Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies) (deleted AAR)

After action reports for Commander Europe at War.

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Vokt
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
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Posts: 1222
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Turn 70. June 12, 1943

Post by Vokt »

Turn 70. June 12, 1943

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Last edited by Vokt on Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Cybvep
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
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Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by Cybvep »

This was fun, thanks :). Air power is definitely crucial. For both sides.
jjdenver
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
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Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by jjdenver »

Thanks to Victor for the game, for making the AAR, and for being a good opponent. Victor is tactically very astute. Several times during the game I noticed his excellent tactical play. He would almost always leave me very few counterattack possibilities in SU and in France - finishing his attacks with cheap infantry or garrison units in the front lines. He almost never put a TAC in range of my FTRs, and managed his navy well. It was a fun game for both of us I think and CEAW GS2.1 is just really a fabulous game overall.

I think the dogfight tech advantage that the allies developed as the game went along was one deciding factor. I also think that the western allies' ability to keep the Axis off-balance and pester them at the right times helped SU to stay in good shape. My strategy as allies was to keep the Axis always under pressure and burning oil and manpower from the beginning of 1941 onward. I knew in 1940 that the Axis intended to go for a big Barbarossa, so I planned for a med campaign in 41 and France in 43. I could have gone for France 42 but chose this instead.

The concentration of the RN in 41-42 on the Med and on transporting units to the med (escorting) let the Kriegsmarine and U-Boats have a pretty free hand in the Atlantic. I'd planned to have a strong U.S. CV force of 5 CV's but I mis-timed building them and they didn't arrive until mid 42 (much later than I needed them in Atlantic and Med) so they didn't do me too much good really. I think the U-Boats and Kriegsmarine hurt the convoys some but there were many turns when I couldn't figure out why the Germans were not savaging my convoy lines and W-Allies were able to collect more convoy BPs than I thought they would be able to. I'm not sure it was the right choice to forego convoy escorting to have a big navy and lots of units in the med in 41/42 but I think the W-Allies didn't pay heavily enough for the choice they made there.

Soviet production and manpower stayed strong throughout the game. Manpower for all of the allies never dipped below 80% other than the very beginning of the game when they start low.

W-Allies hit southern France in 42 mainly to draw attention from the Soviets just as the summer campaign was starting but I also wanted to see how strongly the Axis would react. If they didn't react strongly I thought maybe the allies could just stay ashore there. The strong German reaction cost the allies some units and force a pullback to a small bridgehead. The W-Allies definitely took some chances and made some stupid air attacks in France and Italy but with each country I wanted to keep the Germans burning oil and manpower throughout. I have played Germany a lot and I know they can seem very strong but be on the verge of crumbling since repairs on many fronts cost many PP's and watching oil and manpower dwindle is a terrible thing as Germany.

I didn't get my strat bombing organized until 1943 because I was spending BP's on units for the Med and Franch invasion and the STR's that I did have were busy trying to ding the U-Boats to keep them cautious while the RN and USN were not available to play. But once 43 hit I had a pretty decent force of STR's built up in the UK and hit German oil and production and rail cap strongly throughout 43. I also had Brit and U.S. HQ's in place to increase effectiveness of the bombers. I left the Med as a British show from about mid-42 and had the U.S. focused on building up for France in spring 43. I was a little too slow in shifting forces to England so D-Day came a few turns later than I'd planned and I didn't have enough BB's available either since I forgot to have them leave the Med in time to participate in France. I had only 2 BB's available for D-Day. Once I saw the Kriegsmarine out I started to shift subs to the Atlantic until I finally had all 3 subs there and was able to trap and destroy the Kriegsmarine in the ports on the Bay of Biscay. Throughout the game there was a very heavy allied naval and air presence along the shipping lanes between Britain and Gibraltar to ensure that the flow of units to the Med would be uninterrupted. Perhaps this was a waste but I wanted my Med campaign to be speedy and I didn't want to have to ship units down there then stop to repair them. I tried to always have a next move planned and units prepared for it even while executing each operation in the Med.

