• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
They also need to take care that they are never both on the same time in the production or research menu, as otherwise the sliders get messed up.

And I don't know whether it is fixed, but there was a bug of fleet disappearing when one player tried to merge them whilst the other had clicked on that fleet too
 
Carnage al Dente

Chapter XXXIII - The Push for Moscow






Players:USA, UK, SOV, GER, JAP, ITA(spec)
ITA controls the entire German East Front





Recap: When Axis lost their chance to grab the initiative, the Allies instead opened up a new front through Romania and neutral Bulgaria where Germany now is under severe pressure. But the long planned offensive against Moscow is now ready to be launched...


13-13.jpg

January 30th, 1943

1. Moscow. The entire Soviet front seems a little weak on this sector. It is understandable since its been dead-calm for almost half a year. Even though the Red Army has armor at the front, they don’t have more than one or tops two divisions at the front. Hopefully, they don’t have much in the second line except HQs. The front is simply too long and they have been forced to pull reinforcements southwards due to the German autumn offensive there – threatening (however falsely) to open up a route to Stalingrad.

2. The Red Army is extremely weak here. Two provinces is just “defended” by HQs and there are only one infantry division in bordering provinces. The German attack here will not be awfully strong, but will cause some chaos.

3. The Germans have some four armor divisions with engineers behind the line, ready to push straight north, as a spearhead for this section of the front. It will destabilize the position of the Soviet troops south of Moscow and force them to think more on retreat than clever defense. Hopefully, some may be captured in a pocket.

4. The main thrust will be just north and south of Moscow. It is believed the Soviet defense will be strongest here, helped by the terrain and rivers. The Germans have assembled quite an amount of troops here and the Red Army should not be able to resist it.

But it is all about time. The Red Army is known to have excess forces in the south and they will most certainly pull them north. There is of course a chance the Soviet leadership will simply retreat out of Moscow and instead use is forces in the south to push through the rather thin German line to connect with the Brits….

…………………………………………………………………….













1-16.jpg

February 2nd, 1943

The attack towards Moscow started the 1st of February. The Red Army had positioned medium armors in Obninsk. They were well dug in and would be difficult to dislodge, but luckily, the Germans came in force.

Further north, the Soviets had lots of infantry in a trench system in the snow covered forest. They battles there were hard and they would prove even harder to beat. The battled became grim in the freezing white winter forrests. But not even the snow covered pine trees were safe. The broke and shattered as well. But the Italian leadership was worried it was all going too slow. Still, they had not showed their full force so hopefully the Soviet leadership would not realize yet what iron fist was about to hit him.














2-16.jpg

February 9th, 1943

Although the going around Moscow was slow, the panzer blitz from the south had desirable effect and crashed through the defenders. A pocket was formed around the city of Tula in which two infantry divisions and with their corresponding HQ was caught. A light panzer division had blitzed through the thin Soviet line. The Italian leadership was not worried.

The Soviet leadership had apparently started to realize that this was not a small stab, but a real offensive, and the Red Army was desperately trying to form up to defend their main city.















3-16.jpg

February 13th, 1943

Two weeks into the operation and a sack has slowly been formed around Moscow. The Red Army is desperately trying to stall the spearheads but a few panzer divisions is spilling through and is threatening the opening of the sack, and the supply line of the defenders of Moscow.

In the south, the Tula pocket had been crushed. A quite powerful Red army corps is trying to attack the sack from outside, to support the Moscow-troops, but they are in turn subjected to stalling battles and have so far failed to mount an attack against the besiegers. Still, the force is strong enough to pose a real threat to the operation.















4-17.jpg

February 17th, 1943

It was like a game of chess with attacks, blocks and counter attacks. Finaly, Moscow was surrounded but not with the huge chunk of troops that was hoped for. Weary Soviet forces was tying to retreat out and away from the Moscow-area but the Italian-lead wehrmacht chased them relentlessly – still hoping for a price.

Further north, in Dubna, two more Soviet divisions had been captured. They had been fighting bravely to stall the German attack on Moscow knowing they would be trapped themselves. Well, life is not fair. They would not be shown the mercy of getting away.

Still, everything was calm in the city of Moscow itself. The southern Red Army Corps, trying to open the sack from the south, had had to abandon that mission due to German attacks and had retreated eastwards orderly. Few things could save Moscow now.















