RavenStrike vs Zhukovman

[RavenStrike]

Turn 2 (first combat turn). 3 TO's each. Center deploy, 1st Panzer, Thunderclap.

Luckily managed to get in 7 combat rounds. Air casualties 24-240.

Only did supply soaking on west edge of Stalingrad pocket. First priority is to breakthru the pocket.

Attacked thru center reaching Don River between bridge and Kalach with 57th Corps. Paratroopers took bridge but didn't need to, as 57th Corps got there on their own. 48th Corp protecting left flank where Zhukovman has center deployment. Expect heavy counter-attack from 2nd Guards in center deploy.

17th Corps attacked Russian cavalry in south as a distraction, but managed to push back to near the Aksay River.

F-Pico has railed to Morozovsk to support a possible flank attack on 2nd Guards if they try to break the corridor I've created to Stalingrad (7 hexes wide at the moment). Western Don has no reinforcements at the moment, but then there's lots of ground to give up out there.

May trigger Thunderclap next turn.

[RavenStrike]

I'm envious. You guys are having great success and playing turns left and right. I'm still waiting for turn 2 from my opponent.

[RavenStrike]

Turn 3.

In his turn, looks like he got in 2 rounds. He pushed the Don Army all to the front line around Stalingrad pocket, making most all of his hexs red. His attack left few units dug in, and he gained only one hex. 2nd Guards advanced on my 57th Corps left flank, but no success on their part.

Limited action everywhere except in center. The 57th Corp broke through to the 6th Armee at 2 points north of the river, including road thru Karach. Thunderclap option was chosen and will activate next turn.

Limited attacks all around the encircled 6th Armee had great success. Russian loss counter went from 2 to 21, with 15 divisions evaporating plus a number of regiments. Bad move on his part to stack everything up and attack. :devil: 6th Armee gained 8 hexes around the pocket.

1st Panzer Army arrived, but not enough RR capacity left to move it to the front. Just too many troops coming in to move them all.
Some minor skirmishing in the south, driving him back to the first river.

Turn 3 should open the contact points with the 6th Armee to some large gaps. And then what to do with the 6th Armee after HQ's escape? Several options.

[Furocity]

Nice, I almost took the center option. The key is to get to Kalach before he fortifies it.

I pulled General Von Paulus out of the pocket, also plan to pull the 5 Corp HQs just in case. I lost 1 Corp HQ before I could pull him back, evap on one of his attacks. My opponent unstacked all of his units, and has been hitting the pocket every turn with arty. I just keep digging them back in, and reinforcing where I can.

Good Luck

[RavenStrike]

Turn 4. My opponent has launched Little Saturn, one turn early I think. I have launched Thunderclap.

Between the 57th Panzer from the SW and the 6th Army from the east with the Thunderclap units leading he way, we've opened a 6 hex wide clearing into the pocket, including 2 roads and Kalach. Supplies are flowing in and Von Paulus and his boys are moving out.

The Russian continues to stack up more units (not dug in either) on the pocket perimeter, and we continue to blast away with artillery. Another half dozen rifle divisions evap'ed this turn. There are now 4 other openings in the Russian surround beyond the 6 hex gap mentioned above, with the most significant on the south side.

Plan to get the Paulus and company group out then press the Russians south of the pocket, hoping to eventually wipe out the entire Russian South Front army.

Expecting a big push in the NW, but willing to give up ground there while cutting things down to size in the SE. 2nd Guards are clustered around Oblivskaya, with the 17th Panzer division and 48th Panzer corp flanking to the west and east respectively. After we see the damage from Little Saturn further north, then may launch an attack on 2nd Guards.

Air - 36:102
Loss Penalty - 3:24
Victory level - 171

[RavenStrike]

Turn 5. Little Saturn proved to help the Russians little on their first turn of the offensive. A couple hex advance in the far north against the Italians was all they gained.

Meanwhile, the 6th Army went on the offensive around the pocket. Success in totally clearing the path to the west with 4 roads opened. Paulus and 4 of his Corp commanders are now out of the pocket and heading for the beach.

6th Army has pushed out to the south and the northwest of the pocket. The Don army hardly exists any more. The Russian continuously presses all troops to the front lines, including artillery and ends his turn with few dug-in units. Easy pickings for German artillery.

