Yes, I would love to post a chapter myself about last session (I was German commander of the East) but I lack the screenshots and didn't take saves. If any of the players has some savegames to share that would be awesome!
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Very interesting - even more so working backwards through the implications of even offhand side comments. Like Gibraltar bottling up Allied ships in Tangier, submarine strategy, and the Soviet defensive/counterattacking and withdrawal operations that end up with some useful scorched earth barriers in the Ukraine. Very nice.
I expect you know how to get the best that can be gotten out of automation - at speed 1, how much automation of units is used vs. straight manual control?
I expect you know how to get the best that can be gotten out of automation - at speed 1, how much automation of units is used vs. straight manual control?
None for most countries.
As Soviets i have done AI for Far East and other secondary theatres as 800 divisions was too much to control, but that would exception.
Submarines AI is pretty reasonable, so could be AIed if needed too.
At speed 1 you generally can manage most things properly. As Italy I have keep eye on East too, where I do sometimes react more slowly but attack indicator is very useful to see all hot spots.
As Soviets i have done AI for Far East and other secondary theatres as 800 divisions was too much to control, but that would exception.
Submarines AI is pretty reasonable, so could be AIed if needed too.
At speed 1 you generally can manage most things properly. As Italy I have keep eye on East too, where I do sometimes react more slowly but attack indicator is very useful to see all hot spots.
Barbarossa Addendum, Part 1
After an attempted murder to the life of the Führer, he called me to take charge of the Eastern front, as his injuries were hindering his ability to lead the enourmous numbers of German divisions all by itself (with only one hand available, the West front and the Luftwaffe are big enough!).
This is the situation as I saw it as I took charge of my front: (don't look at where all non German units are moving, all these screenshots where taken from savefiles)
In the East, Germany is stuck on the Dniepr-Daugava riverline, in the West, the allies have liberated France, Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg and and started to move into German soil.
Even if the frontline situation doesn't look very good, Germany still owns a very large force, with a huge tank army and very big Luftwaffe. It is only a matter of using it effectively.
I will only cover the Eastern front and try not to spoiler anything of what's happening in the West. This is the situation of my front as I found it:
Our forces look very solid, the biggest problem is that the previous assaults on the most vulnerable part of the Soviet line were repelled leaving the infrastructure down to 0, other places have to be found for future attacks.
This is the initial situation of the Northern front:
The ongoing attack on Daugavpils (1) is going good. A victory is expected but the infrastructure is already down to 0. An advance here, however, would make it possible to attack Dagda and get a solid bridghead
In the Dominikovo-Drozdy bridgehead (2) German forces are about to be pushed back. Drozdy has 0 remaining infrastructure and Dominikovo is too exposed to Soviet counterattacks. There is no way Germany can exploit this bridgehead, a retreat is ordered before further damage is done to the infrastructure
In the Vitsyebsk-Dobrouna area (3) The two provinces are devastated by the continous fighting. However an attack for the ruins of Vitsyebsk is still ongoing as the city is deemed to be one of the most important strongholds of the Eastern front
This is the initial situation of the Central front:
Not much fighting occurred here, some provinces on the German side have low infra but it's not a big problem.
And this is the initial situation of the Southern front:
Here the infrastructure is devastated, the Soviet opposition is very strong and there is little to no room for allied initiative. The control of the front is split with Italy (controlling the axis minors troops), in an I'd say not optimal configuration. However Italy can't exped those troops to Germany due to the rule on German Destiny bonus (they would get Germany's bonus as well) and Germany doesn't want to give Italy their troops (they'd lose the bonus and we don't want that)
Given the situation I decided that the Central front was the theatre where we had same the best remaining chances of a breakthrough. After the first probing engagements it was clear that the Soviet player was relying on what I think it's called and elastic defence strategy: as soon as a province is attacked all the units from the nearby pronvinces start converging on this. At first the soviet units lose org very fast and they need to rotate a big number of divisions in order not to lose the province, however as soon as the art/at infantry and their tank reserves reach the province (already well protected by the river), the battle becomes very hard and slow. It doesn't even matter who wins, because the infra is going down to 0 before Germany can take the province.
The only one strategy I could come up with to counter the Soviet Defence was an attack across a wider continous section of the line so that the Soviet forces couldn't do their "squeeze box" movement that easily. There are two areas of the front still suitable for such attack, both in the center theatre:
The Northern one is the Chavusy-Chachersk line:
The Southern one is the Brovary-Voznesenske line.
