Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34

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Isokron
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Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34

Post by Isokron »

Turn 1:

Well imagine some mood setting text here I suppose. Anyway I will have to begin with apologizing that there will be no map for this turn since I had forgotten to turn on the auto screenshot functionality. But I did a fairly standard first turn. Moved down the III and XIV corpses toward Voroshilovgrad instead of attacking head on and killed of or encircled most of the 12A frontline troops there. In the north I did the same opening as in my last AAR encircling the front line of 40A and 21A while shattering most of 28A front.

On the command front I had all armies play the personnel card on their strongest subordinate corps which they will continue doing for a long time. On the leader side I got nothing really exciting in the pool so I put Raus in charge of XXXX corps and swapped out Hoth from 4PzA and put him in charge of LVII corps where his 40% combat modifier can do the most good (this corp start out larger than they can usually be?).
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 2: Mud

Oliver choose to take a quite offensive stance on his turn, counter attacking in some places and freeing some previously pocketed units. This make the fact that I get mud this turn even more irritating since I cant really try to punish him for the offensive stance. In the north I barely manages to reseal the big pocket. He will probably open it again next turn and maybe maul some of my regiments in the process. However with good weather next turn I should be able to reseal it again and then his troops will be out of supplies lowering their combat value to 1/5 or so for the turn after preventing further openings from the inside at least.

The center is mostly passive while in front of Voroshilovgrad I try to move forward as fast as possible. With the help of some speed cards I manage to encircle another division and get through the thinnest part of the open land between the hills. Hopefully I will be able to get through the rest of the bottleneck in the following turns before he can assemble an effective resistance.

I continue to advance in front of Rostov killing of some sacrificial units he had left behind. The battle for Sevastopol goes fairly well with me taking one hex per turn while railing away units as fast as possible. They will go to the Rostov area where I hope I will be able to take the westernmost urban hex before he can harden the front, which will allow me to surround it from the south with passable good supply.



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Bonners
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Bonners »

Nothing much to say, apart from the fact that I am reading this with great interest. Having been totally trashed by both of you in recent games I'm fascinating to see how this goes and whether Olivier manages to slow down your early offensive. Is that all of 1st Panzer army going straight for Voroshilovgrad? I also cant wait to see what strategy Olivier uses for 5ta, whether he is going to be aggressive on the west side of the Don.
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 3:

A fairly peaceful turn (only caused about 15k casualties) where I mostly move forward. It seems like Oliver is aiming for a carpet defence with a single or two regiments per hex and defence in depth. This will slow me down and prevent any larger encirclements from happening but will allow me to weaken his forces piecemeal without taking to much losses in return.

In the north it seems like he is bringing up the 5TA to the front in this way which have created a really deep carpet. But I guess I will have to be careful here since the high speed of the tanks will allow him to ensamble them into a heavy counterattack force against any exposed units I have here.

His pocketed units got a AP penalty according to Oliver so they dont make any attempt to breakout from the pocket. Since they should have run out of supply next turn I just ignore them this turn and will start mopping up next when the casualties will be lower.

The central front remains quite static since I have stripped it of most offensive power. Around Voroshilovgrad he briefly open the pocket but I close it again and creates some new ones while also mauling two artillery units which should weaken future attacks from him. My panzer units have finally caught up with the front so next turn might see me making a big breakout here although he has brought in a tank corps which might force me to be more careful.

At rostow I only move stuff up to the front although I manage to take the swamp to the west of the city without a fight using a forced march. With some luck he wont have any unit in range to defend Azov for next turn.

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Keunert
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Keunert »

i currently play Olivier as soviet player. great to see this and to be able to compare. in our game we got sunny weather until July 16th... and here he has mud already on turn two. lucky guy. how is the airway? did the soviet make some sorties or interceptions?
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

No he has kept his airforce away after turn 1.
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 4:

Mud again, perhaps I should start saving for navy reinforcements in case the whole map floods. In the north the soviets drives back most parts of a panzer division but without causing to heavy casualties. I continue slowly driving him back while causing casualties and trying to keep a solid front to prevent counterattacks.

His pocketed units should be out of supply so I start attacking and eliminates most of them. Driving up the total casualties after this turn to about 140k russians for 18k axis troops.

The center of the map is quite peaceful as usual while the mud prevents me from doing much around voroshilovgrad. I do however manage to take the key hill hex on the railroad so now its clear terrain all the way to Stalingrad.

In front of Rostov I drives back all his forces in front of the city hopefully leaving them too unready to properly defend the western urban square next turn although my artillery isn't quite in position.



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Keunert
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Keunert »

what do you think, is it possible to cut off Rostow with a bombing campaign from getting reinforcments from the Caucasus? in my game Olivier reached Rostow real fast and i was only holding to it by chance. if he destroyed some bridges he might been able to overrun it on turn 4. that would be a real desaster in the south.
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LiquidSky
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by LiquidSky »

I took Rostov quickly by crossing the river directly east of the city before the Russians could set up. With 2 SS divisions on the other side of the Don, he was compelled to retreat from the city, or risk being cut off and destroyed.

