Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Battle Reports & After Action Reports (AAR's)

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Gwaylare
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Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

This is an AAR of a multiplayer game from Goose great tournament 2018. Lifever and me was undefeated so far and we met the first time to race to moscow.
So I will try to publish detailed AARs of both game with the goal to give a view into strategy and tactics of a multiplayer game with a high level of competition.

In Rush to Moscow scenario germans are by far stronger then allies. So it was quite obvious that this would be a speed race and every single turn could be crucial to win the game.
Because it is hard to do serious damage to the germans my strategy was to just delay the german attack. It is hard to delay an attack in the center, so my idea was to face germans in the north and in the south, because there are a couple of non core units, the germans are not able to replace. If there is a chance to deal damage to the germans, then by eliminating non core units, because they cannot be replaced.
In total I tried to delay the center attack by forceing them to support the north and the south. In my test games this did work pretty well. :)
So we will see, why this did not work against Lifever and why this game was lost because of strategic decisions :(
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Turn 1:

So opening the scenario was quite as expected.

In the north I purchased a Su-5-2 to have a mobile artillery. This should delay the attacking german infantry and forth Lifever to support the north with the center troups. There enough infantry available to fight against the non core infantry and may be to deal some damage. The Su is the defensive variant and will not allow a major counter offensive, because of range 1 artillery attacks. So I send the armoured train to north, to have an option of counter attack.
Turn1North.jpg
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In the north center part I was surprised to see, that Lifever did not attack the T-34 but took the city insteed. But this was a quite clever tactical decision, because the T-34 was not able to do anything. Neither attacking no running away was possible. In my first turn I had switched priorities and attacked the T-34 first, so I lost some speed by crossing the river in turn 3.
Turn1CenterNorth.jpg
Turn1CenterNorth.jpg (301.43 KiB) Viewed 3779 times
Lifever tried to defend the Yelnya, which will not work. He supported one flank with a recon, but in turn 1 allies are strong enough to kill an infantry. Because this is a non core infantry it does hurt the germans a little bit. To get those 100 prestige for the allies is more valueable than for axis. Eliminating a non core infantry is a good bonus than.
I did not support the center with any new units.
Turn1CenterSouth.jpg
Turn1CenterSouth.jpg (295.91 KiB) Viewed 3779 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

In the south my defence was a little bit stronger. I added a AA unit to keep away the stukas and again purchased a Su-5-2. To the south a sneaky infantry starts to cross the line. So I did purchase an infantry in place insteed of conscripts to hide the move to the south. So just the entrenchment level will be different. At this time I was aware that simple tricks like that will not work against Lifever ;-)
Turn1South.jpg
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My aircraft I send to the south as well. My idea was to support the major defence there and to shot down the non core stuka to get gid of at least one aircraft. After that it will be hard to get further success with the weak allied aircraft. In addition to that my managment with aircraft is really bad, so I did not have a lot of expectations to perform with those planes.
The map is very large, so you have to decide early where to go with your aircraft. Allied aircraft is not very though, so splitting them up was not an option. So sending the aircraft to the south was a strategic decision and it was not a clever one. At least together with purchasing an AA unit in the south as well.
PeteMitchell
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by PeteMitchell »

Thanks, this AAR is a great idea... it's sometimes also possible to sneak through some Soviet cavalry in the northern part and then hope remote cities won't be garrisoned... small rear surprise for the Germans ;)
Comprehensive Battlefield Europe AAR:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=86481
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Turn 2:

So in the north the Su did stop the attack like expected. I did not expect the river crossing of one infantry, but this damaged infantry was already lost. So I just moved it to this position to force Lifever to move a unit to kill.
The armoured train arrived but needs to resupply in turn 3 or 4, but this was calculated.
The major flaw was german aircraft in the north. While performing tests with rush to Moscow, I felt very uncomfortable with aircraft operation in the north, because the distance back to the airfield is really long and the may run out of fuel faster than germans are able to conquer the first allied airfield.
At this time it would have been a clever idea to purchase an AA in the north. But I closed my eyes and tried to get through without additional costs. You seldom have the chance to correct an initial strategic. So I had the chance and I did not. On the other hand it is important to stick to your strategy and do no flip around, this does mean you do not have a strategy.
If you are the defender and do have a small prestige income, spending the initial prestige is one of the major strategic decision you have to do. Another is to choose which units you want to sacrifice and which you want to safe and draw back. In this case my idea was to pull back both Su-5-2s and bring them to moscow defence once the defence starts to break. Some for the armoured train. All other units are tosacrifice to win as much time as possible.
Turn2North.jpg
Turn2North.jpg (426.24 KiB) Viewed 3767 times
Lifever did support the north center with new units and break through the city defence and the river defence. There there are two Kradschützen units and a Wurfrahmen to support this part of the battlefield. It is important to realise what your opponent did purchase during turn 1, because you will get information about his strategy.
Turn2CenterNorth.jpg
Turn2CenterNorth.jpg (294.4 KiB) Viewed 3767 times
Because of the hopeless situation I did move away my infantry from the river. Here a breakthrough in turn 2 was more than realistic and Lifever just failed because of the incompetence of the 42nd Kradschützen:
Turn2AttackKradSchuetzen.jpg
Turn2AttackKradSchuetzen.jpg (108.12 KiB) Viewed 3767 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

