Good thing I'm not Napoleon - a DNO RUS AAR

Stuyvesant said:

Kriegsmarine For The Win! Talk about a one-sided thrashing! That was nice!

Overall, vast numbers of troops seem to be slowly clogging every part of Russia and the breakaway republics. Inevitably, we're going to see some truly massive bloodshed really soon.

PS: My heart did a little happy dance when it saw the 'Fahrrad Batallion' in the Bavarian army. I thought only my own countrymen in the Netherlands ever formed bicycle-mounted formations for war, but it's nice to see the Germans follow this innovative tradition.

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The next few turns will be a huge blood bath, as quick victories will be hard to come by for a while.

Also, whilst the Germans made heavy use of bicycles during, and well after WW1, the Japanese were true masters.

Stuyvesant: Always welcome.


A herring with some Lye please, Late March 1921

Not a whole lot happened this turn, as most of my armies are in the process of setting up for the next turn. The first thing that occured this turn:


Kiev is finally recaptured from the Reds (again), and left to the TLC of the Ukrainians. During their intial encounter with Ovseenko's army, the Northern Army group had two of its generals wounded, and it's power severely reduced. With Kiev recaptured, Ukr. reinforcements finishing mustering, and some of my Ukr. generals recovering from its wounds, the Northern Army Group should recover some of it's former shine. Which is good since there is going to be a hell of a blood bath next turn. Speaking of which:


Despite having half the number of Army Group Nord, the Reds inflict roughly equal casualties on the Germans, and retreats eastward. Minsk is now under siege, and will likely fall when my generals reactive. The plan for the Vilnius-Minsk-Smolensk area:


Once Army Group Nord secures Minsk, it will drive toward Smolensk. The Lithuanians at Vilnius will either move southward toward Gomel or northward toward Petrograd. Either way, the Reds seem to be at a disadvantage in this sector, at least for the moment.

Speaking of Petrograd:


Army Group B and friends make this initial moves toward Pskov. The unfortunate problem is that Pskov lies over a river, with two fortified camps in front of it that will have to be taken to ensure that it is captured.

Much further south in the Ukraine, we go back on the offensive


Army Group Centrum is ordered to take Konotop, in the hopes that it can lure Ovseenko to battle. If Ovseenko suffers a decisive defeat, Army Group Centrum can then (after proper rest and recovery!Knocking out an 80k strong army is going to take a lot of troops) drive on Kursk and threaten the Reds from the rear. I also order the Ukr. corp at Ekaterinoslav to take the fortified camp, which could disrupt the rail line between Kharkov and Kiev if ignored.

In the center, between Ekaterinoslav and Kharkov:


I predict that I'm probably either going to suffer a Pyrrhic victory or an unlucky defeat at Kharkov, as the Reds have had time to entrench. The City, however, must be retaken, as it is both a vital supply link and a VP city.Mamontov and his long-suffering Cossacks are held in reserve because I don't have any rail pool to move him with (moving such huge armies by rail has exhausted my rail pool. I was down to 1 rail pool by the end of this turn.)Aside from that, he also needs to protect the wagons building up a depot at Ekaterinoslav, which is going to likely be the main supply point for the drive on Rostov later on.

With that, what happened in news and what I choose to do:


This will be useful in case the Reds decide to DOW Finland too, but also to provide a safe cover to marshall Finnish forces behind when we call them into battle later. I also did not mention that an epidemic struck my forces in the Belarus theater, meaning some of my armies have suffered major cohesion losses.

Something I noticed:


The Whites actually have their own navy. My guess is that it's nothing more than a few damaged destroyers and a transport squadron ,but it's cool to notice none the less.

And finally, as I promised to show:


Red Front and larger Red Armies tend to be similarly equipped as German Corps, but smaller formations suffer. The one thing the Reds do not suffer from is a lack of cannon. Virtually every red formation has a 105mm cannon somewhere. The other thing too is that the Reds get Cheka infantry and Political commissars, which ensure the loyalty of troops in the stack (+1 to initiative and morale). Whilst bicycle infantry are cool for the Germans, I wish I had some Cheka infantry. Those guys are fantastic.

PrawnStar said:

*Subscribing* - I've been enjoying Bornego's AARs - fascinating looking game.

I was actually wondering if there was this sort of alt-History option/mod available

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A Prawnstar subscription! I feel special now.