The city itself can be hard to take quickly, because they can get an awful lot of entrenchment value.
“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

ORIGINAL: Keunert

what do you think, is it possible to cut off Rostow with a bombing campaign from getting reinforcments from the Caucasus? in my game Olivier reached Rostow real fast and i was only holding to it by chance. if he destroyed some bridges he might been able to overrun it on turn 4. that would be a real desaster in the south.

Seems to be too many railroads south of Rostov to effectivly cut off there as far as I can tell.
Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 5:

Oliver withdraws two hexes in front of Voronezh so not much fighting there. Further south he uses tanks as destroyer brigades as a screen which I pushes back as fast as possible.

Around Voroshilovgrad I destroy the previously encircled units and encircle about 3 divisions more although some of them will likely get out. I also get into position to threaten to surround Voroshilovgrad itself next turn.

At Rostov Olivers decision from last turn to fight in front of the city proves costly as I am able to push the units disorganised from retreat last turn out of the western urban hex.

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Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 6:

The soviets do a counter attack and then stands fast in front of Voronezh and I drive them back with some losses. To the south in front of Svoboda I continue to destroy various units he have left as blockers but no serious battles.

In the middle of the map he seems to have started a furious retreat and my units have problems keeping up.

After a hard battle I manage to encircle Voroshilovgrad with about 20k defenders. He will probably try to open the pocket but I think it will hold. In the mountains to the south he does several counterattacks and although they fail they cause some losses and low readiness. This combined with a new tank corps coming up behind his front forces me to just drive back his attackers without advancing.

At Rostow I start driving south of the don to the west of the city while destroying or encircling his defense to the north of it.

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Isokron
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Isokron »

Turn 7:

The germans do a somewhat surprise attack at the easter urban hex of Rostow (only a brigade and an artillery unit defending). After this Oliver sees no way to continue holding Rostow and since that was his objective and would put him at zero prestige he chooses to surrender the game now instead of waiting a few turns.

The final loss numbers where something like 230k soviets for 30k axis.

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olivier34
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by olivier34 »

I have surrender...Congratulations to Isokron.
My main order was to hold Rostov until the 22th of July. Obviously I have played so badly in this sector that the city is lost...losing Rostov will put my prestige points down to zero and conduct to my logical dismissal [8|].
I had a clear idea of what Isokron was doing (I have played the axis side a lot) but forgot that the soviet player has to first do everything to hold Rostov to get this precious 16 prestige points.
My firt huge mistake was to forget to guard this marsh hex north of Azov the very first turn !(never play this game when tired or not focus [:'(], you should have seen my head when I opened my turn to realise that a german infantry haf taken this position without a fight! [:@]), my second one, not to put enough divisions well entrench in the urban hexes (What did all my "soviet" opponents, Keunert being the last one)...I have manage to give Isokron the possibility to take a decisive advantage in this area...
About the rest of the front:
I wanted to counter attack as much as possible. I tried to put my tank corps and artillery in good positions for that. Three times I have been abble to conduct counter attacks with a good artillery support but only once the panzer division in front of had to retreat and I am not sure that the losses inflected were very high. Playing the speed card was interesting, giving the oportunity to the tank corps to retreat one or two hexes after the attack.
I had decided to sacrifice units, a way to slow down the german advance specially the infantry.
The center that was not under real attacks had to retreat but not too fast. I had began to rail divisions in the rear for the future. half of the 9th army was around Millerowo for instance.
I guess I will have to try again to play the soviet side. I have learn the hard way that Rostov can't be neglected [8|]


olivier34
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by olivier34 »

About the weather : playing the axis vs Keunert and having a perfect weather until the 16th of July and in the same time playing the soviet here and get rain on turn 2 and 4 was real cool [8D]
Keunert is playing a soviet strategy very different from what I tried. it will be interesting to compare.
Hugolin
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Hugolin »

Pleasant read. About that marsh hex: interesting how in such games a seemingly small tactical detail (e.g. "only one hex") have far reaching effect. One can hit a wall of entrenched units one turn, and find a huge opening the other.

All in all fun read. Looking forward myself to try my hand at PBEM, but so far I've only played a few turns of the CB scenario, so I need to harden up a bit before going against a human brain.
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Keunert
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by Keunert »

that was quite a relief to read. i have to check how Oliviers defence did compared to mine in losses/kills. i think the difference is not that big. even though i avoided big encirclements the carpet style defence works exactly like Isokron predicted: lots of small victories for the axis with high losses to the soviets. thank you for the aar
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JJKettunen
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by JJKettunen »

Horrible to see the Germans attacking everywhere at once. That's what you get if a wargame fails to model supply and logistics properly.
Jyri Kettunen

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olivier34
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RE: Case blue, Isokron(german) vs Oliver34, no Oliver

Post by olivier34 »

I think that in the first weeks of this scenario the german should be allowed to attack everywhere at once (his oil reserve are at full) but he should then begin to suffer some oli shortage. In all my games I haven't see the german side suffer from lake of oil (a major issue) but I have not yet tested the new "more constrained oil" variant that may be the answer to our problem.
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