Emu for breakfast, Divepac88 (Axis) vs. Jim Burns (Soviet)

[Jim D Burns]

This will be a standard 41-45 grand campaign game with Divepac88 playing the Axis side and myself playing the Soviets. I have been away from the game for over a year, so I have a lot to catch up on and expect that I’ll be making many mistakes as I get back into the game.

My early strategy will focus mainly on survival while trying to hold the Axis player as far west as possible. I’ve done some reading on the forums recently and seen a lot of people advocating an early “run away” Sir Robin style defense for the Soviets, but it’s not in my nature to run away unless absolutely forced to due to overwhelming losses first. So I expect my 1941 losses will be much higher than average.

Hopefully this will translate into an ability to hang onto enough extra manpower centers that my army will be able to recover well enough by June 42 that I can put up a good fight during the second summer as well.

Here’s the axis opening. Several of the pockets can be broken, but I doubt I’ll be able to ultimately save anything from any of the pockets.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 1 - 6/22/41

All planes were sent into the reserve. Most active fortified zones were disbanded.

In the north I had very little left to work with, so everything I could scrape together went to the Pskov area to defend the river line south along the Velikaya and Sinyaya Rivers. I managed to sea lift a brigade and an NKVD unit into Tallinn, not enough but at least there is something in the city.

The main defense in the center is between Mogilev and Minsk. Units are placed behind rivers and in woods or marsh terrain hexes if possible. I used a lot of rail to bring in reinforcements from the south, so I have enough units in the area so that the axis should have difficulty reaching Mogilev.

In the south, I decided to try and punish the axis for the over-reach of his panzers. I strongly reinforced the bend in the river along the Rumanian border east of Chernovtsy, so there is a good chance my troops will hold the line against the Rumanians for at least one turn in that immediate area.

I then isolated 2 exposed panzer divisions just north of there and managed to break his pocket just south of Tarnopol. Unfortunately I was unable to isolate a third panzer division sitting in the city of Tarnopol, so instead I created a zoc corridor near his HQ to hopefully keep fuel deliveries to that unit down considerably.

I’m really nervous about this move, but by the time I realized I wasn’t going to be able to isolate it, I had already committed a lot of units to try and get it isolated so I had to go ahead and commit to it. Hopefully the corridor is enough to keep fuel deliveries down and that panzer division won’t be too adventurous on turn 2.

Further north near Kovel, I managed to isolate another panzer division and what appear to be at least 2 motorized regiments. With no Soviet recon done on turn 1, there is no way of knowing if any other units are in the isolated area, but it’s probable.

[janh]

Nice, more AE veterans here! I will follow this one... Good luck!

[Jim D Burns]

Welcome, hope it develops into an enjoyable read. And thanks for the good wishes.

Jim

[Dan Nichols]

I'm glad you're doing an AAR. Des wants me to be his next victim and I am still a newbie on this game.

I love the title of this AAR.

[AFV]

Solid move in response to his turn 1, very salty. I liked the before and after down south.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: AFV

Solid move in response to his turn 1, very salty. I liked the before and after down south.

Thanks, as it turned out (just finished my next turn) he didn’t expand east much in the Tarnopol area so the move panned out well and kept him busy just re-opening supply routes to his units.

As my opponent is doing his own AAR, I won’t be showing the axis side of the turn anymore as I don’t want to post redundant info nor do I wish to pull any readers away from his thread.

Jim

[swkuh]

Will enjoy reading the two complementary threads.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 2 – 6/26/41

3 armaments factories evacuated from Mogilev. I wanted to take some heavy industry as well, but I ran out of available rail during land moves and ended up having to march many units I wished to rail. I’ll try and evacuate as much heavy industry as I can, as I feel it’s gamey to leave it all behind. But the opening turns are just too critical to waste 30k rail on a few points of heavy industry.

A few air units unfrozen this turn are sent to the national reserve. Next turn I’ll start bringing air units back on map. I decided to wait as most of my airbases had very long moves to make again this turn, so it made sense to wait one more turn before getting some planes back on map.

In the north I’ve basically only got a speed bump for defense setup north of Lake Peipus. Hopefully it’s enough to stop any panzers that decide to go for an end run north. Tallinn still has just a brigade and NKVD unit for defense as I had nothing larger I could spare. I hate not contesting it with more strength, but the lines near Pskov needed to be beefed up this turn so it has to wait one more turn before more defenders can be sent.

I’m happy with my defenses at Pskov and along the river south. While the line can be breached, there are some strong positions that will need some serious attention before he can breakthrough in earnest, so I should be able to tie him up for a turn or two along this line.

In the center I’ve consolidated my units across the land bridge between Mogilev and Vitebsk. I’ve some pretty strong units in this area that were railed up from the south, so they should be able to tie up what appears to be a panzer corp immediately to their west.