I invested heavily in leaders with all countries. I really am not sure if this is a good tactic but I like quality over quantity because I don't want to unecessarily drain manpower and when I face difficult terrain on the attack I want to be able to punch through and concentrate the most force in the smallest area possible. Thus almost all of my heavy units for every country had a leader attached when they entered combat. There were a few random MECHs that didn't get a leader but I tried to always have leaders on my heavy units, and of course kept leader coverage on all of my air units for most of the game to make them more cost effective. I saved Soviet air for winter/severe winter in 41 and 42 and didn't let the Axis engage them until fall 42 in clear weather - and then only because I was trying to hang on the the area around Novgorod desperately. Then by 43 my Red Air force was experienced enough, teched up enough, and numerous to unleash them when the May 43 arrived for the crucial battles on the west bank of the Dnieper. The panzer korps there never really could get into the battle because of air strikes made on them each turn by the Red Air force, causing them to have to choose between entering battle at strength 7/8/9 or repairing and hoping to come into play the following turn......so they just mainly sat around getting bombed.

Throughout the game I sought out any opportunity to make even or near even trades with the Germans to keep the pressure on the BP's, manpower, and ability to do tech upgrades and build new units. Any ground unit that could attack at 2:3 or 3:3 expected losses made the attack. Air units that could attack at 2:1 expected losses made the attack. The Soviets engaged where terrain favored them and the risk of being cut off was low and otherwise ran away for the first year of war with Germany....then after that if in doubt I would fall back with Soviets rather than risk engaging under conditions favorable to the Wermacht. I defended heavily in the rough terrain around Leningrad and Smolensk to try to bleed German manpower there, and since the Luftwaffe is less effective there.

I also tried to be efficient in research and upgrades - shifting focus as appropriate to get tech upgrades before a new campaign or clear weather season began, and waiting to upgrade until the right time to minimize cost and maximize number of upgrades I could get with each BP investment on a unit. By the end the Soviet land units were close to Wermacht tech. I think tank units were tech 12 to 10 in favor of Germany, Mech was around 12 to 11, and Infantry was around 10 to 8 or something like that.

Anyway, in every game you learn some things but I've got enough 2.1 games under my belt now to feel pretty confident when making choices so the game was a lot of fun for me since I think allies have a pretty large advantage in 2.1 (as they did historically really).

Here are some screenshots.
Tech Levels for the various allied countries:
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Casualty figures:
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Ending map with a Brest just off the west edge. You can see the large Red Air force and many guards units available to the Red Army by this point in the game. You can also see the strong RAF presence in the Med and the many invasions that are ashore across the Med.
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Med theater before any allied movement Jun 12 43:
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France theater before any allied movement Jun 12 43:
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Southern SU before any allied movement Jun 12 43:
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GogTheMild
Master Sergeant - Bf 109E
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Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by GogTheMild »

That's an amazingly low ASW levels for the WA. I would have expected even Italian subs to be ripping you apart.
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jjdenver
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
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Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by jjdenver »

GogTheMild wrote:That's an amazingly low ASW levels for the WA. I would have expected even Italian subs to be ripping you apart.
It is fairly low but there were a lot of DD's floating around in the Med and then later the Atlantic. At game end there were 13 allied DD's in the Atlantic and 6 CV's. At game end U.S. DD's had organization in the 80's, survivability of 7 and ASW of 6. They are tough against any SUBs with those statistics. RN DD's are better with survivability of 6 and ASW of 8. I had 1 point invested in naval with US and CW all game and never wanted to invest more because I had a focus on air and general research with both countries from the jump then wanted to catch up armor and infantry tech as quickly as possible. All I can tell you is that Axis subs never felt like a big threat to allied ships or transports, only to allied unescorted convoys. Anytime Axis subs showed up I would make them a priority to hit with air units - very rarely did an Axis sub show up anywhere near ongoing ops and not get hit with 2 air units.
Vokt
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
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Posts: 1222
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:11 pm

Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by Vokt »

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Last edited by Vokt on Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vokt
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
Posts: 1222
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:11 pm

Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by Vokt »

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Last edited by Vokt on Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Peter Stauffenberg
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Re: Vokt (Axis) vs jjdenver (Allies)

Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

In GS v2.2 I think the Western Allies will have to invest in at least 2 naval labs so they can get the ASW tech up so they have an ok chance to detect and hit German subs. That would mean 1 lab less somewhere else.
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