Gotterdammerung im Osten AAR....Soviet POV

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Posting my first AAR. I would appreciate any and all comments. Planning on posting every 5 turns or so and will try to add some screenshots later on.

Soviet Turn 1: Soviet forces launch an offensive against Finnish forces on the Karelian Peninsula. Some progress is made along the southern edge of the peninsula as Terijoki falls in an enveloping move that isolates one Finnish Unit along the border. We have created a small breach in the Finnish line and hope to exploit it next turn. Our plan is to drive hard against the Finns so as to knock them out of the war as soon as possible and free up the forces needed to defeat them for the final drive on Germany.

Soviet Turn 2: Finns retreat blowing bridges as they go. Soviet forces advance and destroy one encircled unit southwest of Terijoki and encircle another northwest of there but fail to destroy it with their attacks. One other Finnish unit is trapped with its back to the river near Lake Ladoga. Soviet forces also manage to bridge the central river and establish a beachhead on the far bank. Several other gains were made on the peninsula as well. Another attack was developed against the Finns further east. The Svir River was breached at Lodeinoye Pole and Soviet forces advanced within a short march of Aunus. The Svir was also breached just northwest of Podporo’ze and troops advanced to contact with Finnish forces. Soviet airmen attacked the Finnish Air Force at their base to try and stop their attacks at the source.

Soviet Turn 3: Soviet advance continues on the Karelian Peninsula and several pocketed Finnish units are destroyed. Soviet forces take Aunus and continue to advance in eastern Finland.

Soviet Turn 4: On the Finnish front the only gains were recorded by unopposed units moving throughout Finland. We anticipate picking up quite a few VP hexes as the Finns concentrate on defending the approaches to Helsinki. Soviet forces launched Operation Bagration with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, hoping that the massed attacks coupled with the shock bonus would produce several breakthroughs along the line. Some gains were made but at the cost of high casualties. Among the towns recaptured were Gorki, Rogachev, and Zhlobin. We also threaten Pinsk, with forces on the outskirts of town posed to take it. Breaches were made in several places but due to the severe fighting no units were able to exploit it.

Soviet Turn 5: All is pretty well quiet on the Karelian front as Soviet forces wait for supplies and replacements to catch up. Soviet forces did advance and take Imatra in an effort to stretch Finnish forces to the limit. On the east side of Lake Ladoga Soviet forces liberated Petrozadosk against no opposition. Mop up operations continue against several Finnish units pocketed along the Svir. Operation Bagration continues to gain momentum as the Fascist forces withdraw in a vain effort to save them. Most of the screen left by the Axis forces were pocketed and destroyed. From north to south, Soviet forces are approaching Opochoka and have captured Rustoshka and Idritsa and are nearing Polotsk. Vitebsk is on the verge of being surrounded as forces exploit breakthroughs north and south of that city. 3rd Tank Army and 29th Tank Army are within a few kilometers of completing the encirclement of Orsha. The fall of Vitebsk and Orsha will greatly enhance our logistical efforts in supplying the Army as it races eastward. The Soviet 3rd and 33rd Armies are also moving to complete the encirclement of Mogilev. The Germans will be forced to counterattack, withdraw, or face the encirclement of the forces there. Soviet forces have also forced a breakthrough that is within 20 kilometers of taking Bobruisk by storm and forcing the Berezina before the Germans can set up defenses behind it. If the Germans prevent this then forces attacking northward have already flanked this line and should force the Germans to retreat from it.

[Xandamere]

Here is the Axis assessment of events up to and including turn 5:

Initially I began to pull all of the Finnish forces back from the eastern area (the line along the Svir river and the Karhumaki area) towards Vilpuuri. The defensive terrain is excellent here, with a super river northeast of Vilpuuri, lakes to divide the Soviet attack, and prebuilt fortifications. I figure if I concentrate Finnish strength here I can hold off the Russians for quite some time, especially with the 2 German infantry divisions I've sent in for backup. In this narrow area, Mark cannot fully exploit his numerical superiority without overstacking his units and taking very heavy losses.

The first few turns see the Finns holding up well, although the bulk of Russian strength has yet to be brought against them. They hit back against encroaching Soviet units as the opportunity presents itself, especially when the Russians have to advance and sit upon a river hex. A few sorties by the Finnish Air Force backed by 1 bomber unit of the Luftwaffe make short work of the bulk of the Soviet Navy. The Finnish line has been established, and we'll see if Mark can break it.

On the German front, the first thing to notice about this scenario is that German infantry no longer has a qualitative advantage over the Soviets. In fact, the only areas where I can count on quality to help me out is the severely outnumbered Luftwaffe and my precious few Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions. These range all the way up to 95% quality, making them very powerful forces indeed, so I need to husband them carefully for when they're needed. As of turn 5, none of my mobile divisions have yet seen action, I see no point in sacrificing these extremely valuable formations just to slow an unstoppable juggernaut.

Operation Bagration drives huge holes into my front lines. I know I can't hold that long of a front with the meager forces at my disposal, so I began to pull back everything I could, leaving a screen of small units (security regiments and engineers mainly) in the parts of fortified line that I still held to slow Mark down. He made short work of these, blasting through most of them on turn 5. They did their job, however, and the bulk of my forces in the center have pulled back safely. As Mark notes, there are cut off German forces in Orsha, Vitebsk, and Mogilev. I don't particularly want to sacrifice my divisions to slow his advance at this early stage, but I need to do something to prevent him from running the rest of my army down in the open, and these cities (which each have fortified areas surrounding them and a supply point in the city itself) seem a good place to leave some troops to help stall the Russian advance.

Mark seems to have used a lot of interdicition on turn 5, which is a very wise move considering that practically all of Army Group Centre is running west at full speed. To help alleviate this threat, I brought in the Luftwaffe's fighter units and concentrated them on the central front to provide cover for my retreat. This led to a series of air battles throughout the turn, resulting in me losing 89 aircraft and Mark losing over 400. A very favorable loss ratio, but the Luftwaffe cannot take this kind of punishment for long (I only have a total of roughly 1,000 ME-109's and FW-190's, some of which are with my allied air forces). I don't know how many aircraft Mark is fielding, but I hope this punishment has hurt some of his bomber formations and will reduce interdiction over the next few turns.

The biggest threat to me right now is the forces storming north out of the Pripet Marshes that are threatening to cut off the retreating Army Group Centre and trap me between his forces advancing from the east. I'm throwing everything I can spare into the line here to attempt to hold Mark off until my troops can make good their escape, but I just don't have much in the way of reserves at this point in the scenario.

[Xandamere]

Oh, another quick update...as of turn 5, the loss penalty stands at 85 for the Russians and 64 for the Axis.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Well here is my description of how I saw things in turns 6-10. Forget to get some screen shots but will try to go back tonight and pick a few to post later.

Soviet Turn 6: It is obvious that our plans for Finland will have to be put on hold until the rail lines are repaired and our logistical tail can catch up. Tried one attack and it failed miserably so we will put our offensive on the Karelian Peninsula on standby. East of Lake Ladoga we are trying to mop up the two pocketed units but this is proving difficult. Most advances are on hold here also as we wait for more supply. Operation Bagration continues on against weak German opposition in all but the bypassed towns and against the drive to outflank the Berezina. Tough work ahead as we surround the cities of Orsha, Mogilev, and Vitebsk. I would like to bypass these altogether but they are necessary for my supply lines. We will work around them as much as possible in an all out drive to get to the Berezina before the Germans have time to dig in too deep. We have advanced to within 40 km of Rezekne and only 20 km from Pytalovo. Our troops have taken Polotsk and have flanked the Dvina by taking Lepel. We are within 10 km of taking Bobruisk and Berezino on the Berezina itself so hopefully we can cross the river on the fly. Further south Pinsk still resists our forces but we have troops on three sides of the city and hope to see its fall soon.

Soviet Turn 7: In Eastern Finland Soviet forces are halted on their northward advance due to the lack of supplies and the forces along the Svir are still struggling to finish off the Finnish troops there. On the Karelian Peninsula the Finns have counterattacked. One Finnish armor unit had extended itself but the worn Soviet troops were unable to cut it off or hurt it in any great degree. Reserves have been moved into this area to rejuvenate the offensive. Operation Bagration continues though the surrounded cities of Orsha, Mogilev, and Vitebsk continue to cause us logistical problems. Soviet forces have reached the Dvina at Druya and Polotsk. Further south we have reached the Berezina and began attacks to force a crossing. We have met with no success as of yet. Forces attacking northward from the Pripet have taken Pinsk and threaten Slutsk. Supplying the troops is continuing to be our main problem. Along that line we have begun to work on the reduction of the surrounded cities mentioned above. Very few successes so far but some the future holds some promise.

