Long Campaign - German - Abrevated AAR

[dlazov]

KG Gross Battle 7

Southern Russia, August 1943

Mission Delay.

Not the best place to try to delay, but I have my orders. I do have a strange feeling about this one. The VH are in groups again slanting diagonally with the terrain.

There is a east-west road in the north, a small crop of trees in the center where 2 of the VH's grouping is. and a wide open field in the south with the last group of VH's.

In the North I deployed my one experienced rifle company (Hpt. Bertram), with one rifle platoon (Kramer) behind the first VH grouping and then up a bit further I deployed in a
skirmish line the next rifle platoon (Ehrhardt) and then hidden in the adjacent the east-west northern road in some trees for ambush I placed the last rifle platoon (Krohner). Backing up this rifle company I deployed the Tiger platoon (Obrltnt Wiedemann - 31 kills) west of the skirmishing platoon and just a bit north of the first VH group spread out in small crop of trees I deployed Wisch's battery of StuG IIIg.

In the center I deployed the second rifle company (Hpt. Hollmichel) with one platoon (Karthaus) to the left and below of Kramer's platoon. I deployed Waldmuller's platoon adjacent to the center VH's, which is to the right and below Karthaus's platoon. And finally I deployed Witt's platoon again to the right and below of Waldmullers platoon so that they may cover not only the centers VH, but the further south VH's. Backing up this rifle company I deployed Major Stolze's StuG battery with one section (Scherrer) right behind Waldmuller's platoon and one section (Urbanitz) behind Witt's platoon.

Just south of Witt's and Urbanitz units hidden in some woods to protect the southern flank I deployed the Panthers of Osterloh's platoon.

In reserve I deployed in the central area hidden and loaded on the 251/1 half-tracks in the back end of the woods the pioneers of Frey's platoon.

Finally, I deployed my newly arrived mech mortars of Barnsdorf's platoon behind in the center by a small farm house and some woods. I have also cross-attached both tank platoons (earlier on Game 1) to Hpt. Bertram infantry company. I have also cross-attached the mech pioneers and the 2 mech flak units to Major Stolze's battery.

Also placed back here is the Artillery observer (Lt. Braun), and the KG commander Obrstlt Gross.

Plan is to hold the enemy for as long as possible.

Let the battle begin.

Okay, here we go, Russians launched some artillery, no damage.

First contact on turn 4 in the north on that road. So far Oblt. Wiedemann has knocked out 2 T-34/76 m42 in front of my ambush platoon (Krohner). The panthers have made contact in the south and knocked out 2 BA-64's.

Turn 7, begins with the StuG's from Urbanitz (Q0) engaging some more BA-64's and the north battle is proceeding as normal. Turn 9, things are getting really hot in the south! 4 x La-5N attacked my StuG platoon (Scherrer), they all survived! Massive T34's are everywhere, north, south center! Turn 10, well the last turn started to get hot, but now...Turns 10, 11 and 12, being attacked by a Cav/Mech unit. Inflicting lots of tank kills but they keep coming. Damn, just lost StuG IIIG Q2 no survivors. On turn 11 StuG Q1 got immobilized by 4 T-34's. On turn 12 I just lost Major Stolze in StuG IIIg (N0), no one made it out that tank alive! Turn 13, massive T-34's everywhere, my infantry got hit this time by the 4x La-5N and the Soviets have captured the southern VH (next to the Panthers).

Okay, I think I have the battle under control. Heavy Russian artillery attack in the center. I lost Panther I2 (Nauman) but his crew escaped! The center rifle company has been hit for turn turns by mortars, and are very suppressed. Turn 16 saw the La-5N attack my mortar tracks, one got immobilized and one got hit. The damn flak tracks can't hit [censored]. Urbanitz (StuG IIIg - Q0) is pretty pissed, snuck up a hex and blasted a retreating T-34m43 in the *** for his 8th kill. 122mm Arty really pins the German infantry. Voss is amazing! Voss has just been nominated for the Knights Cross, Voss in his mighty Panther D has 40 kills and a Star Rating! TUrn 20, HQ just got nailed by 122mm arty. Sitting too close to my mech mortars! HQ got hit a few times, but mostly just suppression and no casualties. Had to scatter my Mortar tracks except one pinned and one immobilized one. Scratch that, the 122mm Arty immobilized the other mortar track. The Pioneers I kept in reserve I moved through a friendly woods section and to the south with the panthers and now they are in the fight (really last mopping up), those guys gut 28cm Flammen Wefers! A lot of Russians are in retreat now, and mostly it's a mop up. I ain't going to be chasing them either! Lost a few good men but such is war (paper/electronic war). I love this game.