5-17.jpg

February 18th, 1943

The German spearhead panzers managed to finally close the second sack, capturing the remaining of the Moscow-fighters. A few Red Army divisions and HQs immediately surrendered but the others ended up in a pocket. The Germans did not have many units guarding the surrounded troops, but the Russians had no second line, no rescuing force it seemed, and the captured troops had been fighting on and off for three weeks. Their chances for survival were meager.

In Moscow however, the three divisions guarding the city had not been part of any other battles. They were likely to be healthy and dug in – which was not the case for the German formations.

Never the less, not counting the units in Moscow, the Red Army lost some 7-10 divisions during this offensive. It was good news for the Axis.















6-16.jpg

February 15th, 1943

While the Germans were celebrating victories in the East, they were hard pressed in Mid Europe. They had been forced to retreat to the borders of post-war Hungary and they could still not stop the Allies. One small victory was the destruction of two British armor divisions (encircled in this pic). Would that be enough to weaken the Allied gusto?















7-15.jpg

February 17th, 1943

It would not… The Americans, supported by some British forces and the Bulgarians, attacked Yugoslavia in a well coordinated attack. The Yugoslavians did what they could to hold the back, but they were clearly inferior. The Axis threw what little excess troops they had against the northern American paratroop divisions. Could that city be reclaimed before Beograd fell, then the Yugoslavians would be likely to stay in the fight against the cruel Allies.

This was dark days. If Yugoslavia would fall, and turn on the Axis, there were little forces left to stem yet another tide.















8-15.jpg

February 22nd, 1943

The Allies had given up taking Italy – or they simply realized there where richer hunting grounds elsewhere. The Italian followed them and engaged them a couple of times, but the Allies chose to retreat and slip away. Instead, the Italians sent troops northwards to the new front that threatened to open up against or within Yugoslavia.















9-13.jpg

Late February, 1943

In their desperate hunt for rare materials, the Germans hit the Swedish capital and took it rather swiftly. The reward was quite small.

Greater news, however, was that Japans long struggle in the Far East finally paid off when the Russians were chased out of Mongolia together with the old government. Japan installed a new government and continued to harass the not so great Bear.















10-14.jpg

March 4th-6th, 1943

During the second half of February, the German forces around Moscow cleared the pockets which had been created around Moscow during the glorious offensive. While a few divisions were sent to central Europe, where the need was great, some marched to the hills of Shchelovo to be able to attack Moscow without crossing the river. Some divisions, however, attacked from other places to confuse the defenders.

The preparations had been solid and the great city fell after only three days of battle. Where Stockholm had been a disappointment, Moscow was a real treasure. Over 7000 units of rare materials were still stored here and Italy immediately opened up a direct trade link to Berlin with some 50 units/day which effectively saved the 3rd Reich from getting the shortage which was looming over their heads – only a week away.

With the great loss due to the Moscow Push, the Red Army was painfully weak. Their chances of withstanding spearhead attacks from the superior Wehrmacht was extremely limited. The Italian leadership wanted to use this to deliver yet another, hopefully crushing, blow to the Red Army. It was hoped this would more or less cripple Soviet from any offensive maneuvers, allowing the Germans to pull substantial part of their eastern armies to the center of Europe and crush the Allies there. The Allies had never before ventured so deep into Europe. This was the chance to capture them there and end the war once and for all.




...............................

Next Chapter - A Vicious Trap!
 
The attack was successful even during winter (although there probably was no winter in March), which is a good sign. Still, the same problems remain as before - the Flying Circus and Stalingrad.

Moving out of Italy is actually smart, because Cpt won't be able to move most of his troops from Italy, anyway, out of fear of another Allied attack.
 
Thrilling stuff! For all the complaints about house rules this is actually one of the only times I've seen a MP game with this many twists and turns, cudos.
 
Yep, it's amazing, but I'm trully disappointed about agressive stance of Allies towards neutral countries. In WWII(in my opinion) countries from alll over the world was joining Allies, because they started winning(countries from s. america started joining allies in 1943-1944) and because they was trying to stop agressive stance of Axis against neutral countries. But in this game, allies are agressor in most cases, and Axis should have support of the smaller countries. This is only my opinion, but look, Canada attacked half of remaining neutral Americas, Allies attacked Bulgaria and Yugoslavia(note that they were still neutral).