In the south a lot of things happenend. Like in the north center Lifever did a major attack to the south, led by core troups. It was not possible to trap him in the south. The ideal situation for strategy would be a weak assault with non core units. I tried to attack the Panzer IIIG, bad idea. So pulled back my defence to the forest.

A little bit to the north east Lifever did search for my damaged BT-5 and did not find it with the BF 109. So he send out the Stuka without a visible target and got the BT-5. So he thought quite well about the possibilities the BT-5 had had to retreat. So I did not expect to get a chance to shot down the non core Stuka before turn 3. Now Lifever presented it to me as gift in turn 2, but just 3 of my fighters were in position to strike back. So that is not enough and I just was able to damage the Stuka badly. Not bad but not good enough, so I just bought some time. Not sure to get a second chance to get rid of this aircraft.

Because I did expose my figthers I send out the bombers as well, germans are not able to shot down all of them. Attacking the wurfrahmen was not a success.
Turn2South.jpg
Turn2South.jpg (498.01 KiB) Viewed 3761 times
In the south center my bomber was able to damage a badly and the T-70 managed to destroy it. So there was a path to attack the self-propelled artillery. So the Sturmpanzer is damaged and just has one ammo left.
There is another Kradschütze, but no major support in the south center. So where I did expect to hardest attack Lifevers offensive is really weak. In the north of the swamp there was a hole in the frontier, so the BT-7 used the chance to break through.
My idea was to move to north to conquer the airfield, this may get those aircraft far to north in real trouble, if the timeing is correct.
Turn2CenterSouth.jpg
Turn2CenterSouth.jpg (611.89 KiB) Viewed 3760 times
Attachments
Turn2CenterSouth.jpg
Turn2CenterSouth.jpg (611.89 KiB) Viewed 3761 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Here the attacks against the stuka. Doing the math it was not realistic to shot down the stuka and I can not blame the dice:
Attachments
Turn2AttackStuka1.jpg
Turn2AttackStuka1.jpg (106.07 KiB) Viewed 3758 times
Turn2AttackStuka2.jpg
Turn2AttackStuka2.jpg (100.53 KiB) Viewed 3758 times
Turn2AttackStuka3.jpg
Turn2AttackStuka3.jpg (92.54 KiB) Viewed 3758 times
goose_2
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by goose_2 »

This is super great stuff with a breakdown of tactics and how they play out...I just found this little gem and hope to see more later on this epic battle.
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PeteMitchell
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by PeteMitchell »

Just as an idea, after a few turns, you may want to share a view of the strategic map as well, if possible/available...
Comprehensive Battlefield Europe AAR:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=86481
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Sure I will do, so here are casualties after turn 2:
Turn2Casualties.jpg
Turn2Casualties.jpg (106.15 KiB) Viewed 3692 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

With two airstrikes and an infantry attack germans almost killed my SU-5-2. Together with SU-6 the mobile Artillery is a defence beast, but without AA it is mostly harmless.
Turn3NorthAxis.jpg
Turn3NorthAxis.jpg (341.79 KiB) Viewed 3688 times
Without any chance to harm the germans my position was overrun. So I fall back not to say I started to run.
Turn3North.jpg
Turn3North.jpg (459.01 KiB) Viewed 3688 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