Soviet Turn 8: All quiet on the Finnish front. Moved up reserves to make an attack in the second combat round but didn’t get one so they will be there to launch an attack on the next turn. On the central front we are moving to try and pocket the forces arrayed against us at Pskov with the thought of driving for Riga after this so as to cut off all German forces in the Baltic States. Further south we were once again set up to make second round combat against the surrounded cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev. These attacks will have to be carried out next turn. We were able to breach the Berezina in several places as it appears that the Germans are going to fall back even further to avoid our attacks. Many aircraft are put on interdiction to try and hinder this move. In the Balkans several guerilla units are surrounded but some are making a nuisance of themselves.

Soviet Turn 9: Finally finished off the pocketed units in Eastern Finland and started the process of moving those units westward to help in the final defeat of that country. The Finns are proving to be especially troublesome and have had the audacity to actually counterattack my forces. Launched a serious attack on Finnish troops defending the approach to Koivisto but made little headway. Supply continues to be an issue. Railroad and bridge repair continues as rapidly as possible in this sector. On the main front our forces have liberated Pskov and almost have the troops that are defending this area pocketed. It is expected that very few of them will be able to escape before this happens. Meanwhile further south and east our forces have captured Plavinas and the railroad bridge directly NW of that city. This puts our forces only 140 km from Riga. All forces will continue to push for this city as quickly as possible to cut off an landward escape of German units defending in the Baltic States. The Dvina has been breached at Daugavpils and our forward units are only 90 km from Ukmerge. The Berezina has been crossed in many places and are advancing as fast as German rearguard units and supply difficulties will allow. We also continued our attacks northward from the Pripet. Some successes were met this turn and several German units were destroyed. We have run into several units of the 18 PzGD just on the other side of the southern Berezina and we are not sure if they intend to fight or if our rapid advance just caught them before the could escape further west. Large scale assaults were made against the cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev. According to reports from the commanders on the scene we we unable to gain hardly any ground but that the Fascists paid a much higher price in casualties then our forces did. Railroad and bridge repair also continues as fast as possible in the central sector.

Soviet Turn 10: Soviet forces continued to attack Finns guarding the approaches to Koivisto, retreating some units but not all. Otherwise this area of the front is pretty quiet and will probably remain so until the rail lines can be repaired and fresh troops brought over from Eastern Finland. In the central sector our forces closed the pocket at Pskov and continued to attack there. Our forces are now only 50 km from Riga, advancing up both sides of the Dvina. We have also reached the outskirts of Panevezys, outflanking Ukmerge to the north. We also have armored recon elements just outside the city of Minsk and will take the city soon. Once again we assault the cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev with limited success. Hopefully the German defenders are getting weaker each time and will collapse under the weight of repeated assaults by our brave comrades.

[Xandamere]

Turns 6-10, from the Axis perspective:

Orsha, Mogilev, and Vitebsk are surrounded on turn 6. They all have supply points and good fortifications, so I had planned on leaving a few suicide troops behind here to slow the logistics of Mark's advance, but unfortunately he trapped a few more forces in each city than I had intended to leave. Down in the Pripet Marshes, my fears have come true as his forces surge northwards. I sent 16th, 20th, and 5th panzer divisions as well as SS Wiking to counterattack and I managed to inflict some losses, but I pulled the panzer divisions back before getting too tangled up...it would be a disaster to get one surrounded and lose it admist the Russian advance. These formations are precious, and I cannot afford to lose one this early in the match.

The Finns are holding out quite happily, lines intact, fortified, and in good supply. The Russians keep advancing up towards the Finnish lines and getting thrown back by counterattacks. The peace-loving Finns extend an offering of armistice, if the Soviets will surrender Leningrad to them.

As this phase of the game continues, I see that I was wise to not attempt and hold a line along the Dvina/Berezina rivers, as Mark's forces coming out of the Pripet Marshes cannot be stopped. He manages to surround upwards of 2 infantry divisions in various areas of the marshes, plus support units, but that's infinitely better than if I had left my troops eastward and had them hit in the rear by the Soviets. I want to slow Mark and keep him away from the heartland of Germany, but I cannot afford to lose my army...my reinforcements in this scenario are not impressive.

I suffer another blow when Mark pockets my troops around Pskov...those buggers were held in reserve until turn 11 so I couldn't pull them out! Another infantry division plus several support units are surrounded and currently under heavy Soviet attack.

It looks like Mark is going to cut off Estonia when he takes Riga, but luckily I have reasonable sea transport in this game. I'm not going to pull a Hitler and insist on holding the Courland pocket, you can bet on that!

Given my initial assessments of the scenario, I've kept an eye on my infantry units (Which for some odd reason begin this scenario as untried), and I've made a special effort to pull any 80%+ proficiency units off the line as fast as possible, to save them for more critical fights. As the game progresses and more important objectives come under attack, I'll need troops that have a qualitative edge on the Soviets.

In the air war, the Luftwaffe has been limited to reacting to Mark's heavy interdiction. On my turns, I fly my fighters forward to cover my retreating troops, then fly them back at the end of the turn to airbases in the rear, where they're safe. I can't afford to lose my air arm this early, so I have to be careful with them. As of turn 10, I've lost slightly over 200 frontline fighters, and my fighter strength stands at 864. I'm sure Mark has thousands of aircraft, but I believe I'm hurting whatever bomber formations he's using for interdiction...my air briefing has said over 300 Soviet aircraft shot down each turn for the last 5 turns, almost all of them when they interdict my units and are attacked in turn by my fighters. I'm hoping I can wear down his bomber formations through this tactic.

Finally, as of turn 10 the Soviet loss penalty is at 28 and the Axis is at 0. Very little combat in the last couple turns has contributed to a reduction in the loss penalties as replacements fill out the units in the field.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Okay, here is my first attempt at posting a screenshot. This is the Finnish front at the start of the Soviet Turn 11.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here are the pockets around Orsha and Mogilev

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

One last one, here is the pocket around Pskov at the start of the Soviet turn 11.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here is how things looked from the Soviets for turns 11 - 15

Soviet Turn 11: All is quiet on the Finnish front as we dig in and try to withstand the Finnish spoiling attacks. Waiting for reserves to move up and the rail line to be repaired. Attacks were launched at Narva but with little success. Our main hope there is to pin the enemy in place until we can cut them off. Further south our forces entered portions of Riga and began to move west and north from that point. Instead of allowing the Germans time to withdraw from the Baltic ports we intend to make him fight to keep them and do what we can to cut him off from that avenue of escape. Once again assaults were launched against Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev. We actually managed to retreat the Germans out of Vitebsk but our forces were too exhausted to take advantage and couldn’t occupy the city before German troops were retreated into from another attack. Our forces also completed the capture of Minsk on this date and continued to race westward. New attacks were launched south of the Pripet but minimal gains were made. We expect the continuing attacks there to have a telling effect in the week to come.

Soviet Turn 12: Began pulling troops from Eastern Finland to bolster my attacks on the Karelian Peninsula and to expand my advances north and west of Imatra. Continued attacks on the Pskov pocket with not much success but since the Germans there have no supply source it is only a matter of time. Meanwhile the rail repair unit waiting patiently there has been sent to help repair railways in Finland. Further south we continued attacks against the surrounded cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev. No ground gained but German casualties are mounting. We have completed the capture of Riga and some troops are headed westward from there and others have turned north in an effort to capture the Baltic ports and deny the Germans an escape route by sea if possible. Our troops are with 120 km of Memel and all are racing wanting to be the first to capture German soil. Further south of this thrust troops are poised on the outskirts of Kaunas, and Wilno and Lida have fallen with advance elements from these attacks only 90 km from Grodno. Soviet troops in a bold and fast paced move have also seized the citadel city of Brest Litovsk in preparation for throwing a bridgehead over the Bug River. Back to the east, our forces continue to track down and destroy pocketed German troops but this is troublesome and time consuming. South of the Pripet our troops are also approaching the Bug River and have come within 30 km of Lvov. South of this we are engaged in clearing out German rearguard between our start line and the Dnestr River. The partisans in the Balkans, who have gone unmentioned so far, are busy in the mountains blowing bridges and railroads.

