Who said Nazis can't have nukes? - German Reich TFH HPP AAR

[guillec87]

Glad you are back, and that you have a computer again... two questions:

1) how in Odin's name did you do to have about 3700 mp?
2) are you going to liberate as puppets all those lands and countries you have annexed (those who come from the British Empire I mean)?

 

[SKOTy]

can we see what the map looks like now?

Sure if I somehow manage to take Word screenshot with steam version.

Glad you are back, and that you have a computer again... two questions:

1) how in Odin's name did you do to have about 3700 mp?
2) are you going to liberate as puppets all those lands and countries you have annexed (those who come from the British Empire I mean)?

1. Looking at my forces ready for Barbarossa (which consists basically of entire Heer) I have 110 divisions of which 30 are panzers. All these divisions have 2 combat brigades and one support brigade. Apart from these I have only some port guards and special forces (12 binary divisions).
I would say that my armies are way smaller than other players (in most of other German AARs players have usually entire corps for each province bordering SU and their divisions look like 3x INF + one support brigade) and this is the reason for my huge manpower.

2. I will definitely release Yemen and Transjordan. I will also trade northern Ireland for Irish allegiance.

 

[SKOTy]

14. Preparations for Barbarossa

USA decided to restore the Allies, looks like fun with allies isn't over.

Part of British empire downfall event chain in HPP. Ireland becomes puppet of Germany in exchange for northern Ireland.

Germans decide to trade some piece of desert in south Africa for peace with South Africa.

Peace has entered the Reich.

Only few nations in Europe remains out of Axis, they will be persuaded to join the Axis after, hopefully, successful operation Barbarossa.



The Battle plan

Plan for army group North:
Pressure will be immediately developed on Riga thus encircling around 10 Soviet divisions including one heavy armor brigade. Riga itself will be assaulted by marines and all operations will be supported by coastal bombardment from 2nd Kriegsmarineflottille consisting of 4 battleships (Bismark, Tirpitz, Grosdeutschland and Ludendorff).
This operation will be supported by one panzer corps.
Further plans for Heersgruppe Nord will be developed on results of this operation.

Plans for Heersgruppe Mitte:
Army group center orders are nothing less than utter annihilation of Soviet forces present there. Attack will be launched from two sides and thus effectively encircling whole Soviet forces (red arrows). An optional attack may be launched (yellow arrow) to relief pressure on Hungarians and forming another pocket in process.
Total of 25 armored divisions will be used for this: 10 will attack from north and 15 will be attacking from south.

Following weaknesses of the plan must be overcome:

In the north river crossing must be executed. For this reason ground bombardment will immediately start in provinces of Zelva and Novgorodek. Province with less defenders will be chosen for river crossing, preferably Novgorodek as it has airfield.

Another weakness of the plan is river on border with Soviet union, after river crossing is completed tanks will ride towards Krasne and Brody effectively bypassing another river. Massive air support will be provided.


Total units prepared for operation Barbarossa:

• 80 infantry divisions
• 30 panzer divisions
• 16 (binary) marine divisions
• 9 interceptor air groups
• 2 close air support air groups
• 5 tactical air groups
• 2nd Kriegsmarineflottille

Another medium bomber air wing (TAC) and entire panzer corps are nearing completion. Bombers will surely be used on the front while panzers will be deployed depending on how well offensive goes.

 

[SSmith]

The British certainly paid the price for their attempts to defend Gibraltar. Now it looks like you are right on target for Barbarossa and it will be interesting to see how that develops with what appears to be quite a light army build. How are you finding the 2+1 format of your divisions? When I played Yugoslavia I tried the same approach because I knew I was going to need to cover a lot of frontage but the detrimental effect on their performance of cutting a combat brigade seemed quite marked.

 

[SKOTy]

I've played till 15th of May 1941 when all my forces are mobilized again and I am completely prepared for Barbarossa I will probably unleash today at the evening.

