BattlevonWar (Axis) vs Vokt (Allies)

[Vokt]

Turn 97. December 3, 1944.

Eastern Front Axis turn. Winter weather. Counterattacks in the Oder. Hoth SS panzerkorps destroyed one of the couple of Soviet units that crossed the Oder in last turn. Another counterattack occurred south of Breslau targeting a Soviet Guards unit. Manstein's mech was repaired to 7 steps and so the corps nearby. Some retreatings in Czechoslovakia:



Eastern front Soviet turn. Red Army Guards units reached Berlin in force. 2 Wehrmacht units (mech and corps) were destroyed in the operation that also targeted SS panzerkorps. In Austria, Vienna was taken and in Czechoslovakia, Manstein's mech unit was destroyed. VVS was very active although Luftwaffe fighters are still opposing. A Guards unit advanced to Prague linking with Soviet paratroopers. In the Baltic Sea, Soviet sub attacked German transport evacuating troops from other fronts:




Western front Allies turn. Not much changes since Hamburg still holds. Cologne was taken which will leave unsupplied Siegfried Line forces. Nuremberg was heavily attacked but held. Frankfurt was took by a German partisan at the end of Axis turn but Allies retook the city in this very turn:



Southern France-Italy. Marseilles was finally liberated by Allies. In Italy, Allied progress is slow due to both weather and terrain:

[Vokt]

Turn 98. December 23, 1944.

Eastern front Axis turn. It's Winter weather on central. And Germans still bite. Vatutin's Guards armoured NE of Berlin was halved due to a German counterattack. Much more harsh was the counterattack on Bagramian's Guards mech which ended nearly destroyed. Another Wehrmacht counterattack came from panzerkorps in Breslau that targeted a Guards corps near Prague. German unit evacuated from Finland finally arrived Swinemunde port:



Eastern front Soviet turn. Red Army, in collaboration with Western Allies forces destroyed German mech SW of Berlin. In the Oder, big defeat for Wehrmacht after losing a total of 4 units (2 corps, 1 mech and 1 armoured) Operation in the Oder meant to leave a German corps in the Ostwall without supply:



Western front Allies turn. As expected, Axis swapped units in Hamburg and it's now a paratrooper unit that is guarding the city so Simonds Canadian mech crossed the Elba by advancing into emptied hex after killing the damaged swapped garrison unit. In other sectors, Leipzig and Munich were taken but Nuremberg still holds:



Southern France-Italy. Brits entered Foggia.

[Vokt]

Turn 99. January 12, 1945.

Eastern front Axis turn. Exposed and halved in strength Free French armoured was destroyed by a Wehrmacht counterattack. Powerful Hoth's panzerkorps was still able to cause trouble to Soviets and again it was Bagramian's mech the target. Again, Guards unit survived at 1 step. In the southern sector of the front there were more German attacks: a weakened Soviet armoured was killed NW of Vienna and Heinrici's panzerkorps counterattacked British paratrooper unit, halving it:



Eastern front Allies turn. Hoth's armoured was destroyed after being attacked by several Guards units, US units and even VVS tac that was who finished off SS unit. North of Berlin there were intense attacks either, which resulted in further weakening those German units opposing Soviet approach to Berlin from the N-NE. In Austria, 2 German mechs were destroyed (one of them a SS) and Linz was seized:



Western front Allies turn. Preparations for the assault on Hamburg that will start on next turn. Heinrici's panzerkorps unit was heavily attacked but Axis unit held causing high losses on the Allied attacking units. Nuremberg, surprisingly is still holding:



Southern France-Italy. British continued to advance through Adriatic coast destroying one of the Gustav Line fortress hexes. In Southern France Americans liberated Nice.

[Vokt]

Turn 100. February 1, 1945.


