I had originally thought calling this mini-ARR “The Bolsheviks Kick Ass” and planned to post it in the other thread “Playing Soviet Union and START decisions”. It was there that my debating with Pang Bingxun really was the seed for doing this AAR. But then I felt a fresh start would be better. And while Pang and I do debate a lot, I am grateful that he was the motivator for me to publish this piece – which I think will take 3 installments.
I have not played SU much, but over the past 3 years in this Forum learned many technical things (thanks to Pang and others!) that certainly have helped my current game play. And while what I present probably has been tried by others before, I would not recommend this to any player just getting the hang of the challenging game that AoD is. What is sure is that this may be the first time the idea has been presented as a mini-AAR in this Forum… and it does make for a very interesting and challenging game that is most unusual from the historic Barbarossa that occurred.
Actually I played this game from 1936 to early 1941 totally historic because I think it is only fair to the German AI. And all events beginning with Franco winning in Spain went completely historical. In fact, when Hitler DOWed me on June 22nd, 1941 he caught me with my pants down. That is how it should be because - true to history - Stalin firmly believed he could trust in the guarantees of the M-R pact at least until 1942. And while the Soviets in early 1941 were preparing for a future war best they could muster – the surprise of war when it came sooner was so total that Stalin – according to one claim - was so shocked that he hid himself away in his home for several days before returning and throwing himself into the war effort. I have tried to repeat that history in my game. Hope you will enjoy, and maybe even take on some of the unusual things which follow.
During the early months of 1941 the SU effort to upgrade its army has reached a feverish pitch. We used to have one hundred 1918-standard infantry but know the Wehrmacht is working on developing a new standard of INF-1941. If we can only get the 85 obsolete divisions on the Barbarossa line upgraded to 1939 standard that will be the best we can manage. We won’t worry about the other 15 obsolete infantry divisions facing Japan’s puppet of Manchukuo. But we also have obsolete Motorized Infantry, Lt ARM, interceptors, bombers of all sorts and HQs that just suck. We will NEVER get it all upgraded by ANY year!
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“But pray tell Commander, what is that 7th Vozdushno-Desantnay Division you just built?”
Commander666: “It’s a paratrooper… and it’s gonna save me from any future defeat by the Wehrmacht!”
“Oh really, that is a most expensive luxury counting transport aircraft - all of which is not needed for creating a good SU defensive line against Barbarossa. What other shit did you build?”
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Commander666: “Well, I actually built 3 Paratroopers with 4 TRA. And 3 Marines too.”
“Maybe the Marines might be helpful defending the Pripet Marshes… at an exorbitant cost since you also built transport ships for them! And why did you build NAVs… they’re not very good for air-to-air combat against the Luftwaffe?”
Commander666: “Well, we actually don’t have any more Superior Tacticians for running more INT or FTR instead. Those NAVs are part of a package that includes the Marines and – you’ll note – the 18 new transport flotillas and extra submarines.”
“Yah , I see that… and the total icd cost of your ‘package’ must be worth many lines of new INF-1939… which, BTW, you are building only three lines of. Have you gone nuts, or you just don’t know how to play as the Soviet Union?”
Commander666: “Well, I’m not totally wacko (I think) and I did play some SU on earlier versions. It’s just that I have a plan against the Wehrmacht… if they ever attack me.”
“Oh! Attack you they will… you can count on it!!”
=====================================================
When war erupts on June 22nd, the Wehrmacht catches me with my pants down. All my infantry and armor are on Logistics leaders. Worse, any new units built since we annexed the Baltic States back in August 1940 – when we turned off Military Salaries – are missing very much ORG. Frantically I scramble to attempt to get on Defensive Specialists. On the front line where there is GAR, the GAR can take the ORG loss doing the leader change for the whole stack. But adding better skill leaders to make smaller corps means that any sub-stack formed gets a considerable ORG hit – unless it can move out of the line so only one unit takes the leader change ORG hit. That seems too risky. Besides, the new leaders aren’t arriving for a week anyway. So, the only good leaders we have on any stacks are the 3 stacks of reserve MOTs who always were on Offensive Logistics experts. Well, it is something – except all the MOTs are obsolete MOT-1s…. and several with much missing ORG. Oh, what a calamity! That deceitful Hitler and his lying mouth-organ Ribbentrop!