As much as I would have loved to attack both at the same time I didn't like the idea of Romania taking the territory in case of a breakthrough in the South. Also, I liked the Northern line much more as it was in a more meaningfull (closer to Moscow) strategic position, the provinces were more exposed (possible directions of attack) and a beachead would be protected by the other river so it would have been more difficult to counter. So I decided to have a larger troops concentration here and only attack Brovary in the South (which is pretty exposed) as a secondary attack.
This was the plan. The reality was that there weren't enough troops closer to the attack site, a large redeployment of forces from the Southern theatre had to be undertaken in order to have enough troops in place. In the meantime the war was still going on and we didn't want the Soviets to feel too safe and make the plan obvious, So an attack on Brovary was started while the other two in the North (Daugavpils and Vitsyebsk) were still going. I have no screenshot of this battle but, promising at first, it slowly turned down to a meatgrinder as the soviets managed to get tanks in there. The attack was canceled before the infra got damaged too badly and it was considered a failure, but it gave me very good intel about the Soviet reinforcement strategy.
In the meantime, in the North:
Daugavpils was taken after a huge battle. After that Dagda was also taken but a powerful Soviet counterattack came and drove us out of it, They were happy to leave Daugavpils to us with 0 infra and send their troops to other places while our troops were exausted and needed to recover.
Finally the big attack came: a huge offensive along the Chavusy-Chachersk line, supported by two secondary (but powerful) attacks on Vitsyebsk in the North and Brovary in the South. The two secondary attacks failed badly once again. Brovary was actually taken but we were driven back by a counterattack. However those skirmishes tied down enought Soviet divisions long enough to accomplish a much needed advance in the center
The infrastructure took a hit but was still holding good enough, transport planes would do the rest
The Battle of Khislavichi was the key to accomplish a breakthrough. It would have allowed us to come out of the bottleneck between the to rivers. Behind it, only open plains...
The battle was looking good. All the Soviet forces in the aerea are badly beaten by the 1:1 fighting against the Germans. Their only green forces are currently trying to counter the German forces in Monastirichy (North of Khislavichi) to prevent a complete breakthrough. Monastirichy is well protected and for once the usually devastating Soviet counterattack is quite ineffective. If they don't do anything they are going to be in trouble when those heavy tanks will be free to move around
...
To be continued
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Battle for Western Europe, part 1
Middle of March the new reached us that the Allied invasion in Europe started. This was about at the same time as the first German-Russian battles occured. German and Italian units quickly retreated to defensive lines. Though, some German units already were in position because we expected the invasion to be launched around this time. The few German GAR + MP divisions were retreated to save area and will now conduct anti-partisan operations in Poland and Soviet Union.
The Allies invaded with a massive force of infantry and about 20-25 armoured divisions, of which some are Americans! Admiral Callan found spare IC to build some tanks and now throws them at us. We will make sure he will have to pay for this! Italian and German units formed a line at good defensive positions in Western German and France.
Allies quickly marched forward and libetated The Netherlands, Belgium and France. The Allies stacked a huge number of units near the Ruhr area and we were initially fairly weak there. We quickly send in additional troops and make sure it wouldn't fall. Also our newly build HARM was ready and some of those divisions were deployed in the west. Ikarares, leading the assault on the Axis, tried to attack Düsseldorf, but he noticed quickly his attack wouldn't succeed and he cancelled it. First victory was ours!
The southern line was the responsibility of the Italians. Traks did build a lot of troops and thus can cover large area's. He send in a lot of stuff for the west and it looks good so far. Ikar send down some armoured divisions but they didn't have proper back up and Traks noticed this. He attacked the few armoured divisions with a fairly huge force.. it doesn't look good for those panzers when they don't receive back up. But reinforcements are on it's way. Question is, can the armoured divisions be destroyed before the back up arrives...
Italians almost destroyed Allied armour, but reinforcements of Allies arrived on time..
The Allied reinforcements arrived and the Allies pushed us from north to south back to the Ems, Ruhr Area, Rhine and Alps. We build up a strong line. Estimates were that around 70+ Allied divisions were in France, Belgium and Holland now; later American infantry units arrived increasing that number. We reinforced our line and planned to destroy large amount of Allied divisions and neutralize their threat. We gather around 130 divisions, of which 70% was Italian. The German units should make the breakthrough, while Italians hold the line. The first attack to shorten our line was made from the Ruhr Area into the Netherlands. We pushed the Allies back to the river lines in Holland.
