Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 10.
00:00 AM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Night Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German
turn ten.


The victory points are moving back in favor of the Russians this turn. RickyB made concentrated attacks on the 11PD armor and wiped out one company of the best PzIV and depleted another company of PzIII to just one tank. That is half my 11th Pd armor in one turn! I arranged my forces as best as possible to defend next turn, but the Russians will take the state farm 250 VP hex. It is only a matter of time.

I used direct fire attacks to reduce the Russian stacks in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. The 11th PD HQ went out of command this turn reducing the effectiveness of my attacks. As soon as the 11th PD HQ is back in command I will need to press my attacks on the Sulatskiy bridgehead to gain the 250 VP hex and offset the impending loss of the state farm.

The missing T-34 unit arrived to help the surrounded T70 and AC unit. I was able to surround them again. My infantry is disrupted there by artillery from the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Thus I can not reduce the pocket. A stalemate.
The Russian cavalry are relatively quiet. I think the rubble of the village is slowing their progress to get into position for a breakout.

Retrospective.
I made a mistake in placing my panzers in the front lines. I felt at the time I had little choice since the front was crumbling. I wanted to buy one turn to reposition some of my infantry further south. The foot troops move very slow in the hilly snow covered terrain here.
I did not think the Russian troops had recovered enough to attack the panzers directly. I thought the Russians would need one turn to work around the panzers. Instead RickyB hit my panzers directly and removed half my armored force.

With hindsight is easy to ask why take such a risk? The infantry units in the area were all disrupted at the beginning of the Russian turn due to failure to rally. This makes them very vulnerable to be overrun. Once that happens, my panzers would just sit there and possibly be surrounded. Placing the panzers one hex behind the front lines might have been the wisest move. Even that kind of move would not create success. The Russians are massed at the apex of the Axis L shaped line giving the Russians interior lines while I am forced to react with exterior lines. I thought a stand at this apex might discourage the Russians to attack the panzers directly. This would cause them to change the direction of their attack and buy me some time to reorganize the defense. Unfortunately for me this did not work. C'est la guerre.

On the cavalry front, I have committed only enough troops to hold the Red cavalry divisions at bay. I realized the implications of the Russian failed assault in turn nine. There just was no one available to take advantage of the situation.

These situations resulted directly from my commitment to liquidate the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Following a different strategy earlier on, would have produced different results. Once committed to taking the 250 VP hex in the Sulatskiy bridgehead, I could not easily shift troops elsewhere.

To me, there is no doubt turn nine was the turning point in the game.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 10. Midnight turn.

Time to resupply and fuel up for the day, and this turn, unlike the prior one, resulted in relatively poor supply this turn, as shown below. In addition to what shows in the command report, I have 13 units low on fuel, so they will have to be careful. My plan for the turn is to keep pushing forward in the west. I can't see any German troops so the turn will begin with short moves to identify th enemy positions and then try to formulate a plan to take advantage of any weaknesses found.

In the center, my bridgehead is weakening but some units are getting rested and slightly rebuilt - they will have to return to action soon to prevent a collapse of the bridgehead. The mobile units were trapped again this turn, but to their north the infantry unit holding them in position is disrupted so I will assault with my wandering T34 to enlarge the pocket to 3 hexes and thus buy some time.

In the east, one stack of 2 cavalry units are all disrupted, so I will switch those units out with others behind them, preparing to resume the attack in the morning, while the other cavalry stack in the front line pressure the stack holding them in place.



The western push sees the only significant action of the turn, and sees much better results than I had expected. One T-34 unit is able to push back a German recon vehicle unit and almost open up a hole. More importanly, just north of the 250 pt objective at the State Farm, my 3 T-34 units are able to push the Germans back quite a distance and force a deep wedge in their lines. These 2 attacks to each side of the objective should result in its quick fall.

In the east the cavalry do disrupt another German unit so of the 4 units they face 2 are disrupted, so the attack should really gain momentum in the morning.



Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 11.
04:00 AM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Dawn Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German
turn eleven


My HQ’s came back into command. I can not take another turn like that again with most of my best units one morale level lower due to low ammo. It caused me to take more losses than I should have from the Soviet artillery across the river.
The Russians, they got to be as tired as we are. This turn I continue to whittle down the Russians in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Next turn, I will begin to retreat from the northern most Axis positions. I am not sure my troops there can hold one more turn. I have no choice. I will need to have them cover the rear of my final assaults on the Sulatskiy bridgehead. The Sulatskiy bridgehead represents the best chance of gaining VP. If I can push the Russian units more, they may begin to break. Then the Sulatskiy bridgehead will collapse quickly. That will be the key to my draw, or minor victory. I have two battalions of infantry on the southern side of the Sulatskiy bridgehead resting this turn. They may recover to B morale, just barely in the next turn or two. Then I can throw them into the final assaults.
To deal with the Soviet armor pocket behind the Sulatskiy bridgehead, I stacked my disrupted infantry unit that the T-34s assaulted in the Russian turn 10 with some good order units. I have positioned my other units there to prevent this stack from being surrounded. Axis ZOCs will prevent the isolated T-34’s from moving toward the bridgehead. I assaulted the T-70 unit and destroyed three more armored cars with direct fire while moving my armor into a stronger position. I thus reduced the pocket back to two hexes. I will see if I can eliminate this pocket soon to free up some troops for the end game. RickyB has been using the artillery behind the Sulatskiy bridgehead effectively to disrupt my infantry here and cover his isolated units.

I patched the western front back together again. The loss of the state farm is inevitable. I will have to abandon it soon as RickyB continues to hit my weak units holding the flanks of the state farm.

The Soviet Cavalry is setting up for a breakout. I observed a strong force moving through the mines to south along the river bank. They will pop up to attack the ridge soon. I moved my last reserve company in to hold them off another turn. The threat here is the strong assault values of the cavalry. The flak units are in the Russian stack to absorb defensive fire and exploit any hole with quick movement. I will try to disrupt these flak units, as they pose a greater breakout threat than the cavalry who have to do the assaults.

My chances in the scenario are getting grim, but I am still in this fight. I have prevented any major breakthroughs all game so far. Only the one T-34 unit got through and it is now corralled with the rest of the Soviet armor that penetrated my lines. These armored units are not causing my troops to be surrounded, so that is a small victory. I am using a minimal force of disrupted infantry that can recover to contain them along with the one panzer unit to help speed up the destruction of the Soviet armor. Once I have the Soviets all disrupted, the infantry can finish them off, releasing the panzers for other duties

Dog Soldier

[U124IXB]

Great aar this is probably one of my favorite engagements off ww2 along with winter storm.Thanks :)

[Ricky B]

Thanks, this is a fun, tough battle, and I am enjoying writing about it with Brian!

[Ricky B]

Soviet turn 11.

As shown in the command report, I continue to have supply issues, not serious but enough to slow my attack significantly. In addition to what shows here, there are still 8 units low fuel. However, my Katyusha units at the center bridgehead are supplied and ready to wear down the German infantry attacking in the area.

As noted, the Germans have deployed 2 Panzer units with AT support facing my western tank thrust. Further south, I have a tank adjacent to the disrupted German recon unit that I pushed back the prior turn, but it is disrupted and so I am unable to take advantage of that area.



My plan for the turn is basically one of rest - I will have patience and wait for a better opportunity to push the action, letting my artiller wear down the Germans and prepare for future attacks. In addition, Brian has 2 AT units in the front line and I know that I will be able to destroy them eventually.

I shift my 3 T34s in the west due south to outflank the state farm and bypass the strong pak front they were facing. I come across an HQ and AT unit on the way, and manage to destroy the AT guns and push back the HQ. I also finish off the weakened recon unit with an assault by a motorized infantry unit in travel mode - I am unable to deploy the unit after the assault but am willing to take the risk of artillery fire in return for removing one of Brian's precious mobile units from the game.

In the east, the German units in the village due west of my cavalry are disrupted by my fire and so I expect to push the defenders back next turn.

All in the all, the turn played out with better results than I expected at the start, although the gain in ground was very limited. I know that Brian's Germans must be worn out and a few more hard blows will break his forces, I hope.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 12.
06:00 AM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.

Victory points after the German
turn twelve.


