Prussia in Peril - East Prussia '14 Central Powers AAR - major victory turn 114

[ComradeP]

Turn 73 06:00 29th of August 1914



Landwehr Division Goltz will split in two parts, with one brigade operating together with Gemischte Landwehr Brigade 2 near Mehlaufen, where Russian cavalry has arrived, and the other brigade and divisional assets moving towards the units from Festung Koenigsberg that are digging in around Wehlau.

As to losses: the recent increase was caused by a more active 1st Army and I Armeekorps making its stand to pin the southernmost part of 2nd Army.



After some consideration, instead of making a stand I decided to move Hauptreserve Koenigsberg across the Pregel using the bridge at Norkitten, to keep the Russian cavalry honest. 3. Reserve Division will continue to delay the Russians as the division moves towards Wehlau.



It will be a while before the divisions of I Reservekorps will be fighting alongside each-other in any strength.

The withdrawal remains orderly, all units have green Fatigue at worst and many are still close to full strength, particularly in the 36. Reserve Division.



The 2nd Army pocket.

There are a lot of Russian units trying to break through the 1. Kavallerie Division screen.

I Armeekorps will move east to relieve 1. Kavallerie Division and XVII Armeekorps will soon move in from the north-east.

I need to hold quite a large number of hexes to maintain the integrity of the pocket, so the first order of business is to decrease the size of the pocket.

37. ID will move after the units between Willenberg and Flammberg, and will then cross the Orzuc at Chorzele.

41. ID will continue to move south from Neidenburg, slowly shifting east as Hauptreserve Graudenz moves forward.



Another overview screenshot.

I don't actually need to fully encircle 2nd Army to block supply across the Orzuc and Omulew rivers, as holding the bridges is enough. That allows me to concentrate more forces at the northern and southern edge of the pocket.

The 2nd Army pocket contains 9 infantry divisions, a nearly full strength cavalry division and the survivors from 15th Cavalry Division. It is encircled by 6 infantry divisions (only 3 of which are in contact with the main concentration of Russian forces), 2 Landwehr/Ersatz divisions and a cavalry division.

[lezgo killemall]

I only play the PZC series but this is a great read.  Love seeing the formation of the pocket.  Nice job ComradeP!

[ComradeP]

Glad you're enjoying the AAR.

I hope the AAR will be up-to-date by next weekend.

We're playing turn 107 currently. It's difficult to estimate if early termination will kick in after the destruction of 2nd Army or if a counteroffensive in the north will be required to capture some of 1st Army's gains. 1st Army is running out of objectives immediately in front of it, which will help.

Big compliments to my opponent for keeping the game going even after such a serious setback, James/elxaime has been an excellent opponent throughout all the campaigns I've played against him.

[ComradeP]

Turn 76 12:00 29th of August 1914



Russian cavalry is starting to show up in greater numbers in front of the Landwehr forces in the north. The terrain, with its woods and streams, prevents a flanking manoeuvre by a mobile force.



Hauptreserve Koenigsberg keeps the cavalry directly in front of it at arms length. 3. Reserve division is still slowly pulling back to the defensive positions at Wehlau.

1. Reserve Division is under pressure. As I'm withdrawing 2-3 hexes per turn, the Russians can't exploit their numerical advantage through assaulting.



36. Reserve Division splits in two parts, with one brigade moving through Drengfurth and towards the dual bridges across the Omert.



XVII Armeekorps is slowly trickling in from the north-east.

I Armeekorps slowly shifts towards the east as 1. Kavallerie Division withdraws 2 hexes each turn to avoid Russian assaults breaking the encirclement.

Hauptreserve Graudenz and XX Armeekorps rapidly advance from the north, facing a rear guard screen of Cossack and engineer units.

[ComradeP]

Turn 81 06:00 30th of August 1914



The first cautious cavalry probes were beaten off with assaults at Mehlauten.



3. Reserve Division needs to pull back more rapidly than would normally be the case in the good defensive terrain as 1. Reserve Division south of it has to move west each turn.



36. Reserve Division pulled back to the southern banks of the Omert aside from a screen between Nordenburg and Drengfurth to slow down Russian attempts.



With the bridge at Chorzele secured, the line I need to hold to keep the Russians in the pocket isolated is shortened considerably.

Hauptreserve Graudenz and Hauptreserve Thorn will move in from the west.

XX Armeekorps will move to the area north of Krzynowloga Mala. The marshes and streams in the area will slow it down, but there's no good defensive terrain beyond those few hexes.

I Armeekorps will continue to shift east slowly.

XVII Armeekorps will move in from the east, though with only 35. ID. The brigade of 36. ID that's in the area will move south-east to form a screen against relief attempts from that direction.

[ComradeP]

Turn 84 12:00 30th of August 1914



The northernmost sector remains quiet as Russian cavalry reorganizes for the next push.



Hauptreserve Koenigsberg field guns fire across the Pregel in support of 3. Reserve Division, which is facing minimal pressure at the moment.



1. Reserve Division will soon split in two parts, with one brigade and assorted forces moving towards Allenburg and the rest of the division moving to Gerdauen.

36. Reserve Division mauls the first Russian battalions approaching the Omert bridges, but will soon be forced to withdraw as more Russian infantry and support weapons arrive.



The outline of the pocket for the upcoming days becomes visible.

As expected, I wasn't able to catch any Russian formations before they could join up with the bulk of 2nd Army. That was fine with me, the area I need to secure became considerably smaller than the original pocket.

