Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Numbers Aren’t Everything (Germany, 1936, SF 2.03 Beta)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • 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.
8 May 1941

Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht) – The Battle

The border battles lasted just several hours. Ljubljana and Zagreb were taken on 14 May. Yugoslavian border guards were taken prisoners. The rest of the army retreated South.

410413YugBat.jpg



The second Yugoslavian defensive line (Split - Sarajevo - Beograd) was reached by 25 May.

British armoured division landed in Split, but it was subsequently pushed from Split and beaten at Sinj and subsequently surrendered at Prozor. Split was taken on 30 May. On 1 May, Germans entered Sarajevo.

410504Yug.jpg


410429YugBat.jpg


410501Yug.jpg



At the same time XV. Armeekorps approached Beograd. Yugoslavian defences around the city were strong but Luftwaffe started bombing of the Yugoslavian positions before XV. Armeekoprs arrived, which helped to weaken defenders' moral. Nevertheless, the battle of Beograd lasted about 2 weeks.

Beograd was taken on 7 May and Yugoslavia surrendered on 8 May.

410507Yug.jpg



Naval Battle - The Battle of Eastern Biscay Plain

This was the second engagement the Battleship Bismarck ever participated. During the first one she engaged British aircraft carrier but suffered heavy damage and had to retreat.

The second engagement was much more successful. The battleship sunk several British destroyers and battlecruiser Renown.

410504SeaBat.jpg
 
Last edited:
22 June 1941

Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) – Preparations

Now it is time for the main event.

Two army groups of 643.000 soldiers were allocated for the operation.

Heeresgruppe Nord consists of two armies (234.000 soldiers):

  • 1. Armee is a defensive and support army;
  • 7. Army is the main thrust in the north offensive. Its main initial objective is to cross Nemunas (Neman), move between Kaunas and Vilnius and reach Daugava. This way open a road to Leningrad and Smolensk and cut off the Soviet armies in Lithuania.

Heeresgruppe Mitte consists of three armies (409.000 soldiers):

  • 4. Armee is a defensive and support army;
  • 5. Armee will support drive to Minsk, Homyel and Kyiv, and clean Pripyat Marshes;
  • 2. Armee is going to advance through Ukrainian plains. The Southern part has to reach Romanian border and cut off the Soviet units at Hungarian border. The Northern part has to bypass Kyiv and reach Brjansk and open a road to Moskva.

1200 tactical bombers, 800 fighters, 400 multi-role fighters and 200 transport planes are going to support land units.

Two main problems:

  1. Supply. Because there are many heavy and super heavy tanks;
  2. South front. Because there are a lot of the Soviet divisions at Hungarian and Romanian border. They have to be cut off and eliminated before they could be re-deployed.

410622OOB.jpg


410622OOB2.jpg



Heeresgruppe Nord

410622Nord.jpg



Heeresgruppe Mitte

410622Mitte.jpg



Plan

As you may noticed, very obvious paths are plains.

410622Plan.jpg


410622Disposition.jpg


410622Disposition2.jpg
 
Last edited:
datupuki said:
have you considered initial encirclements? or straight blitzing?
Click to expand...

I am going to make some encirclements. I think I have no enough troops to exploit the gaps and the Soviets are able to cut off my supplies. I need to weaken them first before I could take lands between Leningrad - Moskva -Stalingrad - Baku. Some obvious pockets could be Lithuania, Hungarian border (East Little Poland) and some pockets between Minsk and Kyiv.

With Poland was an easy gamble as campaign was very short and all targets were close to a border. So even when my units were cut off they had enough supplies to finish their tasks.

Enewald said:
What of Romanian lines holding? :p
Click to expand...

I hope it will stay there for a while until I finish off East Little Poland pocket.
 
29 June 1941

Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) – The First Week


The Operation Barbarossa took the Soviets by surprise. The first battles were won within several hours.

410623Battles.jpg



On 25 June 1941, Lwow was taken and on 26 June 1941, Grodno surrendered.

Within 1 week Heeresgruppe Nord advanced about 40 kilometres and Heeresgruppe Mitte about 80 kilometres. As it was expected, due to better terrain the advance in the South is faster and the Soviets are in full retreat. However, the North group is struggling to cross Nemunas (Neman) so far.

410625Lwow.jpg


410629SU.jpg
 
Last edited:
6 July 1941

Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) – The Second Week

On 29 June 1941 almost after one week of fighting, the battle of Marijampole was won and at last German divisions crossed Nemunas River and attacked Kaunas. Five days later following another bloody battle, German divisions formed a bridgehead at Alytus.

410704Battles.jpg



Vanguard armoured divisions outflanked Kaunas and reached outskirts of Panevezys and Kaisiadorys. Their objectives are Riga and Vilnius.

