AAR Ike99->joerock22 (Axis) vs PanzerGeneral (Allied)-End

[PanzerGeneral]

26. June 1944 – Operation Bagration has been cancelled, operation Overlord has been postponed
The Russians get a tech this turn.


Joe has moved his axis units along the coast to thwart my amphibious invasion. I split my invasion fleet in two one sails towards Hague and the other further south along the French coast. Let’s see what the response from Joe will be.

Two uboats are sunk in the Atlantic. I spot a German BB in Wilhelmshaven, is this the remnants of the new Kriegsmarine?


Air attacks in the Balkans. The units receive upgrades. The last fighter and tac bomber are moved to the Russian front.


Operation Bagration has failed! Four tank armies were destroyed by Wehrmacht counterattacks. How did this happen??? I spot 9 tac bombers! Wow!!! I do not dare to attack any further. I pull back my armor using my infantry as shield. With such massive firepower from the sky my attacks are doomed to failure. I am beginning to lose my nerve. I need to preserve my forces before deciding on my next move.


I attack the garrison in Kuibyshev again. It holds out with only 1 step left.


Joe has moved reinforcements to Rostov. I bombard one of the units from sea and attack it with my partisans, and it pulls back. I see a small opportunity and land my Red army infantry in the Donets. The partisan north of the Crimea attacks (with the help of sea attacks) and damages the axis allied unit which is forced to pull back. In the Caucasus all is quiet.


In order to combat the mighty Luftwaffe, I invest in more fighters.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

The worst you can do now is to lose your nerve and become passive. That means the Germans will start building an oil reserve and have a chance to become more offensive. You need to keep up the pressure where you can and make it as costly for Joe to attack further in the east. Remember that he can't use his mighty air an armor force for long before running out of oil. Then his forces will be like a sitting duck. So keep your nerve and start looking for possibilities.

Remember why Grant succeeded in the Civil War while all the other US generals failed. He didn't lose his nerve despite getting several blows from the Conferated forces. Mc Clellan and the others succumbed to bad news and a setback turned into a disaster. Try to be like Grant and not Mc Clellan.

[supermax]

Keep attacking on all fronts.

The pressure will just be too much for Joe to bring his poer to bear, not to mention that his oil gage must have a bottom at one point, and using all those planes and tanks in Siberia wont help!

Attack as agressively as possible in the balkans, make him spend some energy there.

You need to land as soon as possible in France. It doesnt matter where you land, since while the germans will be occupied in killing those troops, you will be building other one and finding new spots to land... In the end, you will overwhelm him.

In Russia, i advice to keep attacking, but on a narrow front. Like i told you before, you should attack with the end-of-turn seeing infantry in front of your tanks. Keep using your airforce to bomb infantry. You will do more damage and the germans will run out of oil anyway, so those units needing oil will soon be stuck into place. In the meantime, start building a strategic reserve of infantry in and around PErm. If it comes to that, you should have some infantry to defend the place if Joe gets there at the end of the summer. In any case, if you have some entrenched troops, he will not take the area. Once he breaks loose of your actual defensive/offensive posture, rail back all units you have to PErm and wait for the final battle. Just moving those tanks and planes for the final battle will run the oil gauge to 0 if it hasnt happend at that moment.

You have won this game, but only so if you keep the tactical initiative,which will translate in a strategic victory with the axis getting to 0 oil and not being able to cover all fronts with units (manpower will get low at some point as well...)

[shawkhan]

I warned you not to lose your nerve and to take your time. You can't afford to plunge ahead willynilly like you have just done. Stop, pull back in Russia if you have to and for Pete's sake build up your forces before you advance. You are close to blowing a sure thing here by trying to go too fast. Since you have no set end date, take your time and do it with overwhelming force. You have probably just wasted a month or two by listening to people trying to rush you.

[Happycat]

PG, I think you're doing fine. Joe might have nine tactical bombers, but how long can he keep them flying? Keep the pressure on him on every front, force him to use oil whenever you can, and you should prevail. I would agree with those who have said to keep the pressure on; your resources are relatively vast, Germany's are limited. Historically, the Russians were quite callous about their losses, and just threw more men and machines into the hopper, as needed. You will need to do this too.

