EA Heldenkaiser (Allies) vs. Telumar (Axis)

[Heldenkaiser]

Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Space for time is fine; troops for time is not so good. I've still got more of the former than of the latter.

Particularly since this turn the Axis didn't make a lot of headway. Most of their movement was filling up space I had already vacated, primarily between the Elbrus and Maikop. Since there is so little to show, here's a larger picture for a change.

View attachment 36064

Apart from partisans in Yugoslavia, this is the entire war right now. Outside this map nothing has been moving in ages ...

 

[Mark Stevens]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Hopefully I've missed it, but did the USA ever join in?

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Hopefully I've missed it, but did the USA ever join in?

Nope. I don't think they even exist. The whole country is merely capitalist propaganda.

 

[Mark Stevens]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Nope. I don't think they even exist. The whole country is merely capitalist propaganda.

There is a backstop built in, so the US WILL enter the war at some point, even if all the US Variable Entry Events fail to trigger, but I realise that it's been a long wait. :lier:

I've never seen the scenario go for so long without it happening.

 

[medck]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

You're doing extremely well without the mysterious Yanks....

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Allied Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Plugging the gap in the Caucasus/Kuban front is now more or less finished. One 44 Army corps cut off south of the mountains breaks out in a Kamikaze attack and chases Army Group D HQ almost into Tbilisi. A pity TOAW doesn't really simulate the chain-of-command. That AG would be hors de combat for a week ...
On the Donets front containing the Axis penetration as usual. To my surprise all troops in five forward hexes both sides of Stalino withdraw without any more damage than XVII Mech ending up "retreated" two hexes E of Stalino. The one thing that doesn't work is getting the guys west of the Mius back over the river, in spite of an engineer unit in the crucial river hex. That also means that in spite of sending even more forces down from the Kharkov front I end up somewhat short of units to really bolster the southern end of the front against a breakthrough either towards Taganrog or Voroshilov, both meaning that I would end up with a lot of good units cut off with their backs to the Don <shudder>. As I said earlier, I am somewhat running out of units as the front gets longer and longer and the corps weaker and weaker ...
View attachment 36120View attachment 36119

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Axis Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

It's getting ugly on both fronts ... see the maps.
View attachment 36239View attachment 36240
Very economical too, as encirclements go.

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Allied Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

As always I elect to not fight the Supergermans if I can avoid it. In the Caucasus I can, and just try to slip out as many units as possible from the forming pocket. At Stalino in the Ukraine I can't, so the inconveniently large bunch of trapped units is trying to fight its way out, supported by an armoured relief attack from the SE and three bomber wings. Only one infantry corps succeeds. I find it slightly illogical that the other units cannot advance into the gap once it's opened just because they "broke off the attack" earlier. They are not asked to fight any more, just to march. If the unit that has fought to the end can do that, surely can they who must be in better shape? Of course that gap won't remain open after the Supergermans have had their say about it. As an added inconvenience, Stalino is a replacement city, so I have reinforcements appearing in the pocket. Just to be sure, this turn's reinforcements was a bunch of HQs. What the hell do I need HQs for? I need fighting units. :angry: Right now I am throwing everything that can fight into the way of the German thrust for Rostov, to little avail. Fortunately, at least, I got most of the units almost trapped on the lower Mius back to the main frontline by way of Taganrog.
View attachment 36256View attachment 36257

 

[Mark Stevens]

Re: Allied Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

What the hell do I need HQs for?

To enhance supply and traffic control for the eventual counter-attack that will drive the Fascist beast back to its lair. Probably.

 

[Secadegas]

Re: Allied Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

What the hell do I need HQs for?

To enhance supply and traffic control for the eventual counter-attack that will drive the Fascist beast back to its lair. Probably.

and most helpfull in disengaging ops

 

[medck]

Re: Allied Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

AAs an added inconvenience, Stalino is a replacement city, so I have reinforcements appearing in the pocket. Just to be sure, this turn's reinforcements was a bunch of HQs.

well, if you can re-open the pocket, that might help sneak a few non-HQs out.

But a more important question: what is the ratio of reconstituted vs evaporated units in the past few turns?

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Re: Allied Turn 158 / 5th July 1942

But a more important question: what is the ratio of reconstituted vs evaporated units in the past few turns?

I had very little of either I think. Not a lot of evaporations overall, except where units were cut off completely.

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

A new turn from Stefan ... but I more and more dread opening them. The email boasts that the Germans are "before the gates of Rostov." Bloody hell.