Minsk offensive stalled, but several pockets were created and on 1 July 1941, following the bloodiest battle so far, Brest Litovsk was taken and Western Pripyat Marshes were secured.

410706NC.jpg



Leading armoured and mechanised divisions of Heeresgruppe Mitte reached Kyiv and almost reached Romanian border, putting the Soviet divisions in Little Poland at full encirclement risk. However, the Soviet divisions are already moving from Romanian border.

410706SU.jpg
 
Last edited:
This is a very entertaining and instructive AAR - and your inset maps on the screen shots both look great and convey the situation in detail. Thanks for the work of putting this together!

I am going to be very interested to see how your strategy of minimizing the number of units used works with respect to the supply model. Theoretically you should be better off in the SU since you have fewer units to supply than players taking a more traditional approach. You have not mentioned having any supply issues yet - could you please let us know if/when you encounter any supply issued during Barbarossa?

Thanks again for a great AAR!
 
Enewald said:
Faster, faster, faster!
Click to expand...

Those lazy Germans are picking up speed :D


Zenra said:
This is a very entertaining and instructive AAR - and your inset maps on the screen shots both look great and convey the situation in detail. Thanks for the work of putting this together!

I am going to be very interested to see how your strategy of minimizing the number of units used works with respect to the supply model. Theoretically you should be better off in the SU since you have fewer units to supply than players taking a more traditional approach. You have not mentioned having any supply issues yet - could you please let us know if/when you encounter any supply issued during Barbarossa?

Thanks again for a great AAR!
Click to expand...


Thank you Zenra for good words :)

So far I had supply issues only on the Spanish border, but that was fixed by sending supplies by sea.

In the Barbarossa campaign I have few units, but they are supply and fuel thirsty, especially those Tigers and Mauses.
 
13 July 1941

Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) – The Third Week

On 6 July 1941, the Battle of Kaunas was won. Heeresgruppe Nord moved deeper into Lithuania and subsequently into Latvia. Daugava River and Riga city were reached. The Soviet Units in western Lithuania were isolated.

On 11 July 1941, a pocket around Janow Poleski was eliminated with about 150.000 soviet prisoners.

410711Battles.jpg



By the end of the third week almost all soviet pockets in western Bielorussia were reduced with the only remaining at Poworsk.

The encirclement of Little Poland was completed by taking Horodenka and reaching Romanian border. However, sizeable enemy troops are trying to break through and there are no enough reserves to hold Horodenka indefinitely.

410713NC.jpg



Kyiv was surrounded and a vanguard armoured division is heading towards Brjansk. Skirmishes around Homyel are continuing and the Soviets are sending reinforcements.

410713SU.jpg
 
Last edited:
20 July 1941

Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) – The Fourth Week

On 14 July 1941, the Proworsk Pocket was reduced. About 40,000 were taken prisoners and the remaining 8,000 are still fighting but close to surrender.

On the same day, Kyiv garrison of 8,000 men surrendered without much fight.

The longest and bloodiest battle at Varena (Orany) has ended on 17 July 1941 almost 3 weeks after it commenced.

410717Battles.jpg



The Soviet Units in Western Lithuania are slowly pushed towards Memel. Several vanguard units crossed Daugava and trying to defend bridgeheads for further operations.

In Bielorussia the Soviets are retreating towards Minsk. Gomel (Homyel) was taken, but skirmishes are continuing around the city and more, and more soviets are arriving from Minsk region.

Unfortunately Horodenka was lost. Around 15-20 soviet divisions were able to escape from Little Poland. However, there are still many left and a counter-offensive commenced in order to re-take the city and close the gap.

410720NC.jpg



The vanguard armoured division took Brjansk and is going now to retreat and secure the right bank of Desna River.

The Soviets redeployed their divisions from Romanian border and intensified skirmishes in Central Ukraine. Further units are already crossing Dnepr River and heading towards the left bank of Desna River.

Because of the Soviets movements, following eliminations of pockets in Western Bielorussia, more reinforcements were sent to Kyiv and Central Ukraine.

410720SU.jpg
 
Last edited:
Enewald said:
That's not too bad, considering your army size...
Click to expand...

As you said before AI is a bit limited at defending Ukraine.

If I had more units, the fate of Moscow and probably the Soviets would have been sealed. The door to Moscow is wide open just there are no units to send there. Pushing to Odesa and Don River is also limited at the moment.


wuffer said:
+ 1 !

looks like pure brute force...- but it isn't! If you stand with this, you should really concentrate yourself on human opponents. :)
Click to expand...

After so much playing against AI I would be squashed against humans :D
 
frederik129 said:
is that SH armor picture standard? or did you put it in yourself?
Click to expand...

No, that is H armour picture :p But yes I put it myself because there was Russian tank instead, which I thought is not very appropriate :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back