But the concept of leaving Stryl unguarded to be a death trap for the Wehrmacht works well even if leaders are not the way I would wish them to be!
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Commander666: “Look see – there’s the start of my plan. I left Stryj empty so we can turn it into a ‘killing ground’ as the Axis try to enter it.”
“Yah, you having given up ground early is recommended in your special (dumb) case. You better click ‘Yes’ on those two events to transfer your industry inland!”
Commander666: “No way! I’m gonna win this war… you’ll see”.
==========================================================
Actually, all our really good Offensive Doctrine leaders who are Generals have been put on the 12 corps of INF, CAV, MTN and a few MOTs up in Lapland (36 divisions)… where we begin our unorthodox response to Barbarossa with an all out attack on Finland by additionally using the 3 Marines and 4 extra INF transported by those many TPs (with DD-3 escorts) to simultaneously amphib all of the Finnish coastline. That action – starting June 30th – is protected by 18 submarine flotillas, those 4 unusual NAVs, and our two decrepit BB-1s.
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And on the same date - on the German Front – having now changed leaders as regards the bigger stacks, we begin the “Battle of Suwalki”.
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But the Wehrmacht is making serious “probes in strength” of our whole Central Line; and flanking attacks on some of our divisions contributing to the action at Suwalki. However, down at Stryj they have still failed to get firmly established in that province due to the fantastic success of the “killing field” we set up there which is easily picking off the different enemy corps as they arrive piecemeal.
Finland succumbs quickly; and on July 4th the score is: Bolsheviks one Axis member eliminated; Wehrmacht has captured Stryj (was empty) but cannot really establish themselves there.
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So far the Kriegsmarine has not interfered in the Baltic. Maybe they are afraid of our NAVs because their fleets can’t be in great shape knowing the losses that have occurred in the Battle of the Atlantic. Let’s hope it stays that way so we can quickly transport safely our army in Finland across the Baltic to assist our next effort on the German front.
But, in the meantime, the “Battle of Suwalki” turns into “a battle from Hell” after all German defenders except 4 remaining GAR are retreated. Those GAR are stuck there on “Victory or Valhalla” and we can only pray to end the nightmare sooner by switching to ground attack on the GAR with our remaining air force (the Luftwaffe also being part of this game). Technically our paratroopers of the 1st Airborne have landed in Suwalki but they cannot get control of the province because about 30 Axis divisions in surrounding Königsberg, Torun and Lomza are “attacking” into Suwalki trying to avoid control of the province changing. And so – as there is still a battle going – control will not change until the battle ends. Hence our several stacks of ground forces also attacking towards Suwalki actually have to attack the 30 or so enemy divisions in the adjacent provinces. This is resulting in full stacks of our army units losing so much ORG that they start retreating! And sometimes the Wehrmacht is flanking our attackers up in Alytus and down in Bielsk costing us huge combat reductions. In short, we don’t know if we are winning this; or will so deplete ourselves that the Wehrmacht will succeed to re-enter Suwalki in strength… and then push thru our defensive line because all our units here are on the brink of collapse. The battle has been raging for 3 weeks now. And not finding time to deal with techs is a classic sign of “human player struggling against strong AI and/or too much action everywhere.”
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We take matters into our own hands; and using the forces that were in Finland (including the 3 Marines) open up a new “Battle of Memel” with the hope of winning that quickly to then so stop the Wehrmacht forces in Königsberg from contributing against our attack on Suwalki. The plan has some hope of working because, fortunately, there is no German GAR in Memel. We commit the 2nd Airborne to join the fight.