Soviet Turn 13: Continued consolidation of the Finnish front along with repairing the railroads to get better supply to units in the further reaches of that country. Broke over the Narva River and began to race to the Baltic ports to cut off the escape of German units by sea. Doubt we catch many but every one that we do destroy is one less on the main front. We now have units within 40 km of Memel and within 50 km of Tilsit. It will be a race to see who takes the first German town in East Prussia. Meanwhile we have crossed the Nieman River at Kaunas and expanded our bridgehead there. We also have recon units on the outskirts of Grodno but we will have to hold off its capture until the arrival of stronger units. Units prepared themselves for the next turn crossing of the Bug River at Brest Litovsk and near Chelm. Lvov was captured this turn with forces gathering themselves for a big push on Przemsyl and Jaroslaw in the ensuing turns. Intelligence suggests that this will not be easy as it looks like the Axis forces have pulled back to the Vistula and not engaged in any heavy fighting before that river. We have also received indications that the Axis is reinforcing the aforementioned sector with heavy elements of his army by rail. Overall I think we will have to call for a rest and refit for those forces north of the Pripet as the approach the Nieman as many of these troops are red coded without even seeing any combat. Priority in this area must be placed on taking Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev to allow for the repair of rail lines. South of the Pripet we will push as fast as possible to gain the Vistula and a possible bridgehead. Rail lines are shorter in this area and it is hoped that we can supply our troops well enough to maintain momentum.

Soviet Turn 14: No activity on the Finnish front other then rail repair and digging in to cause the Finns more casualties. The Narva River line is broken and troops are in hot pursuit of German troops headed for the Baltic ports and seaborne safety. Parnu did fall this turn to forces advancing up the west coast. Bridgeheads were secured and expanded over the Bug River but no major actions to speak off. South of the Pripet troops consolidated the takeover of Lvov and advanced to within 20 km of Zamosc and 40 km of Przemysl. Sambor also fell this turn. Rail repair continues at a rapid pace where possible. In the ongoing sieges of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev some gains were noted and we expect that Vitebsk may actually fall next turn. In almost all attacks against these areas the Germans had more casualties then our gallant troops so attrition should be taking it’s toll soon.

Soviet Turn 15: Attacks launched once again on the Finnish front as our supply situation improves somewhat and replacements have built up some of the earlier depleted divisions. No ground was gained but this will be slow grinding offensive designed to wear the Finnish Army down to the bone. Reserves from Eastern Finland are beginning to arrive in this sector.
In the Baltic States our forces have advanced to the outskirts of Tallinn. We will be able to attack next turn but are doubtful that there will be any Germans there to attack as they will all probably make there escape by sea. All the units in this area won’t make it out though as several units have been trapped and will be destroyed. The Pskov pocket was also eliminated on this turn. Russian forces have captured the first German territory in East Prussia though Memel and Tislit still remain in enemy hands. We have also been unable to expand our bridgehead over the Bug River at Brest Litovsk at this time. Further south we have flanked Chelm to the SE and are on the outskirts of Krasnystaw, which puts us only 60 km from Lublin. Our forces that have captured Zamosc also outflank Krasnystaw and it should fall shortly. In a mad rush Soviet forces have captured Przemysl and the bridges there but there appear to be a large number of German formations there so it shall remain to be seen whether we can hold it. Moving southward our forces have moved up the edge of the Carpathian Mountains and continue to mop up isolated forces and consolidate our control on this area. A cheer is raised for the forces besieging Vitebsk as the city proper has fallen under our control leaving two isolated pockets north and south of the city. Attacks were also made at Orsha and Mogilev with some ground gained but more importantly some German units were destroyed. This should make these cities capture easier in the days to come. As much as I would like to continue the advance into East Prussia it appears that we will need to stop, refit, and rest with the bulk of our forces in this area. Some consideration will have to be placed on repairing the rail net so as to resupply our advance elements. We will continue the push elsewhere to try and keep the Germans off balance.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here is the situation around Vitebsk. Couldn't do any others at this time without giving too much away.

[Xandamere]

Ah look at all those juicy Soviet units sitting around Vitebsk....and not on the front lines. That's why I left those three fortress cities behind, to disrupt Mark's supply net and force him to split up his attacking force to deal with the pockets behind his lines.

[Xandamere]

Turns 11-15 from the Axis perspective:

Turn 11 was a doozy, the far north front in Estonia and the south front around Brest-Litovsk south along the Carpathians to the edge of the Hungariay forces activated. As with the initial start of Operation Bagration, all my troops had orders to pull back as fast as possible. I left a screen of security and engineer units to delay Mark's forces while my main army retreated...no sense in throwing my forces away in battle in poor terrain against an enemy operating with a shock bonus.

In Estonia, Army Group North pulls back as fast as possible to the ports in order to be shipped out...no Courland pocket for me!

Turns 12-14 really had very little action. Finland was almost totally quiet, the other fronts just consisted of German troops pulling back while the Soviets cleared up my screen of suicide units I left behind to delay my enemy.

Turn 15 opened up a bit more on the Finnish front as Mark moved substantial forces up to Finnish lines. I'm not sure I agree with his long pause on the Finnish front...it allowed me to rest up my troops, bring in some Germans, and they're quite formidable now. Finnish forces counterattack as Mark moved up to my line, and even though I didn't actually kill any Soviet units I drove up his loss penalty from 50 or so to 105, just on the Finnish front alone.

Soviet forces have also begun to reach my lines in East Prussia, along the southern Vistula, and in the Carpathian mountains. The game has been relatively quiet on the main front for a while now, but the serious action is about to begin...

[Xandamere]

Here are some screenshots of my lines at the end of my turn 17...just posting the edge of my lines because I don't want to reveal what I have hiding behind my lines waiting to pounce :)

[Xandamere]

Here is the Finnish front

[Xandamere]

The northern end of East Prussia, around Konigsberg:

[Xandamere]

The southern part of East Prussia:

[Xandamere]

Warsaw and just south of it:

[Xandamere]

The main part of the Vistula:

[Xandamere]

The southern bend of the Vistula:

[Xandamere]

And finally, the Carpathians front: Sorry for so many screenshots...just wanted to show the status of the entire front, this won't happen again :)

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here is the Soviet reports for turns 16 thru 20. This puts us to the middle of August, 1944 in case someone is curious.

Soviet turn 16: Attacks continue in Finland but with no appreciable gains. Tallinn falls in the Baltic States and we race for the other ports but we are not going to be able to cut off many units in the end. The first cities in East Prussia fall as we capture Memel and Tilsit this turn. Lublin also falls to our forces. An attack is launched at Przemysl but no gains made there. The Vitebsk pocket was finally destroyed and gains made against the pockets at Orsha and Mogilev. Most other units took this turn to move up and consolidate our positions. Also took this turn to move air units forward to captured airbases.

Soviet turn 17: Well more attacks were made on the Finnish front but once again no ground is gained. This will be a war of attrition to defeat the Finns. Mogilev fell this turn and only one little pocket of resistance remains there. Some ground was gained at Orsha. Most of the rest of the turn was spent moving troops forward. Attack was made at Radymo trying to secure a crossing over the Vistula. Several intact bridges were captured but no bridgeheads established. In the Baltic States we have advanced to the outskirts of Virtsu, the last remaining port for the Germans but it appears the bulk of his forces have escaped.
Soviet Turn 18: Closed the game before I sat to write this so going off of memory. Finally destroyed the remnants in the Mogilev pocket. Attacked at Orsha but no appreciable gains made. Attacks continued on the Finnish front with no appreciable gains there either. Mop up operations continue in the Baltic States as we finish off those units who missed the boat to Germany. Elsewhere the turn was spent moving up troops and in making a couple abortive attacks to gain a bridgehead across the Vistula. We did capture a bridge and one hex of Warsaw this turn. Still struggling to bring up supplies and replacements. I suspect it will be three to four more turns before I can attack in earnest.

