Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 14.
10:00 AM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 1km


Victory points after the German
turn fourteen.


The victory point total moved one point in my favor. I can still inflict as much losses on the Russians in casualty VP as they do to me. That will not be good enough. Both sides are punching away. My boxer is much more damaged. The weather closed in again to one km visibility. Even the weather gods are against me. The weather will prevent me using the two hex range of the 88mm AT guns. Hopefully, they will still surprise and disrupt the T-34s in the west. I have withdrawn the 11th PD forces from that flank to concentrate on the Sulatskiy bridgehead.

The isolated Russian armor in my rear has finally succumbed to an assault. Nineteen Russian vehicles were destroyed in the assault. Another two or three were destroyed by direct fire. I am using infantry units too worn out to go into the front lines here. Since they rallied this turn, these units can take on the isolated and disrupted Russian armor. I suspect the isolated Russian armor units have no morale left. I will be able to mop them up next turn unless the Russian artillery intervenes and disrupts my units. In that case it will be less artillery to attack my 11th PD infantry trying to reduce the Russian bridgehead. That is a small victory.

I begin whittling away at the Russian VP hex in the Sulatskiy bridgehead. Disrupted the first large Russian infantry unit. Took a shot at the 1st tank corps HQ and disrupted it with many losses. Hope that causes problems for the stronger armored units defending in the Sulatskiy bridgehead.

In the west, the Russians are repositioning for their next lunge while clobbering any targets of opportunity they can reach.

The Soviet cavalry are on the march. I just keep throwing units in front of them.
The dike is leaking pretty badly.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 14.

The German forces are on the ropes, it seems, but they still have a chance of taking the objective in the center bridgehead. As shown below, my forces along the river are near destruction from the constant battering of the German forces. Soon, I will have to shift some relatively fresh forces over to help out and prevent the collapse of that defensive position. But Brian is putting heavy pressure on the other flank of the bridgehead so I am reluctant to shift forces too quickly.

The encircled units just to the south are in serious danger too, I will use my artillery to support them as much as possible.

In the west, the only Germans in sight are artillery units which should be easy to kill off this turn. And the cavalry is ready to push hard in the east.



I manage to overrun the German artillery as planned. Also, my artillery fire disrupts the 3 German infantry units adjacent to my trapped units. I hope this will buy my forces time to rescue them. And in the east, artillery fire breaks the unit protecting the 25 point objective, allowing my cavalry to move into the objective without a fight.

All in all, while Brian still has a chance of getting back to a minor loss, it will be difficult with such a short amount of time left, as he must capture the 250 pt objective and the forces there are supported by my T-34 flame unit, which is ready for trouble.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 15.
12:00 PM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German
turn fifteen


I am now playing to set up the final turn assault unless an opportunity presents itself to go earlier at the Sulatskiy bridgehead.
The 11th PD infantry are now joined by my remaining infantry besieging the Sulatskiy bridgehead. I want to pin the Russian troops on the south side of the perimeter allowing me to wear down the defenders in the 250VP hex and on the northern side of the perimeter. I withdrew one battalion of PzGr which were disrupted in the Russian turn. I replaced them with the last best battalion of infantry I have left in the area. This stack in the village NW of the 250VP hex will provide enough of a fire base to disrupt the remaining Russian infantry. With the trench and village fire modifiers, I do not expect the Russians to hurt them much more. I will have my artillery try to get a lucky shot on the red armor in the VP hex to disrupt the flame T-34s. If I can not disrupt them, I can at least fatigue the T-34s enough to fail a morale check when my final assault goes in. The flame T-34's are attached to the 52nd Army HQ. This HQ may still be fixed far to the north of the bridgehead giving me a chance. We will see.

The surrounded Soviet armor is whittled down by direct fire of my disrupted infantry and five PzIIIs left in the area. I destroyed four vehicles (T70’s and armored cars). Additional fatigue was inflicted on the T-34s in the armor stack. Destroying the stack will be a matter of the infantry rallying.