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But back at the center of our front, by now we are experiencing mass retreats with the few spare CAV and stacks of reserve MOTs running back and forth attempting to avert a Wehrmacht win of any one of the different provinces there which the German AI is all smartly targeting.
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And worse, the Axis finally manage to get so much strength into Stryj that we will have to stop our attack there; and admit that – not only does the Wehrmacht control Stryj – but our whole southern front may collapse if we over deplete ourselves in this sector.
“I told you, Commander, stop playing stupid. You should have put on Defensive Leaders at start instead of your nil-wily brainstorm about some ‘Wehrmacht Killing Field’. So now you are stuck with Offensive leaders trying to defend from the Wehrmacht breaking thru and racing to Moscow. And your one paratrooper in Vinnitsa is your ‘Defense in Depth’? What a joke!”
Commander666: “I built up the infrastructure on all of the front line (except for swamps) so I can quickly shuttle my MOTs to any new attack in my Center where the Wehrmacht would otherwise break thru. I’ll win this… you wait and see. Damn, another tech to deal with!”
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I keep on using those southern stacks with Offensive Specialists to bruise the Axis in Stryj.
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But the day arrives when I must admit I am just banging my head against an ever hardening rock, and I stop the attack against Stryj. Well, we gave more than we took. But I pray their ORG is in as bad a shape as mine! However the “Battles of Hell” – now two (Suwalki and Memel) - just don’t end. Meanwhile more Bolshevik stacks get retreated from my center. This is getting worrisome.
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I console myself with the delightful progress my six MTN divisions have made in Norway. A TP out of Murmansk is feeding in GAR and the occasional new CAV and MOT as they are constructed. But then the Wehrmacht starts getting serious about coming thru Lvov.
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“Has nobody – not even Pang – ever told you, Commander, that Norway is worthless? You should be putting your newly constructed units in Moscow… and not Norway! How dumb can you get? Your frontline forces are probably on the verge of ORG collapse, you have no defense behind the frontline… and you probably have also gravely misjudged not just the Wehrmacht but also the AI. Praying for you is past hope!”
Comander666: “Hey, I’m doing OK. The Wehrmacht hasn’t broken thru… yet.”
Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe does all it can to avoid me winning either the Battle of Suwalki or the Battle of Memel… but superior Soviet air tactics (and setting missions as low as 25% so the aircraft will even take off) keeps some of our bombers flying. Desperate times need desperate measures!
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However, the retreats I am suffering in all of the center section become more frequent; and the MOTs are hard pushed to shore up each gap nearly forming. If I could just win at Memel?
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We do win at Memel on August 1st. I don’t care about kill ratios anymore! WE WON! Now if we can only get attacking that enemy in Königsberg so we can win at Suwalki; and then get the bulk of our forces thru that gap. But the lone para landed at Memel takes the full wrath of the Germans, and must last until the Marines can reinforce him. This is not won yet.
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With the loss of Memel the Kriegsmarine gets more interested in what’s happening in the Baltic. Well, we need to show them how fierce the Soviet navy is. But how did that DD-1 get thru our two wolf packs of SS-3 and SS-4 that are supposed to be sealing off the Baltic at Kalmar Sound and Courland Lagoon west of here? Guess we better hurriedly get some of our DD-3s there commanded by Rear Admirals who are Spotters because - if the Bismarck or Tirpitz comes – we better know about it early!
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As soon as we can, we start the attack on Königsberg in hopes of winning at Suwalki. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The plan was to win at Suwalki first and then attack Königsberg from 6 directions including amphibious and airborne assaults. Oh well, the AI is resisting splendidly.
But Königsberg is a hard nut to crack. And the “Battle of Hell” at Suwalki never ends! However, the Wehrmacht is getting ever better at nearly busting thru our centre section now attacking the CAV in Bielsk who are weak from fighting towards Suwalki.
