Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Ricky B]

The battle has begun with a bang as the German assault hits our relatively weak forces at the central bridgehead. One T34 unit is gone forever, and the Germans have many units around the bridgehead. My westernmost units are fixed for the night, waiting to begin their attack at dawn as planned, and the forces screening the German bridgehead are ordered to rest, awaiting developments elsewhere. Thus, my first turn consists of defensive moves at my central bridgehead, as shown below, and a careful crossing of the cavalry in the east, using their artillery to weaken the defenders there in order to push them back.



The withdrawal goes well, with the weaker tank units, consisting of just a few tanks each, falling back to the towns in order to rebuild or be thrown into battle when it is critical.

The cavalry crossing goes well, with only limited fire being received from the Germans who don't appear to have artillery support fortunately. One division makes the crossing, while the second stands by to support it as the first group of units tire or get disrupted. If my crossing is only held by disrupted units, then the Germans will be able to grab a bunch of victory points with an assault, but with no artillery in support the enemy will be hard pressed to disrupt my cavalry and still be able to assault, so it is a calculated risk.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 2.
06:00 AM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Dawn, Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German turn two.


I am continuing the full attack on the Sulatskiy bridgehead while retreating on the western flank and out of the German Chir bridgehead. Not much progress as the Russians have created large stacks which I must wear down before assaulting. The Russians are playing for time to move reinforcements to the Sulatskiy bridgehead from other areas. It is a side effect of my gambit to retreat from the German Chir bridgehead that I release a regiment of Russian infantry that can move to the Sulatskiy bridgehead.

I reinforce the bottleneck against the Guards cavalry and inflict what losses I can. The idea was to keep the two units that crossed the bridge disrupted so I could bag some prisoners. The Russians refused to disrupt, so I will face some withering fire in the Russian turn or maybe an assault.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Turn 2:

My western forces have released and are ready to attack, although 5 units are still low fuel. 5 artillery units are also unavailable, including 2 Katyusha units in the center bridgehead, my most powerful artillery. On the plus side, 3 of 8 units undisrupted, better results than I expected for Soviet units.

My plan for the turn is as follows:



The central bridgehead will continue to fall back as shown previously. The units shown in the image are located just behind the front lines, showing how weak most of my tank units are in the center.

In the west, I can only see one LW unit, the others have pulled out of sight, so it takes the brunt of my attack for the turn while I prepare to create a hole to exploit in a future turn. I move up my corps motorcycle unit toward the front but it is low fuel and unable to reach its position and deploy so it is left in travel mode within sight of German units.

Also, it is now obvious that the Germans have decided to abandon their Surovikino bridgehead, giving me a free objective but allowing them to concentrate much stronger forces south of the Chir River.

In the east, the Germans have moved 3 units, from 3 formations, into postion to block my cavalry crossing. This will delay the attack there, and put me at high risk of a counterattack if the Germans disrupt all my cavalry, so I will have to proceed with caution there. In hopes of a quick push, though, I keep my cavalry on the north bank in travel mode ready to exploit, rather than moving up on flanking positions to the east this turn. I will regreat this decision next turn, but it doesn't cause me any serious harm, fortunately. I cause the German defenders that the cavalry face heavy losses through artillery and small arms fire, followed by a cavalry assault.

This turn was primarily a setup turn, preparing for the following turns where I will be able to accomplish more.

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 3.
08:00 AM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German turn three.
So far so good. I have destroyed 325 Russian infantry and seven tanks. German losses are heavy also.


The retreat from the Axis bridgehead moves forward without any interference from the Russians. My only worry was if the Russians in the west combined the mobile forces and pushed hard along the southern river bank to reach the bridge. I would be hard pressed to hold them. As it is the Russians seem to be probing the LW troops to the south on my western flank. They are looking for a point to over run the defense there. The Russian T-34’s do not venture far from their infantry support. Notice the motorcyclists still in column formation there. RickyB is risking this unit to either draw fire from my few artillery that can reach that far or leaving the unit mounted, so they can swoop forward and paste a LW unit that gets disrupted by Russian artillery next turn. Unfortunately for me, I can not get all my LW troops out of LOS this turn to keep him guessing.
I have most of my AT guns moving off the front lines to help dig positions in the rear . If the Russian break the line, I plan for the AT guns to disrupt marauding T-34’s. This may give me a chance to assault out of a surrounded position is there is a break in the line.