Stuyvesant said:

Glad that Kiev fell to you (again), but isn't 123,000 men versus 960 a little bit of overkill?

Is there any way to bypass the camps protecting the approaches to Pskov, or are you going to have to go through those camps to get to the city? I guess a flanking march through the frozen, tractless wilderness is not going to do anything good for your supply/cohesion situation...

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Neither side in this war is known for tenderness. If I need a JDAM to crack a walnut, then, damn, it, I am cracking that walnut.

And yes, I could just ignore the camps altogether and march through forest/swamp. However, the next turn, attacking one of the camps works out fantastically well for me. Aside from that, they will need to be removed eventually so that reinforcements from Poland have uninterrupted rail service to Pskov.

loki100 said:

presume the slaughter at Minsk is a sign of things to come ... this is going to be bruising bloody stuff isn't it?

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Oh yes. Yes it will be.

You wanna live forever?!Early April, 1921

This turn was slaughter.Absolute, horrific slaughter. In a good way though.:laugh:.

Army Group Centrum receives its order and rolls out. Unfortunately for the Reds, so does Ovseenko, moving toward Kiev. As such, Ovseenko runs smack into Army Group Centrum. Essentially, in a pitched battle with no trenches and outnumbered, the Reds do pretty well:


Not bad, not bad. But Army Group Centrum has won the battle. Ovseenko retreats directly to his rear, to the little town of Konotop:


The Germans, inspired by their early victory, gave a lot better than they got. Ovseenko's army is essentially beaten to bloodly pulp by this battle.

However, he doesn't retreat for some reason, meaning another battle ensues:


Another win. This means that whilst Army Group Centrum has suffered more than 40.000 casualties, Ovseenko's has suffered 50.000 casualties. Army Group Centrum is still a fighting force, whilst Ovseenko's army has almost been wiped out, and flees to Chernigov. The strategic situation post-Konotop around Kiev:


I discovered to my dismay that Chernigov is actually a level 2 depot, meaning that if Ovseenko stays on the city, he'll regain 30% of his casualties in one turn. This is an unacceptable state of affairs, and I direct fresh reinforcements from Poland to ensure that they are not given the chance. At 35.000 strong, XII.Armee will more than a match for Ovseenko's depleted 30.000, and he'll receive support from across the river in the form of the stack of Army Group Centrum, who is regaining cohesion. You may have noticed that a certain fortified camp is still standing:


It's an unfortunate loss, but with renewed Ukrainian strength, the Northern Army Group can probably finish the job, at least, in the short term.

Further east, the blood bath continues:


A Pyrrhic victory as predicted, but at least Kharkov is recaptured. The Romanian corp of Army Group Sud. takes virtually the entirety of the brunt of the battle, and as a result is almost completely destroyed. They are directed to Odessa, to meet up with fresh Romanian reinforcements.*

The strategic situation post-Kharkov:


Don Corp is ordered to take the city, and if they fail, fresh German reinforcements from Poland will do the job. I'm concentrating an additional 3.500 power in Army Group Sud. as the defeat of the Don Front was hardly conclusive. Army Group Sud. and the Don Front will fight again.

The situation further south:


The Danziger Corp is due to arrive in Odessa next turn. It's a very powerful corp, and I attend it to be the tip of the spear for capturing Rostov.

Further north at Minsk:


Virtually nothing has happened. Tuchavesky has retreated eastward, and Army Group B (now with railpool) starts its advance northward. Army Group Nord will capture Minsk before considering further offensive operations. Whilst I'd like to be in Smolensk by the end of the year, operational consideration must be given to capturing Rostov.

In contrast to the static Belorussian theater, the Estonia theater is hot:

Njemen Armee is ordered to capture Ostrov, and well, does so in an absolutely spectacular manner:


Inflicting 2:1 casualties, Njemen Armee decides to set up a tent.


Reinforcements arriving from the east attack across a river, meaning a medium-sized defeat is inflicted upon them.


My guess is that at this juncture, the garrison was ordered to sally out during turn consideration. As a result, it sallied directly into the Germans, and then retreated after being slaughtered. This meant that the fort was empty, and thus, taken by the Germans and despawned.

The strategic situation post-Ostrov:


That's one fortified camp down, though I fear this theater may became a stalemate. The problem is that the Russian mud bogs down any movement off the railway, meaning I can't outflank the Reds behind the river at Pskov without taking several turns. I may have to ignore my own advice and attack across a river.