I find 2+1 divisions fairly effective and I like them more than 3+1 as it provides me more flexibility as I have more divisions slightly less powerful, also in vanilla my INF divisions consist only of 2x INF and 1xART and 1xAA even with superior firepower researched.
I feel I don't need any extra divisions as they would cause supply problems and I feel pretty comfortable about handling Barbarossa even with army this large/small. Multiplayer game would be totally different cup of tea as in this game I've spent many ICdays on building stuff like nuclear research lab and rocket test site.

 

[TheBromgrev]

Now the real show begins Your 2+1 divisions seemed to work well so far, but I wonder how well they'll do against the Russian Steamroller? I always play with AI control of my army groups, and even I have trouble against the USSR using 3+1 divisions. Good luck!

 

[guillec87]

things are ready to awake the Soviet Juggernaut

 

[SKOTy]

15. Operation Barbarossa, part 1
16th May - 26th May

16th May 1941 at 4:00 it was decided, it's time for attack the Soviet union, all forces are once again fully mobilized and ready to crush the Bolsheviks.

The southmost breakthrough will be achieved via province of Bilgoraj as it's defended only lone infantry division.

Additional attacks have been launched on poorly defended provinces to put pressure on the forming pocket. Hopefully Georgij Zhukov will be also trapped in the pocket.

Assault on Riga has begun and it was discovered that Riga is left completely undefended so German marines quickly took possession of it.

During amphibious invasion in Riga 2nd Kriegsmarineflottille and transports have been attacked by Soviet fleet, this minor naval clash has resulted in Soviet battleship Parizhskaya Komunna and light cruiser Krasnaya Ukraina being sunk.

Assault of another crucial point has begun, from the start of war bombs have been falling on Novgorodek and its defenders were quickly overrun. River crossing has been secured and airfield has been denied from Soviets.

North pocket has been closed and series of attack have started to shatter it. My estimate is that 9 or 10 divisions have been trapped there.

Finland offer an alliance which I agree to. However they're still aligning towards allies and Soviets are influencing them so I can't invite them to faction.

Another naval battle with outdated Soviet fleet. During encounter German heavy cruiser KMS Seydlitz has been sunk while Soviets lost their pride of the fleet battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya alongside with another battleship Marat and one transport and destroyer flotilla.

Progress which German panzer made starts to being visible.

Germans have total air superiority and all bombers are flying continuously to deliver steady supply of bombs to Soviets.

First two Soviet divisions are trapped in a minor encirclement.

And first two Soviets divisions are destroyed...

Local superiority of German forces is visible in the South so attacks have been launched on an additional axis (yellow arrow) in order to create another pocket.

Stanislavov is last province which connects south pocket and is already attacked by Hungarians.

Central pocket is closed. Soviets immediately launch counterattacks which are successfully repelled.

Stanislavov falls into hands of Germans and southern pocket is created while Romanians are doing surprisingly well against Soviets.

State of central pocket. Another Soviet division behind the pocket is going to be encircled and trampled by German panzers.

Northern pocket is about to fall.

That causality ratios are really satisfying but some of them are looking ridiculous. 95 dead Germans versus over 2800 Soviet defenders dead?



This update ends with three pockets being created and ready to be shattered. Apart from counterattacks after central pocket has been created Soviet did not show initiative and all momentum was in German hands.

In my estimation around 10 divisions are trapped in north pocket, 30-40 in central one and 20-25 in southern pocket. Soviets trapped in central pocket represent all defenders of that part of front.

 

[guillec87]

niceeee... but don't forget that the Red Army, like many lower organisms, has the surprisingly ability to restore itself in a moment

 

[Belgiumruler]

For to Sowjet Union! For the Motherland! Urgh, why are they loosing? n00bs

 

[SKOTy]

16. Operation Barbarossa, part 2
26th May - 8th June 1941

According to this counter attack it looks like Soviet forces in central pocket are starting running out of supplies.

Last Soviet division in north pocket is about to shatter and being taken as prisoners of war.

Even with transport planes flying with supplies and relatively small amount of forces present on the front Germans are experiencing supply shortages.

New plan has been created for northern part of front. Tanks will ride through Madona towards Pskov while marines will quickly take possession of port Narva. Tricky part of this plan is securing province Madona as river crossing must be executed.
If this operation succeeds all defenders of Estonia will be cut of (5 divisions?)