Another panzer corp or possibly two is south and southeast of Minsk. I tried to isolate these units but none of the units that moved had the juice to close off anything completely. So I decided my next best option was to try and tie up as many of these mobile units as possible by sticking to them like glue.

Hopefully this will prevent these units from being able to exploit any breaches the northern panzer corps may manage to make and keep his gains for the turn from causing any serious breakthroughs.

In the south I managed to isolate some mobile forces near Rovno. I decided to leave the strong infantry division southwest of Rovno in place as it sits astride the path most axis units would need to take to move towards Rovno to exploit any breaches of my lines east of that city, so his eastward movement near Rovno should be limited on turn 3. Besides the division was only allowed to move one hex, so escape wasn’t really an option for it.

Near Tarnopol last turn’s isolations really kept things stagnant in the area and other than extricating his forces, Germany made little or no eastward progress. I managed to reopen the Lvov pocket this turn far in the south with an NKVD unit, so I decided the best thing I could do with my surviving units in the pocket was to move them east/northeast instead of falling back further south.

I seriously doubt I can hold the pocket open for another turn, so falling back to the south/southeast would simply allow him to isolate and destroy my units at his leisure. By placing what survives in the path of any infantry trying to get to the Tarnopol area, he will be forced to attack them this turn while they are in supply and a few may route out to safer lines.

The few Russian units you see sitting slightly exposed on the east side of the Axis Tarnopol bulge were placed there to inhibit Axis attempts to move south. If it succeeds, I may be able to save a mountain division or two next turn. If not at least it’ll chew up Axis movement points in a southerly direction instead of an easterly one.

In Rumania the Axis responded to my reinforcing of the river line shoulder by bringing up quite a few German infantry divisions. This means I should be able to hold the Rumanian lines relatively static for a few more turns.

Sorry about the offsets/breaks in the screenshot this turn. The front is simply too wide and a screenshot to capture it all north to south with combat values still showing would have been so wide readers would have had an annoyingly long scroll bar on the bottom of their screens.

[janh]

You're pretty good about cutting off his spearheads. This will hurt him somewhat, they'll be pretty low on supply next turn. Going 2-3 hex slower but remaining safe to be supplied would have meant gaining perhaps 10 hexes next turn, but this way these guys won't contribute much to his progress in the next turn.

I notice around Pskov, north of Peipius and at Mogilev you placed some units to on the enemy side of the rivers. Did you do that intentionally, or just lacking MP?

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: janh
I notice around Pskov, north of Peipius and at Mogilev you placed some units to on the enemy side of the rivers. Did you do that intentionally, or just lacking MP?

It’s intentional (routed units lacked movement though), I’m not trying to hold anything for long just slow him up. If I can chew up enough movement points on his side of the river, the hope is my side will hold for a turn. I don’t like leaving the river line itself exposed to the full brunt of his offensive abilities as it gives him the best chance to crack it.

With some stuff on his side to clear away first, there's a good chance one or two of his units won't be available (due to lack of movement points) for that second plotted attack against the river itself if the first plotted attack fails.

There are also some reasonable forts on his side of the river (2 west of Pskov and 2 further south where the next rail line crosses the river) so some of the units have much better defense while in the forts than they would on my side of the river.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 3 - 7/3/41

3 heavy industry evacuated from Mogilev. 3 heavy and 3 armaments evacuated from Gomel. 3 armaments evacuated from Kirovograd. 3 Armaments evacuated from Krivoi Rog.

Almost all Soviet air groups are back on map this turn. The low experienced squadrons are at rear area bases for training.

50-60 AP's were spent building Sapper Regiments, 3 regiments for each Army/Front.

About 2/3rds – 3/4ths of the new divisions that arrived this turn went to the north to defend in the Leningrad area. I left most of the divisions on the rail lines to help them flesh out. Next turn they’ll move south into the rough terrain hexes northeast of Pskov.

Tallinn gets a full strength division this turn and now boasts a respectale 22 defense. The axis will now have to divert a sizable force to take it. I may send another division next turn to replace the NKVD unit.

As I mentioned last turn, the defenses south of Pskov could be cracked with effort, and my opponent threw pretty much his entire panzer force in the area at it to get across the river. Luckily for me he didn’t touch 3 of my forts on his side of the river and the divisions I had in those forts had really nice movement points available this turn due to near max fuel and supply levels.

The northern division was able to move out and back to cut off the northern part of his panzer spearhead (see arrows on screenshot). The southern division had to expend extra moves however to go an additional hex to seal off the back door, so it wasn’t able to march back towards my lines.

There are at least 5 of his mobile divisions now isolated in the bridgehead he made, so hopefully his attempts to exploit the breach next turn will be minimal. With no recon this turn, I have no way of knowing how close his infantry is, but my guess is it’s getting pretty close to my lines by now So I expect I’ll be hit pretty hard next turn.

