EA Heldenkaiser (Allies) vs. Telumar (Axis)

Secadegas

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

I am digging and I avoid moving whenever possible, but lately it hasn't been possible, mostly, and 2-2 units don't seem to do much digging. Even with an engineer unit in the same hex I seem to be very lucky when I get 10%, and usually it's much less. 2-3% in the open don't seem to be making much difference.
I'm not following you on those percentages

The entrenchement % of each hex doesn't count for defence (unless for proper fortified hex's). Those percentages are only relevant for the speed on which unit's entrechement level can increase. What counts for defence is the entrechemt of each unit - dig-in, entrenched or fortified.
 

Heldenkaiser

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

The entrenchement % of each hex doesn't count for defence (unless for proper fortified hex's). Those percentages are only relevant for the speed on which unit's entrechement level can increase. What counts for defence is the entrechemt of each unit - dig-in, entrenched or fortified.
Really? I didn't know that. I always thought the percentage was relevant and the letters D/E/F were just approximations.
 

vodkaferret

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

Really? I didn't know that. I always thought the percentage was relevant and the letters D/E/F were just approximations.
And I thought they were cumulative in some way - D in a 90% hex would be better than E in a 10%, for example.

It's good there are people on this forum who understand how the game actually works - thanks Secadegas :)
 

ogar

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

Well, you're all smarter than me - I started off wrong (thought the % mattered more than D/E/F), got corrected, and (repeatedly !) forget the lesson. There's just something about that little 12% entrenched message that makes me think 'dig in some more, even though you're at F'.

One more time, Secadegas is correct - in combat, the D/E/F are the modifiers. There's a great little chart in the 3.4 What's New pdf outlining these effects in different sort of terrains. I suppose I should staple the chart to my own forehead, but then I'd forget after a while...

Entrench % has 2 minor effects - a) as Secadegas wrote, a higher % increases the unit's chance to go from D->E->F and b) a higher % does aid in surviving bombardment effects, both stand-alone and as part of a ground assault. That " 1234 kg/min suppress entrenchment level in hex 45,67 by 12%". And that survival helps the unit from being bounced out of D/E/F.

@Heldenkaiser,
just my two cents, but shouldn't some of those units around Maikopf and Astrakhan be GTFO-ing Dodge ? Leaving some others to slow and grind down the attackers ?
(Feel free to remind me of my own slowness in getting off the Volkhov when my opponent broke through both flanks of that fortified line.)
 

Ruppich

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

Sorry for hijacking this thread for another D/E/F question?
Did the mechanics change since TOAW 3.0.0.0 ?
I have a PBEM going and we are playing a scenario that seems "builded" under 3.0.0.0 circumstances.
Everytime i press d the unit is going from "D" to "E" or from "E" to "F".
I Dont see any chances it just always happens. Is this intended in this way?
We have some sort of stalement in turn 10 because EVERYTHINK is in F mode.
The scenario is the italian campaign 43-45.
 

ogar

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Re: Allied Turn 161 / 26th July 1942

@Ruppich,

I suspect it's a combination of the default entrenchment rate, plus some other defaults, and the terrain.
I'd suggest a house rule - no digging in/entrench/fort without an engineer/pionier/bau battalion in hex, and that eng. unit must dig in as well.

I _could_ go on for pages about 'what about to be done about modeling this campaign', but I'll spare everyone else. Could not email you directly on this, but if you want to continue the discussion, send me an email via my Matrix profile.
 

Heldenkaiser

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Axis Turn 162 / 2nd August 1942

Stefan continues his psychological warfare and says his early turn end saved my from catastrophy. Might well be. Airborne landings deep behind my front (why can they air transport and we can't?) combine with vicious attacks against my flanks (of which the crucial one south of Rostov, fortunately, fails) to nearly encircle my troops on the former Kuban front. Might still happen next turn, but this turn, indeed, we got lucky.
View attachment 36932
 

Heldenkaiser

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Allied Turn 162 / 2nd August 1942

It's not easy to describe and confusing enough to mess up a map as well, but I am trying at the same time to
1) collapse the Kuban pocket without breaking into a general rout, i.e. while keeping defensible lines;
2) ditto with the Terek pocket;
3) move a mobile force forward S/SW from Stalingrad to contain or even prevent the Germans from prying the two parts of my front further apart;
4) trap and eliminate the AB divisions along the Manych (one evaporates this turn) by catching them between my units retreating from the Kuban and those advancing from the Don.
There is really not any definable front or rear here right now. And I hope that the Donets front holds, or all this here is quite pointless.
Someone said earlier the Germans wouldn't find it so easy to advance quickly into Allied-held territory. But they seem to be doing fine. Compared with the 4 to 6 MP my infantry corps have as a rule, the German units are quite mobile enough to outrun us even while converting ground to their control.
View attachment 36972
 

medck

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Re: Allied Turn 162 / 2nd August 1942

Killing those AB units will be a real bonus for you since they can't airdrop once they reconstitute. From the looks of things, the other two AB are toast. And it looks like you have a decent space for withdrawal from the Kuban and Terek pockets for now.
 