Central pocket has been broken into two smaller to ease its destruction.

Meanwhile in south pocket: Battle for Lwów has been won with assistance of Hungarians.

Another victory in effort to shatter south pocket.

South pocket will be soon reduced to one province.

Narva has been seized by German marines. However efforts on taking Madona are proved to be unsuccessful and whole operation has slowed down.

Last stand of defenders of south pocket. It's collapse is inevitable and is only matter of time.

It's time to extend the front. German marines assaulted port of Mykolaiv and hopefully they will cut off some Soviets fighting with Romanians.

One of the central pockets is now reduced into one province and there's nothing that can save Soviets trapped there.

Breakthrough in Madona has not yet been achieved.

Another 5 Soviet divisions have been trapped and encircled by German panzers.

Last battle for north pocket. Over 250,000 Soviets have been taken as prisoners of war.

And in few hours central pocket will be destroyed too...

Situation of front 8th June 1941. All pockets are destroyed and Soviet resistance crushed, also notice Romanian breakthrough in last screenshot. If Romanians manage to meet up with German marines another 7-10 Soviet divisions will be trapped there.

Now I have to come with plan how to destroy Soviets north of Pripyat marshes as this is only part of front where Soviets did not felt strength of Wehrmacht. If these forces are destroyed road to Moscow is free.

 

[SSmith]

It looks like your divisions are well up to the task even if they are lighter than usual. From the figures you've given I reckon you have probably destroyed about a third of the Red Army by now? I will be making a few adjustments to the Soviet AI for the next version and hopefully I can make it at least a little bit harder for you. Have you ever tried this using the military AI?

 

[SKOTy]

Apart from few Soviet divisions fighting with Romanians and army north of Pripyat marshes nearly everything with Soviet flag was destroyed. I don't know how many divisions have Soviets in reserve sitting somewhere behind the front but it looks like there aren't many as tanks driving in plains south of marshes have encountered zero resistance.
I am looking forward adjustments but I won't play Germany for a while, my next games will probably SU with attack on allies after war and/or Japan. I will probably make AAR of these too.

I am manually controlling everything including convoys, but I can run a game with AI control of armies and post results in HPP section if you wish.

 

[SSmith]

I guess it's likely the Soviets are redeploying units from the Far East, but probably not that many in truth. I was just thinking if you were finding it too easy then AI control might be the answer. It works for me!

 

[SKOTy]

If I wanted to watch AI I would be "playing" Conway's Game of Life. I absolutely enjoy creating of battle plans (especially those that include trapping good portion of Red army) and executing them.

But you've awaken seed of curiosity in so I will maybe load save from start of Barbarossa and put my armies into hands of AI to see how my armies fare against AI.

 

[SSmith]

I don't regard it as "watching" (unlike hands-off testing...) but giving orders to higher levels in the command structure. I find myself continually re-assessing, changing objectives and stances, re-organising the OOB and generally trying to stay one step ahead of what's unfolding on the ground.

 

[SKOTy]

I have no experience with this so my attempt will probably end as epic fail. I can provide you a savegame if you want to run some tests yourself.

 

[guillec87]

I have no experience with this so my attempt will probably end as epic fail. I can provide you a savegame if you want to run some tests yourself.

read Uriah's AARs, he tried with the AI and though he's having a harder time than you do, I think he'll go through...

BTW, excellent update! seems the road to the East is open

 

[SSmith]

I have no experience with this so my attempt will probably end as epic fail. I can provide you a savegame if you want to run some tests yourself.

Player feedback is invaluable, for example you told me earlier how easily you achieved air superiority over the Soviets (which reinforced the lessons I drew from my own Yugoslav play-test) so I now know that I need to adjust the AI's production scripts. When it comes to testing though, I really need to run the game hands-off so I can see how the AI countries behave and how the whole picture looks without the influence of a human player. And last time I played Germany it took me three months...

 

[SKOTy]

Just tell me what country I should play next after Japan and SU which I have scheduled for long time