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The above screen (Supply Map Mode) has some brown sea zones including near Leningrad. Those places are where we lost some convoys trading to UK (Brown line). Of course, the fact that we can trade at all via this route thru the German Kiel Canal (or the closed Kattegat Straits) is nuts.
But really frustrating is that we can’t set up any new trades to anybody overseas at all. While the trades made before our war with Germany still exist at 100% trade value while running through enemy controlled waterways, we are “blocked” from setting up any new overseas trade. By rights the trades using the Baltic should have been cancelled; or changed to different port. It would be really nice if Murmansk was available for trading to UK and USA; and Vladivostok for trading to eastern nations. Later trading with Japan will see those convoys circumnavigate most of the globe to trade what could be a short distance from eastern Russia to Japan. What? I’m being a Bolshevik by trading to the Japanese while I trade with the Allies? Hey, it’s war… and we have a lot of excess resources!
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Up in Norway we decide to speed our conquest there by having a MTN amphib Ålesund. Oh no! The Kriegsmarine just got interested in this area too!
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Scratch one mountain division. The DD-1 scout – who failed at his job to screen the amphibious assault - takes evasive action and heads for the most distant sea zone he can reach – hopefully in the Arctic! Hey, but I finally got that tech taken care off.
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Ever more convoy losses! Why doesn’t my AI put some escorts on that deadly route? Wish I had control of that!
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Back at the “Battle of Suwalki”, we finally get it down to only four GAR left in that province. But we are still fighting all the other Germans in Torun and Lomza; and any in Königsberg who are headed towards Suwalki. What more can we do except try to just kill those GAR asap using round-the-clock aerial ground attack? For the Battle of Königsberg, the 2nd Airborne is fit enough to jump again while the Marines, led by a general who is an Offensive Commando, go into their 3rd action of the war.
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Seemingly not making any progress at either Königsberg or Suwalki – but with the Wehrmacht biting our tails at the center of the Front – our alternate-thinking Supreme Commander decides a diversion is needed…. and orders raids of the air base at Danzig and perhaps the resources stockpiled in Berlin. That should get the Wehrmacht’s attention. Why is the Kriegsmarine interested again? We don’t want them in the Baltic. To limit our possible losses we decide only one CAV will go to Danzig and a lone INF to Berlin.
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Meanwhile, up in Norway, Soviet forces - angered by the loss of a whole division - dream up enthusiastic retaliatory action. A scout destroyer is positioning himself to assure there are no unknown Germans sneaking thru Sweden to attack our single GAR blocking the entrances to Finland.
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But at Lvov the Soviet situation deteriorates from “serious” to “downright critical". Desperately defending the frontline there was NOT why I placed the 3rd Airborne in this sector. What is going wrong?
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“Uhm, Commander, maybe you should go back to 1936… and try a different build scheme?”
Commander666: “No way, this will work!”
At the “Battle from Hell” we get it down to only three German GAR remaining.
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But we have only one in Lvov! It’s also on “Victory or Valhalla”. And any even slightly re-ORGed units finishing their retreats are immediately missioned back again towards Lvov to forestall an impending disaster.
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However, our “raids” on Danzig and Berlin are going in nicely. But new Germans have now appeared in Elbing. That might make landing at unoccupied Danzig rather risky. And we sure are hoping that is just a GAR sitting there at Rostock. What fun it will be to zip past him and steal much of Germany’s resources since we are quite low on oil ourselves having mightily traded so much of it to Hitler in the previous years.
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“I recommend that you, Commander, not only take the basic AoD course to learn good build schemes, but also attend their special classes for dummies to include things like ‘what not to trade’. You really are making a mess of this alternate strategy game. Keep going and it should be a short war – for the Wehrmacht; not you.”
Commander666: “Oops, just one GAR hanging onto Lvov by the skin of his remaining strength. There has to be a saviour here! Please, oh please Lord, don’t let me lose Lvov!”