In the west I run my LW infantry on the southern end of my line to close with the end of the river coming up from the board edge and secure this flank against a sudden Russian move towards the final VP hex in Axis hands. I deployed my last good 88mm AT gun battery in the VP hex with the Corps HQ and a company of LW infantry. I have doubled up my lines in the center, at the expense of my artillery units. On the northern end of the line I bunch up into large stacks to hold for the final Russian turns and maximize my defensive fire opportunities. I focus my direct fire attacks here on single Russian infantry units to attempt to disrupt or fatigue them enough so they drop a morale level. That will weaken the impending Russian infantry assaults to when they try to break this line.

I have eight infantry units left to hold back the red cavalry. Five are disrupted, red fatigue and E morale. Two are in good order. These two are a bicycle unit with D morale, 74 men and the 11th PD recon company at B morale with 68 men left. Not much to hold two divisions of Russian cavalry, even if the Russians are at half strength. I am forced to move my six PzIII’s into the trench hex north of the 25VP village hex. While I was not able to disrupt the cavalry in the village, I have to trust they can not assault the tanks successfully to rip open the northern side of the perimeter and begin moving to threaten my troops besieging the southern part of the Sulatskiy bridgehead.
I moved the 16 PzIV’s into the front line south of the 25VP village to bloody the cavalry if they try to move that direction. My disrupted infantry are behind the tanks to try and rally for the next turn.
I expect the Russian cavalry to assault the motorcyclists in the southern most village. I positioned the 11th PD recon unit where it can interrupt and maybe disrupt any Russian flak vehicles who would exploit a breach on the far south side of the perimeter. The PzIV’s will intimidate the cavalry. They may even disrupt a Russian unit. Then I can move them north to the Sulatskiy bridgehead to participate in the final turn attack there.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 15.

Things are coming to a head around my central bridgehead, still heavily pressed by the German forces. My forces driving from the northwest are less than 4 kilometers away, threatening the rear of the German troops on the river. However, my forces on the riverbank are worn out with 84 men, 3 T-70s and 3 light AT guns desperately holding on. However, I decide that even if that hex falls, my supply lines are secure and it will expose the German units to destruction both from the rear and my flanking forces.

The only other item of note is that panzers are again committed to the front lines, this time against my cavalry in the east. I will push against them to wear them down and cause whatever losses I can, while also pushing against the infantry in the area.



Not much happens this turn, I keep the pressure on in the west, assault the panzers in the east with cavalry, killing 3 tanks, and the center fires its artillery to weaken the German Panzer Grenadiers.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 16.
14:00 PM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Night Visibility 1km.


Victory points after the German
turn sixteen.


I am still losing ground and VP each turn. I can not change the tide of the attrition.
I have set up the best defense I can to prevent a breakthrough on the western side and in the Russian cavalry zone. The Russian cavalry, could break out to the south since my units there are the weakest. I do not think RickyB is trying to push the cavalry south, thus my current deployment is set to stop a move to the north.

I managed to reduce the Russian armor pocket near the Sulatskiy bridgehead. My 11th PD infantry along the river are now at full fatigue so they can no longer help the engineers in assaults. The Russian artillery protecting the Sulatskiy bridgehead has been very consistent in delivering strikes on my stacks threatening the bridgehead. My infantry attack is now bogging down under from accumulated fatigue. A large part of that fatigue is due to the Russian artillery. I was not expecting such consistent artillery support from the Russians for sixteen turns.

Over all, I am able to inflict the same casualties on the Russians that they inflict on me. At this point in the game that is not good enough as the entire German force is being worn down to the breaking point. It is now a question of when the Germans will break. Maybe I can prevent a break through until turn eighteen and pray for a lucky break.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 16.

Both sides appear battered, most of my units are well into yellow or red fatigue, and losses have been heavy. My trapped units were assaulted and nearly destroyed, they gave their lives for Mother Russia. I am pushing south to try and exit a few units, although not needed for the win, it appears. Brian commented this turn that my artillery has done most of the damage, and that he is surprised how much they have fired, without apparent ammo problems. But about 1/3 of the artillery, on average, has been unavailable each turn.

As can be seen in the command report, 8 of 23 artillery units are unavailable this turn, along with many units being low ammo. A large portion of my army is disrupted also, leaving them incapable of offensive action.



