German side of a mirror match

[CapAndGown]

Now that I have turn 7 in hand, I can post pictures of the events of turn 6, which proved quite eventful.

First up is the pocket south of Smolensk/west of Bryansk.

[CapAndGown]

In the north we are making very slow progress. The soviets have greatly reinforced this sector, but at the expense of other fronts, as is apparent from the situation in the center. Hopefully, we will be able to pocket a good number of soviet rifle divisions this turn.

[CapAndGown]

In the south the siege of Odessa begins. We also captured a bridgehead over the Dnepr. Not a great place for a bridgehead, but a bridgehead nonetheless. I was considering just letting the panzers rest this turn since I thought I would keep them in reserve until the infantry was able to create a bridgehead somewhere, perhaps between Kiev and Cherkassky. But then recon revealed a small opening in the south. A bridgehead is a bridgehead and so I seized the chance.

[CapAndGown]

On turn 7 I was only able to isolate 3 rifle divisions out of a possible 5-6. I tried to knock one or two divisions aside, hoping they would retreat, but they routed instead. On turn 8, however, I was able to form two pockets, one of 6 rifle divisions east of Pskov, the other with three rifle divisions near the Narva. Progress in this sector, however, remains slow.

[CapAndGown]

Turns 7 & 8 were simply consolidation of my positions around Smolensk/Bryansk.

[CapAndGown]

In the south we expanded our bridgehead over the Dnepr while also attempting to pocket some soviets along the Ingulets. The pocketing did not work so well. Maybe next turn.

[eskuche]

Some pretty nice pockets here. Indeed, if you compare with my game against Sillyflower the soviet force concentration is evident, and that is with you taking the Pskov backdoor. I'm not sure where you are running your rail, but the Bryansk armies may be stuck there much longer than you would prefer. Perhaps that is why he left it open?

Another thing is that I am loathe to spend AP optimizing (relatively, IMHO) minor areas such as Rumanian SUs. The relief on AGS command limit is not great. Instead, changing the leader to someone like Jodl with high morale (which is never affected by leader rating penalties) would serve, without reduction, all 150 CP of units under AGS. Not sure if you've used HQBUs either. My personal preference is cheap leader autopromotions and effective unit reassignment, but it seems like you're getting results, so all is fine!

You may have too much at Odessa, which will take likely 2+ turns, 2+ corps, and that's with all of your heavy artillery which would be better served at Leningrad. I prefer to screen Odessa if it's being held at all. The two Rumanian brigades will suffice. If STAVKA gets pushy there, any reinforcements can quash the outbreak and make those units surrender.

[CapAndGown]

The pocket of 6 divisions east of Pskov was cleaned up, while the pocketing of the 3 divisions near the Narva was completed. They will be dealt with next turn. Two more divisions were also pocketed southwest of the Luga.

[CapAndGown]

The Soviet evacuated Odessa. A motorized division, tank division and a fortified region were defending there. The tank division took severe casualties when the ships ferrying it out were intercepted by the Luftwaffe.

A bridgehead over the Dnepr was achieved at Kremenchug.

Four divisions were pocketed along the Ingulets. An additional division would have been in the pocket, but it shattered when I tried to push it aside.

[CapAndGown]

On turn 8 I did two Hq buildups for the two panzer corps in 2 PzA. The results were extremely disappointing: the divisions involved only had 30-32 movement points. Rather than launch an attack, therefore, I decided we would wait on more gas to arrive.

My plan was to advance into the Tula/Orel/Kursk region and capture the resource centers there and threaten Voronezh with its IL-2 factories. The Soviets are concentrated in front of Leningrad, Moscow and Dnepropetrovsk/Zaparozhe with only a thin line holding the Desna. They are apparently relying on my logistical constraints to defend this territory. They need to be taught to fear a sudden thrust on any and every sector of the front. Not only do I hope to capture major population centers and resource producing centers, I am hoping this demonstration of the consequences of leaving large sections of the front relatively undefended will thin out the forces facing us, particularly in front of Moscow. The Orel/Tula area, in particular, threatens the southern approaches to Moscow.

In preparing this offensive, I sent the panzers south to the woods around the Snov and Sudost rivers where, hopefully, they would be harder to spot. I also split up two infantry divisions into their component regiments and sent then into woods around the headwaters of the Desna. The hope was they could pose as a larger force: hopefully, they would be spotted, but their actual size would be concealed. I also took two motorized brigades and sent them to the front in clear terrain so they would be easy to spot. They would hopefully make a lot of noise as if they were the lead elements of a full blown Panzer Army. I then flew air re-supply missions to all those infantry regiments hiding in the woods around the Desna to give the impression the Kaluga axis would be my main line of advance. At the same time I limited myself to one fuel drop for the panzers in the south. I did not wish to draw attention to this area or make it look like it was as large a formation as it was.

