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

[ComradeP]

That turned out to be a frustrating day, which highlighted a number of the shortcomings of PzC.

All attacks in the north failed to capture the intended objectives and were eventually called off. Continuing with the offensives would play into Soviet strengths of only needing to hold a narrow frontline and letting artillery and tank stacks weaken my units.

The offensive against Bulgarian and Yugoslav forces continues to be a success. Soviet reinforcements are likely to arrive soon now that the offensives in the north have stopped.

A Draw is off the menu.

By far the easiest way to prevent the capture of an objective is to move an enormous stack into the hex. All units need to be Disrupted before the stack can be pushed out of the hex. That would be less of an issue if loss distribution would primarily target non-Disrupted units. Unfortunately, that's not the case. As soon as I saw large stacks, I knew success wasn't going to happen.

Another weak point in PzC and Panzer Battles, is the modelling of gun and vehicle combat. Casualties from such combat are very low, there are no short and violent armoured clashes (noting that "short" in game terms is still 2 hours for most turns). As casualties are solely determined by a roll of the dice based on the losses in Men (each vehicle/gun is 10 Men, a loss of 7 Men would lead to a 70% chance to lose a gun or vehicle), results vary greatly. With alt assault now being a default rule, we end up with a situation where a tank platoon can easily bump a Disrupted infantry battalion out of its hex, but 60 B quality Panthers will maybe knock out 5 enemy tanks with each volley and often less. This is a problem for the Germans, because they're often outnumbered in armoured battles and rely on quality.

Not being able to capture Enying was particularly frustrating. The forces in the area should normally have been more than adequate to brush aside the ~200 Men Rifle battalions and capture the town, possibly after isolating the stack in the hex.

Turn 74, 12:00 March 13th 1945, Soft conditions.
Turn 80, 04:00 March 14th 1945, Normal conditions.





My opponent made good use of the mud turns to reinforce the Nagyberény and Szabadhidbeg objectives. There's a lot of artillery in the area and a big stack in Nagyberény. Though capturing one of the objectives might still be possible, I think my forces would be bled white whilst doing so.

Soviet counterbattery fire also knocked out about 10 heavy artillery guns, which have very low Defence values.

The formations in the area will move towards their starting positions. The withdrawal was mostly orderly. I took care to make sure the bridge engineer unit north-east of Ádánd would be out of enemy LOS, to make sure it wouldn't get wiped out by artillery fire.

Several artillery battalions were knocked out, as Guards Airborne units on the ridge could spot them in T-mode. I'm still not entirely sure how the sequence leading to that came to pass. I switched one artillery unit to T-mode and checked how far it could move after making sure the road stacking limit wasn't violated. It could move 1 hex. Next turn, it could move 2. I guess the stacking limit in the destination hex would be violated by the move or I had selected another unit by accident as well. A mistake on my end, I should've checked every hex along the route. That added to the frustration of the day. I think some 39 or so 105mm howitzers were lost due to that. Not much of a problem, but an unnecessary loss.

Aside from some skirmishing, I don't expect much action on my side in this area until the end of the game. Should a Soviet counterattack be launched, I'll slowly fall back.



I'm not sure if my preparatory barrage tipped my opponent off, or if 18th Tank Corps was in the area for this eventuality. The attack quickly ran into stacks of T-34-85's which can't be dealt with in an efficient manner. On the dusk turn, my Panther stack knocked out 3 vehicles and the return fire knocked out 6 Panthers. You really need to be able to land hard blows against superior tank numbers with each volley, and that's not possible in PzC. The 60 or so Panthers also only managed to knock out 1 ISU with each volley earlier on. This is why I haven't played Panzer Battles in recent years, armoured battles just don't work very well.

There's not a lot of good Soviet artillery in the area, but my units don't have the staying power to take 100-150 or so losses from T-34 stacks each turn.





As this was just one of those days, the Rifle battalions opposing "Hohenstaufen" didn't become Disrupted after losing 100 or more Men from single assaults. My opponent moved the SU-100's that were further north towards the bridgehead and started to inflict moderate losses from 2 hexes away. The attack wasn't going anywhere, "Hohenstaufen" moved back across the canal.

