Smolensk '41: Strategy and Tactics

[Ubercat]

Yes, it's another new thread, started by me.:)

I'm in my second solo playing of the Orsha_Alt scenario as the Germans, trying to get a feel for the best way to do things. I gave up on the first after realizing that I'd spread my focus out too widely. My ultimate goal for this solo practice is to make myself a worthy opponent for a campaign game.

The AI Soviets are pretty passive as far as maneuvering. This doesn't seem like too bad a thing however, since they have a thinly held line and are supposed to be on the defensive. The only problem is that they attack too much on their turn, giving me more opportunities to disrupt them with counter fire.

In my second run through I'm doing pretty good. It's turn 22 of 40 and I've crossed the Dniepr in two spots and am in the process of clearing the enemy out of Orsha (including that nasty battalion of T34's). I'm afraid that a wise human opponent would slow me considerably by forcing me to do all the attacking. I'm not sure I could win this one against a human Soviet opponent.

I've come to the conclusion that, for this combination of forces, it takes about a division to reliably force a crossing in most locations, but the division will be fairly worn out when it gets over the river and could really use a back up force to exploit the breakthrough. For Orsha and Mogilev, a division can probably do the job, but will definitely be too worn down afterward and will need a break.

10th Panzer crossed the river near Shklov and captured the 100pt obj. They are moving north to take the 100pt obj nearby at Kopyr. Some of the Reich SS division is over the river with them and more are en-rout to help. 18th Panzer and 29th Motorized are clearing out Orsha and are also over the river in the early process of taking out The Soviet artillery and HQ's behind the city.

My main decision point now is what to do with the southern breakthrough. I will grab Kopyr soon and then have to figure out where to go next. I wanted to go south and take Mogilev from the rear while attacking it frontally (from the west) with parts of the Reich division and the GrD regiment. As long as it took me to get where I am now (22 turns), I don't think that's feasible though. Grabbing the 200pt obj. in Mogilev will take almost the rest of the game, and my casualties will most likely negate much of the 200pt gain.

The other choice is to strike out for Gorki. I don't think there's much in the way of those 400 pts and the exit objectives to the east, so it should be easy.

My main question is, what would a halfway decent human opponent be doing at this point? If I run east, couldn't he cut me off from supply pretty easily? Even with few troops it should be easy to capture my bridges unless I leave significant forces behind on garrison duty.

This makes me think of the even bigger picture of a grand campaign. There's FAR too much ground to be protected by too few German units. As the German player advances, there must be a million opportunities for the Soviet to make his life miserable. How does a German player guard all those supply lines and VP's in his rear? AND, have enough of a force left to keep going?

Thank you for reading all this. Thoughts?