Next turn tactics are to push further south from Stalingrad and begin to squeeze the Russian Cavalry and Mech Corps in the south. Also plan to launch a pincer attack against the 2nd Guards army now stationed around Oblivskaya, using the 48th, 17th and 3rd Panzers from east to west. Much of that depends on the degree of success had by the Russians pushing thru farther up north.

Air 9:70
loss ratio 3:30
Victory level 177

[RavenStrike]

Turn 6.

Russian making some minor advances in the far NW and far SE. Otherwise, no success with any attacks.

6th Armee flooding out of the pocket on the offensive to the south and NE. Paulus and Corp commanders have reached safety near Lissinki. Major gains made in the south as the Russian SE Army is falling away. 6th Armee has reached the Myshcova River, trapping four Russian divisions in a pocket to their west.

Pincer operation begun on either side of 2nd Guards army against elements of 5TA Rifle Corp and 8th Cav Corp. Hope to trap 2nd Guards in a couple of turns unless they beat a hasty retreat, in which case we will gain a large amount of territory west of original pocket. Doubt opponent will retreat, as tactics so far are to push everything to the front lines, leaving no reserve in the rear areas.

Tried to send a screen shot, but it's too big and exceeds the WarfareHQ upload size limit.

Air 7:64
Loss penalty 4:33
Victory level 179

[MikeJ]

Nice job. Let us know how bad pestilence is affected 6th army (or if you can even tell).


Tried to send a screen shot, but it's too big and exceeds the WarfareHQ upload size limit.

You'll need to convert it to a JPG first, with heavy compression.

[RavenStrike]

Turn 7.

Russians continue to push on the extreme left and right flanks. Their best success is against the Italians where they've progressed 15-20 km total. However, the Italians are in shambles. But we had sufficient time to build a second line of defense in front of Chertkova using the 27th Panzer Div, 385 Inf Div and 3rd Gebirg Division.

Pincer operation on 2nd Guards Army has begun. Unless they begin withdrawl this turn or next, it wil be too late as their speed will not allow them to escape the noose.

6th Armee continues to make progress to the south and now the NE and east. They are now only 25 km from the rear of the SE Army's lines. Several 6th Armee units are also heading east to the Russian supply depots.

No sign of pestilence. But I may not notice it as I've not played a scenario involving it as yet.

My screen shot is JPG, but can't seem to get the thing compressed.

Loss penalty 4:34
Air losses 16:52
Victory level 180

[RavenStrike]

PS...

News said that the Russians had just received major reinforcements. Haven't played the scenario in hot seat, so don't know where these boys are coming from. Any help? :o

[MikeJ]

Without actually knowing try this:

http://www.homeplansoftware.com/imgconv.htm

It's free and it should allow you to set compression of JPG conversions. I use ACDSee myself, but only because I have a license.. the trial versions of it are kind of annoying to use but would get the job done..

Pestilence won't kick in until about turn 8 or 9... my opponent is away for most of April so I'm stuck on turn 7.. I'm curious if the pestilence will be noticable.

The news string Russians Receive Major reinforcements, I believe refers to the Don Front reinforcements from the "use don front reinforcements elsewhere" TO.

If I'm not mistaken, it's mainly artillery (but a lot of it).

IIRC it includes 6 units of Katyusha launchers, each of which have a TOAW in-game attack strength of 20ish (that's with low supply and readiness). I believe it also includes some heavy artillery (weak in terms of in-game strength ratings, but it's large caliber will aid in digging out).

Basically, if you thought Russian artillery was bad now, wait a few turns until he lugs those to the frontline...

[RavenStrike]

MikeJ - thanx for the intel. If its only artillery that won't be too bad. My opponent really doesn't use artillery well. Always runs it right to the front line and then uses it to make a direct attack. Never seems to spread it out over the battlefield as indirect fire, and it's left in mobile status at the end of his turn so doesn't help him much in defense and becomes easy to overrun.

I'll try the screen shot software. I'm now using something that General Staff found for me, but I'm probably not using it correctly.

I'll keep my eye out for the pestilence and let you know.

[MikeJ]

My opponent really doesn't use artillery well. Always runs it right to the front line and then uses it to make a direct attack. Never seems to spread it out over the battlefield as indirect fire, and it's left in mobile status at the end of his turn so doesn't help him much in defense and becomes easy to overrun.

Lucky you. Infantry wouldn't stand much of a chance against that kind of artillery concentrated. I'm going to make a point of trying to hit them with air/arty if I can, or even attack them if they're close enough to the front.