I'll move them towards Nagybajom, in case the Soviets launch a late game counterattack.

The Isolated Guards also stubbornly hold on, but must be in pretty poor shape by now.




"Das Reich" and "Reichsführer SS" are moving south. The northern part of the pocket, around Labod, has almost been cleared.

The Gebirgsjaeger have made good progress moving east. I expect that there are  - or will very soon be - Soviet units at the rail line, though.




The offensive in the area is going well, the Bulgarian pocket has been split into smaller pockets and most Bulgarian units are dead. The 104. Jaeger Division moved across two canals before Yugoslav reinforcements could get there and overran a Soviet heavy artillery unit. The bridge are all light, so I can't use them to move "Hitlerjugend" or "Das Reich" to the other side. With Normal conditions, it should be possible to move off-road and build a bridge at the point where another canal goes north, between the "Hitlerjugend" and 104. Jaeger Division bridgeheads.

[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.

[ComradeP]

I'll quote the comments by my opponent Elxaime as well:

Hi -

Here are my comments on this, as Comrade P's opponent. As always, he is a formidable adversary and I learn something new every time we play! I was cautiously optimistic I would pull out a victory here, but made several miscalculations for which I paid dearly and we ended with a draw.

On the initial Soviet set up. I made a calculation at the start that the battle would be won or lost in the north, where the Axis would possess a formidable number of low strength but high-quality mobile divisions. I counted on the huge mass of Soviet artillery to wear down any offensive, and this proved to be the case in this area. Now to the miscalculations.

The big one was not suspecting the major Axis deployment to the W and SW areas. When the SS showed up and started hammering the Bulgarians, and eventually the Yugoslavs, I was taken completely by surprise. While the Soviets have decent rail capacity, it does take time to shift forces and I ended up playing catch up the rest of the game, able to feed in enough to slow down but not stop the encirclements that occurred.

The second one was deployment the Guards Mechanized and Guards Cavalry Corps into the flood plain east of Lake Balaton on the west end of the north sector, with their backs to a major river. I was actually planned a limited counteroffensive here, but then good weather hit and the Shermans started dying like flies, plus the cavalry and mechanized infantry were being vaporized by Nebelwerfers. A full retreat was ordered and I did manage to save most of both corps, although some units were lost and many survivors were badly mauled.

By mid-game, in the north things were quieter since many Axis mobile units were in the SW now. I was hoping the Axis would attack Nagyberény and Szabadhidbeg, as I was waiting for the Panzers with two of my three SU brigades, dug in with massive artillery and AT gun support (although the Soviet infantry was very battered). But he got a whiff of what was waiting for him and pulled back.

The Axis did launch two limited attacks in the north late game. But I had kept the Soviet 18th Tank Corps there the whole game and was able to deploy masses of T-34/85's plus the two SU brigades that were still up there. The late releasing Soviet 23rd Tank Corps, with its precious JS-1 unit, was sent to the west by then.

Meanwhile, the disaster in the west/southwest was continuing to unfold. One of my SU brigades had blocked the SS western lunge along the Balaton Lake, but in retrospect this brigade was underused and did not make the impact it could have. On the bright side, when they had a decent target, mass volleys of SU-100's caused satisfying results, such as vaporizing a small unit of King Tigers I caught late game in the west sector. The appearance of my lone JS heavy tank also gave the Axis some pause.

In late game, realizing time was running short, I decided to launch a counteroffensive in the north, since 2 of the 3 SU-Brigades plus the unscathed 18th Tank Corps were still up there. But the Axis was falling back, so although I managed to inflict some losses, including surrounding two Panther companies, it could not compensate for the mass encirclements of Bulgarians and Yugoslavs going on in the southwest.

In late game in the SW, by that time I was mass railing in reinforcements. I would have sent more from the north, but although the Soviets have rail capacity, it is only 13 and the journey to the SW for each unit takes 5 or so turns, counting for loading/unloading.