On turn 22 of 37. Lets see what happens now. Mostly just mopping up, the stupid La-5N came back on turn 28 and Lt. Mayer (251/17) shot finally shot one down. Status, 3 of my mortar tracks have lost their mortars and 2 of these are immobilized. Both 251/17 have lost their guns as well. 1 StuG IIIg got knocked out and 1 is immobilized. I lost one of the Pioneers 251/1 half-tracks (crew survived) and one got immobilized. The mortar platoon leader Oberlt. Barnstorf in the 250/8 got immobilized in rough terrain as well.

Anther DV, the battle reports shows 92 knocked out vehicles to my 3, and I lost about 63 men to his 544. At this point in the game Kampfgruppen Gross has lost 447 men, 1 artillery piece, 9 APCs, 18 AFV (4 catastrophic) and lost 2 Air Transports. While claiming at least 2966 casualties, 47 artillery pieces, 260 knocked out tanks, and 2 downed aircraft. 6 DV out of 7 battles, not bad.

Promotions:
OberLt. Wiedmann with 38 kills got his Star (now I have 2 a Panther and a Tiger with Stars)

Status:

Tigers (Wiedemann * in G0)
G0 Kills 38
G1 Kills 34
G2 Kills 22
G3 Kills 18
G4 Kills 13
-- ----- --
Totals 125

Panthers (Osterloh in I1)
I0 Kills 26
I1 Kills 32
I2 Kills 14
I3 Kills 26
I4 Kills 40 (Voss *)
-- ----- --
Totals 138

StuG IIIg Batterie (Fldwbl. Rittenhaus - Replacemnt for Major Stolze who was KIA on 8/30/1943)

StuG Btr (Rittenhaus)
N0 Kills 0

StuG Zug (Wisch)
O0 Kills 7
O1 Kills 7
O2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 21

StuG Zug (Scherrer)
P0 Kills 7
P1 Kills 6
P2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 20

StuG Zug (Urbanitz)
Q0 Kills 10
Q1 Kills 05
Q2 Kills 00
-- ----- --
Totals 15

Grand totals
Tiger's: 125
Panther's: 138
StuG's: 56
--------------
Grand Total: 319


Battle 8 will be next...

[Sgt_Walrus]

Nice work bro.
It is fun to read, you should keep it up.
Cheers
SGT

[dlazov]

Battle 8

Core Force Value: 4216

Date: 9/1943 (East Front)
Mission: Meeting Engagement
Place: Sinelnikovo, Ukraine
visibility: 37 hexes
Terrain: Very open, grasslands with some rolling plains.

Support points: Bought the standard 10.5cm abt. 4x 2cm FlaKs. 2x Scouts sections.

Setup and Plan: This one is tough, very open ground, not much cover at all (in fact I don't see one single hex of woods on the map).

KG Gross mission is a meeting engagement across very open ground with little to no cover at the visibility is 37 hexes on a 100x60 map.

Hpt. Bertram company has deployed in the south (across from his company is a very large hill. Kramer platoon is directly in front of him, Ehrhardt is deployed on the extreme south and Krohner platoon is the northern most platoon (in this section), deployed in every other hex interspersed with Oberlt. Wiedemann (38 kills and a star) Tiger platoon.

Lt. Mayer (251/17 AAA tracks) section is setup on the very west side next to a small village.

Hpt. Osterloh (with 32 kills) Panthers are deployed just to the north of the Tigers.