Soviet Turn 19: Limited attacks continue on the Finnish front mainly to attrite the Finnish army somewhat. As much as I hate to do it this area is going to have to be reinforced to gain any headway. We continue to mop up the remnants of German forces in the Baltic States. This should be completed in the next turn. Attacks also continue on Orsha to wear those forces there down and complete the capture of this city. Have divided up my rail repair units to help speed up this process, something I should have done from the beginning. We have crossed the Vistula into Warsaw proper to help the valiant Polish rebels reclaim their capital from the Germans. I have moved troops across and dug them in hoping to draw German troops this way to kill them off. Attacks also continue further south trying to establish bridgeheads across the Vistula and San Rivers. These are occurring near Pulawy, Przemysl, and NE of Jaroslaw. Further south we have bumped up against the Carpathian Mountains and will have to concentrate some more forces here before we try the mountain passes. All in all I am happy with our progress to date except for the Finnish front. To be in Warsaw in the first weeks of August means we have recovered a huge amount of territory in a relatively short period of time. Of course we have a very tough fight ahead to break the Vistula line but I have no doubt it can be accomplished. It is just a matter of how quickly.

Soviet Turn 20: Launched one limited attack against Finnish positions. No ground was gained but the Finnish/German defenders suffered greater losses. Also used my numerous artillery units to launch some long range attacks for the purpose of wearing the fortified defenders down. Finished the mop up of isolated units in the Baltic States. This will allow these troops to reinforce the Finnish front or the main front in Poland/East Prussia at my discretion. Continued moving troops up to the front lines, especially those released after the fall of Vitebsk and Mogilev. Orsha was once again attacked this turn and the German pocked reduced down to a small area of the city. I expect this city to fall by the end of the month. Our forces were forced to retreat from our bridgehead over the Vistula in Warsaw but this was not unexpected and troops are rushing forward to the area to reinforce. The Germans did pay a price to remove those troops. Further south several attacks were made to try and seize a bridgehead over the Vistula and San Rivers. None met with success but all three did cause more casualties then we took, which I find encouraging. Also the first attack was made against a unit of the Hungarian Army and it folded up rather easily. We look forward to pressing the offensive against this Axis ally in hope that the remainder of them will do the same. Still trying to finish off the few remaining isolated troops on the central front. It is proving very difficult as many of the stay behind troops have river crossing ability and I just can’t pin them against a major river to kill them but must physically surround by using my precious river crossing troops or gather overwhelming force and destroy them on the first attack before they can retreat across the rivers.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Situation around Orsha, turn 20

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Warsaw, turn 20

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

The Guards attack!

[Xandamere]

Axis turns 16-20:

Not much really happened on the main line. I retreated, building my position along the Vistula. Mark doesn't have that many troops right up at the front here, I think he's resting a lot of them after their long trek west (probably a wise move), and many were delayed farther east both by my 3-fortress city strategy and by the various other rearguard units I left. As Mark noted, I left mostly units that could ford major rivers...this forced him to completely encircle them in order to destroy them, using up more of his units and especially his precious engineers.

The central front is beginning to heat up on turn 20, but Mark still doesn't have his main force at the Vistula. Since the bulk of my army escaped intact, I currently have an advantage on the main front until his full army arrives, and I'm using that to good effect. Units sitting on super river hexes are very vulnerable, and I'm attacking his attempted crossings with armor and inflicting heavy losses. I don't have enough armor to do this along the entire Vistula, so this good situation won't last for long.

The Finns are holding strong, most units are yellow or green status and they're all very well fortified with lots of artillery support. I'm glad to see Mark note that he's going to have to send more forces up here to reduce the Finns. The Finnish front is a lost cause anyways, and the more troops I can make him send up here, the less troops he has on the main front.

The southern exclusion zone has lifted, but Romania has not come under attack...that will start up next turn. Many Hungarian divisions are in danger though, so I've sent 23rd Panzer to help guard their retreat...the Hungarians aren't as good as my German troops, but they're not bad and I need all the soldiers I can get!

On a grander strategic scale, the first phase of the game is coming to an end on the main front. As I see it, that consists of the opening Russian offensives and the German attempt to both slow the attack and withdraw with everything possible in good fighting order. I feel I've accomplished this well, currently my loss penalty is only 26 (to Mark's 267). I have a good solid line covering everywhere that's currently exposed, a fair amount of infantry reserves, and every panzer and panzergrenadier division in reserve. This will change when Romania opens up, as that front will require troops to stop the Soviets storming across the plains south of the Carpathians and then wheeling north through Yugoslavia into central Hungary. That would outflank my entire Carpathians line and be a complete and utter disaster, so I'm sure a lot of my reserves will head to that area.

Up in Estonia, I managed to extract almost all of the divisions that began up there. Mark obliged me by taking Tallinn before the western ports, which allowed me to withdraw the 2 SS divisions hiding in the western ports (they aren't allowed to leave Estonia until Tallinn falls).

I'm getting a lot of big Volksgrenadier divisions, which all begin as untried...I'm getting them into combat by launching minimize loss attacks with them, and any that end up with low proficiency I'm disbanding. The net result of this will be a few very tough infantry divisions (since all other German infantry is in smaller regimental size) perfect for holding key objectives, and the ones that disband will give me more replacements to help deal with combat losses.

In the air, the Luftwaffe has held its own in the limited mission it's been assigned, which has been to deal with Soviet air interdicition. I've been achieving some terrific loss ratios (19 German to 183 Soviet on turn 20), although the huge Soviet industry will prevent me from really hurting his airfoce. I'm trying to use attrition to slowly wear down the effectiveness of his bomber wings...it's probably too early to tell if it's really working. Mark has yet to comment on the air war, so I guess it's not bothering him too much...but hopefully in the long run he'll start to notice.

Overall the German Army in the east is stronger than when the scenario began, although that build-up of strength has come at the price of a rapid surrender of a huge amount of territory. Russian losses are not that high...267 is not a very high loss penalty, given the size of the army that Mark is fielding. I'm counting on the good terrain that I now have on my side to help keep things under control for a long while yet, and I still have all those panzer and panzergrenadier divisions up my sleeve....

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here are the Soviet reports for turns 21 through 25.

Soviet Turn 21: Well this was not a good turn for the Russians. Even with the shock bonus we were unable to make any progress at all on the Rumanian front. What gains were made were minimal. Only one attack made on the San River and no success there either. The rest of the front line troops are resting and waiting for resupply. Basically we have run out of gas in the center of the front. We did mop up a few more units that were isolated behind our lines reducing the number yet to destroy to just a few. Attacks were also made in Finland with no gains made and heavy casualties taken. The only bright spot for this turn was the fall of Orsha to our forces and the chance to start reopening the rail lines there.

Soviet Turn 22: One ground attack was launched against Finnish forces with some of the reinforcing units fresh from the conquest of the Baltic States. No ground was taken but casualties were about even. As more reinforcements arrive and some of our depleted troops rest and refit we will increase the tempo of operations in this sector. We also used our artillery to launch attacks to soften up the enemy for future attacks. In East Prussia we continued to mop up isolated units. This process should be completed next turn. Further south we once again launched attacks south of Pulawy in an effort to force a bridgehead over the Vistula and once again met with no success, though casualties were fairly even. Most of the attacks this turn took place on the Rumanian front where some progress was made though not what was hoped for. The Rumanians are putting up a spirited fight for their home territory but hopefully they will soon see the continued struggle is fruitless and give up their struggle. The Hungarians again show surprising little combat efficiency in the few attacks made against their forces. Fortunately for them the terrain is preventing me from fully exploiting this.

Soviet Turn 23: Attacks were again launched on the Finnish front. No ground was gained but the inevitable wearing down of Finnish units has started. Where it was needed to support attacks are artillery tried to soften the enemy up. Further south we continued to mop isolated enemy units with all being destroyed but one who is fairly close to the front so all units can move up to the front. We again made several attacks trying to force bridgeheads but met with no success. The Vistula and San Rivers are going to be hard nuts to crack. We again made progress against the Hungarians but the terrain is really restricting what we can call progress. The Rumanians have seen the light and defected from the Axis cause. Several formations of Rumanians have joined the banner of King Michael and are actively aiding Soviet war aims. Forces that have rested after the fall of Orsha have also began to move to the front at this time.

Soviet Turn 24: Nothing new to report this turn. Attacks continued in Finland and along the Vistula/San Rivers with no ground gained. Continued to move troops up to the front and to repair the railways. Did not have very good luck with rail repair this turn. The only progress to report was in Rumania, where are forces are pursuing the rapidly retreating Germans.