In the final VP count, the mass encirclements carried the day. I lost a lot of divisions but didn't lose any major VP hexes. So, a draw.

I agree completely with Comrade P's analysis of Axis prospects in the north between two relatively equal opponents - the Axis infantry takes too many losses from Soviet artillery to get far or hold what they have gained.

Looking back, I think there are a number of things I obviously would do different. I would play more cautiously around the west edge of the northern front, near Lake Balaton, as the Soviet defenses there are thinner and, as it proved in our game, the flood plain lacks natural defense points. A better use of the Guards Mechanized Corps would have been to deploy in depth to backstop the infantry - getting caught out by a Axis preemptive attack ravaged these excellent troops. I also would have just sent the Guards Cavalry corps to the middle of the map, and used them as a mobile reserve to watch for breakthroughs in the W/SW - as Comrade P pointed out, a few Soviet mobile troops could have worked wonders in backstopping the poor Bulgarians/Yugoslavs. Finally, railing in some engineer units to begin an early bridge destruction program in the W and SW would have helped a lot, as well as sending some of the otherwise idle front AT and AA units that way, to dig in behind the front to deal with breakthroughs. The northern front probably could also spare some Soviet artillery to send to the W/SW, as the amount of guns you have in the north is probably overkill.

That said, the Axis operational surprise in W and SW was expertly pulled off. I can't imagine how much unit shuffling and reattachments were involved! As those who have played him know, Comrade P knows his stuff, and I am not sure many other players could have pulled it off as smoothly. His draw was well-earned.

Generally, my sense is the campaign here is pro-Soviet. The constraining factor on the Axis is the weather and also unsustainably Axis infantry losses. In another game I played as Axis, I went with the historical straight ahead northern push, and even though I made progress, it was a bloodbath that left about half my Axis infantry casualties by mid-game. I think Comrade P did the only approach that has the chance of Axis victory. However, I think once you have seen this strategy, it gets harder to pull off a second time, as the Soviets, as I mentioned above, can do several fairly minor things early to lessen its impact.

Great scenario though. It is a true guessing game, and despite the Soviet advantages, the Axis have some truly potent units in play. Look forward to trying this once again. I do want the designer to fix the release bugs and also adjust some of the fixed unit mechanics on both sides. This discussion is on The Blitz forums: https://www.theblitz.club/message_board ... ?tid=76497. It is very hard to predict what players do, but I think the initial release did not take as fully into account what would happen if the main fighting was distributed more around the map, given the ability of both sides to use road/rail links to move mobile formations around.

[Indragnir]

I'll quote the comments by my opponent Elxaime as well:

Hi -

Here are my comments on this, as Comrade P's opponent. As always, he is a formidable adversary and I learn something new every time we play! I was cautiously optimistic I would pull out a victory here, but made several miscalculations for which I paid dearly and we ended with a draw.

On the initial Soviet set up. I made a calculation at the start that the battle would be won or lost in the north, where the Axis would possess a formidable number of low strength but high-quality mobile divisions. I counted on the huge mass of Soviet artillery to wear down any offensive, and this proved to be the case in this area. Now to the miscalculations.

The big one was not suspecting the major Axis deployment to the W and SW areas. When the SS showed up and started hammering the Bulgarians, and eventually the Yugoslavs, I was taken completely by surprise. While the Soviets have decent rail capacity, it does take time to shift forces and I ended up playing catch up the rest of the game, able to feed in enough to slow down but not stop the encirclements that occurred.

The second one was deployment the Guards Mechanized and Guards Cavalry Corps into the flood plain east of Lake Balaton on the west end of the north sector, with their backs to a major river. I was actually planned a limited counteroffensive here, but then good weather hit and the Shermans started dying like flies, plus the cavalry and mechanized infantry were being vaporized by Nebelwerfers. A full retreat was ordered and I did manage to save most of both corps, although some units were lost and many survivors were badly mauled.

By mid-game, in the north things were quieter since many Axis mobile units were in the SW now. I was hoping the Axis would attack Nagyberény and Szabadhidbeg, as I was waiting for the Panzers with two of my three SU brigades, dug in with massive artillery and AT gun support (although the Soviet infantry was very battered). But he got a whiff of what was waiting for him and pulled back.

