Summer 42: Fall Blau - GC41 Rosencrantus (A) vs Tyronec, jubjub (S)

[Rosencrantus]

The most important thing about advancing with the Axis is setting up a proper frontline that the Soviet's can't walkthrough with ZOC while resting the rest of the army to continue the advance.

If you really nail this down perfectly your play as Axis will be very good.

[ncc1701e]

Thanks, you have truly master CPP recovery, it seems. Enjoying your AAR.

[Hardradi]

Well done, look forward to seeing the winter.

You seem 'out of touch' with Soviet lines south of Moscow.

[Rosencrantus]

T24 - November 30, 1941

Uh oh...

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Soviet offensives have been launched against the troops facing Moscow and on the flanks of PG2. While not too serious right now, once December hits, the heavy snow will divide my unit's CV by 2 and with the potential to get the /2 combat rolls things look a bit shaky...

The only good thing that happened this turn was the fall of Sevastopol.

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That leaves us with the HWM VPs being pushed to 651 for 1941. A very nice score but I'm expecting to lose some cities during the oncoming Soviet offensive.

[Rosencrantus]

T25 - December 7th, 1941

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A massive Soviet concentration has been found south of Tula. With the area holding the flanks of PG2 and only held by infantry regiments, reinforcements are urgently sent to the area.

The line has been pulled back and some troops have been freed up near Moscow to send to the Tula region.

[Rosencrantus]

T26 - December 14th 1941

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Massive Soviet reserves have been detected near Naro-Fominsk and are furiously assaulting the positions of 9. Armee and have probed the flanks of PG3 holding Kalinin.

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The Soviets reclaim a hex near Leningrad and fortunately all their attacks over the frozen Volkhov fail.

Losses:

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With the increasing losses due to the snow and the losses from the Soviet attacks, the loss ratio has gotten much worse.

[Rosencrantus]

T27 - December 21, 1941

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The pressure now on the flanks of PG2 have caused a massive retreat from the approaches to Moscow to consolidate around Tula. The area surrounding Kaluga is lightly guarded and German reserves from the west are being rushed to this area to prevent any Soviet breakthrough.

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The Soviet's also almost retake Posadnikovo...

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Soviet troop concentrations have also been spotted around Belgorod...

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The Wehrmacht is taking quite the beating and German troops on the map have fallen well under 3m and are sitting around 2.81m. The Soviet's have pumped up their numbers to 4.17m.

[Rosencrantus]

T28 - December 28, 1941

Vyazma - Moscow Axis:

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The threat of the Soviet advance along the Vyazma-Moscow road has forced PG3 to withdraw from Kalinin to avoid encirclement. German forces are consolidating around the city of Vyazma. If the city is lost PG3 and 9. Armee will be cut off from supply and will be forced to cede Rzhev, which I simply will not allow.

Tula - Moscow Axis:

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German forces are once again retreating, now to Tula itself. The frontline is simply too long and German forces are extremely overstretched and getting constantly outflanked. Tula may fall soon...

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Soviet troops have been spotted near Ostashkov. Reinforcements cannot be spared for this area right now as they are urgently needed at other parts of the front. The units here have been given orders to stand fast and fight for each bit of ground as the terrain is excellent for conducting a fighting retreat.

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The rapid retreat can be attributed to the very poor supply situation and can also be characterized by majority of German units being extremely understrength. Of the 53 divisions of Army Group Centre, only 7 divisions are above 70% TOE and 2 of those 7 units are fresh arrivals from Western Europe. Majority of divisions are around 50% TOE and lower. The winter attrition has been costing my divisions very heavily. The Wehrmacht is experiencing a retreat not unlike La Grande Armee of 1812.

BTW I do not really recommend setting all units max TOE to 50%. I tried it out this game am not enjoying having to deal with increasing max TOE now that I need to refit more of my units and with freight shipped being so low.

[Rosencrantus]

Well done, look forward to seeing the winter.

You seem 'out of touch' with Soviet lines south of Moscow.