[rkr1958]

PG, I think you're doing fine. Joe might have nine tactical bombers, but how long can he keep them flying? Keep the pressure on him on every front, force him to use oil whenever you can, and you should prevail. I would agree with those who have said to keep the pressure on; your resources are relatively vast, Germany's are limited. Historically, the Russians were quite callous about their losses, and just threw more men and machines into the hopper, as needed. You will need to do this too.

Also, given Joe's naval situation I would think your convoys are getting through easily and intact. So you should have a nice steady flow of PPs to replace reasonable losses per turn. Though, not 5 tanks corps (i.e., 400 PPs!). Like Supermax said just make sure you end your turn with your armor units protected by your infantry. Remember, as the Russian player infantry corps are cannon fodder. You can easily afford to lose two or three infantry corps per turn to keep up the pressure on Joe and force him to expend oil and manpower.

During the closing stages of WW-II the Russians employed a strategy based on three categories of units (penal, shock and guards). The penal units were formed by low level criminals or military who had committed some major infraction. They were sent into battle first and were used to clear minefields (by stepping on the mine) and to smoke out enemy positions. Their survival rate was poor at best. Then you had the shock troops, whose fate wasn't much better. Russian commanders sent them along a wide front to attack the Germans. When these attacks produced a weak point in the German lines the Russians would send in their guard units, which were the elite troops, to exploit that point.

My advice is to treat Russian infantry as your shock troops and your armor and mechanized units as your guard units.

Of course this advice and 50-cents will get you a cup of coffee.

[supermax]

Keep attacking my friend, land as soon as possible in france. Make him spend his last ressources!!! You wll pay dearly for it, but you can produce more units!

You have the initiative and he is reacting to your moves, so make sure you keep it.

[PanzerGeneral]

Guys, thanks for all the advice.
The Russian plan is to use my air force a couple of turns in order to grind down the Luftwaffe. My tac bombers will concentrate on his panzers. In the meantime I will build up on cannon fodder (infantry) before the next assault.

[PanzerGeneral]

16. July 1944 – Heavy air battles in the east, the allies land in Belgium
The allies get a load of techs this turn.


The allies land in Belgium. The allied navies and air force bombard the nearby garrisons.


More air attacks in the Balkans. An Italian infantry korps is badly damaged by an allied armored attack.


The Luftwaffe fighters in the east have disappeared. I suspect they have travelled to the western front. This is my opportunity. My allied fighters attack the Luftwaffe tac bombers, with the result one Luftwaffe tac bomber destroyed and another badly damaged. The allied tac bombers attack a panzer korps which is destroyed by Red army tanks.


The city of Kuibyshev has been liberated.


North of the Crimea my partisan unit will try to link up with the army that has landed in the Donets. I make a mistake and move my allied unit towards Maikop. It should have been sent to Kerch! The plan is to move from Kerch and create a line of supply to the units in the north.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Now you're getting somewhere. Just keep the pressure up and the Germans will crumble. Each attack upon his air and armor units will burn oil. So soon his reserve will get below 0. In the vanilla game it will drop even below 0 and that means he can never again move air or armor units. That means game over for the Germans.

[PanzerGeneral]

5. August 1944 – Heavy ground battles in the east, the allies advance into Belgium
The allies get some techs this turn.


The allied troops in Belgium attack and destroy an infantry korps. The allied air force harass the panzer korps hiding near the German border. More troops are ready to land next turn.


A German korps is badly damaged in the Balkans, by brave allied attacks. The strategic bombers keep up their campaign in the area.


Joe continues his counter attack on the Moscow front. I lose another tank army, and send the remnants of another one back for repairs. Several of my fighters are relocated as the Germans are getting very close to them. I move some garrisons in order to plug the gap in the front line here. Further south my air force wreck havoc on a panzer korps which is destroyed by my tank army. An Italian infantry korps perish to hexes further south. I move in two mech armies from the Stalingrad sector. North of Rzev I will try to encircle two infantry korps.