In the center the German lines remained pretty much stagnant, which means he probably did build ups for his panzer HQ’s. So I moved some divisional sized units closer to his panzers to create ZOC’s in every hex on the west side of the Dnepr. This will hopefully force him to engage all/most of my units on the west bank before he tries to breach the Dnepr.

The critical bend in the Dnepr on the south side of the land bridge got another division this turn, so it now has a defense of 7. Fresh armor units from Moscow arrived and went to help defend the land bridge. Almost all armor and motorized units are set to reserve, so I’m hoping the land bridge can tie him up for at least one turn.

Near Minsk my isolated Cavalry division marched north and forced an airbase to rebase.

In the south I’ve had some fun the past few turns messing with the Germans near Tarnopol, but fun time is over. With the Lvov pocket now firmly closed (probably 40,000 – 50,000 men trapped) and his infantry catching up to the panzers, it’s time to start trading some space for time. So I’ve now begun to pull back to the east.

I couldn’t quite pull back as far as I wanted this turn due to movement limitations of some of my units that were involved in the fighting around the northern edge of the Rumanian border. Hopefully it doesn’t cost me too much.

He again ignored my 2 infantry divisions on/near the fortified mountain southwest of Rovno this turn, so I reopened their pocket on the north side with one division and tried to isolate his troops near Rovno with the other. A weak armor division was used to try and meet up with the division but the last hex was just out of reach.

In the far south, if the hex control overlay is to be believed, my opponent still hasn’t left Rumania with his units. I decided to keep some of my forces along the Rumanian border for one more turn to keep the axis from doing any rail repairs towards Odessa for one last turn. Next turn they’ll have to pull back as well.

On a comical note, my devious plan to try and get a few mountain units in the Lvov pocket to evacuate east via route-move failed miserably. All routed units stayed inside the pocket and most rallied this turn even though isolated. But all the fighting in the south did allow me to save all of the mountain divisions that started near Rumania, so it isn’t a total wasted effort down south.

[AFV]

I am really enjoying this AAR- I like what you show, and the commentary. Granted its early but if this was a baseball game you would be ahead 3-0 after one inning. He's made very little progress down south, and really only average progress elsewhere. He's so busy relieving his own pockets he is not making additional ones.

I think you should really reinforce Leningrad and hold it, at all costs. Call me crazy, and no one else really points this out, but I think you should hold Leningrad at all costs, and give up gobs of territory down south (you can't hold everything). I don't agree that Leningrad falling is a gimme to the Axis- its only a gimme if you do not reinforce the hell out of it. If he does not get Leningrad in '41, that means obviously you keep that manpower but more importantly, no Finns. No Finns means that during the blizzard he does not have a blizzard proof army to hold the north, freeing up Axis units to fight or rest in towns during the blizzard. Plus, if he does not get Leningrad (early), he can't divert troops to Moscow before blizzard. No Leningrad and no Moscow in '41 I think is game over for the German.

BTW, you need to put a division in the Leningrad back door hex 83,16, and probably put a fort there and attach a RR unit to it, and start digging like hell. That is the only hex on the map I would spend APs doing that.

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
Almost all Soviet air groups are back on map this turn. The low experienced squadrons are at rear area bases for training.

Air units gain little to no experience sitting in the rear. They get experience from flying in combat against enemy units.

[Peltonx]

Very very nice AAR, this games going to be a cake walk by the looks.

GHC has a very high learning curve and with the latests nerfs the curve is mucH steeper then before.

SHC can fight forward vs any average GHC player and easly be in Berlin now in 1944.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 4 - 7/10/41

Heh it figures, the turn I plan to place Zhukov in command of STAVKA, Kuznetsov was removed from command of the Northwest Front by the AI and replaced by Zhukov. So I had to replace Zhukov first (Timoshenko) before I could place him in command of STAVKA.

Another 6-8 Sapper regiments were created this turn. I then spent the remaining 180-200 APs on fortified regions. Leningrad got most of them with a fort placed in every city hex and every hex within about 2 hexes of Leningrad. The rest of the APs were spent starting a line of forts to the area about 6-8 hexes west of Moscow. Eventually I'd like to build 2 or 3 belts of forts west of Moscow.

4 heavy industry and 4 armaments factories evacuated from Kiev. 3 heavy industry evacuated from Kirovograd.

In the far north my units opposite the Fins are active this turn and I pull back to more defensible lines. I'll be sending all my mountain divisions against the Fins to try and hold him roughly on the lines you see my units on now. I may not be able to hold in the vicinity of Vyborg, in which case I'll just keep a line of brigades along the no-attack line. Further north however, I may just pull it off if I can get a couple more mountain divisions up there before he can break across the small river defense line I'll have set by next turn.