Hpt. Hollmichihel infantry company is deployed to the extreme north with (again) the only east-west running road. Directly in front of him is Oberlt Witt platoon, on the right (south) is Oberlt Waldmuller platoon and in the south (of this section of the map ) is Oberlt Karthaus platoon.

Fewebel Rittenhaus (the new CO) StuG IIIg are deployed with each of these infantry platoons; Oberlt Wisch is in the North with Witt, Oberlt Scherrer is with Waldmuller and Oberlt Urbanitz is with Karthaus.

Oberlt Frey with his mech pioneers is deployed in a gully in reserve.

Oberlt Barnsdorf mech mortars are deployed in a reverse slope position.

And the support units are deployed as follows: The 2cm Vierling (4xguns) are deployed in the back within the two owned VH and the scouts sections are deployed one each with each infantry company.

It's the best I can do with this area and the location of units and the mission.

Germans go first. Balls to the wall and fight Ivan.

First contact on Soviet Turn 2, a Ba-64 over the hill took a VH and one of the panthers took a shot at him. Soviet Turn 3, 3 burning BA-64's. German Turn 4, one of the StuG IIIg killed the other Ba-64 recon unit. Soviet Turn 4, some 82mm arty lands behind my Panthers, some more BA-64's I spot and shoot at as well as some T-60's. Same Russian tactics so far. Scouts, and recon first, sure to see some tanks and infantry next.

German turn 6, crescendo of battle as per normal. Soviet turn 6, darn, BM-13 Katyusha hit near my Panthers and I2 is immobilised (Naumann), and Il-2 attacked .. and I have 6 AAA guns laying about and not a one of them fired! Soviet turn 8, heavy tank attacks in the center and south, the center may have been repulsed (for now!) and the southern section is unknown. Tiger >> had moved up to this hill just a bit ahead of the follow along infantry, and spotted several T-34's and Kv's, but some stinking infantry popped up and talk about scary!

German turn 10, crushed most of the center attack, the southern one appears to be stalling as well. Hum, turn 10 of 30, no the Soviets must be hiding a ton of stuff elsewhere, even though I have killed a lot of stuff, those Il-2 are still about. Soviet turn 10, the Il-2's came on but they attacked my most southern infantry platoon and Lt. Mayer damaged one of them.

Soviet turn 13 a major Soviet infantry attack in the lower central sector, in this area is a big hill, this is where I sent 1 infantry company and the Tiger platoon. Slowly repulsing the hordes of Russians.

Game turns 14-16 sees a lot of killing of Russians in the south. Turns 17-19 the main Soviet infantry push has been defeated and the Soviets are on the run. I estimate about a battalion sized rifle unit. Soviet turn 18 OberLt. Wisch StuG IIIg was shot by a T34/85, he escaped. It seems like the Soviets called up at least 2 platoons of tank reinforcements, but their is only one left alive now and he is immobilized. On Soviet Game turn 19 he attacked me with his last Il-2, and I found his 76mm artillery positions (rearward).

Found a MG nest with 82mm mortars and 2 37mm AAA, one of the AAA knocked out one of my Pioneer's 251/1 half-track, the crew survived.

Soviet game turn 23, that irritating Il-2 came on again, still has rockets and picked on a StuG, no effect but suppression.

Battle 8 ended on turn 25, German DV, breakdown of losses is incredible:

Germany Russia
Men 24 699
Art 0 20
APC 1 0
AFV 1 47

So far the grand totals of tank losses in 8 battles is Germany 19 and Soviets 307.

My force value is now 4316 (I only upgraded one unit from PzAufscout to a PzfaustScout) so most of this is due to experience. I have 3314 in the bank.