The city of Saratov has been surrounded. Offensive operations have been postponed as the mech armies are sent towards the Moscow front.


All quiet in the Caucasus. In the Donets area, things are heating up. My BBs shell the defenders and my armies manage to link up. The allied korps will land near Kerch next turn and will move in to secure a line of supply to the armies in the Donets.


Summary of the war so far
Once again Der PanzerGeneral will summarize the last year of fighting.

The current allied production. Is it bigger than the axis? I do not know.


The axis has suffer a lot of casualties the last year, almost 2.5 million men, only 2000 tanks, 4500 planes and 600 naval units. The British have hardly had any losses. The US has suffered more as several convoys have been sunk, and they have lost several units in the Balkan campaign. The Russian losses continue to grow. Another 2 million men, over 5000 tanks and about 900 planes are lost.


The manpower reserves are still plenty. All major powers have over 100% manpower available. The forces available to defeat Joe.


England
The British research progress.


The Brits will focus on building land units.

USA
The US research progress.


The US will focus on building air units.

The allied strategy is to grind down the German war machine in the Balkans and in Western Europe. Surely the axis manpower reserves are getting low.

Russia
The Russian research progress.


The Russians will buy more infantry and let the Red air force and allied air force pulverize the axis troops around Moscow. Joe has killed most of the Red armor so the goal of reaching Warsaw is totally unrealistic. As with the allies the Russian will grind down the axis manpower. At some point the quality of the axis troops will decline enogh so that my troops can attack and conquer as they choose.

Since the last year the axis commander has been replaced. The opposition has become a lot tougher. I was so naive that I thought it be a walkover even when Joe took command. How wrong could I be! Even with such an advantage as I have, my newbie experience level is proving no match for the super duper experience level that Joe has

[rkr1958]

Since the last year the axis commander has been replaced. The opposition has become a lot tougher. I was so naive that I thought it be a walkover even when Joe took command. How wrong could I be! Even with such an advantage as I have, my newbie experience level is proving no match for the super duper experience level that Joe has

You're doing better than you think. Don't loose faith and keep the pressure on Joe.

[PanzerGeneral]

I am ready to surrender. The Allies are pressuring me from all sides, and I just ran out of oil. Without tanks and planes to support it, my infantry doesn't stand a chance against the Russians.

Joe has surrendered. Wow I won

Thanks for all the tips and comments in my AAR during my allied campaign. I have learned a lot of new tricks. Hope people have enjoyed reading about a beginners epic struggle.

To be honest I thought I was doomed in late 1941, 1942 was just prolonging the agony of doom. But the fortunes of war changed in 1943 and I gradually gained the initiative. Joe put up some pretty stiff defense for the axis, and my thoughts of an easy victory were swept away.

I was surprised to see the Germans run out of oil. I believed that with the Caucasus oil fields along with the one in Perm under axis control for over a year, the axis would have managed to build up a nice stockpile before my strategic bombing. My belief was that it would be manpower shortage that would be their downfall (based on assumption on the very heavy axis casualties).

Now it is time to see his AAR. I am dying of curiosity to see what the state of the axis war machine were when he took command.

--
Alexander

[Clark]

I was surprised to see the Germans run out of oil. I believed that with the Caucasus oil fields along with the one in Perm under axis control for over a year, the axis would have managed to build up a nice stockpile before my strategic bombing. My belief was that it would be manpower shortage that would be their downfall (based on assumption on the very heavy axis casualties).

I was as baffled as you are. There were long periods of inactivity at the front, so he should not have burned that much oil, unless he was just driving masses of armor and airpower around continental Europe behind the scenes.

[Wolfe1759]

Excellent AAR, I've been following it from the Allied (your) posts only to this point and it's been a really fun and informative read.

A somewhat unexpected (but now having read the joerock22 posts inevitable) Axis surrender when it came.

Thanks to PanzerGeneral, Ike99 and joerock22 for taking the time to contribute all the posts, in particular PanzerGeneral.