Yeah I halted my advance in the South once I reached the Orel - Kursk line as I didn't have enough troops to make a meaningful advance onto any further objectives; they'll just get picked off by Soviet mobile stacks. So I just bit the bullet and decided to start digging in that area.

[Jango32]

Max TOE 50% needs to be brought back up to 100% once you either hit the first week of October and heavy mud prevents all advance or you've reached a wall that can't be breached and you'll be in comfortable range to depots. It's primarily a tool during offensives where unit-depot distances will be significant.

In any event lowering Panzer & motorised infantry max TOE to 50% is not great even when you're in the middle of an offensive.

[jubjub]

T28 - December 28, 1941

Vyazma - Moscow Axis:

The threat of the Soviet advance along the Vyazma-Moscow road has forced PG3 to withdraw from Kalinin to avoid encirclement. German forces are consolidating around the city of Vyazma. If the city is lost PG3 and 9. Armee will be cut off from supply and will be forced to cede Rzhev, which I simply will not allow.

The rapid retreat can be attributed to the very poor supply situation and can also be characterized by majority of German units being extremely understrength. Of the 53 divisions of Army Group Centre, only 7 divisions are above 70% TOE and 2 of those 7 units are fresh arrivals from Western Europe. Majority of divisions are around 50% TOE and lower. The winter attrition has been costing my divisions very heavily. The Wehrmacht is experiencing a retreat not unlike La Grande Armee of 1812.

Smart pullback from Kalinin, took away 5/6 of the bonus points for taking the city. That one point is not worth getting divisions stuck and eventually surrounded.

Refitting troops in the blizzard is so difficult. Once an infantry division loses one battle, it takes at least 2 turns before it's combat effective again - assuming there's a super depot close by.

[EwaldvonKleist]

The German army seems severely burnt out, many low strength units. I wonder if the Soviets are overcommitted at Leningrad where you have strong defences. A link up with the city is unlikely. The units used there could be valuable North of Moscow or to strongly attack AGS in the flank to conquer a defence buffer for next summer.

[Rosencrantus]

T29 - January 4, 1942

The only good thing I can report is that now that it's January my units CV are divided by 1.5 instead of 2 and likewise for the rolls during combat.

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A major thing to note, Tula has been abandoned due to the Soviet threats on the cities flanks making it seemingly untenable as the rail line to the city has already been cutoff.

Panzer divisions are deployed in fort 2's or in cities to minimize the amount of damaged panzers.

[Stamb]

any updates?

[Rosencrantus]

Not right now I’m really busy in life right now and don’t have time to play the game. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about this game, just need some time to pass.

[Rosencrantus]

T30 - January 11, 1942

I think I have the time to continue the game for a few turns so I'll also update the AAR.

Vladai Region:

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The Soviets launch all out assaults across the heavily forested region and my infantry regiments can do nothing but delay and retreat. Some good news is that a single regiment with a RFSS regiment attached held a chokepoint between the small lakes, stopping the entire Soviet advance along that route. The bad news is that the Soviets have encircled an infantry regiment, though I believe I could have relieved it at that time. I was tempted to leave the regiment to get destroyed as I was worried that attempting to save it would just lead to more units getting ZOCed and destroyed.

Vyazma - Moscow Axis:

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The Soviet offensive along the Moscow - Vyazma road continues and their attacks completely blow away my defensive line. Problematic as the line was propped up by fresh divisions received from Western Europe and they have already suffered combat defeats. Retreat is not really much of an option anymore and 9th Armee has been ordered to stand fast and receive the Soviet hammer blows as they are only 5 hexes away from Vyazma. The Soviets cannot be allowed to cut off the railroads leading from the city.

Orel:

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The Soviet threat on PG2 and 4th Armee's flanks have made me fall even further back closer to Orel. The units here will also now have to receive all the Soviet assaults directly as any further retreat will mean potentially losing Orel - a crucial supply hub, and giving Jubjub those +6 bonus points. Something that I cannot allow to happen.