Poor Allied divisions losing loads of men in battles against our superior forces. Look at their strength!
After shorten our line there, we could send some additional units to the former Maginot Line, where Allied units were stationed. Now, once again, Wissembourg was the place to break Ikars defense. Our mighty heavy armour divisions, supported by medium armour and several infantry divisions broke easily through the lines and with the Italians moving right behind us, there was no possibility for the Allies to counterattack even for a bit. We kept moving forward, pushed the Allies back from river to river.
Wissembourg..
Selestat..
They were unable to hold the lines for a bit if we made serious attacks. Some attacks to distract him were made. These attacks were intentionally lost to give Allies the feeling they could hold and keep their positions. We designed a quick MOT AC AC divisions to exploit gaps when we had to. In the south we brought in some strong armoured division that would make a breakthrough to the north. With the Allies holding still the southern Maginot Line and Switzerland, we saw a great moment to encircle a large amount of Allied units, including panzer divisions. We pushed with our main attack from the north to the south in the direction of Switzerland, while our armoured divisions out there attack Lausanne and went north. Thanks to our well designed MOT AC AC divisions we could close the gap and strat redeploy stronger units into the province. Immediately after that quick divisions overran two Allied infantry that tried to escape to Western France. With the gap close we noticed we caught a huge Allied army. Estimates are around 25 divisions were in the gap, including about 10 armoured divisions. Another small gap close to it made it possible to destroy another few units, including two armoured divisions. We then quickly pushed forward, Italy destroyed a mountaineers units in the Italian-French Alps and we pushed the Allies back to Belgium, while in the big push we destroyed several infantry units.
All encircled red units were destroyed..
In Belgium we quickly took down the initial defensive line near Bruxelles and the Allies retreated behind the river line. At that point we ended the sessions and with 70 Allied divisions in Netherlands camping the river lines. They are surrounded by a large Axis army that neutralizes any threat at this point…
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posted a chapter (a few post up). Don't have time for a grammar check now... If you care about it, wait a bit to read!
Italy, land of Ferraris and Tactical Bombers
First, some thoughts.
Italy can be played in many ways. It can mind their own business in Balkans, it can attack all the neutrals it sees or it can agree on most actions with their faction leader. If Germany listens, last option I believe is best.
To increase Axis as a team chances in defeating all the enemies, overall Axis strategy needs to be discussed before game. With limited Italian research they can be really good at maximum 3 branches. Even then, corners has to be cut whenever possible, making Italy overall less specialized. It is good when Italy can support efforts of Germany strongly, so after discussion with Germany player it was decided that Italy will make Tactical and Naval bombers for Axis, so Germany could save research, IC and would not need to worry about practicals while making reasonably big army for defense and some offense. Defense of European skies would fall completely on German shoulders. Overall it was decided that 12 TAC bombers is what Italy can afford to provide to Axis cause, to be ready by Danzig. That did mean some shortcuts with troop equipment. Not WW1 rifles, but no tank divisions or fancy artillery and very limited antitank attachments.
Rest of IC would go to troops, mostly infantry. No naval buildup, as water would be covered with existing NAVs and German CAS, doing most of fighting on land instead.
Another big question for Italy - Africa or no Africa. Due to easy landings behind lines, it is very risky proposal for Italy and it's "All or nothing" affair, meaning Italy needs to send huge forces to have any chance of success or abandon Africa completely. In this case it was decided to leave Africa to Brits and concentrate on European theatre instead.
Italian progress until end of 1939 met all goals given to her industry, providing 12 TACs, and following army on 1.1.1940:
Officer ratio also had to be sacrificed somewhat, to keep up with critical research. As plan to join wars was scheduled after Fall of France (pesky French fleet, grumble grumble), I had time to catch up with majors. Also, while in war your laws give you extra officers, so optimal is to train them when at war. Obviously having 0% officers and training all only when at war is not a most successful strategy.
Such a build is manpower intensive, and I had to balance it all the time so my manpower would not fall under 100.
After basic army was setup, it was time to add some flesh to it:
By end of 1940, all the critical parts were fully covered, including some mobile divisions to act as firebrigades or add punch in critical places and reasonable amount of AT and ART.
