1201_01a Close Call at Kubinka HTH

[Plain Ian]

German plans for 1201_01a Close Call at Kubinka HTH

Here is a rough draft of a plan of attack for the German player. 



Since 3rd Motorised is already set up for an attack on Naro then I suggest we go with it. 19th Panzer can move up and support. Its panzers are of dubious value but it does have two strong Motorised Bn's and a Pioneer Bn to throw into the cauldron. It will be a bloody and costly battle BUT possibly we can trap some Guards units if they chose to stay and fight. 

258th Division should leave 1-2 Bn's as flank guards and the rest must move to support 292nd in its drive north up the clear terrain. 

292nd MUST seize Myakshovo in 1-2 turns and push quickly up to sieze Sememychi by Turn 4. After this they must be ready to exploit north and east. 

7th Division should attack as quickly as possible Turn 2, and begin assaulting north Turn 3. Aim will be to draw russian Motorised units west and destroy Russian infantry.

Weather for the 1st is frozen but the weather.dat actually says 10% chance of storm?

I will start a head to head to show how the first few moves to see how this plan plays out........

[ComradeP]

The starting day weather is set by the designer, it isn't random.

Will you be using the alt version for your game as the Germans?

Based on where the objectives are, the 7th ID might be more effective in support of 292nd ID attacking northeast, as they would otherwise be attacking an area without objectives. The 258th ID could then also attack Akulovo from the south after taking the objective north of Navaya. At least in the original version, concentrating forces is helpful to compensate for the higher Soviet unit quality.

[Plain Ian]

The starting day weather is set by the designer, it isn't random.

I've looked in the .scn file and can see references to oob and pdt but no mention about weather.dat? How does it link?

Will you be using the alt version for your game as the Germans?

No just the straight 1201_001a HTH. I'll play it as hot seat. I've played the German turn just now and will post it in a few minutes.

Based on where the objectives are, the 7th ID might be more effective in support of 292nd ID attacking northeast, as they would otherwise be attacking an area without objectives. The 258th ID could then also attack Akulovo from the south after taking the objective north of Navaya. At least in the original version, concentrating forces is helpful to compensate for the higher Soviet unit quality.

Hmmm yes. I actually agree with this and so does Eldar as that is the strategy he is using. However his 7th has become bogged down in the woods against just 4-5 Bn's of the 32nd. I haven't bothered using the 2 Bn's of the 17th Rgt which I've left guarding the map edge aginst a non existant threat. It has also took him several turns to get the Division into action.

So I'm think that the 7th should steam north. It won't be an easy fight against C Morale troops of the 17th Rgt but it might catch the Russian flat footed as he will be expecting me to go east and support the 292nd. It's basically the same reasoning as my plans for the 3rd Motorised Division. The Divisions are set up and ready (although a turn or two rest would be nice) so lets not change things and just get going.

I'll post the first turn with my thoughts as to how things went.

[Plain Ian]

Solo play through 1201_01a - testing Plan Carpe Diem



Weather is Frozen and visibility is 1 hex.

German artillery fire was reasonable and Russian defensive fire was lower than expected. The Germans also appeared to shoot quite well.

The 3rd Motorised moved up but launched no assaults. Since the 258th Division was not in contact with the enemy I sued all of the 258th artillery plus the 3rd plus some Corps. The 29th Motorised Rgt did receive moderate casualties as expected. 

I used the armoured car unit (Aufkl Bn) to pin the Russian Bn in the Industrial hex. ( I will lose quite a few a/c's as he has an A/T unit here)
Edit: this statement is wrong. The Aufklarungs unit will prevent the unit moving ZOC to ZOC BUT the Russian Bn could still move NE to clear hex first then back NW to join the other Guards unit which is under threat. However luckily the artillery barrage Rubbled the defending hex so in fact the unit to the south does not have enough MP's to do this because of the extra MP cost of moving into a Rubble hex........whew.

19th Pz has moved up by road and will deploy next turn.

258th Dision also on the move. 

292nd Division moves up against Myakshovo. I/508 and II/508 in contact but do not have enough MP's to asssault this turn. The only unit that can assault is the 100 man Aufkl Co? I did consider using this to assault as I had inflicted considerable losses on the defender (-42) but held off. (In a previous play through I had assaulted and lost -44/-4 when it turned out the Russian unit had NOT disrupted....so lets not be too hasty this time)
I did move up the 292nd A/T unit and unlimber it next to Myakshovo as a soak off unit. 



7th Division moves up, no action. It did not get very far and I will probably only get one Bn in action next turn? I might delay their attack another turn to consolidate things. Mmmh maybe going right is better? But then again if he thinks I'm going right then he will expect a delay of a turn or two?

Okt hats the German move lets look "over the hill" at the Russian situation. I'll switch to 2D.

[Ricky B]

The starting day weather is set by the designer, it isn't random.

I've looked in the .scn file and can see references to oob and pdt but no mention about weather.dat? How does it link?