The cavalry continues their advance in the east, and I finally commit more light armor to holding the important defensive positions along the river bank.

And in the west, I manage to reach some of the few remaining artillery units. I believe we are both at the point of mutual exhaustion.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 17.
16:00 PM December 12, 1942
Snow Conditions
Visibility 2km.


Victory points after the German
turn seventeen.


The Axis attack on the Sulatskiy bridgehead is out of gas. Most units are either max fatigue and thus can not assault or are disrupted.

I pieced the front back together to hold another two turns against the cavalry.

The western flank is slowly being pushed back. The Russians have many disrupted tank and motorized infantry units so they bring their HQs right up to the front lines in an attempt to get rallies. I only had two artillery units that could fire this turn. Both were adjacent to Russian units and thus took defensive fire. I did manage to disrupt a T-34 unit on the western flank with my artillery.
I am totally defensive now.

Interesting comment Rick about the Russian artillery. The artillery has been doing a lot of damage to my troops through fatigue. As fatigue accumulates the artillery seems to become more effective is disrupting the German units due to the Axis units having lower morale levels. Thus the attack on the Sulatskiy bridgehead simply bogged down.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 17.

The battle is winding down as exhaustion traps both sides. My Soviets are worn out and barely able to hold on by this time, fortunately the Germans are in worse shape. I have decided to give up the river bank to the Germans in my central bridgehead, they are down to about 40 men and 4 T70 tanks, so I will fall back to the bridge hexside itself, relying on the units just south of the riverbank to protect things as that is a relatively strong stack still.

Also, the Germans still present on the river are vulnerable to isolation this turn, and I have units north of the river that can help trap the PanzerGrenadiers in position. This set of moves will end the threat of the Germans to my bridgehead, which had nearly faded away already.



The attacks and moves in the north work to isolate 3 German units, which will prevent them from escaping or threatening my forces at all. It has been a tough battle but one that the brave Soviet soliders have done what was needed to beat the tough, experienced Germans.



Rick

[Dog Soldier]

German turn 18.
14:00 PM December 13, 1942
Snow Conditions


Victory points after the German
turn eighteen.


The Russians continue to collapse the German resistance and slaughter them. German offensive power was gone three turns ago. One more Russian turn is left to pile on the victory points! :whis:
It is probably fitting that the last turn finds the 48th Pz Corps HQ out of command. The general must have shot himself.

The attacks on the Sulatskiy bridgehead can make no more progress this final turn. The Soviets are closing in on the Sulatskiy bridgehead in the north and would soon join the western and Sulatskiy bridgeheads. I would have withdrawn the pzgr and engineers of the 11th PD from the riverbank if this was a longer scenario. As it is, it does not matter so I left them in place to be surrounded.

The Soviet cavalry is moving forward and expanding their bridgehead to the west. This Soviet group can do nothing more. I have contained them with a pretty small commitment of force for the entire game. I am satisfied with this front in the scenario.

I inflicted on the Soviets a loss of 148 vehicles to my loss of 83. That is 78% more vehicles lost for the Soviets than the Axis forces. Infantry losses were about the same. Guns lost were much more on the Axis side. Many of these were the AT guns lost when they were put into the front to stop the Russian T-34s who were the mauling the LW infantry in the southwest.
Equal losses though are not enough for the Axis in this scenario. Too much ground had to be given up and thus the VP difference is from the lost VP hexes.

Dog Soldier

[Ricky B]

Soviet Turn 18, end of battle.

After 17 tough turns of battle, the battle is reaching the end, with exhaustion on both sides. The battle is won by this time, the question being how far my Soviets can advance here at the end.

I plan on clearing up the trapped German units along the river, and pushing on the forces in my front. The enemy has pulled back from the cavalry in the east, so they will advance with the more rested units and try to make contact with the enemy that is nearby.



My Soviet troops manage to cause quite a few losses to the German forces this last turn, reaching this final situation. The overall losses are fairly equal, but the German troops are worth more points, and they lost too many objectives to make up for it.



The final score is 63 points, which does not reflect how tough the fighting was throughout the battle.

Dog Soldier and I will follow up with a summary of the battle and thoughts on how it unfolded.

Rick