Game results - Tell us how your 2 player game ended

[dankhippos]

Dh (axis) vs thistle tea (soviet)
Axis resignation on turn 15 due to soviet isolating AGC.

[dankhippos]

dh (axis) vs albertn (soviet)
a .45 and .51 game
game ends on turn 25. Axis surrendering due to upcoming VP check.

[Elessar2]

The number of AARs this year sure has fallen off a lot-I know Loki , a very prolific AAR'er, left last fall (he insisted for good this time), but certainly there are others out there that can take up the slack...?

[Veterin]

The number of AARs this year sure has fallen off a lot-I know Loki , a very prolific AAR'er, left last fall (he insisted for good this time), but certainly there are others out there that can take up the slack...?

There are still plenty of AARs but they've seem to have moved off the forums and onto Discord.

Hopefully i'll have a rematch with Jasonbroomer some time and if so, we'll do an AAR on the forum. I need to redeem myself after he beat me in 42!

[Skritshell]

1941 Campaign
Axis Skritshell/Experienced 900 hrs WiTE1 600+ hrs WITE2
Soviet Deaniks /Experienced 750hrs WITE1 850+ hrs WITE2
1.02.52
HWM 744
11 Ocotober 1942/Deaniks resigned after Moscow encircled with no hope of breaking it out or not failing the Jan 1943 check
Losses Axis/Soviet
Men 1488k/7539k
AFV 5175/28980
Aircraft 8532/21494

Will link a zip of all of the games saves(it was PBEM) Axis PW:123 Soviet PW: 6813 (Note: we rolled back turn 68, as it was the turn of the encirclement and played on a few turns after, not pocketing Moscow, All saves after 69 are not relevant)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZJXt4y ... drive_link

[Veterin]

1941 Campaign - Axis win T52
Axis Veterin (experienced)
Soviet Bitburger (experienced)
1.02.52
HWM 724

Losses Axis/Soviet
Men 365k/6165k
AFV 910/14320
Aircraft 2126/23176

Heavy south opener and advanced far in south/centre but less so around Leningrad in 41. Short bursty Soviet winter offensive around Orel but beyond December was pretty quiet. 42 was broad advance across most of the front with a heavy focus on Caucusus capturing up to Grozny.

Soviet OOB was falling fairly fast when the weather cleared up. Defence was rather deep but not as strongly stacked resulting in few pockets but higher losses from herding + moto/panzer follow up.

[Veterin]

1941 Campaign (no early end) - Axis win T59
Axis Veterin (experienced)
Soviet Thistletea (experienced)
1.02.52
HWM 788

Losses Axis/Soviet
Men 365k/7097k
AFV 1348/18183
Aircraft 2479/19103

Heavy south opener in 41 but shifted more across the centre as the game went and advanced to the borders of Kaluga/Rhezv in 41 but fell short of Rostov. Conservative soviet play with preservation of OOB over holding land when there was a risk of being flanked. Limited winter soviet offensive with the main focus on the 42 offensive being Moscow. Other fronts thinned out as Moscow was reinforced so made inroads on Leningrad, Stalingrad and Tambor. Very little airwar from both sides in 41 with heavier combat in 42.

I probably couldn't take Moscow given the concentration of units there but the rest of the map was starting to collapse so we called it a game. Was a good game and Thistle was starting to build up good Guard numbers but OOB was falling and too much ground was taken.

[Veterin]

1941 Campaign - Axis win T22
Axis: JasonBroomer (experienced)
Soviet: Veterin (experienced)
1.02.52
VP = 581

Losses Axis/Soviet
Men 405k/3103k
AFV 1.7k/13.2k
Aircraft 3.6k/9.7k

Strong axis opener across all areas with a Rovno light opener in the south with most of SW front encircled by turn 2.

North: Axis advanced quickly through Baltics and slower towards Pskov. Slow attritional fighting towards Leningrad throughout 41 with winter lines ending up a few hexes short of Leningrad and Novgorod

Centre: The main direction of 41 axis offensive with PGZ 2 & 3 committed. Initial drive north west of Smolensk and continuing on to Rhzev. Vyzama was initially bypassed but one pgz shifted east to capture it and secure the rails.

South: Standard axis southern advance after T1 opener. I put up a lot of resistance/forts in Crimea but it was almost captured by T22. Stevsapol would have fallen this turn or the next. I overcommitted on Crimea at the expense of other areas so Stalino fell easily. Put up more of a fight around Kharkov but it also fell quickly to fresh Axis infantry. Last few turns of the match was axis grinding down of a soviet salient between Vyzama and Bryansk.