While those major bloodbaths have changed the strategic game somewhat, they illustrate a key problem the Germans have:


We've hit big hump, in that such massive battles like the last turn have run us flat out of reinforcements. Whilst our allied units are insulated from this by already having replacement chits lined up (from buying my guns earlier), the Germans do not. To combat this, another mobilization and some Russians are called up. While this will not completely end the manpower crisis, it will help significantly until another general mobilization can be called again.

You may also be wondering, Where the hell is all of my NM going? Well, as Bornego said:


We've been balanced. We gained some VPs and engagement points but lost NM, which sucks, but helps. The huge defeats inflicted on the Reds last turn also mean that they've dipped below 100 for the first time, and are now at 97. What's interesting here is how it changes the game. In vanilla RUS, NM was a zero-sum transaction. Inflicting a major defeat on an enemy meant you got some NM and they lost some, so that the winner by the end of the game had a lot NM and the losers were low. In DNO, both sides can have relatively high NMs early on if they take NM boosting decisions, meaning that dynamic is messed up.

However, if I keep winning such enormous battles like these, it won't matter, as the Reds will stay around 75 NM for the rest of the game.

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*These 'reinforcements' are actually Romanian Garrison. They'll replenish the Romanians this time, but if the corp is destroyed again, their manpower will probably be subsumed by German armies, as I don't have the manpower to build more Romanians.

Stuyvesant said:

According to my rudimentary beancounting skills, your losses in the Nossivka/Konotop battles ended up about 51,000 men, while Ovseenko lost some 71,000 men. Considering all that butchery took place in four days, that must be some of the bloodiest fighting on record, ever.

Not to mention the fact that Germans (and their henchmen) and Communists died in record numbers all over the rest of the place as well. Good victories for you, but man, the butcher's bill is high. Can you enact enough decisions to keep up with these manpower losses, or is manpower going to be a limiting factor, too (besides the ongoing NM drain every turn, which needs constant victories to be offset)?

That sure puts a whole new spin on that pistachio 'Get Cracking' series of tv commercials that are running on US television...

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Yeah...This level of carnage puts it up with WW1. More than 125.000 Reds were chewed through in fifteen days of fighting, while I also lost 97.5k men in the fighting. While this is a pretty serious level of butchery(as I told Loki, Short Campaign level of slaughter) total casualties between me and my enemy is only 30k difference. Me: 144.767 casualties, Reds: 178.928. Also, those huuuuge amount of casualties only represents one decisive win versus Ovseenko. If the level of massive casualties keeps up like this, I expect there to be more than a million casualties before this campaign is through.

Manpower is going to be a major issue. The main problem here is that my forces are mixed Ukrainians/Germans/Romanians/Austrians/Balts/Cossacks, meaning my reinforcements are spread among all of those forces. The Soviets don't have this problem(They only have Soviet RED forces and some RED cossacks), so all of their chits are focused on Russian forces, where as mine, for the moment are focused on Germans, but I will eventually need to put chits into my allied forces, so manpower is going to be a huge problem for me. It's the only limiting factor beside supply. I may have a lot of huge armies, but huge battles need huge amounts of men to feed the meat grinder.

So, in conclusion, the Reds have the advantage in manpower, but I have the advantage in quality.

loki100 said:

The analogy to WW1 seems very appropriate here. While the other scenarios can generate bloody battles, its not on the consistency of that turn. Interesting to see that the Soviet losses tended to result in lost elements more than you had. But if you can't get the reinforcements flowling, guess that will even out pretty soon.

and well down on the turkey shoot at Ostrov

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Chances are likely that I won't get that lucky again. From here on out, it's going to be a brutal slog forward.

Mr. Austria and other great things to name your kid,Late April,1921

After the 225k some casualties on both sides last turn, this is turn is predictably quiet, as both sides stare at each other from the safety of their depots.

However, an old friend of ours decides to come my aid.


This is the most important event that occurs this turn. More Austrians unlocked this turn, but I don't have the rail pool to move them (and it's currently raining everywhere on the map), so they'll join when they can. But, this is great news. Even more German-Speaking doomstacks will descend upon the Ukraine.I should also mention that the southernmost corp in that picture is led by a man named Von Österreich. Mr.Austria is truly a name befitting a man of such facial hair. Look at that beard!