I'll try the screen shot software. I'm now using something that General Staff found for me, but I'm probably not using it correctly.

Does it output the files directly into JPG format? If so, check the options to see if you can increase compression, if not - scrap it and use ALT+Print Screen.

That will dump the entire TOAW window into the clipboard (TOAW must have windows focus when you press alt-printscreen). Open up Paint and paste. Your image will show up there. You can trim it (eg cut out only the parts you want to show and remove the excess stuff to save space) and do whatever else then save it as a BMP (paint doesnt convert, if you just save it with a .jpg extension it will still be a bitmap).

After you have the bitmap, take any image converter tool and convert it to a JPG with maximum compression..it should still look okay.

That's what I do anyways.

[RavenStrike]

Some screenshots of my game, courtesy of General Staff.

[RavenStrike]

Turn 8.

Russians are pouring thru in the far north, capturing their first VP's at Kantrimirokova. Italians are being cut to ribbons. Three German divisions and a 4th in reserve are in defensive positions north of Chertkovo. Hope that is sufficient as this looks like a lot of Russian units heading south.

Pincer around the 2nd Guards is closing. Russian moved some units north, but not the slower ones. Operation looks promising at the moment.

Don Army is almost non-existant. No combat units left to the east of the original pocket and only a handful to the south. North side is being reinforced with new arrivals. Seems to be units from STAVKA reserve arriving at Kamyshin and farther north. Includes at least 3 armored, 4 heavy artillery, 2 anti-tank and 3 rocket units. Serious stuff.

Russian South Front Army is making some headway against Rumanians in far SE, but rest of that Army is being sandwiched between 6th Armee moving down from the north and the 306 Inf Div and 24th Panzer Corp dug-in in the south. The 6th Armee has become an offensive weapon.

loss penalty 5:37
air losses 18:97
victory level 178

[RavenStrike]

Bad news. Someone has been instructing Z-man on how to play this game. Last turn he pulled back most of his artillery from the front lines, and he dug in a lot of his troops after combat. This game just got a lot harder. Not enough time to play my turn 9 until after Easter. More then.

[RavenStrike]

Turn 9.

NW Italians are collapsing. Nothing much left of them from top of map to Boguchan. Have 3 German divisions 10 kms south of Italians and one in reserve. We'll see if they can hold the line a little better.

Pincer operation on 2nd Guards looks to be a success. About 80% of 2nd Guards are trapped just N of Oblivskaya. Should be able to eliminate over next 2 turns.

All Corp commanders and Paulus from 6th Armee have fully escaped.
Rest of 6th Armee has built a northern defense of pocket, while attacking to the south and driving the Russian South Front army toward my dug in troops near the southern start line. 6th Armee units also driving east on both sides of the Volga planning to take both supply points in next turn or two.

Russian counter-attack this turn may be more successful than before as he has better tactics now. (See note above.)

Loss penalty - 6:40
Air losses - 10:76
Victory level - 180

[RavenStrike]

Good news, the Russians have surrendered !! :surprise:

Now the question is, do we accept surrenders at turn 9 in a tournament like this? Commander ?

[RavenStrike]

It would appear that this match is over. Z-man has surrendered and it looks as though there will be no sub replacement.

[RavenStrike]

Game is back on. Tiberius has taken over for Zhukovman and the Russian tactics have improved immeasurably.

It's probably too late for the 2nd Guards (surrounded) and the Russian Southern Army (cut off from the outside world), but my western flank Italians have totally crumbled. Now the take of defending the west falls to the 4 German divisions placed about 20 kms to the south of the Italians.

Loss penalty 6:39
Air losses 7:40
Victory level 175

[RavenStrike]

Game is over again. Tiberius has surrendered after this last turn. He has his own game to play now and didn't like the looks of this one. I do believe that a competent Russian has the chance to make this a Marginal Defeat if they stuck it out and drove hard on my left flank, but looks like we'll never know.

Good luck to the rest of you Commanders.

[viridomaros]

Game is over again. Tiberius has surrendered after this last turn. He has his own game to play now and didn't like the looks of this one. I do believe that a competent Russian has the chance to make this a Marginal Defeat if they stuck it out and drove hard on my left flank, but looks like we'll never know.

Good luck to the rest of you Commanders.
good job ;)
i can already say i won't do as good as you did