The goal of this move is essentially trying to avoid the AP cost of building a fortified line opposite the no-attack line east of Lake Ladoga. Also by keeping my mountain divisions up north, I won't run the risk losing them to large panzer encirclements in the clear terrain down south before the winter offensive.

Tallinn received another infantry division this turn, bringing its defense up to 29.

South of Leningrad I've moved last turns reinforcement divisions into the rough terrain northeast of Pskov. These units still aren't up to fighting strength, but they may be able to prevent any deep breakthroughs this turn. The Northern Command units that were around Pskov were sent north to the Vyborg area.

The German panzers that were west of Smolensk drove northeast clearing most of the woods and captured Vitebsk. I re-occupied some vacated light forest hexes in the land bridge instead of pulling back as I think my opponent hoped I'd do. I'm determined to keep the rail lines running towards Smolensk in my hands as long as possible. I'll only pull back if a large encirclement begins to develop.

I was a bit surprised that it appears my opponent used his other panzers in the area to clear the marshes west of Mogilev. I had assumed they'd leave such bad terrain to the infantry, but perhaps the defense was simply too tough for the just arriving infantry tired out by its long march from the west.

In the south I continue my withdrawal to the east. I've got two good lines and in some places three, so it'll take a few turns of slicing and dicing by the German panzers before a large risk of a breakthrough materializes.

Near Chernigov you can see a lot of cavalry divisions arriving in the area. These will be used as independent units to defend in and around the Pripet Marshes. As winter approaches they'll be assigned to the strongest overall commands that'll then be used for my offensives.

Sorry for the change in picture quality of my screenshot this turn. I got a new PC this week and after several days of digging through boxes I still cannot locate my image editing software. So I am using PAINT.net a free program I'm not familiar with. Unfortunately the image I created with it was 8+ megs, so to reduce it I had to load the image into the default Paint program that comes with windows and save it from there.

The results were less than spectacular and in addition to pixels per inch, it reduced the size some as well. Even with all that done to it, it is still a hefty 1.90 megs which is much larger than the approx 1 meg images I created with my retail software. I'll keep looking for it and hopefully you won't have to put up with these poor quality images for long.

[Klydon]

Way too much spent on fort units, especially around Leningrad imo. You need to save those points to help with command changes, etc to stream line things coming in and also for creation of more sapper regiments later on. You also want to save some points to help disband stuff when it is prudent. (I like to disband motor cycle regiments for example to get that stuff back to the pools). You also want to save points to disband any fort units about to get hit by the German advance.

You don't need a carpet of fort units up by Leningrad. Every other hex or every third hex would have been fine. More importantly if you are going to try to make a stand in Leningrad is getting a pile of units up there, especially on the back door. The fort units to the west of Leningrad won't really come into play depending on how he comes at the city.

Fort units in of themselves do not have much in the way of construction value. They do allow level 3 and up forts, but it also takes enemy units being within a certain distance for that to happen as well I believe or level 2 is as high as the fortifications will go.

As far as the mountain units going up against the Finns, while I can see getting them out of harms way, if you want to use them for a winter offensive, they are not going to do very much good while up there and you would have to rail in new units to replace those up there and rail those out to where you would want them to be used for your winter offensive. Perhaps a better use for them is to garrision cities back from the front a bit to both work on a fortification for the city and also keep the Germans from potentially raiding your cities to destroy industry you have not moved yet. Move them back as needed. Alternatively, you can use them to dig the Moscow fortifications as well. There are several good divisions around the Leningrad area you can move up to the Finn border to keep them from going anyplace and new units brought in to dig around the Leningrad area.

Just my two cents from the cheap seats.

[Flaviusx]

You only need to build one fort in Leningrad, period, at or adjacent to Osinovets.

But the point is academic, the Axis here is doing rather poorly.

[Schmart]

Yeah, you're wasting time, APs (most importantly), and equipment with all those forts near Leningrad. You'd be better off plunking down a couple well place forts so that adjacent hexes can make it to level 3 and then load the area with Rifle Divs backed with HQs beefed up with Sapper Regts and/or RR Bdes.

Also, defending the Narva with anything more than a screen is also a waste, as it is far too easily outflanked by a drive out of Pskov.

[Jim D Burns]

Hi Klydon, welcome and thanks for the comments.

With the added help of all the city labor, I was hoping that the fort units could get to or near level 3 before he arrived in the area. Though you are probably right in that I overdid it.

The rule about enemy proximity is 25 hexes though, so he is close enough now to allow 3+ level forts to be dug.

I was hoping the mountain units could be trained up vs. the Fins before the winter offensive. I'm not sure when the Fins see the big unit withdrawals, but I figured I could get at least one good attack in per turn with all the mountain divisions once that had occurred. The goal not being to advance into Finland though, simply to train them up.