Heldenkaiser

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Axis Turn 163 / 9th August 1942

Well, it's looking worse by the week. Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland, a fresh 29-21 (!) monster, RBCs (!) its way through the lower Donets front and pushes everything before it right to the Don at Kalach. I sort of dreaded this to happen when I moved south from Stalingrad last turn to rescue army group Kuban, but I wouldn't have expected it to be so bad so quickly. Now the rescuers are trapped in an even larger kessel, cutting off everything south of Kalach/Stalingrad, and that's not even the worst part: There is nothing, literally nothing left to lengthen the front to keep the panzers from moving north right into my rear. Come to think of it, even if there were, this turn has proven that my completely worn down defenders can no longer stop the Supergermans. And there are more such monsters coming up against the Terek pocket too.
View attachment 37067
 

Heldenkaiser

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Re: Axis Turn 163 / 9th August 1942

Remember how thin he's spread out :)
Only in absolute terms. Comparatively speaking, he's thin, but I'm thinner. Strength-wise one of his corps concentrates in one hex the power I have to spread over 5 or 6. Besides, what good does it do me? I just don't have the units to plug this gap, nor even to put something in his path. And I have never yet had the power to actually fight back.

I am thinking about accepting the kessel. It's huge, it may survive until things change, if they ever do.
 

Heldenkaiser

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Allied Turn 163 / 9th August 1942

To say the situation is chaotic would be the understatement of the war. The whole southern front is moving would be a better statement, except there is no longer a southern front. We've got two huge pockets trying to move generally NE towards friendly lines would also be a good, if slightly confusing description, except where they are moving to there are no longer any friendly lines. Have a look at the map, maybe. Grossdeutschland at Kalach and 1/2 of Panzergruppe Afrika due S of Stalingrad are only 8 hexes apart. And there are presently no forces to block the Don at Kalach against a crossing, once they bring engineers up, although reinforcements have been withdrawn from the NW front near the Baltic and everywhere else where units not directly in the front line were sitting on a RR. And there are absolutely no forces to close the gap between the lower Volga and the eastern end of my front south of Stalingrad. In fact I am glad I managed to have a front there, but it only extends to the marshes, and rembering the Pripet marshes I am not sure these ones will hold the Germans. But maybe they'll slow them.

We surrounded and destroyed 22 Flieger and surrounded and badly damaged the airborne mountain troops (!) as well as the one-half of Panzergruppe Afrika, but could not take them out, which would have been most welcome. The good news is that the Germans have diverted their attention away from the Terek pocket towards the N, but then so would I. If they close the huge pocket, we're done for.
View attachment 37092
 

Secadegas

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Re: Allied Turn 163 / 9th August 1942

Good picture. Nail biting game.

The race for Stalingrad is on... who will arrive first? Your reinforcements from Northeast or his forces reaching the Don?
 

Heldenkaiser

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Axis Turn 164 / 16th August 1942

My troops no longer seem to offer any serious resistance. The kessel is nearly closed. It hangs by a thread running through Stalingrad, but Panzergruppe Afrika is about to put the stopper in the bottle. It's only four hexes from the city.
View attachment 37144
 

vodkaferret

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for the first time all war I'm actually a little worried for ya.

Only a little though - it's 8 more turns till the Axis shock ends, and his chances of taking Moscow are slim, so you're not going to lose outright... just a question of whether you'll have time and power to take back what he's won before '45, or if he can hold onto Poland and chunks of the East.

Would help if those imaginary Americans joined in at some point.

But yeah, things are as grim as they've looked all war for you....
 

Heldenkaiser

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Allied Turn 164 / 16th August 1942

Willy-nilly I have decided to accept the huge pocket, for so many units along the lower Don were routed that I could not keep a corridor open without sacrificing the chance to take out the cut-off German airborne and mountain division and reinforce Stalingrad with some mobile units from the pocket, which seemed more important in the long run. Surprisingly, all my breakout attacks this turn worked, and I eliminated the trapped German units. The Terek pocket is again connected with Astrakhan.
View attachment 37175
 

Heldenkaiser

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Re: Allied Turn 162 / 2nd August 1942

As one of the major goofs of this war (and there were many) I just managed to send Stefan the map sketch just posted here instead of the turn. :(
 
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