Setomikey AXIS vs Bensand88 ALLIES - 1944 scenario

[setomikey]

Hi!

I decided to play an '44 scenario with someone, as axis, to test and of course improve my defensive skills..and I like this part in all games..I mean, I like more deffending than attacking... And now, I found my opponent Lets see how long can I hold the Reich from his attacks

First move is with him.. Axis oil reserves and menpower critical, as expected, PPs not that bad, the production is almost 200...
Allied bombers already started flying, bombed Ploiesti and a german oilfield, both lost 1 production...

Before move:

France


Italy


USSR north


USSR south


After move:

France
Railed some troops to deal with allied landing troops next turn, also moved some GARs to block a part of the coast...
BTW also, moved a panzer from France and another one from north Italy, to Germany..they will be upgraded to SS in the next turn. One of them has level 2 experience, that will be Mainsteins elite panzer corps


Italy
Atacked an allied corps, it barely survived at 1 step... Evacuated the para division, I dont think that it has much sense keeping it in Italy at this point...
I'm planing to rail the SS viking panzergrenaidier corps to Rome -soon- and also deploy a leader...I think this would secure Rome for a while... I can't afford losing Rome..at this point, allied units in Italy have 3 supply..If Rome falls to them, they will have full supply and it will be much difficult to hold any line in Italy...


USSR north

Well... I evacuated Estonia and a little part of Russia... There is no point of holding that territory for such high costs when a little souther its a much better defensive position..so withdraved the troops to the river, that will be the new defensive line, its much easyer to hold, and I gave up only 2 cityes, and one port, 2 production points in total...


USSR south

Made some counterattaks, deployed Rundstett (to a panzer) and Guderian to an SS panzer. Moved one fighter to improve Ploiesti deffense against Russian bombers...


Already spent alot on rail useage and its more to come...
Around half of the fighters on the map are on sentry, to conserve some oil.. I cant put all on sentry, couse I MUST deffend the oilfields, couse I'm dead without them and I need to do at least some demage to allied planes, othervise they will be allways at full strenght and wil cause heavy loses to my ground units, and beside that, allies would not need to spend PP on plane repairs and they will have more resources to build much more units...


BTW, does anyone know some exact information about this menpower stuff? I know that if its low, and I repair units, than they will also lose quality (so, not only the newly trained ones..) -this always freacks me out-, but this thing many times happens even to 9 step units when I repair them, even if there was only 0.5 menpower used..but sometimes doesn't happen even to 7 step units when I repair...this is a matter of luck, or what?

P.S.: Bensand already sent me his next move, but I couldn`t play it yet, since I`m not at my pc... I`ll post next turn sometime this evening/early night

P.S.2: Sorry for my bad english...

[setomikey]

Hi!

June 26 1944.
Allies start landing in France, more transports to come in France&Italy..

Before move:

France:


Italy:


USSR north:


USSR south:



After move:

France:
Made some counterattacks, but I can`t do much here...allied troops are landing in herds and I simply don`t have enough units and rail capacity tohold them of properly... I`ll try to hold as long as I can..especially Paris


Italy:
Allied transports apear on the coast, any of them will land next turn, since I cound`t block most of them... Railed the SS MECH corps to Rome, as I sayd


USSR north:
A little breakthorought.. I dealt with it, and now setting the deffensive line


USSR south:
Not too much action, but I killed a Russian Guards INF and a Tank corps


Finland:
Gave up some territory, since it was too hard and expensive to try holding it, lost a Finish corps... If things get tight, I will evacuate the German corps from there, its no point of holding Finnland at this point if it gets too expensive...

[peterjfrigate]

thanks for delivering! I was surprised the Allies landed so far west, but we'll see how it plays out.

[Morris]

thanks for delivering! I was surprised the Allies landed so far west, but we'll see how it plays out.

yes , it is the place to land in 1942 . but anyway , after landing ,no one could stop them but weather & time .

[joerock22]

This is interesting. I think you have the right idea. The Russians don't look strong enough to steamroll all the way to Berlin in time, but the Western Allies could be the killer. If you can keep them out of Germany before the bad weather hits, I give you a good chance to pull this out. You will need to garrison those fortresses soon, and you may want to place SS mechs in Hague and Arnhem. That makes it very hard for the Allies to get by, even with all that air support. I would make sure you garrison those fortresses/cities soon enough to get some entrenchment too.

And don't apologize for your English; it's just fine. Easily understandable.

[Cybvep]

Not you typical game. I will be following this.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I've played this scenarios some time ago and remember that the key for the Allies is to just grind down German units until they have to retreat. So use the air power to soften up targets and then make sure you kill enough units each turn.

The Germans can only produce a certain number of new units each turn so if the kills are higher then they will eventually get holes in their defense line. That can later be exploited.

The scenario was very evenly matched and I barely managed to get to Berlin and Hamburg with my Allies before May 1945. With the Axis I think I just held Berlin in May 1945 (was crushed elsewhere). I played a double match.

So this scenario is actually fun. You have to keep up the pressure regardless of the losses or the Germans get enough time to hold Berlin to the end.

I used to repair units for the Allies when they got down to 7 or less steps. That was particularly important for the Russian air units. You have more units, but lower tech so you bleed more. By repairing the depleted fighters you ensure the Germans get some losses too when your full strength fighters escort the Russian tactical bombers. Eventually the Germans weren't able to repair the air losses because they had to give priority to get new corps units to the front line to plug holes. Then you can alter the air strategy and use more depleted units.