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Commander666: “No! This can’t be happening! Why did my reinforcements not get there sooner? Field Marshal Egorov – hurry it up or we will have lost Lvov!”
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(To be continued in due time)
I have not played SU much, but over the past 3 years in this Forum learned many technical things (thanks to Pang and others!) that certainly have helped my current game play. And while what I present probably has been tried by others before, I would not recommend this to any player just getting the hang of the challenging game that AoD is. What is sure is that this may be the first time the idea has been presented as a mini-AAR in this Forum… and it does make for a very interesting and challenging game that is most unusual from the historic Barbarossa that occurred.
Actually I played this game from 1936 to early 1941 totally historic because I think it is only fair to the German AI. And all events beginning with Franco winning in Spain went completely historical. In fact, when Hitler DOWed me on June 22nd, 1941 he caught me with my pants down. That is how it should be because - true to history - Stalin firmly believed he could trust in the guarantees of the M-R pact at least until 1942. And while the Soviets in early 1941 were preparing for a future war best they could muster – the surprise of war when it came sooner was so total that Stalin – according to one claim - was so shocked that he hid himself away in his home for several days before returning and throwing himself into the war effort. I have tried to repeat that history in my game. Hope you will enjoy, and maybe even take on some of the unusual things which follow.
During the early months of 1941 the SU effort to upgrade its army has reached a feverish pitch. We used to have one hundred 1918-standard infantry but know the Wehrmacht is working on developing a new standard of INF-1941. If we can only get the 85 obsolete divisions on the Barbarossa line upgraded to 1939 standard that will be the best we can manage. We won’t worry about the other 15 obsolete infantry divisions facing Japan’s puppet of Manchukuo. But we also have obsolete Motorized Infantry, Lt ARM, interceptors, bombers of all sorts and HQs that just suck. We will NEVER get it all upgraded by ANY year!
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“But pray tell Commander, what is that 7th Vozdushno-Desantnay Division you just built?”
Commander666: “It’s a paratrooper… and it’s gonna save me from any future defeat by the Wehrmacht!”
“Oh really, that is a most expensive luxury counting transport aircraft - all of which is not needed for creating a good SU defensive line against Barbarossa. What other shit did you build?”
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Commander666: “Well, I actually built 3 Paratroopers with 4 TRA. And 3 Marines too.”
“Maybe the Marines might be helpful defending the Pripet Marshes… at an exorbitant cost since you also built transport ships for them! And why did you build NAVs… they’re not very good for air-to-air combat against the Luftwaffe?”
Commander666: “Well, we actually don’t have any more Superior Tacticians for running more INT or FTR instead. Those NAVs are part of a package that includes the Marines and – you’ll note – the 18 new transport flotillas and extra submarines.”
“Yah , I see that… and the total icd cost of your ‘package’ must be worth many lines of new INF-1939… which, BTW, you are building only three lines of. Have you gone nuts, or you just don’t know how to play as the Soviet Union?”
Commander666: “Well, I’m not totally wacko (I think) and I did play some SU on earlier versions. It’s just that I have a plan against the Wehrmacht… if they ever attack me.”
“Oh! Attack you they will… you can count on it!!”
=====================================================
When war erupts on June 22nd, the Wehrmacht catches me with my pants down. All my infantry and armor are on Logistics leaders. Worse, any new units built since we annexed the Baltic States back in August 1940 – when we turned off Military Salaries – are missing very much ORG. Frantically I scramble to attempt to get on Defensive Specialists. On the front line where there is GAR, the GAR can take the ORG loss doing the leader change for the whole stack. But adding better skill leaders to make smaller corps means that any sub-stack formed gets a considerable ORG hit – unless it can move out of the line so only one unit takes the leader change ORG hit. That seems too risky. Besides, the new leaders aren’t arriving for a week anyway. So, the only good leaders we have on any stacks are the 3 stacks of reserve MOTs who always were on Offensive Logistics experts. Well, it is something – except all the MOTs are obsolete MOT-1s…. and several with much missing ORG. Oh, what a calamity! That deceitful Hitler and his lying mouth-organ Ribbentrop!