Western and Eastern front Axis turn. Minimal Axis offensive actions this turn like the failed Bulgarian corps counterattack on a depleted British mech that surprisingly held:



Eastern front Allies turn. Progress is slow due to mud weather this turn. Anyway, Soviets were about to destroy German garrison in Berlin:



Western front Allies turn. Weather impeded the same the Western Allies and so they did no attacks to Hamburg yet. They instead attacked a German corps north of Hamburg which was forced to retreat. This action provided with additional hex for a direct attack to the city. Heinrici's panzerkorps was heavily attacked again and it's no longer a threat for the Allies:



Southern France-Italy. Rather fast advance of British HQ mech through the Adriactic sea coasts, will give the Allies more chances in Rome on the next turns:

[Vokt]

Turn 101. February 21, 1945.

Western and eastern front Axis turn. In Berlin, Germans swapped depleted garrison by paratrooper unit:



Eastern front Allies turn. German paratrooper division couldn't stand the strong Red Army attack supported by Western Allies units and by VVS. A Guards tank army entered Berlin this turn:



Western front Allies turn. Western Allies failed to take Hamburg. Paratroopers held and caused heavy losses on the attacking Allied units:



Southern France-Italy. British mech entered Rome this turn and Naples also taken. Italy scenario is done:

[Peter Stauffenberg]

It looks like the game will end next turn with a minor Allied victory. I think Battle has defended very well to hold out for so long. Even fought battles are the most fun to watch. So Kudos to both players for this game.

[Vokt]

Turn 102. March 12, 1945.

Western and eastern front Axis turn. Fair weather in central Europe. Wehrmacht performed its last offensive actions this turn killing British mech close to Berlin and Soviet mech close to Stettin. Furthermore, German paratrooper mauled US HQ mech in Hamburg (Hodges) in a last stand counterattack:



Western front Allies turn. Hamburg was taken by Hodges mech. Germany surrenders:



Below, shots of how ended other scenarios:

Romania


Italy


Spain


Victory screen


Casualties screen


Forces screen


PP's, manpower and oil levels screen


Thanks to @BattlevonWar for this game.

It looks like the game will end next turn with a minor Allied victory. I think Battle has defended very well to hold out for so long. Even fought battles are the most fun to watch. So Kudos to both players for this game.

Thanks and thanks to all that have followed this AAR.

I will be making comments about the game in separate post.

[Vokt]

I am going to make some comments about the game now.

I will be talking first of the strategy used by my opponent. He has cared all the game for his units not to lose quality because of manpower issues and that's why that early abandoning of NA and the continuous strategy of withdrawals during all the game. He seemingly has been sparing manpower all the time. I guess that German units at the end of the game did not fall below <50 quality so manpower level has been kept really high for axis in this game. I myself checked this out when by 1943 I could see that German units had still +5 quality meaning that manpower hadn't been dropped below 75 yet. A really strong Luftwaffe did not allow the Soviets to overrun the Germans that easy.

Keys of Allied victory were the intense strategic bombing over Germany resources and the successful campaign in the West, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in France. Western Allies breached in time German defenses in Western front and they could have well got to both Berlin and Hamburg. Soviets avoided unnecessary risks keeping a good pace on their offensives, but they sort of struggled more than W Allies.

[Cybvep]

I expected you to win . One thing that surprised me was that Italy didn't fall early on. An attack on Spain was an interesting turn of events, but I'm not sure whether it was a better option than a direct attack in France .

The AAR was quite enjoyable, good work ;D.

[Vokt]

I expected you to win . One thing that surprised me was that Italy didn't fall early on. An attack on Spain was an interesting turn of events, but I'm not sure whether it was a better option than a direct attack in France .

The AAR was quite enjoyable, good work ;D.

About Spain vs France landings. Given my opponent strategy in the Med, for me it was a little bit safer to land in Iberian Peninsula in 1943 than a direct landing in France. I mean, first, a conquest of Portugal and second, a blitzkrieg campaign in Spain, thus not giving the Germans the chance to rail good units to Madrid. Terrain made Allied progress slow and resources invested in Spain much influenced campaign in Italy that run slower than it uses to.

[trulster]

Thx for well-detailed AAR.

One game development Q; Vichy French units fighting on for Adolph long after France has been liberated? Is this working as intended? Seems pretty strange to say the least.

[Cybvep]

It doesn't really matter much TBH, because Vichy only gets some GARs and most of the time they are destroyed during the liberation of France and even if some GARs survive, it's not a big deal.