Soviet Turn 25: Some progress was made along the front this turn. No ground was gained but we caused the Germans and their allies some serious casualties this turn. In many cases where the Axis had multiple units stacked in defensive positions we were able to retreat or destroy several of them. In no instance did we get all of them to retreat where we could occupy the hex. We made general attacks along the Finnish front. Along the Polish front we made several attempts to gain bridgeheads over the Vistula and San Rivers once again. Starting to feel more confident as we caused severe casualties on the Axis. As soon as the rail lines are repaired so that we can resupply better and we bring up fresh troops I feel we will be able to breach this line somewhere. Along the Carpathian Mountains some limited attacks were made for minimal gain. I will have to wait on troops to arrive and get sorted out in those passes before any serious attempt can be made to push through here. On the Rumanian plain our forces continued their pursuit of the fast disappearing Germans.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Situation around Przemsyl

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Situation around Pulawy and crossing to the NE.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

How it looks in Finland after Soviet turn 25

[Xandamere]

Axis AAR turns 21-25:

On turn 21 the Romanian front opened up but I think Mark was unfortunate in only getting one combat phase, which allowed this front to mostly hold this turn. I immediately began pulling the Germans out. Romania is a lost cause, the Romanians will surrender once any of 3 cities near the front lines is taken, so I didn't want to sacrifice a large German force just to delay Mark here. These troops are withdrawing and heading for the southern Carpathians.

Lots of reinforcements are arriving in these turns, including a new panzer division, the SS Poleizei division, and more mountain troops. I'm forming up a sizable army with all of my mountain divisions behind the Carpathians line, these will make a great reserve to help hold this area.

I'm shifting my emphasis in Yugoslavia from hunting down the partisan units, now I'm giving Mark most of the country in order to form up a defensive perimiter around Beograd and Pozarevac...the loss of these two cities would give me a -5% replacements hit as well as bringing Tito's regular Yugoslavian forces in the game (which is something like 20-30 divisions or so, quite a nasty army). The Croats aren't allowed to enter that area of Yugoslavia, which is unfortunate because they field a very large army, so they're forming up along the Drina river...any Soviet advance along this axis attempting to get through Yugoslavia will meet with heavy resistance. Security troops are deployed to keep the rail line to these defenders open so they're in good supply.

The Finns are still holding their own, although they're beginning to suffer high casualties, and the Finnish units don't really get many replacements so it's hard to make good those losses. And now that I saw Mark's screenshot of the Finland situation with all those troops behind the front, I'm worried...the Finns will be able to hold for a while, but it's a doomed position all in all. Ah well, at least if they can hang on they'll keep all of those Russian troops off the central front. The Soviet Navy has appeared again, and Mark managed to sink my battleship unit despite it being in port, which was somewhat of a disappointment. His navy was sunk this turn by a couple Luftwaffe bomber units flying out of Finland in concert with the rest of the Kriegsmarine, but they managed to take a cruiser and a couple destroyers with them.

Speaking of the central front, on turn 25 Mark really managed to batter a lot of my defenders...luckily I have several infantry formations in reserve which were able to move in and shore up the line while the weary troops pull out to rest up and refit. Mark expresses confidence in being able to break this line soon, but he doesn't mention that he has yet to encounter my panzer and panzergrenadier divisions...I'm fielding 18 panzer, 3 SS panzer, and 3 panzergrenadier divisions on the main front, not to mention 1 more panzer and panzergrenadier division down in the far south of the Carpathians, and SS Horst Wessel and SS Polizei defending Beograd and Pozarevac in Yugoslavia. This gives me quite a reserve force to help patch up holes...I'm sure I won't be able to hold the Vistula line forever, but I expect to hold it until the raspusita cease-fire period with a bit of luck (this happens somewhere around the mid to late 30's I believe).

Down in the south, the Romanians defected on turn 23, but the German forces had mostly gotten away by that point. Some Romanian "partisan" divisions appeared behind my lines, but were eliminated by turn 25. I had a very close call when the 23rd panzer division was deployed to rescue a couple Hungarian infantry divisions that were in danger of being enveloped before they could retreat...Mark managed to get a unit along the road, cutting off the panzers. Fortunately I was able to punch through his line and make it back to safety, although I did have to leave some of the Hungarian troops behind.

The air war continues to go reasonably well for me, I'm always inflicting more losses than I'm suffering, although the Soviet air force is huge and can better afford to take these losses. On turn 23 Mark took most of his air force off interdiction, I'm not sure if this was in response to the battering they were taking or just because he wanted them on combat support. I'd like to think the former :) The Soviet Air force is big, but even they can't keep sustaining 400+ losses per turn indefinitely.

[Xandamere]

Here is part of the Carpthians line, where the Hungarians are fighting. Sad to say, you can see a few cut-off Hungarian units doomed to death. Note the army of mountain troops in the upper left corner of the shot.

[Xandamere]

Here is my new line buliding at the southern end of the Carpathians.

[Xandamere]

Here we have the defenses of Beograd and Pozarevac, with SS Polizei and SS Horst Wessel anchoring the line.

[Xandamere]

Finally, here are the Crotian defenses forming up to block a Soviet advance across Yugoslavia. The black line denotes the border where the Croatians have to remain west of, which unfortunately means they can't help with the fighting for Beograd and Pozarevac. Note the security troops deployed along the rail line to keep the partisans from interrupting my supply to this area.

[Xandamere]

Doh, forgot the screenshot for that last one. Oh, and one final note, as of turn 25 the Soviet loss penalty is 494 compared to the Axis at 33.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Not much to report these last 5 turns as Supply shock has severely hampered any sustained offensives.

Soviet Turn 26: Well not feeling as confident as I was after reading my opponents part of the AAR. More attacks made in Finland. As expected, no ground was gained but we did cause the Finns more casualties. I hope to run him out of replacements and grind his army into the dust. Also, more attacks were made on the central front trying to gain a bridgehead somewhere over the San or Vistula rivers. No ground and heavy casualties were the only result of these attacks. Began to gather strength in places to think about an attempt to force some of the passes through the Carpathian Mountains but this is going to be a long slow process. Pushed my forces through Rumania but we have no hope of catching any of the running Germans and are just looking to gain ground and VP cities until we run up against the mountains.

Soviet Turn 27: More of the same this turn as we continue our attrition attacks against the Vistula and San Rivers. We also made a few attacks against the northern portion of the front, namely Loetzen and Insterburg. Attacks were also made at several of the Carpathian Mountain passes trying to get lucky there, but mainly to cause more German losses. The greatest success we had came against the Hungarians but one unit managed to hold so no ground was gained. Forces also continued to push across the Rumanian plain seeking out VP cities as we go. Attacks were also continued in Finland and we achieved the usual results, casualties for both sides but no ground gained. Most of our ground forces are at the front now but supply problems persist. We are concentrating many RR units on one or two rail lines trying to get supplies to at least part of the front. As would be expected we are in the best shape near Przemsyl as the RR units had the shortest lines to repair there.

Soviet Turn 28: Little to speak of this turn as Soviet Supply Shock hits and many units are orange lined. Made some limited attacks along the Carpathian Front and a couple of bridgehead attempts but nothing to show for my efforts.

Soviet Turn 29: Another turn with little action as we wait for Supply Shock to wear off. Mainly advanced forces and tried to get organized to resume the offensive once this wears off.

Soviet Turn 30: Another turn of Supply Shock. We take this opportunity to rest and refit and move up or forward. Only one limited attack that causes very little damage. In a daring maneuver however, a Soviet River Flotilla sails up the Danube to Beograd and destroys the German’s Donau River Flotilla there. Next turn the shock wears off but the “Rasputitsa Mud” effect will come into play sometime soon further slowing my offensive efforts down. It will give many of my units a chance to rest up and refit for the winter offensives to follow. A large portion of our army is showing orange and red, not conducive to combat operations. Meanwhile our spies in Germany report that German fliers are greatly exaggerating their aircraft kills each week. Also, the Bulgarians have seen the promise of the Socialist Worker’s Paradise and have joined the Soviet Army in the quest to rid Europe of the German Fascists!

[Xandamere]

Axis turns 26-30:

These turns were marked by a Soviet supply disorganization shock of 80% on turns 28-30, which really limited Mark's attacks.

The Finnish front continues to be a meat grinder for Soviet troops, they're just getting chewed up in large quantities on the heavy defenses. Unfortunately the Finnish units don't receive replacements at a very fast rate, so while the front is holding for now, it's really just a matter of time until it starts to crack, and once the Russians get past the fortified areas and the rivers, the Finns don't have the manpower to hold them back.

The central front is mostly calm. Mark isn't really attacking my river line in much strength right now, I think he's resting his troops and waiting for the supply shock to wear off, which is a wise move. He is attacking at a few points with very heavy forces, which has the unfortunate (for him) effect of overstacking his units, which is one reason his casualties are so high. I also take every opportunity to counterattack these overstacked hexes, inflicting more losses.

