Klyuchi – Attrition (a tutorial)

[Dog Soldier]

#0711_03 Klyuchi – Attrition An AAR Tutorial

Scenario description
Krasnyi Oktabyr, West of Prokhorovka: July 11th, 1943. (Scenario Size: Division. German Human vs Soviet AI or Head to Head) SS-Brigadeführer Hermann Priess's Panzer Grenadiers from SS-Totenkopf Division were in a quandary. They had managed to cross the Psel and establish a bridgehead but the rain of the last two days as well as heavy vehicular traffic had turned the river banks to a morass up to 500 metres from its edge. This was preventing bridging units from Pionier Regiment 680 from building a bridge capable of getting Totenkopf's Panzer's across the river and into the bridgehead. Without the Panzers it was almost impossible for the SS Panzer Grenadiers to move forward. The delayed arrival of the Panzers resulted in both sides being engaged in a costly battle of attrition while the Russians attempted to crush the German enclave and the Panzer Grenadiers held on grimly to every hard earned yard.

There are ten turns to this scenario. Each turn represents 30 minutes. Each hex is 250 meters wide.

These are the Default Optional rules that will be used for this game.


My opponent will be the AI, since this is only a demonstration/tutorial for those new to the PzB game series.

Dog Soldier

[Dog Soldier]

Axis Turn One
07:00 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility One Kilometer
It is best to start off using your artillery to soften up the defenders each turn. Unlike other JT/HPS games, units that fire or move cannot spot later for artillery.



Artillery dialog allows you to highlight targets or spotters. You can designate normal or special ammunition like smoke. Grayed out ammunition is not available to the weapon selected for this scenario.

My first move will be to concentrate my barrage on the trenches SE of the Barracks. When these positions are not spotted for a battery, I will choose targets that support my units which will direct fire. The idea is to lessen the return fire by barrage weakening the enemy or smoke screening some of his units from firing on mine while I can concentrate on the Soviet defenders in detail.
There is a limit to the number of artillery attacks and direct fire attacks that can be made on a hex’s defenders.

End of German half of the turn victory points stand as follows.

After the AI Soviet turn victory points look like this.

There has been a fair uptick in losses during the Russian turn for both sides. You have to think more carefully about letting loose with your fire in your turn. The unlimited defensive fire makes it more difficult to achieve fire superiority than in previous Tiller titles where after three shots the defending unit was neutered.

Here is a shot of the front lines.

For those of you who own this game, download the zip folder attached to each turn post of this AAR. Copy the *.btr file from the zip to your game directory. Use the menu command File>Replay, and point to that turn’s btr file to watch each turn’s action. I saved the replay btr files at the end of the Russian AI turn. That is why you will be able to see the Russian perspective throughout the replay action.
Watch for the nasty Katashuka rocket artillery that takes out 16 men in a German entrenchment. Those rocket units are the bane of the German player. Do not get caught in the open by a Russian rocket salvo. It will ruin your day.

Dog Soldier

[Dog Soldier]

07:30 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility One Kilometer

Plenty of smoke is still available. I will continue to use it on the right flank to cut down on the Russian firepower in that sector so my troops can gain fire superiority over the few Russian units that can still see them.

I am battering away at the Russian units on my left flank and beginning to see some Russian units staying disrupted. In the image of the turn end, the highlighted Russian units are all disrupted.
In an attempt to bring pressure on the Russian victory location position at the base of hill 226.6, the heavy weapons platoon is taking all the losses. As can be seen below, the unit is down to 58% of its original strength.


Losses are steadily rising for both sides. This is the victory dialog at the end of the Russian half of the turn.

[Dog Soldier]

08:00 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility One Kilometer

The Germans appear to be getting the upper hand on the left now. The fight for the base of hill 226.6 is tougher. Losses are still increasing as is fatigue. Both will make it difficult to cross the open ground to take the victory location.
The two seemingly empty victory locations in the west on hill 226.6 seem easy. This is the effect of persistent concealment. I do not have a recon unit in the line. I cannot be sure anything in the Russian positions is as it seems.
Good fortune does seem to be favoring my side in the west. The smoke rounds are giving me the chance to really pound a few select Russian positions without facing too strong a return fire for the defenders. I may yet be able to wear them down piecemeal and gain one more victory location.
Unless the Russians can bring up reserves….

Dog Soldier



The Victory dialog tells the grim story as losses continue to mount for both sides.