The Guards cavalry have begun crossing. While they are facing murderous fire from the German infantry dug in the village, they will soon rally and be able to conduct assaults. Already one German infantry company was reduced by 48%. They were retreated from the village to prevent annihilation. The motorcyclists lost 26% and one morale level. I am hurting the Russian cavalry, but they appear to be flanking my village position along the river to bring more fire power to bear. I will have to concentrate on the Russian units already across the river to prevent them from assaulting my cork in the bottle.
Notice the village I am holding is already in RUBBLE. This will make it harder for me to reinforce or rotate the troops there. Any Axis unit wishing to enter the village will have to stop in the clear terrain outside for one turn in LOS of the mixed cavalry division stack. This will allow the Russians to concentrate their artillery across the river on the Axis unit, causing fatigue and casualties, perhaps disruption, before I can get them into the relative safety of the entrenched village.


The main fighting is in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Here is a close up of the action. The 11th PD is hurting the Russians as much as possible before they retreat into the hedgehog of the villages inside the bridgehead. Artillery, direct fire and assaults have caused significant Russian casualties and fatigued their units. Still, they are managing to setup some stacks in the three villages directly west of where the engineer bridge is located. The 250 VP village hex is dug in for more protection. I will need to continue the assault for one more turn before events on my western flank compel me to send part of the 11th panzer west.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet turn 3:

The offensive in the west picks up speed this turn, as the LW infantry are too slow to pull away from my tanks and mobile troops. I push back the defenders southwest of the 25 point objective shifting most of my T34s to that area in hopes of a clean breakthrough in the next few turns, or at least to force the German commander to shift his panzers away from central bridgehead immediately, as the pressure there is very heavy. I do feel like the lines are thin here and will break soon if more troops don't arrive to support them.

There is also a secondary attack north of the objective in order to tie down the infantry in the area and prevent their shift to the more vulnerable area further southwest. I hope to force Dog Soldier to use his mobile forces in the southwest. I am using two T34 units that remain low fuel this turn as they couldn't contribute to the attack further south due to their limited movement, as they were able to move up and fire against the infantry anyway. This stack is shown to the left in this end of turn image.



In the center, my forces are moving into the fortified towns, which should allow them to stabilize the front for a few turns, but their losses have been quite high due to the 11th Panzer Div firepower.

In the east, my cavalry forces start the turn with 2 of 3 units disrupted, but one of them recovers from disruption. I put the disrupted unit into travel mode and pull it back across the river while sending a fresh unit into the lines. I finally prepare to move up on the flank of the defenders facing my cavalry, so that my reserve cavalry units can bring some fire against the defenders and thus raise the pressure on them, but still don't do anything there, hoping for a quick breakthrough.

Things continue to develop almost as expected, although the losses in the center are heavier than expected, due to Dog Soldier's excellent attack, and the cavalry are still completely locked up in their one km square bridgehead.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 4.
10:00 AM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German
turn four.


Russian losses increased by 238 infantry and four tanks. Killing Russian tanks will be critical. I would like to keep this pace. German losses were 168 infantry and one tank.

I continue to pressure the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I was unable to reposition my units to try and cut off the Russian infantry in the northern part of the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I felt I needed to keep large stacks next to the Russians to give me good defensive fire attacks if the Soviets shoot in their turn.

The Russian pressure from the two mechanized corps in the west is beginning to crack up my line. The LW troops just can not get away fast enough nor have they the strength to stop and fight. I patch the line up and hope it will continue to hold. Every turn the LW troops maintain a line, allows the 11thPD time to crack the Russian resistance in the Sulatskiy bridgehead.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet turn 4:

My forces had a good turn with HQ command, with only 1 HQ failing its command check, and over half my disrupted units rallying, a surprising number for the Soviet army in 1942.



It appears that the Germans have evacuated the 25 pt objective being approached by my western group, without a fight. I also believe their line is stretched in that area as the 11th Panzer Div is still tied up in its attack on the central bridgehead, so I will push hard in the west to try and force a breakthrough this turn. I have 3 strong T34 units located just southwest of the objective, in perfect position to force a hole and exploit it, including the 2 shown above.

In the center, my bridgehead is in trouble with the Germans having the potential to cut off part of my retreating forces, so protecting their retreat is my main job there. Meanwhile the cavalry will keep wearing down the eastern German forces.

The attack in the west goes well, with a Luftwaffe StuG unit, a single kilometer and an AT gun with no ZOC blocking my way, as I find out when I advance. I am able to destroy the StuG unit and open a hole into the German rear, into which 2 T34 units penetrate, as shown below. This will force the Germans to break off their attack on the center bridgehead or at least pull out significant forces to move west against my breakthrough.



Next turn I will have to decide what to do with my tanks that penetrated into the rear. There is an exit hex to reach, or I can send the units to help the central bridgehead or the cavalry.

This was a good turn for the Soviets. This early breakout in the west, due to a lack of depth for the Germans and the need to hold the line with AT guns in the area I strike, is important as it will relieve pressure on the other forces.

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 5.
12:00 PM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German
turn five.


