Spring Awakening Axis AAR - historical campaign (settled for a Draw turn 93)

[ComradeP]

Turn 84, 12:00 March 14th 1945, Normal conditions.
Turn 90, 04:00 March 15th 1945, Normal conditions.

The weather conditions remain good, although the impact of Soft conditions on the final day would've been limited in our case. The Soviet counter-offensive would've been a little slower, but my units in the south are adjacent to or near their intended targets for the day.

Unexpected success in the south and a Soviet counter-offensive in the north, the game is certainly far from dull thus far. My opponent called it the wildest game he has played.




The Soviets launched a counter-offensive in the north and captured Székesfehérvár. My units are withdrawing towards Veszprém in an organized manner. There are no objectives in this area.

I'm mostly trading tanks for time, as well as using the Panzerschreck companies as speedbumps. Big T-34/85 and SU 100 stacks have knocked out nearly 20 Panzers thus far, including 10 Panzer IV's that were shotgunned from an adjacent hex by a T-34/85 stack. As long as it allows my infantry units to withdraw, it's acceptable. Parity in loss points in this area should be sufficient for a Draw if I can knock out most Yugoslav stacks further south.




The Soviet offensive towards Nagybajom didn't materialize, Soviet mobile forces were diverted to the sector held by Yugoslav forces as disaster unfolded.




With the assistance of half of "Reichsführer SS" and Aufklaerung units from various SS formations, KG Böttcher and StuG companies moving south from Labod have nearly mopped up the remainder of the Bulgarian units in the triangular Labod-Magyarlad-Csokonys pocket.

Further east, a classic case of exploiting an advantage in mobility resulted in most Yugoslav units being pocketed. I initially moved the Gebirgsjaeger and some Panzers east to cut the north/south rail line in the area. As they only bumped into a single engineer battalion, I decided to keep moving east.

Using the 1 hex Clear terrain gap between the forests in the area to skirt around the natural obstacles, two platoon-sized Panther "companies" slipped in behind the Yugoslav forces.

Due to a river in the area around Szentlorinc and my opponent having blown up a rail bridge further south, isolating the Yugoslav forces wasn't difficult. I didn't expect the pocket to hold, as the main blocking unit consisted of just 4 Panthers.

In terms of strategic miscalculations by my opponent, I think this has been the only major one. Forcing the D quality Bulgarian and Yugoslav forces to mostly fight their own battles cost him a lot of points. It might result in a Draw result after all.

A limited number of T-34 or SU brigades would've made my success nearly impossible.

"Hitlerjugend" and half of "Das Reich" launched a frontal attack to attract the attention of as many units as possible. There are a lot of Yugoslav units in the area, but nearly all of them were at or close to the frontline. The handful of Soviet engineer battalions and 2 small AFV units were not enough to prevent another pocket from forming.

After our previous completed game, Elxaime remarked that there was always in a pocket in our games which doomed a number of his units (or an entire army in the case of our East Prussia '14 game), and this game is no exception. I'd estimate at least 10 divisions worth of battalions were pocketed thus far. Soviet formations around Nagybajom and a handful of battalions in the north, and about 3 Bulgarian and 1.5-2 Yugoslav divisions further south.




The last pocketed Bulgarian units in the area are nearly mopped up.

The other half of "Das Reich" and infantry formations in the area will launch a secondary attack towards Gerde, to draw the attention of any Soviet relief force in the area. Most of the 104. Jaeger Division battalions are mopping up the southern part of the Yugoslav pocket.

As the result was unlikely to change, we settled for a Draw on turn 93.

I'll give Elxaime the opportunity to post his comments and after that I'll post the screenshots of the final turn and my closing comments.

As always, feel free to comment as a reader as well.