Battle of the titans

[K62]

4/1/1942
With the turn of the year and the arrival of more supplies the Soviet forces seem to be fighting a bit better. Heavy attacks are again ordered across the front and several of them prove successful, causing the first Axis korps this winter to shatter. Stalino in the south and Narva in the north remain tough nuts to crack. But in the center Kursk is finally liberated.

Losses this turn
Axis 3242/0/1332/326
Soviet 1815/166/105/553

[K62]

Here are the front lines at the beginning of the year.

[DavidFaust]

11/1/41 Blizzard

Disaster this week as Germany's best entrenched and supplied divisions lacked the resolve to fight and suffered massive losses.
In order to preserve the German army, Germany is in full retreat on all fronts.

[DavidFaust]

18/1/42 Mud

The change of weather has little effect on Germany as we are only in contact with the Soviets in the north.

In a attempt to slow the Soviet advance in the north the Luftwaffe has been committed and has carpet bombed a advancing shock army with deadly effect. German troops were not able to counter attack the shock army due to the weather.

[K62]

1/18/1942
After the loss of Kursk the Germans have withdrawn in the central and southern sections of the front allowing the liberation of Stalino and Smolensk. Soviet attempts to pursue further have bogged down in the mud this week. A few attacks in the north have failed due to weather and enemy strength. It is predicted that the blizzard will return next week.

[DavidFaust]

8/02/42 Blizzard

Germany's has retreated into her winter defensive positions. This line has the highest level forts support by well supplied troops with a good number of OP's.

This line was breach by a single Soviet corps inflicting 30k loss to the Germans while taking 300 losses. Out of 900 squads in the German korps less than 15% were involved in the combat.

If our strongest defensive position with our best divisions who are in good supply have no fighting value what is the point of defending?

The last result has forced our hand and a full retreat is in progress.

[K62]

2/8/1942
Only minor air clashes this week. A general Axis retreat has allowed the liberation of Pskov, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel and Kharkov recently. Advanced spearheads are approaching Daugavpils and Kiev albeit low on supply. It looks like the Germans are saving their forces in preparation for another strong summer campaign. The Panzer divisions in particular have been refitting since November.

[DavidFaust]

22/2/42 Blizzard

The Soviets have launched a major offensive in the south this week. All German units held there ground but suffered high losses. Too avoid further losses and the possibility of units shattering, Germany has retreated her southern lines.

[K62]

2/22/1942
After a further German retreat Zaporozhe and Dnepropetrovsk are liberated by the Red Army this week. Attacks east of Kiev are repelled by Axis defenders. Small advances are made towards Riga and Minsk while the Daugavpils front is reorganizing.

Intense Luftwaffe fighter sweeps have decimated two strong Yak-1 groups in the extreme south recently. However the advancing troops need air cover so orders are issued to bring in new squadrons from other sections of the front.

[DavidFaust]

1/3/42 Snow.

German counter attacked the attacking Soviets east of Kiev and retreating 2 armies.

The bulk of the front lines are not in contact with each other.

[K62]

4/26/42
The front lines have been stationary through the muddy season despite constant Red Army attacks. It looks like good weather in May and Stavka expects the return of well rested Panzer divisions. Anything is possible this summer, plans are drawn for several contingencies.

Total losses
Axis: 30514/3001/8735/6962
Soviet: 77045/13302/22039/16192

[DavidFaust]

3/5/42 Clear

AGS has been tasked with offensive operations in the east. The muddy conditions have severely restricted panzer divisions movement and these key formations have failed to reach there jump off positions in time for the offensive.
Despite these setbacks the offensive went ahead with more modest objectives. Germany managed to encircle 2 Soviet corps shattering 1 and surrendering another. While all objectives were achieved the high bomber and tank losses are a major concern.

[DavidFaust]

10/5/42 Mud

No action

17/5/42 Clear

AGS is tasked with offensive operations this week.