1. Kavallerie Division is disengaging and forming a screen south of Przasnysz as lead elements of the Russian 4th Cavalry Division were spotted moving south by air recon and will soon show up along the primary road.

[ComradeP]

Turn 89 06:00 31st of August 1914



The southern brigade of Landwehr Division Goltz cautiously moved through the woods at Bittkallen to see if any Russian cavalry units were moving through, but there were none.



3. Reserve Division will continue to move towards Wehlau, which means it can no longer support the units of 1. Reserve Division south of it.



The rest of 1. Reserve Division approaches Gerdauen.

Big Russian stacks show up on the banks of the Omert opposite 36. Reserve Division. The numerous Russian MG units force my reservists to move away from the bridges.



With the inner and outer southern ring nearly in place, the assault on the pocket will begin shortly.

Units are drawing fire from Russian MG and field guns to make sure they're Low Ammo. Even though the Russian units in the pocket are Isolated, they won't become Low Ammo until they fire at least once.

[ComradeP]

Turn 92 12:00 31st of August 1914



Some Russian cavalry units appear in front of the Landwehr brigade at Bittkallen. It will soon start to move into the woods again.

The spike in losses is a clear indication of the intensity of the initial attacks aimed at the 2nd Army pocket.



The orderly withdrawal west continues.

3. Reserve Division is too weak to hold the line of trenches east of Wehlay, but they will provide a temporary benefit. The Detached units of Festung Koenigsberg are not suitable for frontline service as Disruption recovery will take days. The artillery, however, will prove to be very useful as it fires across the Pregel. First indirectly, after that with open sights.



The big gap between 1. Reserve Division and 36. Reserve Division is not too problematic due to the Omert River slowing the Russians down, but at some point it will need to be plugged. My intention was to use the reinforcements from the Western Front for that and to have the Russians more or less walk into them.



Disrupted units highlighted.

The first attacks on the perimeter are costly, but there's no "clean" way to do it with the means at hand. The first Russian direct fire by each unit hurts, but after that casualties from direct fire will steadily decrease.

Russian field guns remained surprisingly effective until Disrupted.

[ComradeP]

Turn 97 06:00 1st of September 1914.

1st Army is permanently released.



The first Russian reservist formations show up in front of Landwehr Division Goltz to support the Russian cavalry in the area. Time to pull the Landwehr back.

The loss ratio worsened considerably due to the initial attacks on the 2nd Army pocket, but it was a necessary bloodletting.



Hauptreserve Koenigsberg slowly pulls back to the Taplacken position.

The first Russian attacks against the Wehlau position are launched.

The Russians to the south continue to advance against 1. Reserve Division.



The Russians quickly bridged the Omert south-east of Gerdauen. There's another river there as well as two 1 hex lakes, so leaving the area open was a calculated risk. 36. Reserve Division will have to continue pulling back, however, as its left flank is hanging in the breeze.



Disrupted units highlighted.

During the night, I moved MG and field gun units forwards so they could soften the Russian line. This process will be repeated each night from now on.

Amusingly, my weakest units will soon create the first breakthrough as Hauptreserve Graudenz and Hauptreserve Thorn roll up the western tip of the pocket.

It's worth noting that retreating after being assaulted is only possible if the entire stack can retreat as a stack into another hex. The game won't divide the units in the stack between possible retreat hexes if it's too big to retreat as a stack. The units in the stack would normally suffer "can't retreat" losses of 50% of their strength, with the second assault usually bumping the stack back a hex...but Russians units face the Fragile Morale penalty and will surrender immediately if they can't retreat.

Combine that with my opponent usually placing two battalions in each hex, which quickly leads to big stacks when they are forced to retreat, and you can understand why Russian losses will rapidly mount in the right conditions.



Strength overview.

I Armeekorps is at about 50% strength, with both divisions losing about 3000 men since the start of the game. It's still combat capable, as Fatigue was carefully managed.

The other divisions are in good shape. 36. ID is actually stronger than it was at the start of the game, as it's close to full strength after numerous turns of rest.

[ComradeP]

Turn 100 12:00 1st of September 1914



Reinforcements from the Western Front have arrived. They all arrive with 150 Fatigue and Low Ammo when you pick the "forward deployment" option, to balance a potential situation where they teleport into a concentration of Russians.

The Gardereservekorps with 3. Garde Division and 1. Garde Reserve Division arrives at Elbing.

XI Armeekorps arrives at Osterode and Allenstein.

8. Kavallerie Division arrives at Mohrungen and Wormditt.

The artillery, Pionier and MG units of each infantry division will start moving towards 1st Army. The other divisions will wait for rail transport, with 3. Garde Division the first to board trains east.



The Russians approach the edge of the woods and this time they're too strong to stop.



3. Reserve Division can still slow down the Russians as they're moving up, but they'll need to continue to move towards Wehlau to avoid assaults.

Units from Festung Koenigsberg move to the western bank of the Alle to screen the southern road to Wehlau as the first Russian units will soon cross the river at Allenburg.



The reservists face 4 Russian divisions and a brigade, with most Russian formations heading south-west. I can do little more than form a screen at this moment.



The Russians in the north-east corner of the pocket were too much to handle for the brigade of 35. ID, so it pulled back to rest. My losses were light, but Fatigue quickly increased to medium.

XX Armeekorps is nearly across the streams and marshes.

Hauptreserve Thorn is taking thousands of prisoners each turn from stacks that can't retreat.