[Dog Soldier]

08:30 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility One Kilometer
The Russians retreat a unit to replace the one lost in the victory location directly north of the village of Klyuchi. While a tempting target for an assault, I will wait another turn before venturing out into the open there. The battle at the base of hill 226.6 turn ugly as the heavy weapons unit is eliminated this turn. Even the company of pzgr in the trench is taking severe (over 30%) losses in just these four turns. Attrition is the name of the scenario. It is well named.

Dog Soldier



A look at the Victory Dialog shows how bad things are. The Russian have lost nearly 3.5 times as many troops as the Germans. However, Russian victory point losses are only a little over 2.5 those for the Germans.

The morale of the story is there are a lot more Russian troops than you have as the Axis player. They can afford losses if it keeps you pinned down.

[Dog Soldier]

09:00 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility One Kilometer

Most German units are in the 80% strength range. The exceptions are the ones holding positions on the southwest slopes of 226.6. Two of these platoons are down into the 60% range of strength. Not a good situation if I want to hold that sector against a Russian assault in a few turns. I am not even thinking about taking any victory locations from the Russians on the right. I want to place more smoke each turn there to help protect my troops from the Russian return fire in their turn. I decide I cannot as I need to reserve some smoke for the advance into the open that I much eventually make to grab those victory locations on the left.

Without any recon assets on the front line to spot Russian hiding in ambush, smoke will be my only defense when my troops leave their trenches and go over the top.

On my left flank the Russian defender’s fire is beginning to slack off some. I would like to move out in the next turn or two if I am to get to those victory locations and have time to dig in to hold against a possible Russian counter attack.

In this image at the end of Axis turn five, I am using the highlight High Density Stacks option to show where the Germans have more than half the stacking limit in a position. This is a new feature. It is best used at the beginning and during your turn to avoid bunching up too many units to make a tempting target for the enemy in his turn.
My two stacks highlighted here are in improved positions in the village. With a 40% reduction to incoming fire, I am feeling the over stacking detriment is worth the trade off to have fire superiority in this sector. Russian units north of Klyuchi are being decimated trying to maintain their grip on the victory location there.

This has been a particularly bloody turn as casualties rise for both sides.


Dog Soldier

[Strela]

09:00 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility Four Kilometer

One clarification; Visibility is four hexes i.e. One Kilometer. Dog Soldier is still thinking Panzer Campaigns

Both the 11th & 12th of July were marked by low visibility due to both early morning mist due to high humidity and short but violent thunderstorms that swept through the battlefield.

David

[Dog Soldier]

Thanks Sterla. Correction made.

Dog Soldier

[Dog Soldier]

09:30 11 July 1943, Soft Conditions, Day, Visibility 1.25 Kilometers

Visibility improves revealing more Russian positions and releasing a German platoon in the SE. Across the Psel River a company of SS troopers with some ATG and infantry guns are also released. I use some of my artillery to engage the new Russian positions, especially if they hold mortar units.

Things pretty much continue as before with this turn. I will have to move out soon as time is running out. I cannot continue this fire fight much longer. I will need to take a chance and move to wrest control some victory locations from the Russians. The soft ground may be an issue. With the lines so close, rapid movement will not be possible climbing the hill to the Russian Barracks position in the west.

Below is an example of a unit’s ranges. This can be accessed either from the menu View>Shade> Maximum Range. The blue lines show the AA (anti-aircraft)range used against planes. Red is the hard attack range for use against armor, bunkers, pillboxes and other hard target types. Green is for the soft attack range to be used against infantry, and soft target vehicles. This feature is very useful when checking for overlapping fields of fire and as an aid to checking if units need to move soon as the action moves away from them. The blue lines feature is especially useful in helping the player position their flak guns to cover prime units that the enemy might want to attack with aircraft.


Compare the preceding image to the following which shows the same gun unit with the LOS (Line of Sight) highlighted. While there are Russian units in range, a number of them are not in LOS and cannot be fired upon. Notice the Russian unit to the SE is close, only 500 meters away, but cannot be attacked or cannot attack the units in the gun’s position due to the placement of smoke between them.


German units at the foot of hill 226.6 are showing the strain of battle as they are now in the yellow fatigue (second stage). Russian fire is still fierce here despite my efforts to cover the Axis troops with some smoke each turn.


The butcher’s bill grows. Over 1,200 men lost combined in three hours.

Dog Soldier

[ComradeP]

The casualties can be frightening. I've wondered if the larger scenarios might not suffer from something that can also occur in Moscow '42 where the Soviets concentrating lots of artillery on one or two leading units can cause losses the Axis can't sustain, thus stopping an attack without much of a counter (after all, some of your units just have to get into clear terrain to attack). It gets worse the more Katyusha's there are.

The second large III Panzer Korps in particular looks like it might be a massacre for the Germans.