Four out of seven Axis HQ’s went out of command again as the Axis command structure failed from the 48th Pz Corp HQ all the way through the subordinate HQ’s for the second time. To make things worse, I had no idea the Axis AT weapons would be this ineffective. The Russian T-34s are invincible. Our shots just bounce off them. I might as well be throwing snow balls.

The victory points are heading back in the direction of the Russians. The state farm will fall, it is now a question of when. When it does the Russians will have a major victory. I assault some Russian motorized infantry which are on the road leading north of the state farm with my remaining two PzkwIII units. I lose a couple of tanks for my efforts. Maybe the Russian northern pincer is fatigued enough I can threaten it. South of the state farm, the Axis forces are so weak, they could not harm Russian motorized infantry in transport mode which assaulted and destroyed the Axis armored cars. I will just have to try and delay the Russian southern pincer moving in on the state farm.

No progress on the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I only managed to disrupt all but one of the Russian units that rallied this turn there. This left no units able to assault.

The Russian cavalry is contained for another turn. I disrupted one cavalry unit in the southern stack. I damaged the northern stack, but still left two Russian cavalry units in good order. With my infantry being disrupted, I can now expect an assault in the Russian half of this turn. It is costing me 40 – 50 men each turn to hold them. At that rate it will not matter if they break out.


Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 12.

The Germans are holding onto a minor loss, but with the capture of the State Farm imminent, that will push them down to a major loss. In addition, my Soviets are near the German gun lines, with their artillery and AT guns. A short advance will bring them into range.

In the center, the German assault on my bridgehead is bogging down, but my forces on the river are nearly destroyed - I will have to rearrange my troops sending the rested forces to hold the river line. FOrtunately, my tank units, especially the T34s are the only thing keeping my lines together, preventing a collapse of the front lines. Meanwhile, my isolated mobile troops are doing their main job, which is tying down 6 German units.

And in the east, the cavalry is ready to push due west. The German infantry there are already disrupted so I don't have to waste any shots before the assault.



The State Farm does fall this turn and I move adjacent to some of the German guns in the west. The cavalry also pushes out of their small bridgehead and are basically unstoppable now except for disruptions that might occur.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 13.
08:00 AM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km


Victory points after the German
turn


Russian T-34s assaulted the state farm and took it. Only 9 men escaped. The T34s in the west ravage my units at will. I can not inflict more damage on the Russians than they do on me.

I have rounded up the isolated Russian armor in my center into one hex. Next turn I can deal them a crippling blow.

The Pzgr infantry of the 11th PD took Ostrovskiy village this turn. I am now adjacent to the Russian 250 VP hex. The rubble in the village and trenches will shelter my troops for the final push. There are Russian units stuffed in all the remaining hexes of the bridgehead. I may not be strong enough or have enough time to liquidate them. I can only try.

The Soviet cavalry are beginning to breakout. I have managed to disrupt half of the cavalry units. The rate of the breakout will be determined by how many of these units rally.

I think the game is lost to a total Russian victory. The math is against me. I will try to harvest the Sulatskiy bridgehead by repositioning what units I have left to try and take Russian prisoners there with the 250 VP hex. There is no longer any reason to hold ground anywhere else.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 13.

The win seems assured, but the Germans continue to put up a hard fight. One of my towns in the center fell to the Germans, increasing the pressure on the rear of the bridgehead and threatening to collapse the western flank of it. However, the Germans are running out of time as my forces push upon their rear along the river. In the west, I have moved adjacent to 2 artillery units along with 2 AT guns, my plan will be to try and overrun all of them this turn. And in the east, the cavalry is poised to break out and there isn't much the Germans can do to stop that, due to disruption.



The Germans show signs of exhaustion this turn, as 3 of the infantry units attacking my central bridgehead disrupt from my artillery fire. This leaves 5 of the 8 frontline units disrupted at the end of my turn. They may rally in their following turn, but I am more confident of holding on there knowing that the Germans must be nearly burned out.

My western attack doesn't accomplish much, as my own fatigue levels are high. I do overrun an already disrupted gun unit there but that is about it. The cavalry pushed forward in the east also, but do not break out.

Rick