Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

Turn 11 Russian



Speaking of chess, in the east its looking like check mate here! Never have so many brain cells been killed by so few moves. This was the best I could do and he will probably still find a way to exploit it.
 
I've isolated one of his units but he will probably find a unit to fill the gap. I could not isolate him and yet protect myself from counter isolation. I also had to somehow protect my flanks.

If the disrupted enemy unit to the south  reorganises he has at least 10 units to manoeuvre. I've got 9 at the moment and 3 cut off. I have moved the 378th so that it is available. 

This is not going to end up well here in the east. I guess I should have moved up blasted his front line units to bits. Then halted so I could then move off the map in the last few turns and get some VP's. 

I've limbered up the 1263rd A/T Bn but they are looking at the stream to the south of them and saying.....sorry we can't cross that! Comrade Stalin will not be happy having to make more 76mm A/T guns.

I flew air recon and it confirms that he has a reception for me in Verkne-Buzinovka.

[Plain Ian]

Turn results.





I lost a T-70 and an A/A  gun (vehicle) and killed one German A/T gun. My tanks and artillery did most of killing.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 11 German



I'll post the map then come back later with some comments. It was an interesting turn from Mike. Either he's decided to coast the second half of the game or he is feeling sorry for me. <g> 

Actually if this was a real boxing match my corner would be looking for a towel to chuck in the ring!



Ok I've updated the map label to show that its Turn 11 German. I'll run over the German moves.

Group Zhuravlev
The 298th Artilllery dissolved after one assault (-4 men/-22 guns). Scratch one more unit from the Russian OOB.
The 88th Rgt group survived heavy artillery and then about 3 assaults. Well maybe "survived" is an exaggeration. There are 6 men left from the 262nd. 
Elsewhere he pushed up all along the west and south west side but was content to use artillery and direct fire. No need to assault. Its in the bag.......
It was good to see that his units do disrupt. Two in the north east and one in the south west from my defensive fire.
He made no moves against me in the south of the pocket. Possibly he is waiting to see how far north I can go with 1st Tank Army so he has held them back?
The number of disrupted units in the pocket in the south west piles up. I will probably have to spread them out and form a carpet and hope his assaults push them the right way. 

Speaking of artillery I was watching some tv program and it showed Nebelwerfers. They don't make whooshing noises as in PzC? They scream as in 'moaning minnie'?

The south
He did pull back so his units are taking a beating. He is making sure that I will have no chance of getting near the 50 VP hex at Manoylin though. He's happy for me to go off into the great wide....Steppe or whatever. 
He has sent a probe down to check my left flank at Kiselev.

Nizhnyaya-Buzinovka
Well he's made defensive moves here. He didn't bother trying to pin my armour. I guess he is conserving his units using just the minimum to hold me? Or he is bored running units past me? Possibly the first one as he can't have that many units. 
He does have the advantage of operating on interior lines and his infantry are more mobile than mine.

East
Another surprise. He has relinquished his Vulcan death grip on my armour at Mukovkin and adopted a defensive posture. He has left one of his companies behind. This is actually a pain as I may struggle to kill it quickly enough before he changes his mind and comes back to finish me off!!! I'll probably let it go. After all its going to take me a turn or two to see if I can make a successful roll to end my Low Ammo?

This is an area of PzC that should be discussed maybe? Should units really go Low Ammo so quickly? In the enemies phase? Even some boardgames allowed a phased or staged graduation of supply loss when units were cut off? Isolation and instant Low Ammo are just too much of a penalty?

Osinovka
I think I'll try fraternisation here. All my units are Low Ammo and/or Disrupted. I can't see me fighting my way in here. But I guess I should fire......to get him to go Low Ammo!

Marders
No sign of them. They must be in reserve somewhere?

Anyway on to my turn.

[ComradeP]

Great AAR as always.

Maybe the Nebelwerfer uses a modern MLRS or bazooka/Panzerschreck sound file?

Tank Corps look impressive on paper, but their actual effectiveness is marginal in 1942. The T-34 "battalions" are about as strong as 2 German companies in terms of Soft Attack firepower, which is underwhelming. They really need a solid Rifle division or Mechanized Corps to lead the charge as otherwise the advance is just too slow when you can't move ZOC to ZOC.

[Plain Ian]

Great AAR as always.

Maybe the Nebelwerfer uses a modern MLRS or bazooka/Panzerschreck sound file?

Tank Corps look impressive on paper, but their actual effectiveness is marginal in 1942. The T-34 "battalions" are about as strong as 2 German companies in terms of Soft Attack firepower, which is underwhelming. They really need a solid Rifle division or Mechanized Corps to lead the charge as otherwise the advance is just too slow when you can't move ZOC to ZOC.

Yes possibly the sound effect is for a modern weapon system. I'm not complaining since its useful to differentiate rocket artillery from normal artillery. In fact a Bulge 44 player will start cringing when he he hears that whoosing noise!

The Russian 42 Tank Bde is a work in progress. Its light in tanks and lacks decent infantry support. The infantry are really a shock attack unit. That's a good point about the T-34 Tank Bn being comparable to two German companies for fire power. They do have a 2 hex range which does add something extra. It can be a bit of a pain when they open fire defensively at 2 hexes when you want them to wait until 1 hex but they did manage a disruption at 2 hexes in this game so I can't complain.