Fortified camps have some weirdness in this game. In the first battle, virtually the entirety of both the 1st Baltic Corp and Von Francois force with assistance from Army Group B engaged. However, the Reds were able to retreat inflicting more casualties on us. In the second battle, 1st Baltic Corp and Von Francois force engaged a fusilliers division by itself, with predictable results. With that, we settle in for siege. A solution to the river and mud problem is on the way, but won't be available for another 1-2 turns.

The situation:

The last locked Baltic Corp obliterated some Red partisans last turn, unlocking them. I immediately send them to Narva. Despite the river between me, they have enough power to force a crossing, which could endanger the situation. The Reds also took the momentary absence of troops near Polotsk for weakness. They will soon learn the error of their ways when my unlocked Lithuanians clean them out.


To the south, Army Group Nord captures their objective. While good news (our first Red objective city), Army Group Centrum faces its second major battle. The Southwestern Front (which historically would be eliminated by the Germans at Kiev in 1942) is now threatening me, albiet from across a river. I order some of my corps southeast to establish military control to setup a possible assault in the next two turns.

Further south at Konotop/Chernigov, I discover a unlucky/lucky coincidence.

During the fiasco Ovseenko's army experienced last turn, a 608 power corp sized element sat at Chernigov doing nothing. As a result, Ovseenko and friends are now stuck at Chernigov, albiet in good defensive terrian. I have no way to assault them this turn (Attacking into 60k sized stack with 36k men and winning is beyond lucky), due to weather and lack of MC in varying parts. However, Ovseenko's options are limited. He can either attempt to retreat northward, through mud to Gomel, attempt to flee east toward Kursk, or stay. If he stays, he can eliminated. If he flees north, I can move Army Group Nord to counter. If he flees east, one of my corps will intercept him in flight. I should also clarify that Army Group Centrum and a corp is moving back, whilst II.Armee stays at Konotop.With fresh Austrians coming north, expect to see a large battle within the next few turns.

Also notice that Red Fleet. I don't have anything to counter him on the Dnieper, but I will in the next two turns, when Romanian and Ukr. river boats assemble to clear the river.

Finally, further south at Odessa:


The Danzigers land. One of those divisions is a Guard Corp, along with a Marine Corp and an Alpine Corp. This is a veeeery elite corp (note the 2700 power), numbering around 60k troops. I'll employ them in the Kharkov area ASAP. Their use should be obvious.

And now, the decisions. These are rather important:


For some strange reason, conscripting prisoners worked last turn, but mobilization did not. I'll attempt to mobilize again this turn. Hopefully, it works this time. Secondly, the blockade of Russia begins. They will no longer gain EPs/Money from the sea, which is good. Also, hopefully, by inflicting defeats on their blockade runner units, I might be able to whore some NM. We'll see.

Also, the 9th Army deploying to Kiel is less a matter of necessity and more of preference. I may employ them when I unlock the Circassians in the future, but we'll see.

loki100 said:

love the names of the Soviet formations with the SW Front, none of this boring 1st division rubbish.

more strategically, presume with all these new formations you really want to do a lot of damage to the Red Army in the summer of 1921, before the mud and snow returns?

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The names of the fronts actually extend from Tsarist Russia, which named its army groups as Fronts. The tradition was abandoned with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 (now military fronts are referred to as districts).

Another thing I noticed is that the Stavka HQ unit in Moscow is capitalized as STAVKA. This is actually a common western error - Stavka doesn't stand for anything.

And yes, if I can get my decisions to work, I intend to inflict horrific damage on the Red Army until the snow falls.

Stuyvesant said:

That blockade option seems very powerful for you. Is there are drawback (apart from the obvious cost in EP and VP)? The decision text talks about other countries not liking the blockade, but is that a bit of embellishment, or does it actually reflect any in-game reaction?

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Since the Germans won WW1, we have the run of the world, essentially. I guess it can be assumed that the Germans beat the Royal Navy and the French Army in this scenario. The blockade means that the Reds generate blockade runner units to get WSU/EP/Money from foreign ports, but if I can destroy them every turn, the Reds get nothing. They also lose supply in those ports.

In essential game terms, it means the Reds will need to do more requisition and have to win large engagements with me in order to get Money/EPs.Since you need EPs to use options, it's a nice little bonus to the Germans.

I'm not going to update tonight, as a major bug has gotten in the way of the campaign. I should have a fix for it by tomorrow, so, look out for an update mañana.

EDIT: I've reported the bug to the AGEOD forum and got a developer response, so the bug should be fixed promptly.