RUS 1.04. I will be playing Southern Whites, Highlandcharge will be playing Siberian Whites, Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne will be playing Communists. Settings: Historical Attrition; Medium Battle Delay; Normal/Standard naval box handling and activation rules; Historical force limits and leader stats; one redeployment per turn. House rules: strategic redeployments should be able to trace a line of communication by rail, river or sea, however tenuous, to their new location.
Orders for Early June, 1918: I am focusing all my efforts on destroying Sorokin's Army of North Caucasus as quickly as possible. Drozdovsky's division will spearhead this initiative along with Denikin, Sidorin and Denisov, all assigned to Volunteer Army to prevent the Reds from fleeing to the south or east. Krasnov and Don Cossack Army will stay in Azov - I am hoping to tempt the enemy into an assault on the city - while 1st Cavalry Division will be standing by on his right flank to rapidly reinforce his position. Lady luck has bestowed on me perfect campaigning weather - not a rain cloud in sight - and I could probably occupy the entire Caucausus in one go if I wanted to, but I want to Keep It Simple, Stupid, so Kuban Cavalry will perform my only long distance raid for the first two weeks, and is expected to arrive in Astrakhan in 7 days.
Cossack volunteer militias are raised in Azov and Novocherkassk.
Excerpted from my first abortive AAR attempt over at AGEOD's forums, for the benefit of new readers:
Those of you who have read my CSA Narrative AAR already know I have an obsession for things naval, and a predeliction for encirclement and destruction. My strategy for this game will be in some ways similar to the one I employed against Yellowhammer in AACW: build up a powerful brown water navy, and use rivers as force multipliers to pocket and destroy enemy armies along strategic rail routes. The signal difference this time around is that I will be on the offense rather than the defense, and my opponent will enjoy the advantage of interior lines for the most part.
I will be applying the concepts of Deep Battle doctrine: launch attacks on a wide front including feints to keep the enemy guessing; pierce the enemy's defensive lines with infantry and massed artillery; exploit the breakthrough with mobile forces, cutting them off from supply by targeting depots in the operational depth; then target their reserves in the strategic depth with a rapid offensive, while pocketing and destroying their front line forces through a process of strangulation. The idea is render the enemy psychologically incapable of mounting an effective operational defense by interrupting his decision-making process in a way that forces him to react to my advances piecemeal and be destroyed in detail.
I may be shifting gears for this game, focusing primarily on force preservation, but alternating between concentrated attacks on a narrow front to achieve breakthroughs and encirclements, and wide-front offensives as necessary to exploit the gains of the former strategy and throw the enemy off-balance.
Orders for Early June, 1918: I am focusing all my efforts on destroying Sorokin's Army of North Caucasus as quickly as possible. Drozdovsky's division will spearhead this initiative along with Denikin, Sidorin and Denisov, all assigned to Volunteer Army to prevent the Reds from fleeing to the south or east. Krasnov and Don Cossack Army will stay in Azov - I am hoping to tempt the enemy into an assault on the city - while 1st Cavalry Division will be standing by on his right flank to rapidly reinforce his position. Lady luck has bestowed on me perfect campaigning weather - not a rain cloud in sight - and I could probably occupy the entire Caucausus in one go if I wanted to, but I want to Keep It Simple, Stupid, so Kuban Cavalry will perform my only long distance raid for the first two weeks, and is expected to arrive in Astrakhan in 7 days.
Cossack volunteer militias are raised in Azov and Novocherkassk.
Excerpted from my first abortive AAR attempt over at AGEOD's forums, for the benefit of new readers:
Those of you who have read my CSA Narrative AAR already know I have an obsession for things naval, and a predeliction for encirclement and destruction. My strategy for this game will be in some ways similar to the one I employed against Yellowhammer in AACW: build up a powerful brown water navy, and use rivers as force multipliers to pocket and destroy enemy armies along strategic rail routes. The signal difference this time around is that I will be on the offense rather than the defense, and my opponent will enjoy the advantage of interior lines for the most part.
I will be applying the concepts of Deep Battle doctrine: launch attacks on a wide front including feints to keep the enemy guessing; pierce the enemy's defensive lines with infantry and massed artillery; exploit the breakthrough with mobile forces, cutting them off from supply by targeting depots in the operational depth; then target their reserves in the strategic depth with a rapid offensive, while pocketing and destroying their front line forces through a process of strangulation. The idea is render the enemy psychologically incapable of mounting an effective operational defense by interrupting his decision-making process in a way that forces him to react to my advances piecemeal and be destroyed in detail.
I may be shifting gears for this game, focusing primarily on force preservation, but alternating between concentrated attacks on a narrow front to achieve breakthroughs and encirclements, and wide-front offensives as necessary to exploit the gains of the former strategy and throw the enemy off-balance.
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