Game ended with Soviet surrender. At 4.2m OOB i wasn't in the worst position but it would have been difficult to claw back in 42

[Joel Billings]

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry to see the game end so soon as I was looking forward to see how it played out in 42. The results based on your description sounds fairly historical. German ground losses are a bit low, while the air losses are a bit high, although your not yet at the end of the year. Soviet OB would pop up soon with the end of November manpower event. Is your ending based on your prior experience going through the first winter and where you think things would be in 42?

[Veterin]

Thanks Joel.

Whilst reasonably in line with historical, I just don't have enough map or OOB to stand a chance in 42 based on my opinion. The 42 axis campaign is so much longer than 41 as it can start in March/April. +4m German OOB, ~5k AFVs and ~60k supply per turn (supply + replacements) makes Axis much stronger in 42.

I've had Axis games where i hadn't captured Vyzama/Stalino/Orel as well as taken much higher Axis losses and yet feel very dominant in 42 regardless.

I did plan a winter offensive in some sectors but I don't think it would have done enough to salvage 42. Winter offensives aren't as powerful against an experienced Axis player (as Jasonbroomer is!). The last 3 games I've played as axis there has hardly been a winter offensive (1 game with no winter offensives and the other 2 winter offensive ended before the end of December with heavy Soviet losses).

[K62]

Drama on the Danube versus server opponent, not sure about their experience level, v. 1.02.52. Soviets resigned on T7.

After a slow start to the Soviet offensive the bulk of 6th Army was extracted from isolation and the Hungarians held the mountain passes. The retreating 6th Army took Bucharest while the mobile forces of Army Group E took Sofia and eventually isolated all of Bulgaria by taking the ports. Army Group F made fast progress in reducing partisans with good support from the Luftwaffe, up to the point where Croat forces became sufficient to deal with the partisans, and almost all of AGF's German forces got shipped east starting on T5. With light mud everywhere I had hope of holding a line 2 hexes east of Bucharest and Ploesti for a while. Ploesti was about to be reconnected to rail in order to take advantage of oil production.

Losses Axis/Soviet
Men 164k/442k
AFV 256/412
Aircraft 674/1354

[Joel Billings]

I actually took a look at this game on the server a few days ago. I noticed the 6th army had not been pocketed, which is a disaster for the Soviet player. Based on what I saw, it looked like the Soviet player was inexperienced, at least with this scenario. I'd really like to see this game played by 2 experienced players using the house rules suggested. Someday if/when I retire, I'd really enjoy playing this scenario myself. I think it would be a tough game as German against an experienced Soviet player, but it would be fun to see what would happen. If the Soviet player moves fast, it could be quite a white knuckle ride for the Axis player.

[K62]

I actually took a look at this game on the server a few days ago. I noticed the 6th army had not been pocketed, which is a disaster for the Soviet player. Based on what I saw, it looked like the Soviet player was inexperienced, at least with this scenario. I'd really like to see this game played by 2 experienced players using the house rules suggested. Someday if/when I retire, I'd really enjoy playing this scenario myself. I think it would be a tough game as German against an experienced Soviet player, but it would be fun to see what would happen. If the Soviet player moves fast, it could be quite a white knuckle ride for the Axis player.

Not pocketing the 6th army definitely tilts the scenario in favor of the Axis player. I thought it was still interesting because the pinned AAR might give an impression that the scenario leans too heavily towards the Soviet side. It's actually an exhilarating scenario with significant challenges and various strategies available to both sides.The house rules add depth, and the enhancements in the second version of the scenario, like the temporary impassable hexes on the Bulgarian border, are commendable.

I anticipate that in a match between veteran players, the Germans might attempt to establish a defensive line at the Iron Gate bottleneck. This could set the stage for a crucial confrontation around T4 or T5 — unless the Soviets opt for a daring flanking move instead.

Should you ever feel the itch to play this scenario before your retirement, I'd be eager to join! It would be a unique experience to learn directly from your perspective.

[Zemke]

I have finished 5 games Human vs Human in the past six months. This is all from memory, so forgive me for the lack of details. I did not list my opponent in 4 of the games, as I do not have his permission to do so, but it is the same person.