I'd still rather have a Jaeger Bn than a Russian Tank Bde.



Turn just about finished. Will post it up tomorrow night.

[Plain Ian]

Russian Turn 12 finished and VP Chart below.



Turn losses



I've actually did better than Turn 10 and 11 in terms of German losses but there was a cost as my losses in men were fairly high. However Russian men are plenty....except in this scenario.

VP levels for last few turns



I'm still sitting with 150 VP's for victory hexes and have narrowed slightly the difference in losses. 

Ok enough boring charts lets look at the maps.

[Plain Ian]

I've changed tactic this turn. No choice really. Instead of falling back I'll let him push me back and trust that the great AI Retreat God pushes me the right way. So I've left the disrupted units out front in most places and put the undisrupted behind. I might have made a mistake in my placement of 3/753rd. 

Firstly thanks to the 6 men left cut off and doomed in the north, I called in two ground strikes on the dreaded Nebelwerfers. Both got through without being intercepted and scored 3 guns from each unit. (they were not disrupted though as I checked at turn end)

Next I thought I could exploit the fact he had two disrupted units in the north east and tried an assault. It failed miserably and the Sappers disrupted. Because of this I had to move the 40th back because if the disrupted unit recover they could assault back and possibly cut off the 2/262nd.

The 1/40th was brought north as a backstop for the impending doom which is coming from the north. I actually wanted to use it in place of the 3/676th but messed  up this move. I doubt if this will make any difference in the long run. To get the 1/40th released I had to put the 184th back in the front line.

On the eastern perimeter I did my best to put him under pressure. Ouch I'm sure he flinched.

[Plain Ian]

On to the south. There was some huffing and puffing again this turn but as you will see the front line hasn't moved any closer to the pocket.

A) The 358th got good results against the enemy 305th unit so I went for another assault by the 365th. The 10 T-70's clanked forward and lo the enemy did retreat. The 163rd were brought up. It won't cause him any concern but it increases the 'bridgehead' slightly.

B) This fiasco goes as follows. 
370th fires and gets good results. (-19) 
56th Separate sapper Bn goes for an assault and are rebuffed. (-4/-1)
2/20th assaults and is also knocked back. (it takes heavy casualties -12/-2)
364th rolls up and defensive fire disrupts the 56th. Mmmh. 
364th assaults and joins the list of failures. (NE/-7) Just to rub in the salt its also disrupted.
Sigh I guess that I'm a natural Russian player.........

I checked at turn end and the German unit isn't disrupted so I get to do it all over next turn IF I undisrupt.

Apart from these tactical fiasco's I've also pushed up against his main line. Maybe he will pull back again? Ok I'll speak to Santa on that one.

[Plain Ian]

Last map. Here are my moves in the east. 

At Mukovkin I have brought up the 1/133rd. I did this to allow the 397th to pull back in this direction. I then decided to hold off doing this for a turn. 
The cut off enemy unit at Mukovkin was attacked with direct fire and also some artillery. (results not shown on the map but it was -4)
I held back the 2/22nd and 3/22nd. 
At turn end I was surprised to see that he is disrupted? I think Mike might react to this but I'm not sure what he has available? maybe its....Marder time?

At Osinovka they continue to throw rocks at each other. Except the German rocks must be heavy as the 1/893rd disrupts after losing one man! 
At turn end I check and ....both German units are disrupted???? Really? The only undisrupted unit I have is the 1264th AA Rgt. I hope they are assault trained!

At Nizhnyaya-Buzinovka the fighting also continues. No disruption here folks.

West of Nizhnyaya the enemy heavy artillery unit still beckons me. Like a moth in a flame. It looks like an easy target?  I move another armour unit over and use artillery against the enemy artillery and the Pioneer unit. My flanks are fairly secure so we will see how Mike reacts.

I think he will hit back. 

His turn will probably be back tomorrow night.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 12 German

Turn came back this morning. I've made out my note to Santa and wrapped most of my gifts so I've time to look at it. May have to cancel Christmas folks......



Turn losses and victory points in the picture. Mike's losses were fairly high and my losses relatively light which explains why the VP increase wasn't too bad. 

I think most of his moves are self explanatory so will not haver on too much. He made a lot of assaults, two of which failed and some of which were costly in terms of his losses.

Suffice it to say that the assault against the 2/84th has effectively isolated most of Op Gp Zhuravlev except the two units at Shevchinkovskiy. 

Edit: I forgot to point out that the undead 192nd Divisional HQ teleported back onto the map. He gets to kill another 49 extra men now. 
Oh and I'm still annoyed at the stupid retreat AI retreating the 1486th Sappers CLOSER to the enemy rather than AWAY?? 

2nd Edit: the unit that Mike used to push back the 2/84th has isolated itself? Maybe thats why he has brought up the Pioneer? Pretty smart to spot my weak spot?

Ok I'll go and finish wrapping and post the rest of the map.

I've replaced Konev's picture with a new General. Guess who......