If programmed weather is selected, it always uses the file weather.dat. There can only be the one copy, and the name can't vary, so it is what it is. Nothing to link.

[ComradeP]

As the 7th ID is missing most of its units, moving it directly north makes it unlikely that it can support the advance of the divisions at its flank, because the threat they pose to the Soviets isn't that great. The division being a reinforced regiment in size would make the "northeast through the woods" option more attractive for me.

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In addition to what RickyB mentioned, there being a single weather.dat file also means that games with campaigns in different weather conditions refer to the same file. For example: the winter and summer campaigns in Moscow '42 use the same weather.dat. The file's dates jump from February to June, though the weather and visibility variation for the summer campaign is the same every day (only one day is specified in the .dat file, which will just keep re-rolling until the end of the scenario).

[Plain Ian]

Sorry for delay. My wife switched off my PC before I'd finished the turn so I had to replay again. Then I damaged a few fingers which meant no typing for a day or two. 

Russian Turn 1

Russian player opens his file and gets the report that two of his HQ's are out of command (sorry I can't remember which ones) and that the 598th AT at Naro was disrupted and failed its recovery roll. The good news was that the defenders of Myakshovo were not disrupted despite their losses but were naturally moderately fatigued. 

Russian moves were as below.



The 32nd shuffled to the right, preserving the IP positions, except the 17th Rgt and the 1/113th. The 1/322nd moved north into a blocking position. The 3/757th held its position as did the 2/322nd. Artillery did not make much impact on the German 508th. 



The 222nd Division did the same hokey cokey dance but the other way. The 2/787th moved to replace the 1/1st Gds who moved up to support the 2/1st Gds. 
The 1/3rd and 2/3rd Gds did not move as they cannot reach the hex with the 3/1st because of the extra cost of Rubble in the 3/1st hex.
Artillery and fire fights are shown on map. Needless to say the Germans did not come out well. 

Russian positions at end of move and VP/losses. The German decision to use the 3rd Motorised in an early assault is not looking too clever. However it is early days and a lot of blood is still to be shed.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 14 arrived a few days ago. Not much action in it. Two assaults, one of which failed and no real progress. The Germans are still stalled outside the 100 VP hex  north east of Sememychi but have gained a hex towards the 75 hex north of Navaya. It looks like they have ran out of steam?


 
German 7th Division engages in firefights mainly with the undisrupted 1/113th. It takes heavy losses but does not disrupt. However it is just hovering below 200 fatigue like the 3/113th. The 1/322nd is 259 fatigue.

292nd/19th Panzers manage to disrupt the 2/113th and 467th Sappers but they recover. The armour groups hold their ground well and the 2/25th even turn back an assault. It was a valiant attempt as artillery had smashed a tank and inflicted several fatigue hits so there was a chance that the unit had disrupted. Unfortunately it had not.

258th Division did muster a successful assault which threw the 3/774th back on the 2/774th. The 878th AT lost most of its guns and is down to 1 gun and is disrupted. However the 2/774th and 3/774th have recovered so the threat is reduced.  The hero 4th Sapper Bn finally cracked and they disrupted and have not rallied.



At Naro-Fominsk it was relatively quiet. The 1/787th did not rally but was not assaulted. 

VP's and losses



VP's have climbed to 105 but he is a long way from 401 which is what he needs for a draw.

[Plain Ian]

Russian Turn 14

Even less happening in my turn. I moved two units at Naro and fired with two units.



I think Eldar will be pretty disappointed when he sees that the Russian units he targeted last turn are not disrupted apart from the 4th sappers. He will assault the 4th sappers but he has two main stacks (1/2) which he will have to disrupt two units in each to ensure successful assaults.

[Plain Ian]

Eldar’s turn 15 has come back. It’s another pretty steady turn. Two assaults which failed for some reason and some good shooting from the Germans. His artillery targeted my tanks and I lost 7 in total this turn. 

German 7th Division continued their fire fights with the 32nd Rifle division. Despite heavy losses the 1/113th did not disrupt.

19th Panzer/292nd Div made no assaults but kept up fire. All adjacent infantry units are disrupted but my tanks despite artillery and tank fire losses still stand firm.

258th Division launched two individual assaults on the 4th Sappers which should have succeeded? The hero Sapper Bn is down to about 300+ men but this probably still dwarfs the German assaulting Bn’s? They both disrupted and subsequently then failed to take the hex.

The rest of the 258th concentrated mainly on the 2/774th and 3/774th which are about to become red fatigued.

At Naro-Fominsk the Guards were out shot. In fact they disrupted after the first loss of 9 men. If he had assaulted at that point he would have gained the hex. The Guards have rallied though at the end of the turn.

And that was the 2nd December Dusk turn.

I will do my turn tomorrow. I can’t see me moving anything although all the red fatigued units should be pulled back and much of my defences could be left to my tanks. The 100 VP hex looks safe but the 75 VP hex probably should be reinforced.