The Carpathians front is holding on as well, although the 1st Hungarian Army is taking some abuse, they're holding their own for now with some German backup.

Mark is sending a lot of troops towards Yugoslavia, and I'm worried about him taking Pozarevac (bringing on Tito's armies) and Beograd (-5% replacements), and then swinging up north into Hungary, outflanking my entire Carpathians position. SS Horst Wessel and Polizei prepare to defend these two cities, and I've sent some reserves (including the newly activated 3rd Hungarian Army) down to plug the area around the Romania/Yugoslavia border (see attached picture).

The air war continues unabated as Mark's heavy interdiction makes it very difficult to rail reserves around. The interdiction evaporated both of my railroad artillery units, which was quite discouraging as I was using those (which have range 7) to bombard Soviet airfields near the front lines. I'm not sure how Mark's air force is doing, he hasn't really commented on it, but from my (always overly optimistic) air briefing screens, over the last 5 turns he's lost over 2000 aircraft and I've lost roughly 200.

I chose the theater option to withdraw Armeegruppe E from Greece, at a cost of -5% replacements. The briefing says I get a few divisions along with 3 fighter formations and 1 bomber formation. The fighters were my main reason for choosing the theater option, as I really need a few more fighter units. Unfortunately the briefing appears to be wrong, as I received 1 formation of 65 ME-109's and 3 somewhat weak bomber groups...sort of a disappointment.

[Xandamere]

The screenshot as previously mentioned:

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Well here are the Soviet reports for turns 31 - 35. Not much difference between any of them as we continue to butt our head up against is formidible defensive line. My earliery confidence at breaking that line has now changed to despair at ever breaking it.

Soviet Turn 31: Attacks were made up and down the length of the Vistula this turn, hoping for a breakthrough, but mainly to begin attritioning the Germans to the point they can’t maintain the line. Attacks were also made in Finland and at selected places in the Carpathians. Almost all the army is up now and we plan on trying to continue these attacks until the Germans give way and we establish a bridgehead or the “raspitutsa” period causes us to stop. We took very heavy casualties doing this but the Germans took many losses as well and I can replace mine better then he. Needed one more combat round to reset my air units but didn’t get it but this may be a blessing in disguise if he counterattacks. The Bulgarians are in the fray and should become a factor next turn. This turn was spent gobbling up the Greek VP cities.

Soviet Turn 32: Nothing much to report as we only got one combat round and it was very abbreviated. Not sure why but somewhere along the line I forgot to check on an attack and used up too many combat rounds. Beginning to despair of ever breaking the river/mountain line as everywhere I probe the German has more units in defense then I can get on the attack.

Soviet Turn 33: Stalemate all up and down the line. Numerous attacks were made from Finland all the way to the Balkans and still we are unable to breach his line. Between the rivers and entrenchments behind them I cannot batter my way through in the center. Did manage to retreat 3 or 4 units in a stack but there was always one left to hold the position. I am beginning to despair of ever breaking this line. The Axis have at least 3 large regiments or 4 or 5 total units in every hex and with the natural defenses it is going to take a long time to batter my way through. About the only successes we are enjoying right now are gaining cities in the Balkans where the Germans have conceded them to withdraw to better defensive positions. I am within 60 km of Beograd so we will make a push there but we are facing the same Axis stacks there also.

Soviet Turn 34: Well more of the same for the Soviets this turn. Continued attacks on the fortified/river lines with no gains but in a few cases causing more casualties then taken. We are still advancing in the Balkans but only in areas where there is no resistance. It is going to take more turns before I can get enough forces into this area to make a difference. I now have troops as far west as the Sava River just below Srem Mitrovice, though I am unable to cross the river and take it. Also had a round of fairly good attacks in Finland as we try to grind the Finns down. I believe that unless he reinforces I will be able to break through in the far north unless the raspustita sets in first. My opponent thought it started this turn but though I received notification of a storm front the program allowed me to continue attacking which wouldn’t be allowed according to the document if it had gone into effect.

Soviet Turn 35: Well the mud period has set in and my chances of breaching his lines has gone down even further. One attack was successful in far northern Finland and my forces will pursue for as long as possible until the weather brings a halt. I can’t break through anywhere else at this time. Even when I retreat 3 units there is always a 4th still there or reserves to move forward and plug the gap so I can’t advance. Makes you wonder what the real German Generals could have down without Hitler’s interference.

[Xandamere]

These were some very quiet turns overall. Mark's troops are bashing up against the East Prussia/Vistula/Carpathians defense line, slowly wearing my troops down but he hasn't managed to break my defenses at any points as of yet. The only news of interest on the central front are two Romanian divisions managed to sneak through the Carpathians where I didn't think they could...luckily, 10th panzergrenadier was in the area and quickly destroyed the threat and reestablished the line.

The Finns are getting in real trouble about now, the Russian onslaught is slow but sure and the Finns just don't have the troops to hold them back forever. I can make a tough line, but once units need to be pulled out to rest, there are no reserves. My main concern here is to hold up Mark's troops for as long as possible and keep them off the main front, and then evacuate the 2 German divisions fighting up there.

Mark has sent a large force into Yugoslavia to take Pozarevac and Beograd, and them presumably invade Hungary from the south, flanking my whole Carpathians position. 3rd Hungarian Army along with miscellaneous German reserves were deployed down there in this time period, and the defenses look reasonable enough to prevent a quick breakthrough. Unfortunately most of the units down there are fairly low proficiency and won't hold up to a sustained assault without more backup.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Well not much to report on for these last five turns as the fall rains have come. Can't deny that I needed the time for the three R's though, rest, refit and reorganize.

Soviet Turn 36: Well maybe some chinks in that German armor but at a high cost. Managed to get three combat rounds and by using my artillery in a direct attack role rather then a support role I was able to cause some pretty good casualties on the Germans this turn. Came within an eyelash of finally getting across the Vistula but it wasn’t to be. I think I may be on to something that works here and with some tweaking I should be able to do better. In the far north of Finland we have finally blown by the two units holding up our advance there and cut them off though I expect I shall run into more at the next bottleneck in the map. Also severely reduced the group of Finns guarding the next bottleneck south. Also attacked across the line in the main part of Finland and caused and took severe casualties. In the central front we attacked from one end to the other and though we gained no ground and had more units evaporated then I cared to see we also so where we had evaporated several German units. Also, in several cases we made 2 or three attacks in a row that caused more casualties then we took. My aim is to keep these attacks up until the forced cease fire and then take those turns to get reorganized and better deploy my artillery brigades.

Soviet Turn 37: Mandatory cease-fire kicks in due to the weather. Spent the entire turn sorting out units and getting reorganized from the mad dash across Western Russia and in to Eastern Poland. This should help greatly when we are able to resume the offensive, as I should have much better formation support.

Soviet Turn 38: Mud still grips the front so the Soviet command spends this time pulling some units out of the line and placing them on roads to give them a better chance at replacements and supplies. We also take this time to get our formations back together. Some of them had become widely scattered in the pursuit.

Soviet Turn 39: Continuing to reorganize and refit while mud grips the front.

Soviet Turn 40: Different turn but same verse. Continue to consolidate our forces and bring on reconstituted units. Rail repair continues somewhat haphazardly as some units become orange lined each turn and I am not getting the best die rolls. Looking forward to the end of this mud period.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here are the reports for the Soviet turns 41 - 45. Biggest news is that despite my earlier despair we have now gotten two tiny bridgeheads.

Soviet Turn 41: Cease-fire is lifted and we go on the attack. Managed to do some damage to Axis units but couldn’t go for the kill as we only got one combat round. Am sure we could have made some ground in Finland if we would have had a second round. As it is we were able to make multiple attacks all along the front with plenty of units still resting or reorganizing. The Balkans was about the only place where it was fairly quiet with only a few bypassed security units mopped up.

Soviet Turn 42: Finally we have a bridgehead across the Vistula, just NE of Jaroslaw, but I am under no illusion of it being there when I get the turn back as the only unit to advance was a small engineer unit. We once again attacked from far northern Finland to the Balkans. No other ground gained but in most instances we caused more casualties then we took and in many other cases we retreated all but one unit. I am beginning to see where the Finns are being ground down as each turn we cause them more casualties and retreats and each turn when the file comes back the Finnish units are failing to replace up to their previous strength. It is going to take freezing weather to remove the “rapustita” but I believe the end is in sight for these Axis allies.