 

[Secadegas]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

A new turn from Stefan ... but I more and more dread opening them. The email boasts that the Germans are "before the gates of Rostov." Bloody hell.

There will be the time when Telu will more and more dread...

Under 3.4 EA's Allies can't lose. Pity but a fact....


PS: If you want a chance to lose move to Veers new version.

 

[AdrianE]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Under 3.4 EA's Allies can't lose. Pity but a fact....

That's actually quite accurate and historical. I'm interested to see how the allies in this scenario prevail over what can only be described as fantasy axis OB options.

 

[Secadegas]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

I'm not following you on "fantasy axis OB options"... sorry i'm a bit "thick"...

 

[Heldenkaiser]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Under 3.4 EA's Allies can't lose. Pity but a fact....

I grant you that there is a reasonable chance for Russia to survive. But to actually defeat the Supergermans? With the defensive this strong, and their troops more numerous, stronger, and much more experienced?

 

[Secadegas]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

I grant you that there is a reasonable chance for Russia to survive. But to actually defeat the Supergermans? With the defensive this strong, and their troops more numerous, stronger, and much more experienced?

German aren't more numerous. German units are however more powerfull (as their were in reality).

But...

PZIII F - backbone of most German PZ Corps - last replacement is available on turn 92
Heavy rifle squad - backbone of most German Inf Corps - last replacement is available on turn 223

"backbone" means... without this type of equiment available units don't reconstitute. German are experienced and powerfull but they don't reconstitute when Soviets are at their best (in number and proficiency). Plus US armies... The whole situation surely "rings a bell" to anyone knowing at least a bit about WWII.

Both Soviet and US essential equipment replacements are "limitless". This is the factor what wins long wars, isn't it?

EA is pretty realistic / historical on its design - the reason i (and others...) love it - but 3.4 version (and its "untested" combat results) just took the Germans the change of winning the war soon - 1941 /1942.
After those earlier stages we all know that would be impossible the Germans to win...

However imho New Veers 2012 version is a sound effort to restore some of EA's initial WWII Europe simulation capacity.

 

[AdrianE]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

I'm not following you on "fantasy axis OB options"... sorry i'm a bit "thick"...

Read "Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze. At least twice because there is a lot of stuff in there. Then you will understand that there is no way the German economy could have supported what we are seeing in this scenario.

Read anything on logistics in WWII. Army Group Center could not be properly supplied and they had a double track line running Smolensk - Warsaw- Berlin. This game has a bigger army group in the Caucauses. The Turkish rail system could not support this army.

Food was the compelling issue for Spain joining the Axis. They were getting the food they needed from the Commonwealth (Canada via the UK). Germany had a shortage of food. There is no way the Germans could make up for the food that was coming from the Allies to Spain. Hence there is no way Spain would have ever joined the Axis.

 

[Mark Stevens]

Re: Axis Turn 157 / 28th June 1942

Hi Adrian

Not just defending my own monster, but surely - by your logic - there's "no way" that the nations of Europe would ever have plunged themselves into a terrible, destructive war, that killed millions and wrecked all their economies for a generation? Or that the French would have spent a goodly portion of their annual defence budget over several years on the Maginot Line in order that a small force of ten armoured divisions would pop round its northern flank and completely undermine it? Nations at, or contemplating, war don't always act logically. Being more specific I think there is compelling evidence that Franco, had he been promised the German support that he asked for, and the political concessions in North Africa, might well have joined the Axis, particularly when Germany's success was at its height. And once he was in, and all the promised supplies didn't arrive, what would he have done? Told the Allies that he hadn't received the full amount of grain he'd been promised and so he was calling it all off? More generally, extra railway tracks could have been built, ports constructed, production switched to different priorities, etc, if the strategic imperatives had demanded it. I've lost this scenario enough times as the Germans to know that they're not invincible. Telumar has done better in some areas than historically, but he's actually far less forward in the USSR than in reality. So has he theoretically diverted more equipment and supplies to the Balkans and Turkey? Has the Organisation Todt built more railroads in Turkey, and the Germans ruthlessly confiscated food at the expense of the population?

The game's very far from perfect, and some players are still trying hard to improve it, but you understand the general argument. I do agree that with the German failure before Moscow, the continued survival of the British Commonwealth and Empire, and the entry of the USA, the Axis was doomed to lose eventually. If nothing else, a couple of nukes on Berlin and the Ruhr in 1946 would have finished things in very short order.

With these alternative history scenarios a certain suspension of belief is required, but a 'fantasy'?