I have no idea if all these deception measures worked, but we did achieve a major penetration/encirclement on turn 10. (more on that in the next post.)

[redrum68]

How far (hexes/MP) were the units from the railhead that you used the HQBU on? And did you make sure not to move those units the turn you used the HQBU?

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: redrum68

How far (hexes/MP) were the units from the railhead that you used the HQBU on? And did you make sure not to move those units the turn you used the HQBU?

Not sure about the units themselves, but the HQs were (if I recall) right at the 25 MP limit. That would place the units even further away. And yes, I moved a number of them one hex back from the front line so they would not be in contact with enemy forces.

[redrum68]

My guess is you were a bit too far away to get good fuel from HQBU. You want the HQ/units to be more around 15-20 hexes away if they are more than that then the penalties really hurt.

[CapAndGown]

From the beginning of the campaign I have been envisioning a Kiev style pocket. That is why I had an FBD cutting across the top of the marshes heading towards Gomel: i.e. to support a move south from AGC. (A second rail line though Belorossia also provides some redundancy in case of partisan attacks.)

This turn that dream was almost realized. (It will be more fully realized next turn.) Only two AT bridages were defending the crossings of the lower Desna at Chernigov. Elements of both 4 and 6 Armies exploited this weakness to secure a bridgehead over the lower Desna, opening a way into the northwestern Ukraine. At that point, one panzer corps of 2 PzA was ordered to exploit through the lower Desna breach and the other panzer corps (with the help of a panzer corps from 3 PzA) crossed the upper Desna and headed south to Sumy and then southwest towards Cherkassky. Simultaneously, one corps from 6 Army was ordered to create a bridgehead north of Cherkassky and link up with 2 PzA. The attempt to cross the Dnepr failed, however, due to the commitment of a reserve tank division. In light of that 2 PzA settled for cutting the rail line to Kiev and then pulling back to try to secure the pocket along the Desna.

The pocket looked fairly secure, requiring multiple zoc to zoc move through enemy controlled hexes to break it, something I did not think the Soviets had in them. I was wrong, as will be seen in the next post.

In in the process of this penetration I did overrun a Mig heavy fighter base that likely had multiple damaged airframes. All told, the Soviets lost 561 airframes this turn. I also seem to have overrun Southwest Front HQ based on the large amount of supplies and fuel we captured.

Elsewhere this turn the slogging remained slow around Leningrad and we consolidated our positions around Krivoi Rog.

Stay tuned for the exciting developments on turn 11!

[CapAndGown]

As I mentioned in my last post, the Soviets were able break my pockets through a combination of zoc to zoc moves and a successful hasty attack on a cavalry regiment. They in turn pocketed elements of 2 and 3 Panzer Armies. They were not, however aggressive enough in pulling back from Kiev, instead wasting movement points converting German controlled hexes, movement points that could have been used to runaway! I did HQBU's for 3 panzer corps from 1 PzA last turn and those units have 50 movement points ready to use to create a very large pocket. Plus, one corps from 3 PzA is relatively well provisioned so as to mount not only a relief effort, but even further pocketing.

What's up with converting rail hexes inside a pocket? [X(][8|]

[Jsto0033]

It's a buck. I have see it some times now, but you can just return them to HQ. No big deal [8D]
I have reported it to Tech Support for some time ago.

[eskuche]

I will say that I've been quite interested in HQBU's in 1.12, having used exactly two and getting only ~20-25 MP near Poltava (with no movement), although some people swear by them. I ran a test last night, and it seems that the difference may be the rail modifier because a unit at 25 hexes from the starting border (100% rail modifier) gets the full 50 MP, whereas what you and I have seen further east has much lower.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: eskuche

I will say that I've been quite interested in HQBU's in 1.12, having used exactly two and getting only ~20-25 MP near Poltava (with no movement), although some people swear by them. I ran a test last night, and it seems that the difference may be the rail modifier because a unit at 25 hexes from the starting border (100% rail modifier) gets the full 50 MP, whereas what you and I have seen further east has much lower.

Well, my panzers around Krivoi Rog have 50 MP. So it is not a matter of how far east they are. It may have something to do with how much gas the panzers had to start with as well as HQ distance to the rail head.

[CapAndGown]

With the help of one panzer corps from 1 PzA plus Gross Deutschland we have achievee our Kiev pocket. This one looks mostly secure. Three Soviet relieving divisions (tank, motorized, rifle) found themselves pocketed after helping pocket our forces.

More on other theaters later.

[Seminole]

Excellent move securing the Kiev pocket.
Looks like close to 30 map counters in there. That will hurt.

For the benefit of observers, can you add details next time you HQBU?
We’re curious about distance of HQ to railhead, and dumps before and after.
It’s been said that trucks are no longer a constraint, so I’d be curious the costs associated there, and how it is affecting your overall pool.