First, some thoughts.
Italy can be played in many ways. It can mind their own business in Balkans, it can attack all the neutrals it sees or it can agree on most actions with their faction leader. If Germany listens, last option I believe is best.
To increase Axis as a team chances in defeating all the enemies, overall Axis strategy needs to be discussed before game. With limited Italian research they can be really good at maximum 3 branches. Even then, corners has to be cut whenever possible, making Italy overall less specialized. It is good when Italy can support efforts of Germany strongly, so after discussion with Germany player it was decided that Italy will make Tactical and Naval bombers for Axis, so Germany could save research, IC and would not need to worry about practicals while making reasonably big army for defense and some offense. Defense of European skies would fall completely on German shoulders. Overall it was decided that 12 TAC bombers is what Italy can afford to provide to Axis cause, to be ready by Danzig. That did mean some shortcuts with troop equipment. Not WW1 rifles, but no tank divisions or fancy artillery and very limited antitank attachments.
Rest of IC would go to troops, mostly infantry. No naval buildup, as water would be covered with existing NAVs and German CAS, doing most of fighting on land instead.
Another big question for Italy - Africa or no Africa. Due to easy landings behind lines, it is very risky proposal for Italy and it's "All or nothing" affair, meaning Italy needs to send huge forces to have any chance of success or abandon Africa completely. In this case it was decided to leave Africa to Brits and concentrate on European theatre instead.
Italian progress until end of 1939 met all goals given to her industry, providing 12 TACs, and following army on 1.1.1940:
Officer ratio also had to be sacrificed somewhat, to keep up with critical research. As plan to join wars was scheduled after Fall of France (pesky French fleet, grumble grumble), I had time to catch up with majors. Also, while in war your laws give you extra officers, so optimal is to train them when at war. Obviously having 0% officers and training all only when at war is not a most successful strategy.
Such a build is manpower intensive, and I had to balance it all the time so my manpower would not fall under 100.
After basic army was setup, it was time to add some flesh to it:
By end of 1940, all the critical parts were fully covered, including some mobile divisions to act as firebrigades or add punch in critical places and reasonable amount of AT and ART.
Barbarossa Addendum, Part 2
The German forces have finally scored a significant victory in the center and are finally gaining momentum, but what happens in the other theatres?
In the North our forces have regained org and are redeploing for an offensive. The Soviets have pulled all their armours out of the aerea to send them to more critical places. It is thought that a breakthrough could be acheived quite easily here now.
In the South things are not that bright. After I redeployed North all the available reserves for the Souther theatre, the Soviets attacked and managed to keep a hard pressure on us. I was heavily focused on the attacks further North and, to make things worse, most of the attacks came against the Italian area of responsability. Italy was heavily focused on the Western theatre and bmany times we failed to reinforce provinces were the allied was under pressure. The Soviets managed to break the riverline and kept advancing. At some point I begged feye to take control of this theatre as I was trying to set up a proper OOB for the attack in the center. When he took charge he asked for reinforcements to stabilise the situation. I gave him and that was probably a mistake. At that point the Eastern front was at a turning point and the relevance of the Southern front was minimal, but I failed to see that in time.
What was happening that was so important? Well, on the 17th of July the Soviets, probably at their breaking point, called a general retreat towards Moscow, completely abandoning the Daugava-Dniepr riverline. Germany still had 1.5 months of Destiny and strated chasing the huge retreating Soviet army to try to kill as many divisions as possible.
In the North, the retreat happened when our armoured forces were just getting in position for another attack. The soviet infantry wasn't supported by armours. It was a slaughter. You can see in the screenshot that most of the units were already overrunned after less that a week. In the end nearly all the divisions in this area were captured.
In the Vitsyebsk-Dobrouna area, a strong Soviet rearguard was still holding the key city of Vitsyebsk, allowing the other Soviet forces to retreat in the forest. The other problem here, even after the fall of Vitsyebsk, was the state of the infrastructures. In the end the Soviet lost very few units in this area.