Soviet Turn 43: Well finally we have a bridgehead across the San River, just below the river junction and the city of Sandomierz. This should be a good spot as he will have to attack it across river lines except for one hex and if he does that he will have to unfortify it and I can hit it from multiple hexes on my next turn. Also finally broke a Finnish unit and gained one hex but doubtful I can hold it if the Finns can scrape up enough units to counterattack it. I am encouraged by the attacks this turn as we caused a lot of casualties and retreats on the Axis forces. In all cases except those described previously we were unable to advance because one Axis unit would hold out. I am glad to see that the quality of the Axis forces is slipping and we are getting better and better results. We also are now getting rail lines up very close to the front, which is helping immensely.

Soviet Turn 44: No expansion of the existing bridgehead and no new ones created but once again attacks all up and down the front are causing the Germans plenty of casualties and retreats. I am able to rotate in fresh troops now and I think we will find success once the mud effects wear off. This is not to say that Soviet casualties also aren’t high however. We are taking terrible casualties in some of these attacks while inflicting very few casualties on our enemy. German is sending nuisance units into Bulgaria that will divert some troops to deal with them. Fortunately I had some armor and infantry units resting on roads not too far away and they should soon be able to deal with these raiders.

Soviet Turn 45: We continued with our attacks up and down the front. Another bridgehead was gained but the advancing units will be too weak to hold it I think. It is located in the hex just north of Pulawy. I am confident that the Germans will be able to destroy it. Again we put a lot of casualties on the Axis forces that they cannot afford as well as I can. Hopefully we will begin to see more and more of the river lines breached before long. No additional gains were made in Finland but again, the Axis casualties were high. Looking for more success in later turns. Turn ended with two combat rounds and I sure could have used three!

Here is the first bridgehead near Sandomierz

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here is the second Soviet bridgehead just north of Pulawy. I don't expect it to be there when I get the turn back.

[Xandamere]

I didn't post an AAR for turns 36-40 because not much happened from my point of view...a couple of mud turns (which send many formations into reorg), and then the raspusita cease-fire, so not much action.

Turns 41-45 have seen a lot more. Mark has crossed the Vistula in force in one point, with two other minor bridgeheads that were pushed back and sealed up. His one penetration is sealed in, and it's still sitting on a river hex, giving him the same attack and defense penalties. So, I don't view it as that big of a threat. Still, it's an ominous sign of the weakening of the Wehrmacht under the extreme stress of this campaign...the German Army is strong, but it just can't stand up to the levels of punishment it will be taking over the duration of the scenario. Mark's loss penalty is at 1258 compared to mine at 0, but I still feel like my armies are weakening rapidly....I have a lot of orange and red status infantry units that I would love to pull off the line and rest, but I don't have any troops to replace them with in the line. Mark now has troops on my line prettymuch all along its length, so I no longer have the luxury of switching units around to put units that need rest on quieter areas as I was doing previously. Fortunately, if I decide to retreat, most of my mobile divisions and engineer battalions have spent the scenario thus far digging fortifications along rear lines to give me something to fall back to.

My poor Finns are really starting to take a beating, and their units just don't replace very fast. Their front is still holding, but with ever-weakening units each turn...they're doomed in the long run, but I can make Mark bleed attacking them in their well-fortified positions. I destroyed 2 Soviet infantry divisions this turn in counterattacks...they sure are vulnerable when they're sitting on super river hexes!

I still have my mobile divisions in reserve, most of them have moved up close behind the front to deal with any breakthroughs in dangerous sectors. Only one panzer division, the 4th, is actually on the line right now, having just pushed back a Soviet bridgehead. I'm desperately short of infantry reserves, the volksgrenadier units have stopped coming in as rapidly as they were in the beginning and I only have a handful left that are uncommitted. So...the line is holding, but my forces are reaching the end of their rope. I only really have two good things to report:

1) The clock is ticking in my favor. From turn 90 on, I start getting 100 VP's for a large variety of cities, if they're still in my control. Oddly enough, the game is at a draw right now, which I consider very odd....I've inflicted very heavy losses on the Soviet army while avoiding crippling losses myself, and the Soviet army is VERY far away from its historical endpoint at the end of the war. I think if I managed to hold this line until the end of the game I should get an overwhelming victory, but as it is I would end up with a marginal...kind of strange in my opinion. Regardless, the longer I keep Mark away from those key cities, the more victory points I end up with. That's the key to winning the game for the Germans.

2) My panzer and panzergrenadier divisions have become very powerful since they haven't been in combat yet. These divisions are the highest proficiency ground units on the map (85-95%), but they begin the scenario with far less than their full complement of equipment. I think I started the game fielding maybe 600 each of the PZ-IVH and Panther tanks, the main tank unit of the panzer regiments, and I now have just over 2000 of each. So I have a very powerful reserve force capable of delivering quite a punch.

Now for the real kicker...in this scenario I have the option to call off operation Wacht am Rhein and send the 6th SS Panzer Army into a counterattack on the Eastern front. This also gives me 120% shock for 2 turns. If I use this, the army appears on turn 52 and the shock bonus kicks in on turn 55. However, calling on this option means the army has to withdraw on turn 68 to defend the Ruhr valley and will be gone from the scenario. If I don't use this option, these units arrive on turn 70 to fight on the Eastern front for the duration of the scenario. Oh, what to do, what to do...it certainly presents an interesting option!

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Here are the Soviet Turns 46-50. You can see my frustration building as each turn goes bye.

Soviet Turn 46: Well it is beginning to sound like a broken record. I make attacks all along the front and cause casualties and take heavy casualties for little or no gain. We gained two whole hexes with three rounds of combat this time. One was the city of Insterburg so I can claim a few more victory points but the cost to take it probably outweighed the gain. To add insult to injury the defensive positions just behind the hexes I’ve taken are probably just as strong or stronger then the ones I took. Of course I think there are some silly combat results. I retreated every combat unit out of Pulawy except for one, an armored train.

Soviet Turn 47: More futile attacks along the entire front with very little gain to show for it. I did manage to gain one hex on the way to Beograd but at a terrible cost. My only solace is that I am causing Axis casualties and I get oh so close to getting over these super rivers. Several times the round ended with one German unit all that was standing between me and a bridgehead but that is enough as I usually have to attack with Limit Losses to get that result and that is usually enough to end the combat round. This is a very frustrating length of the game if you haven’t gathered that from my previous posts so far.
Soviet Turn 48: Well we got quite a few combat rounds in this turn and actually managed to gain one hex, yes I said one. Caused numerous German units to evaporate and caused heavy casualties but took heavy casualties myself. Used nothing but minimize casualties attacks this turn and seemed to maybe make no difference in the casualties and did give me more rounds. Wished I had done limited casualties on that last round but talked myself out of it and gambled on one more round. Needless to say my casualties were very heavy and I will have to shuffle rested troops into the line next turn. And just what is the deal with armored trains. Again I retreated or evaporated every unit out of Pulawy except that damned armored train. I mean 97% casualties and the thing won’t die or retreat!

Soviet Turn 49: Finally some success for our forces as our continual attacks have worn down the Axis enough that we secured a two hex bridgehead at Pulawy and a one hex bridgehead at Deblin. This are close enough that we might be able to join them shortly. This all depends on what kind of counterattack the Germans throw our way there. We are also making progress in the Carpathian Mountains as many enemy units have withdrawn and left gaps in the line. Still no progress in Finland but we are steadily attriting the Finnish forces to what I hope is the breaking point.

Soviet Turn 50: We weren’t able to expand our bridgeheads any but we did make some more progress against the delaying units in the Carpathian Mountains. Pushed through the gaps there as fast as we could go. We also gained one more hex around Warsaw that we are using to assault another hex of that city. We did seem to cause some pretty severe casualties to the Axis though our casualties were heavy also. Nothing good to report on the Finnish front as we just cannot seem to gain any ground here. Not pushing harder with my units even though they were in orange health in the first few turns of the game is coming back to haunt me now.

[Xandamere]

Turns 46-50 saw the same status quo being maintained on the Finnish, East Prussian, and Vistula/San river fronts. Mark is slowly getting bridgeheads across the river defenses, but they're not large...not really a breakout, so I'm not too worried about that as of yet.