Game 1 Zemke Won as Germans went to Jan 1945 and German Major with victory check. Soviets failed to meet historical victory conditions by that time.
Game 2 Zemke lost as Germans Ended in Dec 1941 against MindMessing with a Soviet victory. I just could not destroy enough units.
Game 3 Zemke lost as Germans in late Dec 1941 as the opponent broke winter defense lines in several places, and I had no real reserves to fix it.
Game 4 Zemke won as the Soviets in Feb/Mar 1942. German Army Group South was cut off from all rail resupply.
Game 5 Zemke won as the Soviets in late Mar 1942. German Army Group South was cut off from rail resupply along with breakthroughs in the center part of the front near Smolensk.

In none of these games did the Germans get close to historical limits of advance. The Germans lost 4 of 5 games.
I don't know what can be done about this, but I think something should be done to discourage a Sir Robin withdrawal and force more historical play.

[RedJohn]

Won about 7 more soviet games since last time. All axis surrender, usually during blizzard. Most recent one was Zemke, which while not technically over yet will be over in 7 turns as the HWM auto-loss was not reached.

[AlbertN]

1941 Campaign - Soviet Win T 27
Axis: AlbertN (experienced)
Soviet: Deaniks (experienced)
1.03.07 plus a Mod
VP = Non relevant
TB open

Mod Effects: It gave +5 NM to both sides (to ideally shrink 'Grinding'); gave Romanians and Italians 55 NM and Hungarians 60. Other stuff that would have kicked in later - in good faith the game would have got there (Such as a lesser drop of German NM over time, vs Vanilla. Alpini revised OOB and other stuff. Totally non relevant as they have not came into play). Soviet Cavalries are also Brigades instead of Divisions, to make them less nimble when doing meme-style hex flipping behind the enemy lines (Alas they still sneak through divisional ZoC of Germans to cause the German divisions to rout). The VVS was put on Rest at the start - which has a double effect. First it avoids the 'lottery' of what gets intercepted and what does not; and also prevents the Russians to fly their bombers at the border battles and get shot down by the LW (which saves Soviet good pilots - thus it is a Soviet buff).

GerGameover.png (3.5 MiB) Viewed 425 times

When 'Soviet Winter' hit the Russian counteroffensive hammered - in a way well beyond expectation.

There was no difference, be it a worn and low supply German division that finished the 'Tula Offensive' of Novembre, or a 99% non damaged ToE, full morale and all, fresh from France division in a lvl 3 fort, led by a leader like Harpe in an Assault HQ (some other unit dug the fort to lvl 3 previously) - or a stack of 3 70ish ToE division in 40-60% supply, the Soviets breezed through it.

They suffered losses? Yes. But 1 defeat brings the German fresh division from France to have 3 CV, because between defeat, dislodged from fort, winter fatigue, bam - fatigue is 75+ and now there are no forts nor ways to recover. Bear in mind, that's at 1-2 hexes from own depots. Supposedly a 'decently' supplied spot.
In 2 turns 3 Germans armies got their combat capability smoked, divisions encircled or about to, and the ones that move of 8 can barely limp 2 hexes away in admin movement while Soviets at fully supply and logistic 4 will simply reach them and keep shanking them.
Also German divisions 'retreating' diligently Eastward does not help rescue attempts. But I assume that's the 'herding' mechanic there too made in opposite direction.

I noticed another change - not due to the mod; but German units all start with 85-90% of ther trucks, some a bit less. And it turned out since T2 already now their movement is 10-12 MP instead of the 13-15 they had before. Motorized units move even less.
I've been absent a while from the game and I am not sure to what impute this change. By the end of summer German infantries were moving already of 9-10 MP, barely the needed to actually hug the enemy and manage a deliberate attack, so long Soviets retreated.

The Air War has proved pretty much redundant OR to be house ruled out, the Luftwaffe cannot really afford bombers forward. I tried Stukas once and they were doing little to no damage and were getting shot in throves by Soviet AA, they got withdrawn after 1 turn of use and being shredded by insane amount.
On the other hand the Soviet VVS simply bombed into oblivion for 4 turns the German spearheads. First turn it happened, my blame, I've not even had air umbrella. I bring fighter on, air supply them, they barely intercept 1 bombing out of 30+ bombing runs. Turn 3 I kind of what if coming next bombing, setup Air Superiority and keep my armoured unit in cover, but AS has like range 6 from the airbase to cover multiple units. The AS serves nothing, panzers get bombed again with barely 2 interceptions out of 30+ missions. -- That was always a 'pointe' unit. Anyhow Deaniks is an agreeable player and we house ruled out Ground Attack - Unit.