Smolensk '41: Strategy and Tactics

[Ubercat]

Yes, it's another new thread, started by me.:)

I'm in my second solo playing of the Orsha_Alt scenario as the Germans, trying to get a feel for the best way to do things. I gave up on the first after realizing that I'd spread my focus out too widely. My ultimate goal for this solo practice is to make myself a worthy opponent for a campaign game.

The AI Soviets are pretty passive as far as maneuvering. This doesn't seem like too bad a thing however, since they have a thinly held line and are supposed to be on the defensive. The only problem is that they attack too much on their turn, giving me more opportunities to disrupt them with counter fire.

In my second run through I'm doing pretty good. It's turn 22 of 40 and I've crossed the Dniepr in two spots and am in the process of clearing the enemy out of Orsha (including that nasty battalion of T34's). I'm afraid that a wise human opponent would slow me considerably by forcing me to do all the attacking. I'm not sure I could win this one against a human Soviet opponent.

I've come to the conclusion that, for this combination of forces, it takes about a division to reliably force a crossing in most locations, but the division will be fairly worn out when it gets over the river and could really use a back up force to exploit the breakthrough. For Orsha and Mogilev, a division can probably do the job, but will definitely be too worn down afterward and will need a break.

10th Panzer crossed the river near Shklov and captured the 100pt obj. They are moving north to take the 100pt obj nearby at Kopyr. Some of the Reich SS division is over the river with them and more are en-rout to help. 18th Panzer and 29th Motorized are clearing out Orsha and are also over the river in the early process of taking out The Soviet artillery and HQ's behind the city.

My main decision point now is what to do with the southern breakthrough. I will grab Kopyr soon and then have to figure out where to go next. I wanted to go south and take Mogilev from the rear while attacking it frontally (from the west) with parts of the Reich division and the GrD regiment. As long as it took me to get where I am now (22 turns), I don't think that's feasible though. Grabbing the 200pt obj. in Mogilev will take almost the rest of the game, and my casualties will most likely negate much of the 200pt gain.

The other choice is to strike out for Gorki. I don't think there's much in the way of those 400 pts and the exit objectives to the east, so it should be easy.

My main question is, what would a halfway decent human opponent be doing at this point? If I run east, couldn't he cut me off from supply pretty easily? Even with few troops it should be easy to capture my bridges unless I leave significant forces behind on garrison duty.

This makes me think of the even bigger picture of a grand campaign. There's FAR too much ground to be protected by too few German units. As the German player advances, there must be a million opportunities for the Soviet to make his life miserable. How does a German player guard all those supply lines and VP's in his rear? AND, have enough of a force left to keep going?

Thank you for reading all this. Thoughts?

[Mr Grumpy]

I am glad that you realise that the AI is a poor opponent (although it is a great tool to learn the game system with) because like myself and many other here if your first PBEM opponent is not against a newbie you would have been in for a hell of a shock when your opponent punish's your every mistake and lack of experience!

However i found the learning curve great fun and i improved with each game, until i was able to hold my own against all but the best players.

In a scenario with a possibility that your opponents units will appear in your rear you need to have a security force available to surround and destroy these units, when you realise that they will be suffering from low fuel/ low ammo (or both) what looks like a strong force can actually be very weak in combat abilities, but that is of course hidden by FOW and that is where a players experience plays a key role, if you know what to look for you can tell that a unit is low on ammo due to its low fire results.

[Ubercat]

Orsha_alt gives newer players a chance to experiment with ways of dealing with enemy units being loose in the rear because it starts out with 2-3 weak Soviet divisions on the wrong side of the river.

Besides ignoring them, there seem to be only two ways to deal with these annoyances. Either send motorized battalions after them, which wastes valuable momentum in the offensive, or leave them to the plethora of recon elements.

I've mostly tried surrounding them with motorcycle/armored cars and blasting away. This is a SLOW way to go. Smaller engineer battalions can be taken down in a reasonable amount of time, but the standard 350 man rifle battalions are just too big to reliably deal with in this way. Especially when there are 2-3 together. They generally dish out as much damage as they take and tie up your recon assets for a few days (tens of turns). Motorized battalions can disrupt and decimate them fairly fast, but a main combat element like this can scarcely be spared from the front line.

What do experienced German players do once they penetrate far into the vast areas east of the Dniepr in a campaign game? Can you afford to separate a couple of motorized divisions and split them into little roving patrol companies/battalions?

What about the German regular infantry divisions? How soon do they start arriving and how soon can they march far enough to be useful garrison units? I will try to answer this question myself by starting a campaign game just to check the reinforcement schedule, but it's worth bringing up here.

I think my next step is to try to take on an experienced player in this scenario, with me as the Soviets, so I can experiment with being a headache and see how he deals with my forces being behind his lines.

[Al]

As in real life, these games reward sound military planning. This wiki article describes the principles of warfare just about as good as anyone else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_War

Of course - and as you will see, putting them into action is easier said than done.

[Ubercat]

Thank you for the link on Clausewitz.

[Liebchen]

Let me know when you're ready to play the full campaign against a human. I'll take either side.

The Smolensk title is still one of my favorites.

[Ubercat]

Let me know when you're ready to play the full campaign against a human. I'll take either side.

The Smolensk title is still one of my favorites.

I will let you know. Thanks. :) In the mean time, do you consider yourself a skilled Axis player? (Edit: Probably a dumb question. I just saw how long you've been on the forum) I'd like to play the Orsha_alt at least once against a good Axis player so I can see how he focuses his river crossings, what he does when he gets to the other side, and how he deals with my straggler units.

I consider myself lower-intermediate in skill, having a couple of PBEM games under my belt. I don't need an expert opponent in a campaign game, but will definitely play one. For a good mid sized river crossing scenario like Orsha_alt, I want to get schooled by an expert.

[sinbad(FGM)]

Let me know when you're ready to play the full campaign against a human. I'll take either side.

The Smolensk title is still one of my favorites.

i am ready will play either side

[Havoc]

Let me know when you're ready to play the full campaign against a human. I'll take either side.

The Smolensk title is still one of my favorites.

I will let you know. Thanks. :) In the mean time, do you consider yourself a skilled Axis player? (Edit: Probably a dumb question. I just saw how long you've been on the forum) I'd like to play the Orsha_alt at least once against a good Axis player so I can see how he focuses his river crossings, what he does when he gets to the other side, and how he deals with my straggler units.

I consider myself lower-intermediate in skill, having a couple of PBEM games under my belt. I don't need an expert opponent in a campaign game, but will definitely play one. For a good mid sized river crossing scenario like Orsha_alt, I want to get schooled by an expert.

I've been playing on the BP/CS ladder for a while, but I'm fairly new to the TOC games (just got my copy of Smolensk 41. If you want a human Soviet opponent to try in the scenario you narrated, let me know.