[Vokt]

One thing that can be done here is to consider the possibility of giving Germany some extra garrison units once Italy has surrendered. Historically, the so called Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano was composed of 4 divisions trained and formed in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esercito_N ... pubblicano. [17900] Keeping in mind this, Germany might be receiving 3-4 extra garrisons to represent that. Those extra garrisons corresponding to Esercito Nazionale might replace the loss of Vichy French units.

[trulster]

It is a minor issue, but it would be nice to have the Salo republic forces in there, at least for Germany the units would be drawn from a different manpower pool, likely welcome in 43-44. TO be fair some Italian units should also join the Allies, though garrisons have little offensive value.

[BattlevonWar]

Vokt, impressed me here. The early game was all his in my opinion. The Axis blundered their resources on being overly cautious and this lead to a very weak Kriegsmarine that could not snipe off more Convoys and divert more Allied resources to a Navy. Vokt built a Navy, but it was never a Super Navy that I would have to build against some of the opponents I faced. Regardless I did fair, in France/Low Countries/Norway. Fair enough to survive the early stages and as far as the abandonment of Africa, this is something I that allowed Italy to stay in the fight until 1944. Wow... At the cost of Spain however...

Spain was a sideshow and my U-boats had spotted Allied intentions there, I was just slow to react. It is what Vokt said a poor location to put your Heavy Mechanized and Armored Units which at that point I had. Unlike a wise player I never really devoted to a Spanish defense and I really never devoted to anything at that point, which was key in the West in '43... So that basically gave a free range in '44 for Vokt to run right though the Germans and with little or no resistance in France he had so much air I think I could not dream to stand and fight anywhere but at the beaches before Allied Readiness runs high that or run for the Fortresses and wait to get smacked down so bad I am overrun anyways. Back to PPs and Convoys(and an easy Atlantic Campaign above)

Now as far as the East, wow... This guy impressed me, I was not expecting that my River Lines were so poorly defended as the Axis. I had moved some research around away from Fighters and that really ended Luftwaffe domination in '42...VERY KEY... Why? With some good LR and some good Fighter quality on good weather turns the Axis can keep the Soviet Tacs off them. They were wasps, they ate through my River Lines, they destroyed very essential Offensive Equipment that could not be replaced. Every breach I made he smashed and every Bad Weather turn I took massive losses. I am actually shocked I held the Eastern Front almost till the Western Allies popped in with the way that Vokt owned the Skies. BUT, he did have a slightly weaker ground force for the Russians until '44 technology. Then there was on par technology, my Tech Based Quality Ground Units which usually have done me well did not stand up anymore to Russian Air.

I finally caught my air up in time to watch the Russians Run the gauntlet of forts, rivers and Vokt did very wise to pick away at my resources. Bit by bit, divert my forces to fronts that were a waste of energy and PPs so that they could not do much. Sicily was so over stacked, Spain was even worse. Then he Flanked me in Normandy and I forgot. He had the Forces to do it. I almost imagined with so many Bombers he would not have the forces to go that wild.


I will tell you, had I been wiser earlier, the game would have been different. It may have forced it to be a slight bit tighter. It took the Allies a long time to dominate Europe. Italy could have been definitely held. It's a tough cookie to take down Italy. Though predictable. You have to cover from Para drops and it means you have to over compensate in Defense.

To sum up:

I was weak in my opener, I was weak against the Russians in '41 and that gave Vokt extra breathing room. I managed to run fair defensive tactics in a few places that held the lines. If I would have run 39-41 perfectly........ this guy would have had to work a lot harder to get that Allied Capture of Axis Capitols. So would I alter anything about the game or is this guy just better than me.. I would say he's better than me and I would not alter anything. Italy should throw it in, as you can certainly hold out there too long. I also have a lot to learn, I did not even realize the Winter effects over Rivers had changed. Good Lord, you have to pay attention to the % and attack/defense values in the East during Mud/Winter/Harsh Winter...I learned a lot, still much to learn. This guy would struggle harder in a 2nd game! So I wouldn't alter anything outright. Good Player : ) Best next to Morris and PowerMax I've seen in action, and determined/devoted to the last turn with all his heart.