The aircraft in the north were running out of fuel and 42nd Kradschützen were in position to take over the airfield near Vyazma. So I sent a figther to intercept the stuka on there possible way to the airfield. Lifever plays very aggressive and I was sure he did not want to fly home to refuel loosing at least a turn.
Turn3InterceptingStuka.jpg
Turn3InterceptingStuka.jpg (425.97 KiB) Viewed 3682 times
Turn 3 revealed that my airstrikes with my bombers were a fiasco. Both bombers were shot down by two german fighters each. Ok I managed to destroy a tank, which Lifever replaced instantly to block my BT-5 moving north. Overall I should have had be more patient with my aircraft and stay with my strategy to harm non core units.
Turn3CenterSouthAxis.jpg
Turn3CenterSouthAxis.jpg (561.92 KiB) Viewed 3682 times
So I moved my BT-5 almost to the edge of the map, may be there will be another oportunity in the future.
Turn3CenterSouth.jpg
Turn3CenterSouth.jpg (610.44 KiB) Viewed 3682 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Germans attackt Bryansk hard breaking through the forest with one tank. Hey this is the non core tank I wanted to hunt, but where I are my bomber go? When I look at this now my tactical desicions are really foolish but it is just possible to play as well as your opponent does let you.
On top the german infantry south of Bryansk had to move around the city to attack and discovered my sneaky infantry. But I did just realise this know while preparing the AAR. So I was sure to have crossed the line undercover.
Turn3SouthAxis.jpg
Turn3SouthAxis.jpg (301.79 KiB) Viewed 3680 times
I was not comfortable with this defence position position, so I pulled back as far as possible to be hidden in the fog of war and preparing a better defence.
Attachments
Turn3South.jpg
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Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

End of turn 3:
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Turn3StrategicMap.jpg
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Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Turn 4:

The aircraft in the north did not return and did not move to the new captured airfield. They used the reserve of fuel for another turn of search and destroy. Fuel was calculated exactly to reach the captured airfield now with no reserve left. Bye bye Su-5-2.
Turn4NorthAxis.jpg
Turn4NorthAxis.jpg (256.16 KiB) Viewed 3647 times
My cavallry was spotted in the north. Lifever did upgrade an german infantry to an cavalry, so who would expect something like that :shock: So when you recruite or upgrade a unit you will not get the new spotting range at once. But he will have it in my turn, so anywhere I move to I will be caught. To move onto the river was for sure not clever, but my idea was to run over the river and to unit with the parajumper.
Turn4NorthSpotted.jpg
Turn4NorthSpotted.jpg (255.78 KiB) Viewed 3647 times
Turn4North.jpg
Turn4North.jpg (438.44 KiB) Viewed 3647 times
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Behind the line tanks caught my infantry, sitting there as a bait. T-5 is still in cover.
Turn4BehindTheLines.jpg
Turn4BehindTheLines.jpg (302.02 KiB) Viewed 3645 times
In the North Center the airfield was lost and it did look well for Vyazma. So the railway seemed to be free, so lets go west and keep germans busy behind the lines.
Turn4GoWest.jpg
Turn4GoWest.jpg (541.92 KiB) Viewed 3645 times
No way to stop the germans in the center. May be I am able to keep a lot of germans in the west part of the map and so the lack the power to move to moscow as fast as me in the other game. I do not want to defend the germans, I just want to win some time.
Turn4CenterNorth.jpg
Turn4CenterNorth.jpg (413.56 KiB) Viewed 3645 times
PeteMitchell
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by PeteMitchell »

Deception and delay seem good tactics!
Comprehensive Battlefield Europe AAR:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=86481
Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Should I really tell you about the south :roll:

Another perfect recon move with a BF109 uncovering my whole position with a single move and in place to attack my plane guarding the helpless AA. Those recon moves did hurt me a lot and it seems that Lifever is reading my head like an open book. Another theory says that Lifever did a time travel to read this AAR and went back to win the game. A third theory states that he is just a really clever guy.
Turn4Search.jpg
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After search there follows destroy.
Turn4AndDestroy.jpg
Turn4AndDestroy.jpg (188.59 KiB) Viewed 3640 times
T-26 is not fast enough to get save, so it moved to the other direction to keep Lifever busy. The cavallry as well is waiting for a moment to go west.
Turn4South.jpg
Turn4South.jpg (675.73 KiB) Viewed 3640 times
goose_2
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by goose_2 »

Having played Lifever his analysis of battlefield and prediction of moves and verification with scouting is the best I have ever seen.
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Gwaylare
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Re: Tournament game Rush to Moscow: Lifever(Axis) vs Gwaylare(Allies)

Post by Gwaylare »

Turn 4 Casualties:
Turn4Casualties.jpg
Turn4Casualties.jpg (105.52 KiB) Viewed 3613 times
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