Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Ricky B]

Soviet Summary and Epilogue

This is a very tough battle for the Germans, even with all of the changes from my stock version that were made by Foul. But I do believe it is winnable by them, with a strategy matched to the Soviet moves.

It is very difficult, nearly impossible I think, for the Germans to crush the central bridgehead. This is historical, in reality the Germans had to call off the 11th Pz Div attack achieved partial success on it due to crisis' in other areas. The Germans have some very strong units, and tying them up attacking the fortified Soviet positions in the towns along the river are likely to lead to exhaustion, as happened here.

I believe Dog Soldier made a good decision in withdrawing the troops north of the Chir River, or I would if they had been able to support the defenses south of the river more effectively. If they can help shift the other infantry south in succession, then it would definitely be helpful, as the objective north of the river is small.

If I was playing the Germans, I would try a strategy of hitting the central bridgehead to compress it back to the towns, damaging the Soviet units as much as possible. Then screen that front with the infantry division, while pulling the panzer division back to hit any Soviet spearheads that expose themselves. If none do that, then strong defensive positions can be taken to protect the critical objectives, while minimizing losses. It may also be possible to crush the cavalry as they cross the river in the east, but that takes the panzers out of position for protecting the objectives.

The Soviets have the need to survive in the center, while pushing from the west and east as hard as possible. They hold the advantages as long as they don't expose and lose important parts of their forces without gaining something from it.

So for them, try to keep the forces organized close together, use the T34 mobility to hit weak points and assault the LW infantry units, and use the infantry to try and take out German Panzers. Using T34s against the German tanks is not a route to success, the infantry and cavalry can do much better that way.

Finally, as Dog Soldier mentioned, the use of QFM, which I don't recall if it was available when we started the match or not, whould be very helpful in balancing things out here, allowing the Germans to fight on when normal exhaustion would stop most units.

It was a very tough battle by Dog Soldier, much more so than the final score would indicate.

Rick