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MikeJ
17 Mar 04, 22:19
Well, it seems like supply drain madness against 6th army... I held off on it on turn 2 in hopes that he wouldn't start it, but he went ahead and supply drained half of the 6th army frontlines so I'm going to respond in kind on this turn.

I took TO North, Early release of 19th and early release of 1st PzA. Opponent deployed 2nd Guards to the North.

Attached picture is status at the start of turn 3. I'm happily contemplating 5TAs encirclement this turn and destruction on turn 4 and 5. On turn 2 GunnerC tried to pull back most of 5TA, but judging by the replay they did not get far. Almost all of it will be stacked up approximately within the area of the red box. The black iconed MP units on the road in my left pincer are hexes stacked filled with 9 units, heh. I have more than enough strength to close the pocket (and subsequently destroy it) and send a panzer division north immediately, as intelligence reports a couple of divisions from 2nd guards coming south. Surprisingly, he left the rest of 2nd Guards Army next to the Italians.

Purple lines are what I'm going to do on turn 3 and the light blue is what I'm doing to do after 5TA is dead (turn 5 I expect, as I'm not going to sit around and wait for defections.. just want it out of supply so that none of it goes to the Soviet replacement pool). As per the light blue, I'm going to try to cut off the western part of Don Front forces when I attempt to linkup with 6th army. Additionally, I'm going to start driving towards the Don river to the North-West of the screenshot with probably 2-3 divisions. If he wants to go nuts on the Italians (which is what I"m anticipating given his lackluster response to 5TA), I'm going to cross the Don and start going after his supply points. That ought to get his attention ;). Tasked my worthless Luftwaffe Field Divisions and Rumanians to proceed North East once 5TA is destroyed to seize the Don River, which I intend to use as the northern flank for 6th army.

In either case, I'm quite sure I have 5TAs destruction locked down and he's going to have a really big hole in his lines. I'm just really surprised that he doesn't seem to care, instead building up for an attack on the Italians. Looks like he's betting he can make me stop my attacks with his own attacks... if that's the case, he's in for a rude awakening. I'm sending 19th Panzer and 304th Infantry to the Italian lines see if I can't cut off that little Soviet bridgehead across the Don (the one they start with) northwest of Boguchan as he's looking to start pouring forces through it. Given his strenght I doubt it's going to happen, but I might be able to sneak it in before the bulk of the SOviet armies there activate. In any case, they'll be part of my delaying force while I happily rip his center to shreds and free von Paulus.

Oh yeah, at the very south of the image you can see a Soviet division bravely crossing the bridge alone... bradenburg unit is going to drop onto the bridge and the division should be dead before the turn is up. Silly suicidal socialists.

All in all, I'm a happy camper. The only flaw in the picture are the supply drain attacks on 6th army. But I've got some supply drain fun for him this turn.

Furocity
17 Mar 04, 23:10
Nice work, looks like your plan is working.

Let me know what you do for a supply drain in case it happens against me :)

Now drive it home :) and save 6th PZ Army

MikeJ
18 Mar 04, 01:52
Well, I started supply-drains on Don Front forces... cleared out all stacks on the front (only green density or less, with the exception being the stalingrad city hexes, which i'm up to yellow density)...

Aside from that, there isn't much else to do. 6th army is too fragile to attack and a fun tactic against supply drain (flood enemy with a swath of broken down units dug in) isn't really an option here...

As it turns out, I changed my plans midstream. I was able to constrict 5TA in the pocket with fewer troops than I thought, so I sent 2 panzer divisions north-west immediately this turn... along with 2 KGs (the ones with rumanian divisions and MPs) and the Rumanian armoured division... I'm eyeballing 3rd guards army (I'd like to cut the entire thing off from supply) but that giant mech corps the Soviets have activating on turn 5 and a few divisions of 2nd guards army are dampening my prospects... going to drive towards the don and fight a mobile defence... and see if I can draw some fire from the Italian front which is going to burst open next turn.

In the meantime I'm going to snuff out that pocket next turn then linkup with Paulus (basically assured at this point) and go to work on the southern flank/don front forces as my primary focus and just clinging for life with the italians.

I love it when a plan comes together. ;)

MikeJ
21 Mar 04, 03:04
Well, I think I have an OV wrapped up. Might be premature to say but 3rd Guards Army is going down and there is nothing significant East of it until Don Front forces.

GunnerC hasn't really done anything with respect to the center except send 2 divisions of 2nd Guards Army.. his attacks on the Italians are making progress, but not much.

All the whitespace in the attachment is to save space on the image size - there's nothing of significance in those areas. Screenshot is after my turn 5. No Little Saturn to my surprise. Will have 3 panzer/motorized divisions + several divisions of supporting infantry to effect a linkup with 6th army on turn 7. Turn 7 is when I'll be making the attack anyways, so I might not linkup until turn 8 or even 9, but I will break out.

Anyways, I probably won't post anymore updates, as this one looks to be over unless he he manages to break 3rd Guards Army out of that pocket, which would take a miracle as I've got about 10-12 divisions surrounding it (granted, about half of those are Rumanian divisions heh).

Seems GunnerC's tactics are... supply drain - supply drain - supply drain - supply drain - supply drain - supply drain - big attack (turn ends). He gains a few hexes here and there and his units are all in mobile status, which is making this a very one-sided fight as I can knock them around like rag dolls if they aren't dug in.

Becker
21 Mar 04, 08:23
thats just brilliant

viridomaros
22 Mar 04, 06:22
i can't beleive it, when you setted up this idea, i had a look at it but i was thinking this was really risky and that the soviet positions were so strong that it was impossible to chose this deployment but i forgot about the shock we have for some turns, i'm sure this is what helped you in doing such a good attack.
as for the normandy game in which you send allies back to the sea, i'm very impressed :p
i think mantis should give you at least one special medal for achieving such a good plan :cool:

MikeJ
22 Mar 04, 08:29
i can't beleive it, when you setted up this idea, i had a look at it but i was thinking this was really risky and that the soviet positions were so strong that it was impossible to chose this deployment but i forgot about the shock we have for some turns, i'm sure this is what helped you in doing such a good attack.

Yep, my initial breakthrough was great. I never planned for 3rd guards Army to go down like this, but my early breakthrough (and my opponent trying to withdraw 5 Tank Army, which dug almost the entire thing out, saving me the hassle) meant I could crush 5TA quickly and with fewer forces than I figured I would need... and I just couldn't pass up all that empty space I had sitting there so it was off to 3rd Guards Army's rear... it feels a bit low though, because 3GA was surrounded before it could even move.


as for the normandy game in which you send allies back to the sea, i'm very impressed :p

That was something that's never going to happen again, I'd imagine. A big fluke :).

MikeJ
15 May 04, 05:19
Opponent conceded on turn 10.

Friendly objectives: 148
Friendly looss penalty: 6

Enemy objectives: 2
Enemy loss penalty: 27

VL: 167, Axis OV.

viridomaros
15 May 04, 05:22
can we have a screenshot of the final situation general mike?
two ov for the axis team :D

MikeJ
15 May 04, 06:43
End game screenies taken at the start of turn 10 (opponent sent turn 9 and conceded).

viridomaros
15 May 04, 07:31
any idea why he gave up
the situation doesn't look too bad for him to what i can see, do you think he was right to give up? if you managed to make your opponent think he was lost that's even better :p
may be you are also a propaganda master:p

MikeJ
15 May 04, 15:12
any idea why he gave up
the situation doesn't look too bad for him to what i can see, do you think he was right to give up? if you managed to make your opponent think he was lost that's even better :p
may be you are also a propaganda master:p

Not really. I think there was plenty of time for him to wait for reconstitution of the 2 armies that were destroyed and start pressing again. But my last attack (the penetration near 6th army) demoralized him I guess. I have about 14 divisions packed into that bulge with the intent of wiping out everything south of Stalingrad and there wasn't much in the way to stop it.