Vistula-Oder AAR

[prestidigitation]

Figured I'd move my AAR to a separate post so that I'm not cluttering up the main thread. This is difficulty 4 of 5, I'm planning to play through the whole three part campaign again at difficulty 5 at some point tho.

Line of Depature/Turn 0

viewtopic.php?f=264&t=101391&start=60#p880350

Capture of Initial Objectives/Turn 8

viewtopic.php?f=264&t=101391&start=80#p880582

Race to Second Line Objectives/Start of Turn 13

https://imgur.com/a/K4ZGYre

Overall plan for this turn is to slow things down a tad. I've been a little too focused on making good time and not enough focused on the state of the cash reserve. I expect a heavy armored presence at Kalisz given that it was specifically mentioned in the briefing and may need to link up my armor and infantry for that fight.

[prestidigitation]

End of Turn 15

https://imgur.com/a/rbFzFoQ

Some German raiding, but much quieter overall than the high tempo action of the first ten turns.

[StuccoFresco]

Keep it going!

[prestidigitation]

https://imgur.com/a/Hv2GK0d

Woof! I finally ran into the German armored forces west of Kalisz and had a combined 13pts of 20pts worth of T-34/85 knocked out despite being set up with an SU-100 to protect them (and screen the approach of the infantry) after spotting the German staging area! Luckily the enemy force was less well supported than usual and did not have substantial infantry or AA with their armor. If they had, I'd probably have lost both of those units! Next time I see an Elephant + Panther combo with a recon plane I'll be sure to lead with the infantry. While both have excellent AT performance in the 20+ range on both attack and defense they're utterly at the mercy of the humble footslogger.

Thankfully I have plenty of banked req to support these losses without major hits to the XP of the units involved but still WOW what a price. And other than that painful smack things have largely proceeded according to plan.

edit: dang this AAR business takes more time than I thought no wonder officers hate it!

[StuccoFresco]

Yeah, seems a better idea.

[prestidigitation]

https://imgur.com/a/Tksp2gy

Start of turn 26. No real thoughts on this one, basically the German defense appears to have completely collapsed and we're now smashing through their rear areas at speed as best I can tell. Still, I don't discount the possibility of some major fortifications outside of these entrypoints to actual German territory.

[bebro]

After this one you get a smaller map again. Tho movement isn't exactly easy then...

[StuccoFresco]

Should someone move this to the AAR subforum?

[prestidigitation]

End of Turn 31, really not much to say. A stationary defense against a fully operational Soviet late war artillery park will not exist for long.

https://imgur.com/a/LUWJEUJ

[StuccoFresco]

Truly the God of War.

[prestidigitation]

Oh ended up finishing on 34, nothing interesting happened beyond a win screen so I didn’t do a conclusion