These turns saw two important changes in the situation from my perspective: First and primarily, my withdrawal from the Carpathians front. I see my Vistula river line weakening, and I'm sure I'll have to pull back from it sometime relatively soon, and when that happens I don't want a huge force stuck in the Carpathians if Mark chooses to swing his troops south in an attempt to pocket them. So, they're pulling back. I'll post screenshots as I assume new defensive positions, right now they're just on the move...and for the first time in the game, I have the luxury of time to assemble my infantry divisions into their proper formations in this area, so my defenses will be even tougher. On my other fronts, all of my divisions are scattered, with regiments fighting in all different sectors.

Secondly is the launching of an offensive in Yugoslavia designed to pocket the Soviet force pressing towards Beograd from the south. This attack has already pocketed and eliminated a handful of units, and I look forward to a rich bounty if I'm able to complete this encirclement. I've cut off supply to the pocket, now I just have to squeeze...13th panzer division with some Croatian troops makes up the southern prong of the attack, designed to pin the Soviet troops up against the Beograd defense line and crush them.

[Xandamere]

Here's the Yugoslavian front where my counterattack is taking place.

[Xandamere]

On turn 55 my opponent surrendered to me, having been unable to breach my East Prussia/Vistula/San River defense line. I had pulled back from the eastern Carpathians, but was forming a strong line well ahead of his advance along the Tisza super river which runs north-south thru most of Hungary.

I had chosen the December counterattack in the East option, which would give me 120% shock for 2 turns and the use of 6th SS Panzer Army a bit early, although it then withdraws for the rest of the scenario. I was hoping to drive north from the Carpathians, then swing west and encircle Soviet troops along the southern part of the San/Vistula river line. I had also opened up two small areas of my front and let some Soviet troops in to form a bulge, where I was hoping to then smash it in and kill them all. I'm not sure this second plan would have succeeded, because Mark was smart about fortifying lots of troops on the flanks of the bulges, and on the southern one along the Vistula he managed to push back a lot of my forces that were supposed to hem him in to a narrow area....but I guess we'll never find out about that.

I think Mark might have given up a bit too quickly here, the Soviet Army seemed battered but far from beaten, and I think if he held off the counterattack the 2 bulges in my line would have forced a withdrawal and there just isn't a place to form nearly as good of a line as along the one that I had established.

I think what let me win in this scenario was that my opponent wasn't able to destroy a large part of my forces during the initial phases of the campaign, when he had large shock bonuses and my forces were immobile. This allowed me to retreat prettymuch my entire army in good order, and form a very strong defensive line. At the end of the game, the German Army was much stronger than when the campaign began. I was fielding about 5000 main battle tanks, compared to the slightly over 1000 I began the campaign with, and I'm pretty sure I ended up with about the same number of infantry squads as I started with. Mark also got really unlucky a couple of times with early turn endings on critical turns, which helped me to get my army away from him in the early game.

Mark also noted that I tended to leave ahistorical forces behind to delay him while my main army got away, things like engineer and rail repair units, which would normally be preserved at all costs instead of thrown away in suicidal holding actions. The reason for this is because I think Mark didn't quite make full use of his air force...he never bombed my bridges. So, I didn't need my engineers around to repair them, and I figured they might as well be up on the front line.

Other than that I'm not quite sure what else to say...it was a very fun game, and I hope everybody enjoyed reading the AAR and watching us go through our little war.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

I offered my surrender this turn as I couldn't see myself gaining any more ground after having attacked that river line over and over for I'm not sure how many turns. And where I did make breakthroughs there were even more stacks of Germans behind just waiting in there fortified positions. I started this game out as a pretty raw player, not having played hardly any games against a human and even though this was a big loss I feel like I gained a lot and I do have to thank Xandamere for giving me some thoughtful advice along the way. As soon as I get some more games overwith I will probably be looking to try this one again thinking I should do somewhat better. Well I would almost have to do better then I did this time. Here are my thoughts for the last five turns if anyone is still interested in reading them.

Soviet Turn 51: Well someone failed a check as I made sure that no one who moved made any attacks but I only got the one combat round. Sure could have used a few more as I caused some large casualty hits on the Axis that probably would have meant some ground gained in rounds 2 or 3. I don’t need this kind of luck against this opponent!

Soviet Turn 52: Well despite the winter weather I did manage two combat rounds this turn. Some positive news to report as I captured Loetzen this turn though in the long run I think this helps the Germans rather then hurts them. Now instead of me being able to attack one hex from two I am forced to attack one of two from one hex. However at the gap between the lakes south of Loetzen I was able to force my way past the bottleneck opening things up for further assaults next turn. It is obvious however that my opponent is prepared to give this area up as he had pulled back almost all of his forces to only leave a miniscule garrison. I was also able to finally get off the river near Insterburg this turn so hopefully we can start developing more attacks in this area. Further south I have cleared the triangle on the east side of the super rivers near Modlin just north of Warsaw. Hopefully I can develop some further attacks as this makes an awkward area for him to defend; though it is all behind super rivers. I should be able to leverage it into stronger attacks against the northern side of Warsaw though. Moving south again we continued more attacks to attempt to gain another bridgehead between Warsaw and Pulawy but with little success. Most of our attacks however did cause equal or heavier German casualties. We have expanded the Pulawy bridgehead to reach from Deblin to just east of Pulawy. The reserves that I have been judiciously holding on to are now started for this area, as there is very little here in the way of good defensive terrain until we reach the minor river that runs through Tomaszow. I am hoping to hit this area hard and expand east, north, and south and cause him as much grief as possible. Our immediate objectives will be to clear the Vistula and take Lodz. This will be a hard struggle though as I am sure I will be meeting some of his Panzer reserves in this area. We also expanded our bridgehead in the Przemsyl area though for a second I thought I was going to see another of those heroic German armored train stands in Radymo but it finally succumbed. This bridgehead is now three hexes wide so hopefully it will prove easier to attack in the future. I do have some reserves in this area but not the quantity that is in the Pulawy area. We continue to pursue Axis forces retreating from the Carpathians though his rearguard is proving troublesome. To top it off I made one of my better bonehead moves and got so wrapped up in my other attacks that I completely neglected everything south of Przemsyl during the second combat round. Need some successes to keep me out of the Gulag now! In Finland no ground was gained but Finnish/German casualties were greater then ours almost across the board. The only exceptions were in far northern Finland. I hopefully will crack this area in another few turns. We are also starting to get reconstituted units back that should help strengthen our drives here. We have railroads up to all the central front now so supply and reinforcements should be able to reach the front there much easier. In the south, where our biggest logistical problems lie, we have rail all the way to Bucharest with 5 rail units on hand so hopefully we can repair the main rail line much quicker now that we can work on just one line.

Soviet Turn 53: Not much to report except for the loss of several units south of Beograd to a German counterattack. Meanwhile my attacks gain nothing except more bloodshed for both sides. Needed one more combat round but that is the case almost every turn. Expanded the front around Loetzen against no resistance until we ran up against his new defensive line, another line of 4 unit stacks on good terrain. Looks like we are back where we started from except for just a little bit further west. Did cause some significant casualties in a few attacks, particularly one on another city hex of Warsaw. Attacking from 4 hexes here so I expect to take this hex fairly soon or bleed him dry holding it.

Soviet Turn 54: Not much to report this turn. Only got one turn of combat despite not attacking with any units that moved. Did expand the bridgehead at Pulawy one more hex to the SW. Reserves still heading for this area to try and achieve a breakthrough of some kind. A RR battalion manages to hold off three infantry divisions at Modlin, which didn’t make me too happy but doesn’t surprise me much anymore. Did cause another good casualty loss on the troops holding Warsaw after attacking from four hexes. Expanded and reinforced the advance beyond Loetzen planning on attacking again there next turn. Also made attritional attacks along the northern edge of the main front and in Finland. I am really beginning to hate the Finns! In the Carpathians we continue to mop up the suicide units left behind to delay my advance.

Soviet Turn 55: Nothing to report except the same series of repetitive attacks trying to cross rivers or fortified hexsides against large stacks of Axis units. Germans launch an attack on the south central portion of the front leading off with RR Engineers and flak units. This is enough to make me offer my surrender. I have been attacking this line for I don’t know how many turns now and making little or no progress. Even where I have pushed bridgeheads through I find bigger stacks or bigger units fortified in place and awaiting my attacks. I think this is useless and the game is becoming very dull with this static warfare. A better general might have done a lot more but this is becoming WWI with the Germans holding all the trump cards. I will offer my surrender to my opponent when I send the turn.