The Russians continue to give as good as they get. Or is it the other way around? Victory points continue to move in the Russians favor. This turn by only 12 points. I was fforced to give up another 25 VP location, since it was being flanked. No sense in losing my mobility and units in a surrounded VP hex at this early point in the game. The Russians will soon surge in victory points when they occupy the 100 VP in two hexes.

The Russians broke through in the west with one T-34 battalion. As per Rick’s usual smart play, he sent the unit deep as he needed to make it impossible to spot with the low visibility. I have no real idea where it went. I can bet it is close enough to the front to help surround one of my units to reopen my lines. My guess is somewhere in the red circle. Thus I have tried to pull back as far as my troops can on my left flank. I sewed the front closed again. At least his exploiting tanks are now isolated and reduced in morale another level. I focused several artillery shots and managed to disrupt one of his T-34 units near the breach I closed. If they stay disrupted in his turn, they will be a smaller threat to bust open my lines again. Now we will see if splitting his five T-34 units in the Novoder’skly bridgehead was a good gamble. I have brought my 11th panzer armor west to seal off a large section of my rear. Next they will move to swarm his T-34 units on my left one at a time to fatigue and disrupt them. Maybe I will get to destroy one. In any case I need to rob them of their offensive punch before pulling out my panzers for the next hole that will need plugging.

My attacks on the Sulatskiy bridgehead continue. I was able to inflict more damage this turn to wear down the defense. Three assaults failed, but did not disrupt my units or cause me excessive fatigue. I did manage to destroy four tanks, further weakening the defense. The Russians assaulted in turn four towards the southeast. The Russian infantry disrupted leaving only the T-34s in good order. This brought them into the open for me to launch a counter assault in my turn that destroyed two tanks and some infantry.

I am concentrating on leveraging the northeastern tip of the bridgehead by attacking the village of Gelovsky. We both know holding this village gives an advantage to peeling the bridgehead away from the bridge. Rick positioned three battered, but good order infantry units next to the village so they will move in to replace any worn defenders. I will just have to keep up the pressure.

Dog Solddier

[Ricky B]

Soviet turn 5.

Brian reacted quickly and well to my breakthrough in the west, reforming his line and isolating my T34. As shown below, he has a flak unit well placed to keep the isolated tanks from moving back toward the line and reopening the hole, and I figure more men from the 11th Panzer Div are on the way. My central bridgehead is now faced with elements of the 336th Infantry Div and PzGr infantry from the 11th Pz, there are no tanks in sight there.



I think that a move east by my tank unit will run into Brian's tanks, although the appeal of a move toward the cavalry bridgehead in the far east is very strong, knowing that it would free up a strong mobile group of men if successful. Instead I decide to move the T34 unit south toward the exit.

The western attack will continue, although I am pulling back one T34 unit to its HQ as it is still low fuel after 5 turns. My attack destroys the valuable LW artillery unit shown highlighted in the image, and takes the 25 point objective that Brian wisely gave up.

In the center I am falling back to my defensive line with no letup in pressure from Brians attack. The cavalry in the east are finally in position to push hard to break out of their small bridgehead, but it will probably continue to be a static fight for a few more turns.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 6.
14:00 PM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German
turn six.


Victory points continue to plummet this turn as the Russians occupy an easy 100 VP in the northern locations. Nothing to be done about it. The positions were untenable and to loose troops also would only make this game harder.
I am continuing the retreat in the north. I consolidated the companies of two battalions of the 335 ID to form a defense protecting the rear of the 11th PD infantry assaulting the village of Gelovsky. The Russians held this village due to the presence of the flame T-34s, their largest tank unit in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I also renewed pressure on the village at the other end of the Sulatskiy bridgehead. When I take these two key villages the bridgehead will become very tight for the Russians. I hope to drive down from the north along the river to take the west end of the bridge. This will force Rick to abandon the VP hex or be isolated. Russian morale would drop and I should be able to take the VP hex and many victory points from any troops left inside the pocket.
In the west I choose to try an take away the initiative with a risky move. My artillery disrupted the flak units on either side of the Russian T-34 spearhead. Then my armor assaulted and took one side while the light flak and AC assaulted the other side. Then I brought up the remaining German armor to close the T-34’s in a ring . I could not reach the side where the light vehicles are positioned. Knowing Rick still has a T-34 battalion in my rear, I repositioned any mobile units to protect the 11th PD panzers. The Russian tanks are not in danger of destruction. They could easily break out and regain their mobility. I hope the loss of a turn to do so will give me time to create a defense on this flank.
The fight with the Russian cavalry is still a stalemate. Rick has brought up additional units to pound my defenders in the village from across the river. He has focused his fire attacks on the motorcycle troops hoping to drive their morale down enough for an assault to break out. I will relieve the remnants of the motorcycle troops next turn with some 11th PD Pz grenadiers. This should buy be a few more turns keeping the cavalry bottled up.

Dog Soldier