And one question, did Allies didn't do major mistake?(sorry but I study English, and I am not perfect, I don't know how I should write this ;)) After Allied invasion of neutral Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia joined Axis, So now Axis have France(and Victory condition like Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam), Yugo and Belgrade(another VC), Moscow and Leningrad(again VC), Stockholm(next possible VC) and others. Maybe "Next Chapter A Vicious Trap!" is named because Allies knock out themselves? :laugh:
 
@Cybvep

From what I have been able to see on screenshots it would seem that the Axis (basically Germany) has not enough infantry units. The frontal structure seems to suffer from this, and the lovely mobile units are tied down rather than working as a reserve.

If that is the case then the axis should be able to quickly build infantry and get their campaign underway.

Active campaign in East cost 80-100 manpower/month, so if campaign went to 1942, Germany usually builds only support brigades and more planes.
 
If the Wehrmacht redeploys an army or two into the Balkans, they can roll up the entire Flying Circus. The Brits have nothing to stop a German tank division and losing two of their light tank divisions should've really hurt the Brit player, who usually only fields relatively few divisions anyway.
 
Yeah two armored divisions is a harsh blow for anyone, and even more for the brits and their usually meager land forces. But US can compensate that I guess.

What about the air war? No strategic bombing? Specially versus Italy, many people forget about that one. Italian ICs are concentrated in very few cities. If they send strat wings to Sicily...
 
Why is Russia so weak in this game. It never really managed to hold anything as soon as the Axis decided to take it. Did something went horribly wrong with its research or officer ratio ? Since the first day of Barbarossa they just lost again and again.
 
Why is Russia so weak in this game. It never really managed to hold anything as soon as the Axis decided to take it. Did something went horribly wrong with its research or officer ratio ? Since the first day of Barbarossa they just lost again and again.

Bad officer ratio and the massive bonus that Destiny gives. Add to that the mobility of armor and it´s easy to see how they fail so miserably. Huge attack bonus -> breakthrough -> encirclement. Rinse and repeat.

It´s similar in SP games, the bonus makes counterattacking AI Germany almost impossible - however, when it wears off, it´s kraut spanking time. It´s all a matter of trying to hold up until the bonus wear off. If you´re in good shape you win, if you lost lots of troops you lose.
 
Active campaign in East cost 80-100 manpower/month, so if campaign went to 1942, Germany usually builds only support brigades and more planes.

I'm not quite sure if I understand that correctly, but what you describe is reactive play (I have no problems with the number of loss and the remedy) rather than planning ahead and building the armed forces accordingly.

Take Italy in this game. Capt.Easy built sea units early in the game. However he missed on Gibraltar and ended up evacuating North Africa. When his new naval assets were ready Italy were thrown out of the med. To add insult to injury the navy stumbled into Zids massive carrier fleet, and retreated to all the wrong places. The convoy war was aborted aswell.

Zid built naval assets aswell but he decided that it wasn't enough. A wholsale retreat from India was needed to hold the Med, and offer some offensive capabilities to the French front. In the 1938 game the UK start with rubbish doctrines and with regards to Interceptors they find themselves 2-3 generations behind Germany. Basically the UK has to sacrefice a lot of hardware to keep the game going and they have to be ruthless in terms of research and building.

In this game Zid has had the luck of the Irish in many key points, but the original plan has provided a sound basis for operations. This has allowed him to exploit windows of opportunities and made him a major player of the game. (and yes some tactics have been poor latin, but we're not supposed to be discussing that)

I find Valentians work on OOB's to be of good use when working on a shoestring.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-Planning-for-Germany-The-Wunderwaffe-1944-49
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...g-for-Italy-1938-1944&p=12954429#post12954429
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ing-Germany-1938-1945&p=12737803#post12737803

Disregarding what has happened so far the axis need to take stock of the situation and draw up a plan to knock the USSR out of the war. How they do that is up to them. Geografical divide, or by tasks such as offensive/defensive etc. Who has enough manpower and who has enough planes, panzers etc.

The Allies are not hampered by this. USA and UK can do offensive operations independantly of eachother since they are of a smaller scale.

It still is possible to win for the Axis, but then they really need to pool their resources.
We wait with bated breath.
 
No, Germany was having its hands full with fighting in France etc, and Italy was doing not so much, and as Germany plays alone and to lower the pressure on him, they exp forced german troops to Italy, in that case CptEasy can command the units and the German player can focus on the rest of the world.
 
Stalingrad can wait. If the Axis are lucky, they can roll up the Balkans through Romania. That'd mean that the British thrust would be threatened to be cut off somewhere around Hungary. Note that the Italians are coming in from the west at the same time. Those Allied units might be in for a nasty surprise.
 
A vicious trap? Damn, I knew things were going to well for the Axis.