bands of army artillery, although I still need a few for the battle at Rostov. Partisans are popping up all over the place..Like Daisies! So instead of railing my minor axis to the front, they seem to be running around putting down the outbreaks. (3 partisans over the last 4 turns). The latest one is only a few hexes from OKH. [image]local://upfiles/29532/FDAAD154AA4943AF8AD1413BDC0F95BA.jpg[/image]

Keunert -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 7:58:22 PM)
Why are you disbanding Nebelwerfer and artillery? i have no clue why you would do that?

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 8:53:10 PM)
My front line troops are lacking in guns/men. The nebelwerfers are one-shot items..useful about once a month as they dont seem to get very many replacements without playing the nebelwerfer card....so I can use the men/trucks elsewhere. As for the artillery..the same artillery is in the infantry divisions, and I would rather have the strength on the front lines. If each unit holds 500 infantry and 150 trucks, I will gain 6000 infantry and 1800 trucks if I disband 12 of them (and keep 2). I find I only use the independent artillery to attack Sevastopol and Rostov...so I am disbanding them. I will keep a couple for Rostov, and perhaps for Stalingrad later... The Russians ran, and the salient is no more.....no doubt he will begin to back up one or two hexes a turn towards Voronezh, limiting my ability to attack him. TURN 13: June 5th, 1942. Weather Clear. I follow the Russian retreat, and my armour concentrates for an attack (if he doesnt keep retreating). I lose my first objective for 2 prestige, and gain the trio of Millerowo, Rostov, and Voronezh. In a previous game, I concentrated on Millerowo and Rostov, and ignored Voronezh...I find that the Russians can plug up Voronezh too easily, whereas they cannot prevent me from getting beside Rostov. And Millerowo is a writeoff. Anyways, the final position after my turn: [image]local://upfiles/29532/79F09FE4EE3A4903A837E43F4603E33D.jpg[/image]

Keunert -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 9:25:23 PM)
Artillery in infantry units supports infantry combat as far as i know it but it will not help you preparing an attack. reducing readiness and entrenchment is very important but without artillery you will not be able to do this?

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 9:34:44 PM)
Ahhh...I won't be without artillery..the artillery will be in the infantry divisions, including the artillery regiment. So I will still be bombarding. My problem is that the infantry regimental artillery is a bit weak along my front, so I am going to do this to bolster them. They will be good enough for bombarding Russians in clear hexes, and can be bunched to bombard a fixed position...(if I dont just outflank it). You are right though when it comes to Rostov..I will probably miss it there....

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/6/2012 10:32:03 PM)
Turn 14: June 7, 1942 Weather is MUD. The weather gods hate me...we have been alternating clear and mud for a while now. Mud on turn 4, 10, 12, and 14 so far. To top it off, yet another partisan pops on the map. I play an ambition card as I am certain he will continue to retreat. I don't bother moving up to the front line, as I want to play another ambition card next turn, and might get an empty russian city on the front line. [:D] I also cancel any plans for the armour, and I am going to reposition it to a front that isnt retreating (much)...or use where my next ambition card demands it. So..here is the frontline: [image]local://upfiles/29532/DF272BB8875B4D5AB1D42CCE8A4B08E4.jpg[/image]

LiquidSky -> RE: Trippin' the Trappen (10/7/2012 12:10:26 AM)
Turn 15 June 9th, 1942. Weather is Clear He retreats even farther in the north. My opponent is a firm believer in straight lines. I will have to pitch him a curve. I notice some fortifications going up around Rostov...I may bypass it this game, and send my armour for Voronezh...or maybe push past Rostov and surround it. Havent decided yet, but then Berlin isnt asking me to take any of my objectives until early July. So all I do is push up to the front...after playing another Ambition card. My prestige is currently 23, and I am hoping to net two of the three majors to add 6 more. As well, my minor objectives should get me a couple more points. So I am doing okay. Here is the map: [image]local://upfiles/29532/CDEA6DA4B5104C7BB587700518AC6361.jpg[/image]

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