I used the western Allies air power to constantly harass the German panzer and mech units in the west. This means these units either have to repair or counter attack depleted. They drop efficiency so they can be finished off with Allied mech and armor units. The panzers have the capability to crush the beachheads so they should never be allowed to rest and repair. The Allied tactical bombers bleed going after the panzers due to the high flak rating of the panzers, but it's necessary. Just make sure you repair depleted Allied air units as you do with the Russians to keep the pressure up. After some harassment the Germans withdraw their best units from the exposed positions to avoid the air raids. That means your ground troops can capture ground and you can rebase air units into France and repeat the process.

[Lexmanbis]

Thanks for the AAR Setomikey and to Stauffenberg for his detailed explanations!!

[Crazygunner1]

It looks like the germans can retreat to their own border and make à solid double defense line. The allies wont breach that until it's to late.

[setomikey]

Hi!

Thanks for the comments, guys And I apologize because I didn`t post turns this long...I didnt even play, it was because I was very sick :-s I sent my turn now to Ben
And there is another problem: I was a little in a hurry and I forgot to take after move photos...I`m really sorry for this... I`ll post the before move photos and I will explain the rest

France:


Italy:


USSR north:


USSR south:


Finnland:


So...
France:
Here, I simply pulled back my troops [I mean tank, and corps] and repaired GARs... The problem in France is that when the allies land in west/north and start their push...there practically is no place where to hold them before they get Paris... Thats why, I`m planning to leave GARs as canon fodder, withdraw everything from France and establish the defensive line between France and Germany...

Italy:
Repaired 2 corps, placed defensive leader in the SS MECH in Rome, and killed a Free French corps that just landed... I plan holding Rome for a long time with that MECh... You think I can?

USSR north:
Withdrawed tanks, repaired some corps, killed the para, no much action... But soon I have to think about retreating completely from this zone... The frontline is too long and hard to hold!

USSR south:
Retreating to the Prut river... Killed a Russian Guards MECH corps...

And, placed the 2 SS tanks in Germany, they will both get a good attack leader, one of them has experience, there will be deployed Manstein, that corps will be the 'Ghost Division', the most elite panzer corps Both will be ready for battle in 2 turns...
Upgraded an experienced GAR to para, 2 more to come...
Got the SS French corps in Berlin, I guess I will leave it there for the final battles, but not sure...
I have a sub and a DD in the Baltic sea, to deal with Russians, if they try something from the sea...

[setomikey]

Forgot to mention: Oil reserves critical, seriously, below 100... And Ploiesti at 0 production

[setomikey]

August 5 1944

Before move:

France:


Italy:


USSR north:


USSR south:


After move:

France:

Evacuating France.. I`m using GARs as canon fodders, to slow down Allied advance, but I plan killing that tank near Paris.. Practically UK&USA tanks are especially with half supply and quite low effectiveness... And I`m starting to fill the fortreses on the Rhine line... I railed corps in the corners, and maybe will change the Cologne GAR to a corps, in the other forts I`ll probably put GARS... The Hague-Arnhem line will be guarded with a veteran MECH [probably in Hague] and 2 tank corps, one of them SS.. That line will have one weak point, since the hex betveen Hague and Arnhem can be attacked from one hex without river support [sorry, I didn`t know how to say it...], there will be the SS tank...


Italy:

Rome almost surrounded, but I dont think it will fall too soon since there is an SS MECH with defensive leader and allied units have only half supply, and the German SS is anyway superior to them


USSR north:

Retreating, slowly...
I would like to retreat to the Danzig-Warsaw line, but I dont know how to do it with less casualyties... I guess I`ll need lot of canon fodder...
But its a must to, since this fornt will colapse in a couple of turns if I dont pull back!


USSR south:

The middle line is very weak, they will break trough... But then Romania will last longer


P.S.: Sorry for slow update...

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Your manpower and oil levels are critical so the Allied player can exploit that. You can have a lot of nice armor units, but they can't move unless they have oil. So try to rail your armor and mech units back to Germany to save precious oil. Place these units in key defensive positions like just behind the weak area in the Rhine line near Arnhem. This way you don't have to move the panzers and they can destroy bridgeheads there.

Don't rely upon Rome to hold despite having an SS unit in the city. Rome is down to red so it means your supply will drop to 1 once the city is isolated. That means you can only repair 1 step per turn.

[setomikey]

Will it drop to 1?
The port gives supply level of 3, doesn`t it?

[joerock22]

It looks like trouble in the center, with 5 Russian tanks east of Lvov poised to break through your center line. You could be looking at a Soviet thrust through Poland to cut off your entire northern army. That could be the deciside move that Bensand88 needs to win this game if you're not careful. If he plays his cards right, he could even capture Warsaw next turn and destroy a German bomber or two.

[setomikey]

There is no way for the Russians to kill 2 German bombers there... They can capture Warsaw, with luck, and maybe one bomber... But they did neither of them Turn coming soon...

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Will it drop to 1?
The port gives supply level of 3, doesn`t it?

Isolated cities will generate supply from inside the city and not from other cities. If it's a port city the supply can be bombed down to 1. A non-port city can have its supply bombed down to 0.

So careful about having your cities isolated.