Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 1

[von Nev]

Dog Soldier did a good job in setting up this scenario and the victory conditions so I won't repeat him.

The German forces at hand are the 10th Panzer division that is advancing east to the north of Mogilev and the 10th Motorized division that is advancing from the southwest towards Mogilev. Both of these divisions are at full strength and rested. Later in the game the Germans will be reinforced by a regimental strength unit of the SS division Das Reich.

Plan of attack!

First and foremost, to have any chances of winning I have to get over the Dnepr and quickly. This is no easy task as both divisions will not be concentrated to attack until around turn 3. Both are still arriving in the area of operations and they have to advance some 20 kms to get to the river. Additionally, with limited bridging assets I can't afford to waste a lot of time trying to build bridges or risk having the whole timetable of the attack delayed if they get disrupted trying to build a bridge. I see this as a distinct possibility as I know my opponent will use every single arty attack on bridging units. I expect them to get pummelled so I can't risk that. Plus, in the best case scenario it will take bridging units 3 or 4 turns to get a bridge up. That is almost 20% of the scenario time! I can't wait that long. Once across the Dnepr, the Russians will concentrate everything at the bridgehead and as a result it will be very difficult to advance out of the bridgehead. If German troops are exhausted enough, I run the risk of being counterattacked and thrown back over the Dnepr. Therefore, I will concentrate both divisions along a single axis of attack in a powerful attack lead by panzers and stukas.

In PHASE ONE, the 10th Panzer division will sweep down and attack from the north into Mogilev and try to capture the river bridges in the southern sector. Their recon units will advance towards Mogilev and conduct recon spotting to find the forward edge of the expected minefields around Mogilev. The panzer battalion will charge into the minefields and try to clear infantry on the other side while engineer units clear the minefields. Once they get into Mogilev their primary mission in to get to the bridges. In PHASE TWO: Once they cross the bridges they are to attack northeast along the road to the exit point. As they do this they will provide flank security for the 10th Motorized division's attack that will be parallel to them. The combination of both these divisions attacking side-by-side will blast aside any Russian resistance as they try to exit the map at the exit hex.

In PHASE ONE, the 10th Motorized Division will cross the Dnepr south of Mogilev and in conjunction with the 10th Panzer Division's attack through Mogilev they will try to pin Russian units inside of Mogilev. In PHASE TWO their primary axis of advance will be an attack northeast towards the exit hex. They will attack southeast out of Mogilev along the road in a feint attack to try to hold Russian units here to prevent them from getting in front of the main attack which is northeast out of the town.

The Das Reich reinforcements will reinforce the attack when they arrive. I expect by then both the 10th Pz and the 10th Infantry will be tiring. The added punch of the Das Reich units will be enough to keep the attack going.

The Luftwaffe units in PHASE ONE will opportunistically attack Russian artillery positions when spotted (especially in transport mode), but their primary mission that starts with PHASE TWO is to blast the units opposing the attack up the road.

The below picture is my plan: