Adjusted S42 Alt Campaign - v1 - von Nev

[von Nev]

S42 PzC Campaign Changes – von Nev – version 1

Stalingrad files:
• Scenario File: 1119_01a:Uranus_Alt_Nev
• OOB File: Stalingrad ’42 Nov_Alt_McNamara_Nev
• PDT File: Stalingrad_Winter_Alt_Nev


After playing the Stalingrad HTH Alt campaign against a very able opponent to 106 turns it became apparent to both of us, who are very experienced PzC players, that the defensive capabilities of the Germans are nowhere near where it needs to be to bring anything close to a historical outcome namely the chance of the survival of the pocket until Jan 1943.

In this campaign within a couple of days of the kickoff of the Russian offensives, I was able to somewhat orderly withdraw the German forces into something close to the historical pocket that initially was on the Don river to the west, near the original battle lines to the north and on the Karpovka and Cherelenaya Rivers to the south. Unfortunately, that was about all the success I had. Once the pocket was formed my opponent concentrated all forces on the pocket and with massive stacks of infantry and tanks and artillery pounded his way forward so by Nov 29, only 10 days after the start of the offensive, he was within 8 km’s of Gumrak airfield and the German reserves were spent and broken. At this pace the pocket was going to be reduced prior to even the kickoff of the German relief offensive which started in mid December! From a campaign standpoint it was going to be over at around 140 turns despite being a 306 turn campaign.

What we found were a couple of things that needed to be addressed:

• The Russian opponent knows that the German relief force does not start until the middle of December so he just brought everything to bear of the pocket. The relief force was irrelevant. My opponent stated: “I think one difference with history is that I brought everything I had to bear on the pocket, except the 21 army and 1st guard army and cavalry corps which were guarding my right flank and a couple of infantry divisions guarding my left.”

• Despite the fact that I created a rather strong and continuous pocket around the historical pocket lines, the Russian offensive never paused and blasted right through it. Historically, after the pocket closed, the Russians stopped for a month to bring up supplies and sent forces to defeat the relief force before turning on the pocket. As the campaign plays, the Russians simply mass everything against the pocket and quickly reduce it. The German player is truly without options as there is nothing that can stop the Russian steamroller and the relief force does not attack until December. My opponent stated: “I think if I were to play the Germans, I'd play them exactly as you did. Might pull back faster, but that is it. I think this scenario needs some more tweaking. Maybe not let the 5th tank army cross the (Don) river? Or have the onboard German reinforcements release on a more random basis to make it more risky for the soviets to commit everything to Stalingrad.”

• German AT capabilities are nowhere near where it needs to be to swat away the hordes of Russian tanks. In fact, by 10 days into the campaign German vehicles losses are over 1,050 to around 550 for the Russians. This ratio is nowhere near historical losses and make the Russian tank forces near overwhelming by mid game since typically German tank units are smaller and are therefore destroyed while larger Russian units are damaged, pulled out of the line, and then rested and receive replacements. German armor survivability and effectiveness need to be improved.

• German aircraft, especially Stukas, did little damage to the massive stacks of Russian infantry and tanks. In fact, Stuka strikes were almost non-effective even as a tank killer. German aircraft where also rather quiet when historically this also was not the case. German bomber and Stuka strikes where throwing themselves into the fight with numerous sorties a day when the weather permitted it.

• German units dug-in in the clear had little chance of staying undisrupted. Even full A morale PzGren battalions where “broken” in a couple of turns. My opponent stated that: “As for the battle of attrition, I just blasted away at a single stack (and there is a lot of soviet artillery) until all the units were disrupted and then assaulted. Once my units got depleted, I pulled them out and shoved refresh ones back in. Towards the end, I was getting a little less discriminating, shoving rested but reduced units back in the line.”

• The only effective defensive position that even caused the Russians to slow down were bunkers and pillboxes. Even trenches in villages where blasted out in a turn of two.

• The Russian replacement rate is much too high. In this case the Russian replacement was 4% while the Germans was 2%. Because of this disparity Russian units simply pulled out of the lines for a day or two and were near full strength before being thrown back in the lines. This is very ahistorical since the Russian supply system was not known to reinforce units in battle. They simply ground units down to nothing and replaced them with new units. The results of this high replacement rate difference is that it greatly unbalances the opposing forces in a long campaign because the Russians start with 2:1 odds then receive twice the reinforcements. In my campaign, by turn 106 German forces are down 40% from their start to 96,000 while Russian strength was still near the starting strength at 315,000.

• Max stacking in hexes at 1,300 is much too high. This allows dense stacks of Russian tanks and infantry to simply blast their way forward. Admittedly I was able to disrupt a couple of full stacks and capture prisoners in assaults but this was rather rare since the Germans had difficulty disrupting full Russian stacks that sometimes numbered 10 units. Additionally, with such high max stacking my opponent simply created a wedge about 12 km’s wide and drove it right through German lines towards Gumrak.

• Villages in the game were not the highly effective historical pillboxes and bunkers. Reading any history suggested that both sides turned villages into bristling bunkers and pillboxes overnight and were extremely difficult to take even with significant artillery.

• The Russians seemed to have little supply problems when historically this was not the case. After the Russian initial breakthrough and the forming of the pocket it took the Russian over a month to assemble the forces and supplies necessary to ensure the success of Operation Ring that was launched in Jan 1943.

• German infantry has surprisingly little ability to inflict “gameplay” changing damage on the Russian infantry hordes. By turn 106 Russian infantry losses are 56,000 while the Germans are 96,000. Historically Russian losses were tremendous! In fact, Russian losses in their initial attack to reduce the pocket in Nov-Dec were so immense that the attack was called off and a more systematic operation was planned for Jan 1943 (Operation Ring). This inability of the German forces to inflict major damage on the massive number of Russian infantry means a Russian opponent has little to fear from dug-in German infantry. This is also not historical because Russian infantry advancing in the snow to face dug in German was a recipe for massive Russian casualties. In this campaign that simply is not happening.

• Russian artillery was too effective. The absolutely incredible amounts of Russian artillery made it near impossible to hold any hex. Once the Russian stacked their artillery behind the lines they simply blasted individual hexes to the point of destruction or breaking.