But the concept of leaving Stryl unguarded to be a death trap for the Wehrmacht works well even if leaders are not the way I would wish them to be!
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Commander666: “Look see – there’s the start of my plan. I left Stryj empty so we can turn it into a ‘killing ground’ as the Axis try to enter it.”
“Yah, you having given up ground early is recommended in your special (dumb) case. You better click ‘Yes’ on those two events to transfer your industry inland!”
Commander666: “No way! I’m gonna win this war… you’ll see”.
==========================================================
Actually, all our really good Offensive Doctrine leaders who are Generals have been put on the 12 corps of INF, CAV, MTN and a few MOTs up in Lapland (36 divisions)… where we begin our unorthodox response to Barbarossa with an all out attack on Finland by additionally using the 3 Marines and 4 extra INF transported by those many TPs (with DD-3 escorts) to simultaneously amphib all of the Finnish coastline. That action – starting June 30th – is protected by 18 submarine flotillas, those 4 unusual NAVs, and our two decrepit BB-1s.
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And on the same date - on the German Front – having now changed leaders as regards the bigger stacks, we begin the “Battle of Suwalki”.
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But the Wehrmacht is making serious “probes in strength” of our whole Central Line; and flanking attacks on some of our divisions contributing to the action at Suwalki. However, down at Stryj they have still failed to get firmly established in that province due to the fantastic success of the “killing field” we set up there which is easily picking off the different enemy corps as they arrive piecemeal.
Finland succumbs quickly; and on July 4th the score is: Bolsheviks one Axis member eliminated; Wehrmacht has captured Stryj (was empty) but cannot really establish themselves there.
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So far the Kriegsmarine has not interfered in the Baltic. Maybe they are afraid of our NAVs because their fleets can’t be in great shape knowing the losses that have occurred in the Battle of the Atlantic. Let’s hope it stays that way so we can quickly transport safely our army in Finland across the Baltic to assist our next effort on the German front.
But, in the meantime, the “Battle of Suwalki” turns into “a battle from Hell” after all German defenders except 4 remaining GAR are retreated. Those GAR are stuck there on “Victory or Valhalla” and we can only pray to end the nightmare sooner by switching to ground attack on the GAR with our remaining air force (the Luftwaffe also being part of this game). Technically our paratroopers of the 1st Airborne have landed in Suwalki but they cannot get control of the province because about 30 Axis divisions in surrounding Königsberg, Torun and Lomza are “attacking” into Suwalki trying to avoid control of the province changing. And so – as there is still a battle going – control will not change until the battle ends. Hence our several stacks of ground forces also attacking towards Suwalki actually have to attack the 30 or so enemy divisions in the adjacent provinces. This is resulting in full stacks of our army units losing so much ORG that they start retreating! And sometimes the Wehrmacht is flanking our attackers up in Alytus and down in Bielsk costing us huge combat reductions. In short, we don’t know if we are winning this; or will so deplete ourselves that the Wehrmacht will succeed to re-enter Suwalki in strength… and then push thru our defensive line because all our units here are on the brink of collapse. The battle has been raging for 3 weeks now. And not finding time to deal with techs is a classic sign of “human player struggling against strong AI and/or too much action everywhere.”
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We take matters into our own hands; and using the forces that were in Finland (including the 3 Marines) open up a new “Battle of Memel” with the hope of winning that quickly to then so stop the Wehrmacht forces in Königsberg from contributing against our attack on Suwalki. The plan has some hope of working because, fortunately, there is no German GAR in Memel. We commit the 2nd Airborne to join the fight.
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But back at the center of our front, by now we are experiencing mass retreats with the few spare CAV and stacks of reserve MOTs running back and forth attempting to avert a Wehrmacht win of any one of the different provinces there which the German AI is all smartly targeting.