The centre was where we managed to hurt the Soviets the most. Their units here were already low on org, in the plains, pur light armours and the Destiny bonus did the rest. At the time of the screenshot, a good number of divisions had already being overrunned (including 5 armours). It's a shame I don't have any other screenshot but in the following days all the units in Ugra (Northern blue circle) and in Brovary (Southern blue circle) were cut off and destroyed. Many units in the bulge that is forming in the center were also captured
A view of the Northern and central front during the breakthrough
In the South the Soviets held the line for more time than expected. It took a powerful German trust to drive them back behind the river and they only broke through when the Soviets started the withdrowal. Nevertheless they managed to capture a nice number of retreating Sov divisions in the following days
It's a shame that I lack more screenshots of the chasing. All I can give you are estimated numbers. Overall I believe the Soviets lost half of their forces during the retreat. I couldn't count the Inf divisions (we were overrunning so many of those, I think more than a hundred) but I'm fairly certain that the destroyed tank divisions are around 30. Nevertheless, he was still able to mount a good defence around Moscow and when my spaerheads got there they where confronted with seroius resistance.
This, folks, is the end of the session. Next session will be likely to see the battle for Moscow!
Great updates Rast and thanks for your help anyway! With my left hand only available (damn wrist..) it wouldn't have been possible at all to play 
Well the south did actually need reinforcements (I guess I took away about one armoured corps from Brovary area. When the Soviet showed a little more guts in the south we certainly would have lost a bunch of units without those reinforcements. It was just 'bad' for us that once the reinforcements arrived, the Soviets called in the general retreat. So it became pretty useless as reinforcements and would have be very useful to chase down some retreating units.
Overall I expect we destroyed 700+ Allied/USSR brigades last session. That can be called a very good session..
Well the south did actually need reinforcements (I guess I took away about one armoured corps from Brovary area. When the Soviet showed a little more guts in the south we certainly would have lost a bunch of units without those reinforcements. It was just 'bad' for us that once the reinforcements arrived, the Soviets called in the general retreat. So it became pretty useless as reinforcements and would have be very useful to chase down some retreating units.
Overall I expect we destroyed 700+ Allied/USSR brigades last session. That can be called a very good session..
9 armoured divisions were taken (maybe I sent the other 4 not from Brovary myself, I don't remember). The point is that the redeployment started just before the Soviet route, and yes your position was not ideal but you were still holding your ground and by the time the reinforcements got the the Soviets started retreating in the South as well. You really needed those in the South and didn't know the situation in the North so it was your "job" to ask them... But as a matter of fact those 2 corps ended being almost useless down there while maybe they could have been devastating in their original position (especially the two light panzers). So it would have been problably better for me to say that you probably didn't need them. But it's part of the game, one has to take decisions ad move units so fast that stopping and think about every possible scenarios every time is not possible.
As a side note, I think that the main reason of the breakthrough in the center was that Germany redeployed units from the South to the center and the Soviets didn't do the same, instead they used their superiority in the South to attack us there. So given the outcome I think the suffering down there was well worth it...
Yep, end of the session before I retreated back on the river line in the south, meaning I had waaaaaaaaay too many units there for only a defense. The only viable option for Germany was to send them north (south was heavy defended + infra was devasted).
Still If the Soviets showed more guts we couldn't hold in the south. Those reinforcements were really needed if the Soviets pushed, but they didn't and then retreated with all units when the reinforcements were halfway
There was literally no way we could have hold the line there, as in some provinces we were stretched thin with only 2 or 3 infantry divisions. Besides, the only units that were close are the fairly weak Hungarian and Romanian ones. German exhausted units would have suffered. Luckely they didn't and all went fine in the end. Next session we head for Moscow and take Kevin out of the Kremlin
Next session we head for Moscow and take Kevin out of the Kremlin
Easier to say than to do it! with a concentration of 100 Soviet brigades per square meter and Destiny running off in a week... It will be tough!
It will be tough, but always stay positive!
With mighty Italy on your side, victory is ensured!
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Bravo!
Just popping in to say thanks to each of you for making this effort. I'm new to the game and enjoying it. Nice to see something like this from TFH. Very good.
Just popping in to say thanks to each of you for making this effort. I'm new to the game and enjoying it. Nice to see something like this from TFH. Very good.
Nice to hear that.
Maybe you want to join our group for the next round?
We always welcome new players. Guess we will start a new one soon, because either Germany breaks the Soviet defence at Moscow in the next session, or they likely never will.
Maybe you want to join our group for the next round?
We always welcome new players. Guess we will start a new one soon, because either Germany breaks the Soviet defence at Moscow in the next session, or they likely never will.
I'd also like to join as a stable player next round, if possible