Next battle:
Sinelo, 9/1943 Meeting engagement

Status so far:

Promotions: A lot of infantry units promoted to experience, Langkeit and Osterloh receive stars)

Status:

Tigers (Wiedemann * in G0)
G0 Kills 44
G1 Kills 42
G2 Kills 25
G3 Kills 25
G4 Kills 15
-- ----- --
Totals 151

Panthers (Osterloh in I1)
I0 Kills 32
I1 Kills 42 (Osterloh *)
I2 Kills 17
I3 Kills 40 (Langkeit *)
I4 Kills 49 (Voss *)
-- ----- --
Totals 180

StuG IIIg Batterie

StuG Btr (Rittenhaus)
N0 Kills 1

StuG Zug (Wisch)
O0 Kills 7
O1 Kills 7
O2 Kills 7
-- ----- -
Totals 21

StuG Zug (Scherrer)
P0 Kills 7
P1 Kills 7
P2 Kills 8
-- ----- -
Totals 22

StuG Zug (Urbanitz)
Q0 Kills 12
Q1 Kills 06
Q2 Kills 01
-- ----- --
Totals 19

Grand totals
Tiger's: 151
Panther's: 180
StuG's: 62
--------------
Grand Total: 393

Gearing up for 9th battle soon...

[Artur]

Hey Don,

Good reading, keep them coming .

Artur.

[dlazov]

Thanks for all who are posting an interest. Besides reading about stuff, I just learned how to post images (embarrassingly enough).

Here is a Zoomed out view of Battle 9, and my basic plan. When I post the AAR you see that the terrain and my plan are very simplistic in this one.

[pdoktar]

I think with such large forces, you could consider increasing the map size to give you and the enemy more room for manouver. If you give a large map for the AI when its assaulting, it can give you some nasty surprises, as you can´t cover the whole area with adeqaute forces, and then you´ll find yourself truly in the need of a reserve. If you have too small maps, especially the AIs advance and assault becomes very easy to stop.

And as I now see, this map is getting somewhat small for your own advances too, because you´ll just end up doing a basic frontal assault. It´s your choice anyhow.

[dlazov]

pdoktar, correct in all aspects. I have been musing over increasing the map size, remember when I started this I had one Inf.Coy. and one tank platoon. The force has now grown to 2 Inf.Coy. and 2 Tank platoons, and 1 Stug Battery (10) and one Mech Platoon and one AAA section and one Mech Mortar section...so yes next "end" game I believe I can change the map preferences N/S, anyway, will post again soon.

[MajorDisaster]

Great battle reports, really entertaining tea break reading. The screen shots add too :-) hmmm, I'll have to have a crack at that. I'm doing a similar campaign too. As I was new to this version of SP I started with a very small core and gradually expanded it but as Pdoktar says if you dont expand the map it ends up a headon slugfest, (mind you they can be fun, all depends what does it for you). Current battle is 200 height winter map with 4 inf company, 18 AFV and 6 AT guns, bit of flak, arty. And it's got right lively (think I'll do well to get MV) cos as qucikly as the Germans plug a gap the Russians find another one... and vice versa... chaos & great fun :-)

[dlazov]

Battle 9

Core Force Value: 4316

Date: 9/1943 (East Front)
Mission: Meeting Engagement
Place: Sinelnikovo, Ukraine
Visability: 90 hexes
Length: 36

Terrain: Very open, grasslands with two major hills in the middle and on the east side (Soviets) a stream is running north to south and mini-lake is also on the map.

Support points: 750, purchase one 10.5cm Batterie (x3 units) and one 7.5cm Batterie (1x units).

Setup/Plan: All objective hexes are not owned and in that 7 hex spread (not scattered, see the accompanying bmp file). Trying a new infantry tactic, calling it the lines / / / with tanks or AG mixed in.

North Sector: Hpt. Bertram's Infantry Company backed by Wiedemann's 5 tigers will advance east wards along the north to the OBJ-Hexes and attempt to hold them.

Center Sector: Hpt. Hollmichel's Infantry Company backup by Rittenhaus StuG IIIg Batteries will advance due east to the OBJ-Hexes and hold those.

South Sector: Frey's Pioneers bundled up in their 251/1 half-tracks and reinforced with Osterloh's Panthers will advance due east and over watch and eventually grab those objective hexes.

Pretty simple plan, advance east to contact and wipe out the Russians and win.

The terrain is very grassland and with rising slopes directly in front of my KG (to the east). There are four bridges over the stream, and that weird lake in the north make things seem eiree. The hot summer and visibility makes dust tracks quite easily and since most of my force (that is two of my infantry companies) are on foot, slow going it will be.