Belgorod:

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The troop concentration spotted near Belgorod have launched their attack South East of Kursk. Totenkopf SS Division launched counter-attacks to drive the Soviet intrusion back and units are holding their forts to force Jubjub to take them out or bypass them and then having to deal with ZOC movement penalties.

[Rosencrantus]

Losses & VPs:

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The winter attrition and Soviet attacks have been costing my army greatly. Irrecoverable losses are at the point where I am permanently losing the same amount of men as when I was launching my fiercest assaults on Moscow, Only now every single turn. The only respite is that of the 47.5k casualties the Wehrmacht took this turn, most of those are disabled losses and will return during the Spring recovery.

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Losing the city of Kalinin and Tula has costed me 11 VPs and 10 VPs respectively, leaving me at 629 VPs. 22 VPs off my HWM.

[Rosencrantus]

Quick post to summarize and show the movement of the frontline from T31-38 and a quick OOB update.

T32 - January 18, 1942

Soviets took a rest turn during T31 and on this turn continue their assault toward Vyazma and Orel.

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The main soviet assault against 9. Armee is launched east of Vyazma bypassing the roads leading from the city to Moscow. All but one Soviet attack fails along this direction.

T36 - February 22, 1942

The stiffening of resistance near Orel has made the Soviets redirect its efforts to Kursk and the ensuing fighting have lead to the creation of a salient between Orel and Kursk.

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German troops have been tasked with holding down the forts to make Soviet exploitation of the gap difficult and create the risk of encirclement if JubJub continues to push on into the gap. To keep the salient open, Wiking SS and Totenkopf SS and XI corps (pink-divisions) are holding off Soviet attacks while weakened panzer-divisions are desperately launching counter attacks on over-extended formations.

[Rosencrantus]

T37 - March 1, 1942

Battles directly for Rzhev have stopped a few turns ago but the Soviets are now focusing on the flanks of Vyazma-Rzhev.

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The Soviets pushing in the Vladai region continue to take ground this turn and have pushed troops through a gap they created a turn earlier. It was only this turn when I was able to start deploying troops from other sectors that have quieted down to redeploy to stem JubJub's offensive as can be seen by the gaps between my very weak divisions east of Toropets.

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The Soviets have also launched massive attacks with their guard rifle corps to retake the rail junction of Sukhinichi south-east of Vyazma.

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The Soviets have also failed to eliminate the division holding the apex of the salient near Kursk and suffered heavy losses. The 88th Infantry Division running out of ammunition and with weakened defenses is finally allowed to withdraw and the fighting over this area which began on turn 34 that tied down a substantial amount of Soviet units has come to an end.

[Rosencrantus]

T38 - March 8, 1942

Summary & Losses:

No more Soviet attacks have been launched since last turn. It seems safe to assume that the Soviet winter counter-offensive has come to an end.

Here are the losses suffered during the Soviet Winter Offensive:

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Since the beginning of the counter-offensive back on T24, the Wehrmacht has suffered 523,217 losses of which 153,138 are irrecoverable. This is more than 100% of the permanent losses taken throughout the first 24 turns of fighting in just 14 turns...

6,543 guns and 730 AFVs have also been lost since the retreat began from the approaches of Moscow, more than 120% and 25% of the losses back on T24 respectively.

The only respite I have is that the rest of the losses are from men disabled which means I should recover a good chunk of the losses come Spring. Regardless it must be said that the German army has taken quite the beating and will need to recover.

The Soviets have also taken some losses, though nowhere near on the same scale as during the Summer of 1941. The Red Army has lost 982,167 men since the start of their offensive of which 570,860 are irrecoverable.

They have lost 11,171 guns and 4,404 AFVs since T24.

Air losses will not be reported as the war in the air was practically non-existent throughout all the blizzards and snowfall.

This brings the loss ratio on the ground from 9.36:1 back on T24 to 5.04:1. Pretty bad for me.

Axis manpower reserves however are quite vast as so few replacements were brought up to the front during the extreme supply shortages suffered during the fighting.

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German manpower makes up roughly over half of the total Axis manpower pool.