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And worse, the Axis finally manage to get so much strength into Stryj that we will have to stop our attack there; and admit that – not only does the Wehrmacht control Stryj – but our whole southern front may collapse if we over deplete ourselves in this sector.
“I told you, Commander, stop playing stupid. You should have put on Defensive Leaders at start instead of your nil-wily brainstorm about some ‘Wehrmacht Killing Field’. So now you are stuck with Offensive leaders trying to defend from the Wehrmacht breaking thru and racing to Moscow. And your one paratrooper in Vinnitsa is your ‘Defense in Depth’? What a joke!”
Commander666: “I built up the infrastructure on all of the front line (except for swamps) so I can quickly shuttle my MOTs to any new attack in my Center where the Wehrmacht would otherwise break thru. I’ll win this… you wait and see. Damn, another tech to deal with!”
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I keep on using those southern stacks with Offensive Specialists to bruise the Axis in Stryj.
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But the day arrives when I must admit I am just banging my head against an ever hardening rock, and I stop the attack against Stryj. Well, we gave more than we took. But I pray their ORG is in as bad a shape as mine! However the “Battles of Hell” – now two (Suwalki and Memel) - just don’t end. Meanwhile more Bolshevik stacks get retreated from my center. This is getting worrisome.
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I console myself with the delightful progress my six MTN divisions have made in Norway. A TP out of Murmansk is feeding in GAR and the occasional new CAV and MOT as they are constructed. But then the Wehrmacht starts getting serious about coming thru Lvov.
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“Has nobody – not even Pang – ever told you, Commander, that Norway is worthless? You should be putting your newly constructed units in Moscow… and not Norway! How dumb can you get? Your frontline forces are probably on the verge of ORG collapse, you have no defense behind the frontline… and you probably have also gravely misjudged not just the Wehrmacht but also the AI. Praying for you is past hope!”
Comander666: “Hey, I’m doing OK. The Wehrmacht hasn’t broken thru… yet.”
Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe does all it can to avoid me winning either the Battle of Suwalki or the Battle of Memel… but superior Soviet air tactics (and setting missions as low as 25% so the aircraft will even take off) keeps some of our bombers flying. Desperate times need desperate measures!
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However, the retreats I am suffering in all of the center section become more frequent; and the MOTs are hard pushed to shore up each gap nearly forming. If I could just win at Memel?
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We do win at Memel on August 1st. I don’t care about kill ratios anymore! WE WON! Now if we can only get attacking that enemy in Königsberg so we can win at Suwalki; and then get the bulk of our forces thru that gap. But the lone para landed at Memel takes the full wrath of the Germans, and must last until the Marines can reinforce him. This is not won yet.
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With the loss of Memel the Kriegsmarine gets more interested in what’s happening in the Baltic. Well, we need to show them how fierce the Soviet navy is. But how did that DD-1 get thru our two wolf packs of SS-3 and SS-4 that are supposed to be sealing off the Baltic at Kalmar Sound and Courland Lagoon west of here? Guess we better hurriedly get some of our DD-3s there commanded by Rear Admirals who are Spotters because - if the Bismarck or Tirpitz comes – we better know about it early!
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As soon as we can, we start the attack on Königsberg in hopes of winning at Suwalki. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The plan was to win at Suwalki first and then attack Königsberg from 6 directions including amphibious and airborne assaults. Oh well, the AI is resisting splendidly.
But Königsberg is a hard nut to crack. And the “Battle of Hell” at Suwalki never ends! However, the Wehrmacht is getting ever better at nearly busting thru our centre section now attacking the CAV in Bielsk who are weak from fighting towards Suwalki.
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The above screen (Supply Map Mode) has some brown sea zones including near Leningrad. Those places are where we lost some convoys trading to UK (Brown line). Of course, the fact that we can trade at all via this route thru the German Kiel Canal (or the closed Kattegat Straits) is nuts.