The Axis did launch two limited attacks in the north late game. But I had kept the Soviet 18th Tank Corps there the whole game and was able to deploy masses of T-34/85's plus the two SU brigades that were still up there. The late releasing Soviet 23rd Tank Corps, with its precious JS-1 unit, was sent to the west by then.

Meanwhile, the disaster in the west/southwest was continuing to unfold. One of my SU brigades had blocked the SS western lunge along the Balaton Lake, but in retrospect this brigade was underused and did not make the impact it could have. On the bright side, when they had a decent target, mass volleys of SU-100's caused satisfying results, such as vaporizing a small unit of King Tigers I caught late game in the west sector. The appearance of my lone JS heavy tank also gave the Axis some pause.

In late game, realizing time was running short, I decided to launch a counteroffensive in the north, since 2 of the 3 SU-Brigades plus the unscathed 18th Tank Corps were still up there. But the Axis was falling back, so although I managed to inflict some losses, including surrounding two Panther companies, it could not compensate for the mass encirclements of Bulgarians and Yugoslavs going on in the southwest.

In late game in the SW, by that time I was mass railing in reinforcements. I would have sent more from the north, but although the Soviets have rail capacity, it is only 13 and the journey to the SW for each unit takes 5 or so turns, counting for loading/unloading.

In the final VP count, the mass encirclements carried the day. I lost a lot of divisions but didn't lose any major VP hexes. So, a draw.

I agree completely with Comrade P's analysis of Axis prospects in the north between two relatively equal opponents - the Axis infantry takes too many losses from Soviet artillery to get far or hold what they have gained.

Looking back, I think there are a number of things I obviously would do different. I would play more cautiously around the west edge of the northern front, near Lake Balaton, as the Soviet defenses there are thinner and, as it proved in our game, the flood plain lacks natural defense points. A better use of the Guards Mechanized Corps would have been to deploy in depth to backstop the infantry - getting caught out by a Axis preemptive attack ravaged these excellent troops. I also would have just sent the Guards Cavalry corps to the middle of the map, and used them as a mobile reserve to watch for breakthroughs in the W/SW - as Comrade P pointed out, a few Soviet mobile troops could have worked wonders in backstopping the poor Bulgarians/Yugoslavs. Finally, railing in some engineer units to begin an early bridge destruction program in the W and SW would have helped a lot, as well as sending some of the otherwise idle front AT and AA units that way, to dig in behind the front to deal with breakthroughs. The northern front probably could also spare some Soviet artillery to send to the W/SW, as the amount of guns you have in the north is probably overkill.

That said, the Axis operational surprise in W and SW was expertly pulled off. I can't imagine how much unit shuffling and reattachments were involved! As those who have played him know, Comrade P knows his stuff, and I am not sure many other players could have pulled it off as smoothly. His draw was well-earned.

Generally, my sense is the campaign here is pro-Soviet. The constraining factor on the Axis is the weather and also unsustainably Axis infantry losses. In another game I played as Axis, I went with the historical straight ahead northern push, and even though I made progress, it was a bloodbath that left about half my Axis infantry casualties by mid-game. I think Comrade P did the only approach that has the chance of Axis victory. However, I think once you have seen this strategy, it gets harder to pull off a second time, as the Soviets, as I mentioned above, can do several fairly minor things early to lessen its impact.

Great scenario though. It is a true guessing game, and despite the Soviet advantages, the Axis have some truly potent units in play. Look forward to trying this once again. I do want the designer to fix the release bugs and also adjust some of the fixed unit mechanics on both sides. This discussion is on The Blitz forums: https://www.theblitz.club/message_board ... ?tid=76497. It is very hard to predict what players do, but I think the initial release did not take as fully into account what would happen if the main fighting was distributed more around the map, given the ability of both sides to use road/rail links to move mobile formations around.

Waiting for your comments. Thank you for this enjoyable AAR. Please check my post on the thread https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid455259