First contact in the north on Soviet Turn 2. More contact in the south on Soviet turn 3. Several T-34/76s burning about. However, it looks like the Russians are trying to pincer me, this time I put my stronger units in the north and south.

The Russians are not too smart today, they are leaving dust trails all over the northern section.

Soviet turn 6, La-5n attacked Wiedemann this turn (2 of em both on him like flies on [censored]), no hits, scary stuff. Heavy tank (T34, T60, BA-64) and infantry attacks in the north sector, very long turn as -- platoon came under heavy infantry fire and T-60 attack. Luckily, the tigers and a StuG platoon are in support.


Turns 7 and 8 saw some heated tank action in the north, the tigers knocked out a least a company of T34/m43 that were trying to sneak around the northern flank, meanwhile in the south the panthers knocked out about platoon of T-34's and a few KV-1 plus some T-70's.

Turn 9 was clean up for me, it's now turn 10 of 36, interesting. What does the Russian have up his sleeve? Soviet turn 9, Yeah! Langer in Tiger G1 just got his 50th kill!

German turn 10, Yeah! Voss just got his 50th kill! Soviet turn 10 those darn La-5's came on again, suppression only (dang them scare me).

Turn 11 was a mop up for me, the Soviets tried an ill-fated infantry charge.

Soviet Turn 12, the Russians launched a heavy infantry attack up north and towards the south, supported by mortars. The Soviet center looks to be crushed, but the north sector I see at least a company of Russian infantry trying to secure the VH, like wise in the south sector. There seems to be 2 Soviet tanks left (unless he is hiding them). On turn 13 some Russian Arty hit one of my 251/1 and blew it to bits, no survivors.

Soviet Turn 14, those La-5 flew in again, immobilized another one of 251/1s. Ops, just drove a 251/1 too close to some pesky infantry that was hidden and they popped up and kill my track! Too bad, to fast.

Soviet Turn 15, I lost the 251/17 AAA leader. Got too cocky and moved them both forward and they found (the hard way) 4x 37mm AAA that one of which killed the leader outright.

Turns 16-22 mop ups, and then...Soviet turn 23 out pops a 45mm AT shooting at my StuG IIIg's and low and behold 3x Kv-1 drive onto the map. But the game ended.

For this scenario:

Losses Men ART AFV APC
German 49 0 1 2
Soviet 599 12 46 0

For the Campaign (thus far):
Losses Men ART AFV APC Aircraft
German 520 1 20 12 2
Soviet 4264 79 353 0 2

Decisive Victory (again!)

Have after fixing my cores forces 4282 points! To expand or not? Expanded the map to 80x100.

Okay, expanded core to include a PzArt (sf) Abt+ with Wesps and a Flak Batterie with 37mm (x4). Was very tempted to increase by another panzer zug.

Status so far:

Promotions: A couple of infantry units promoted to experience, Tiger Langer, Panther Petersbach receive stars)

Status:

Tigers (Wiedemann * in G0)
G0 Kills 55 (Wiedeman *)
G1 Kills 56 (Langer *)
G2 Kills 28
G3 Kills 30
G4 Kills 18
-- ----- --
Totals 187

Panthers (Osterloh * in I1)
I0 Kills 34 (Petersbach *)
I1 Kills 48 (Osterloh *)
I2 Kills 24
I3 Kills 45 (Langkeit *)
I4 Kills 53 (Voss *)
-- ----- --
Totals 204

StuG IIIg Batterie

StuG Btr (Rittenhaus)
N0 Kills 2

StuG Zug (Wisch)
O0 Kills 10
O1 Kills 9
O2 Kills 9
-- ----- -
Totals 28

StuG Zug (Scherrer)
P0 Kills 7
P1 Kills 7
P2 Kills 8
-- ----- -
Totals 22

StuG Zug (Urbanitz)
Q0 Kills 14
Q1 Kills 06
Q2 Kills 02
-- ----- --
Totals 22

Grand totals
Tiger's: 187
Panther's: 204
StuG's: 72
----------------
Grand Total: 463

Sept. 1943 ...

Next mission (advance, advance, advance...)