But really frustrating is that we can’t set up any new trades to anybody overseas at all. While the trades made before our war with Germany still exist at 100% trade value while running through enemy controlled waterways, we are “blocked” from setting up any new overseas trade. By rights the trades using the Baltic should have been cancelled; or changed to different port. It would be really nice if Murmansk was available for trading to UK and USA; and Vladivostok for trading to eastern nations. Later trading with Japan will see those convoys circumnavigate most of the globe to trade what could be a short distance from eastern Russia to Japan. What? I’m being a Bolshevik by trading to the Japanese while I trade with the Allies? Hey, it’s war… and we have a lot of excess resources!
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Up in Norway we decide to speed our conquest there by having a MTN amphib Ålesund. Oh no! The Kriegsmarine just got interested in this area too!
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Scratch one mountain division. The DD-1 scout – who failed at his job to screen the amphibious assault - takes evasive action and heads for the most distant sea zone he can reach – hopefully in the Arctic! Hey, but I finally got that tech taken care off.
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Ever more convoy losses! Why doesn’t my AI put some escorts on that deadly route? Wish I had control of that!
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Back at the “Battle of Suwalki”, we finally get it down to only four GAR left in that province. But we are still fighting all the other Germans in Torun and Lomza; and any in Königsberg who are headed towards Suwalki. What more can we do except try to just kill those GAR asap using round-the-clock aerial ground attack? For the Battle of Königsberg, the 2nd Airborne is fit enough to jump again while the Marines, led by a general who is an Offensive Commando, go into their 3rd action of the war.
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Seemingly not making any progress at either Königsberg or Suwalki – but with the Wehrmacht biting our tails at the center of the Front – our alternate-thinking Supreme Commander decides a diversion is needed…. and orders raids of the air base at Danzig and perhaps the resources stockpiled in Berlin. That should get the Wehrmacht’s attention. Why is the Kriegsmarine interested again? We don’t want them in the Baltic. To limit our possible losses we decide only one CAV will go to Danzig and a lone INF to Berlin.
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Meanwhile, up in Norway, Soviet forces - angered by the loss of a whole division - dream up enthusiastic retaliatory action. A scout destroyer is positioning himself to assure there are no unknown Germans sneaking thru Sweden to attack our single GAR blocking the entrances to Finland.
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But at Lvov the Soviet situation deteriorates from “serious” to “downright critical". Desperately defending the frontline there was NOT why I placed the 3rd Airborne in this sector. What is going wrong?
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“Uhm, Commander, maybe you should go back to 1936… and try a different build scheme?”
Commander666: “No way, this will work!”
At the “Battle from Hell” we get it down to only three German GAR remaining.
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But we have only one in Lvov! It’s also on “Victory or Valhalla”. And any even slightly re-ORGed units finishing their retreats are immediately missioned back again towards Lvov to forestall an impending disaster.
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However, our “raids” on Danzig and Berlin are going in nicely. But new Germans have now appeared in Elbing. That might make landing at unoccupied Danzig rather risky. And we sure are hoping that is just a GAR sitting there at Rostock. What fun it will be to zip past him and steal much of Germany’s resources since we are quite low on oil ourselves having mightily traded so much of it to Hitler in the previous years.
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“I recommend that you, Commander, not only take the basic AoD course to learn good build schemes, but also attend their special classes for dummies to include things like ‘what not to trade’. You really are making a mess of this alternate strategy game. Keep going and it should be a short war – for the Wehrmacht; not you.”
Commander666: “Oops, just one GAR hanging onto Lvov by the skin of his remaining strength. There has to be a saviour here! Please, oh please Lord, don’t let me lose Lvov!”
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Commander666: “No! This can’t be happening! Why did my reinforcements not get there sooner? Field Marshal Egorov – hurry it up or we will have lost Lvov!”
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(To be continued in due time)
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