Heavy air battles around Kiev this week. Undetected Soviet air formations have inflicted unexpected losses on German bombers and have repulsed German air recon on key Soviet formations. Air units of AGC had to be diverted to support AGS due to larger than expected Soviet air cover. Germany has expected the Soviets to bulk there army in key positions and to counter this tactic Germany has massed DO-217 bombers to bomb the defenders with deadly effect.

The planned offensive reached a critical point as the luftwaffe had failed to identify 1 Soviet korps and 1 hex in the panzers advance was unidentified. German intel indicated that the Soviets expected to advance in this area and have not dug in. Due to this intel German took a big risk and proceed with its planned offensive shattering 2 Soviet korps and surrendering another. Once again the high tank and aircraft losses is a major concern.

[K62]

5/17/42
The Axis have used the breaks in the weather and the well rested Panzer forces for a devastating offensive this month. Half a dozen armies, including one shock army, have been captured or shattered on a broad front, inflicting a loss of 13,000 squads in just a couple of weeks. The section of the Dnepr line in front of Poltava has been overrun by massive armored and air attacks. There are at least two Panzer korps in front of Kiev with ~1000 tanks each. Stavka orders the establishment of new defensive lines in the Kharkov and Gomel areas and the deployment of new shock armies around Poltava. An armored counter-attack is ordered in support of an isolated army's retreat and it succeeds in pushing back an infantry korps despite heavy tank losses. It looks like the rain will be back next week.

[DavidFaust]

14/6/42 Clear

In 2 short weeks of battle Germany has lost over 1000 panzers. There is no doubt that German panzers divisions can still pack a massive punch but is it worth the high panzer losses? The Luftwaffe has also suffered big losses and with growing pressure from the VVS it simply does not have the strength to provide the required support for the advancing panzers.

The Soviets have clearly outplayed the axis in this game and Germany has to postpone its 42 summer offensive.

[jmlima]

We, the readers, could do with a screenshot!

[K62]

Here are the front lines as of mid year 1942.

[EwaldvonKleist]

Good AAR both of you. Clearly K62 OP.

How would you rate the supply system in WIR? WEGO system looks appealing, WEGO operational level games are rare.

[K62]

How would you rate the supply system in WIR? WEGO system looks appealing, WEGO operational level games are rare.

The game actually ended in a draw in late '43. The Soviets advanced a few more hexes in the south, taking Kiev, but the Germans' massed Tigers brought the offensive to a halt. After I researched and produced the T-34/85 early, the Tigers couldn't advance either. So it became mostly a staring contest and we agreed to a draw.

The supply system in WiR is surprisingly realistic, considering how simple it is. The only problem is special supply, which has always required house rules (and is arguably still too strong).

I agree that it would be nice to have more WEGO operational level games. It's always a bit surreal to use your rear troops for breaching the front, in order for the forward troops to advance as far as possible. (In many games, if you do it right, the forward troops will advance as though the enemy was never there.) Historically it was the rear troops who exploited the breach.

[welk]

Sorry to be out of thread, but for those who like very very old WW2 wargames like WIR I played in (very ancient) times, Strategic command 1 European theater is already awailable on GOG Games and work fine with W7 to 10
(price is low : I discovered it last year and I bought it again)

https://www.gog.com/en/game/strategic_c ... an_theater

If Matrix had sold the game I would have bought it here but unfortunatly, it is not the case

I returned finally to this first very old opus, because it allows to play an entire campaign in few hours of game (that is no more the case for later opus, that are now a little bit "monster games" and they take lot of time to finish an entire campaign).

I have made some graph modifications that allow to play it with the look of the old "Third Reich PC" (the successor of the very very old "Clash or steel", that was more older : it may be founded here : https://www.myabandonware.com/game/cla ... 939-45-2ze).

With some subtiles calibrations in editor, this game allows lot of pleasure in short times. And the interest of the game is that you have always a synthetic view of situations, you have juste to do important economical and strategical choices without to enter in lot of details : the games are very quick and you see in some hours the result of your errors or good calculations.

SC2 and SC3 were very good games but they need lot of time to play with, strategic command needs no long time and gives exactly the same kind of gamepleasure, because this game is very synthetical.



EAST FRONT :