DAR - Russian Winter Woes

[Lt. Ketch]

Bob, you know that there is no truth in News and no news in Truth. All I get out of the newspaper is the crossword. But that's our USSR papers. If you're reading the German papers, they always say that they're winning. That is not always the case.

Well, I made it through the rest of the battle this morning. Was almost late to work, but the battle is over. It went all the way to the the 57th turn, but the last seven or so turns were very basic. As I mentioned at the beginning of this DAR, there were a lot of mistakes made from the beginning and while no mistakes in the end would have lost me my final standing, they were foolishly, recklessly, and unnecessarily made. I'll give you the run down and then continue thoughts on this battle and my thoughts for the upcomming one.

Let me discribed the assault on the city and other actions from an overarching view rather than from the south up by force. The assault was preceeded by heavy bombardment from 152mm & 122mm off bard, Katyusha rockets, and 120mm mortar. Even after my troops entered the first row of buildings, the bombardment was shifted forward and along avenues of assault. One para scout was too far forward and was lost due to (dabatably) friendly mail. Despite this bombardment, one AT team and two 7.5cm inf guns survived to inflict 4 caualsties total. The AT team, located in the north, was eliminated by a mountain squad, while the two inf guns in the south, who appartently had run out of ammo because they were shooting at me with rifles, were eliminated by a mountain squad and a mountain scout, after taking supressing fire from the southern section of engineers. Beyond that, the only enemy forces seen in the city was a Pz-IIIj that was lurking by the back of the map. After opening up on the southern Kv-1, I dispatched him with a T-34/57 that was redirected from the south E-W road which ran all of 100 meters south of the city. Beyond that small resistance, our troops encountered nothing and were able to take all objective in the city with no further problems.

Just south of the city were three objective in a small cluster of buildings on a road headed off the map. The Support company was able to secure these with no problems despite three suprises. Supported by the two mobile T-34/57s, the Ba-6 ACs, the Ba-20m AOP AC, and the three TDs, one of which lost a gun at some point. Following bombardment by the four 122mm on boards and one 122mm off board, the Ba-6s moved in and took two of the objectives while a rifle squad took the third. The other units started to set up a defenive position and move into supporting roles. It was a good thing too, because two turns after the flags were turned, three Pz-IIIj turned up trying to crash the party. The first two appeared, but were halted just short of the objective by a rifle squad. I moved the 34/57s in place and destoryed the lead panzer with a side shot. Only anticipating the two, the AC with armorments was positioned for a possible rear shot on the remaining tank, but the next turn was fired on by a slow poke third Pz-IIIj. Surviving the encouter (miracle of miracles. I always lose at least one AC at battle), the AC moved to a secure location and the two remaining Panzers were delt with by the 34/57s easily. The increased accuracy of the 57/L71 is very noticiable and appreciated. No wonder the buy screen lists these beasts under "tank hunter" After the brief suprises, no other incident happened.

Now, a report on the northern troops, ground zero, the charge of the light birgade and a frantic dash. As I wrote in my last post, if I was able to secure the city in time, I would turn my efforts artillary to the northern seven objectives clustered around a small village on the Northern E-W road. The only troop in the area were three MotorcycleX3 transports, two of which had Motorcycle sections loaded. Anybody not fimilar with these troops should know that they make very good scouts and even better cannon fodder. I highly recommened them in a support company for getting somewhere quick and finding out what you're up against. In the end, I had all my artillary firing on the village and surrounding hexes with the expection of two or three katyushas and 82mm mortar in my rifle company. My goal was to eradicate anything in my path. The mistake I made was to run my motorcycles through too early. The bombardment last for about 5 turns. I ran my guys through at about turn 3. You can guess what happened. Despite taking three of the seven objectives, we were unable to hold them, due to the fact that all three transports were hit with, again debatibly, friendly incomming mail. I continued bombardment, hoping to discourage the AI from sending troops in to reclaim them, but they got them anyway. In a valanit and underrly useless attempt, I loaded my four T-34/76s with Mounatain infantry and tried to make it up to the objective in time to take them back. I was about 700 meters short when time ran out. After looking at the map, I realized that had I made int much closer, my tanks would likely have been destroyed by the two platoons of infantry that lay between me and my objectives.

Battle overview - I killed just over 350 German infantry in exchange for about 160 of my own, took out at least 7 guns and 6 tanks, only losing one TD, one Gaz AAMG, one Kv-1 (one man of the crew survived) and one imobalized T-34/57. Final score was me at just over double thier score = Marginal Victory.

Thoughts - I'm not at all displeased with how this battle turned out. I made mistakes, and it possibly cost me a decicieve, but with the mistakes made, I'll take the marginal. As many people point out, it's the battle that don't go perfectly that teach you the most. The mistakes I made in the endgame - moving my units too close to my bombardment zones, were stupid and I should have known it when I did it. I'll be more aware of where and when my guns are delivering the mail. The other mistakes, that of bad depolyment and lack of transport, I need to nip in the bud during the buy and deployment phase. A wise man once said,

Originally Posted by PanzerBob

Lesson, should known better, PLANNING and more PLANNING!!!

Granted, the same man also said,

The more complex execution of the mission the more likely your troops well get executed

So, balance is required, but I at least need to make sure I have a basic plan that meets the objectives of the operation.
Although I was disappointed with the quallity of my infantry, they got the job done. It's a long hard road to get them up to vetern status, let alone elite. I was a lot happier about the way I used my tanks, but I'm still learning a few things.

Thoughts for next battle - I probably won't "upgrade" anything as there isn't too much I've seen that is "better" than what I have currently. I've thought about making the TDs flame tanks for close support, but with the German Armor being what it is, I want to keep them in an anti-tank role. They will probably get upgraded when the SU series comes out. I've got to find somethign to do with the HMG and the mortar that supports my rifle company as it's been four battles, and neither one has seen much action. I'm thinking of a transport or something, we'll see. The only addition/upgrade I'm seriously thinking about is either changing two of my 107mm mortars to 120mm or adding a section of 120mm mortars to be used for counter battery. If I add an off map battery, it will be for couterbattery action as well. Other than that, I think my force is balanced and able to adapt to multiple kinds of situations.

I'll post again when I find out what the next battle is and the situation, but until then this is Ketch signing off for now.

[Lt. Ketch]

It's been a while since I posted here and the depressing bit is that i's been a while since I've been able to play this campaign.

I'm currently just finishing up the deployment stage of my next battle, a defence in the snow and trees late 11/41 against the facist horeds (57 turns, 44 vis). I'm going to try to post some screen shots in the next 24 hours or so because the map is a little particular, i.e. hard to describe in great detail and a simple discription isn't adaquate.

I'm also looking for ideas as to a good idea on how to make this work. In inadaquate terms, the map is a terrected landscape with lots and lots of trees bisected about 3/5 of the way up by a road that angles NW. There are some clearings in the north and east (the side I'm defending). The Objectives are along the road and, on a hill about 400 - 500 meters north of the road and on a small hill in the south east cornern of the map.

My forces have changed little from what I listed at the beginning of this thread. The only changes were to three mortars to incorperate a dedicated Counter Battery presense in my forces. The 82mm mortar that was attached to the Rifle + company has been upgraded to a 152mm off board battery and renamed "Off Board CB 1." Two 107mm Mortars have also been upgraded to 120mm mortars and renamed "On Board CB 1 & 2." While this limits my total artillary support by three guns, the 82mm mortar was seldom used in an indirect role and spend most of its time trying to find a good place to fire from but was usally just out of range of where it needed to be. The 107mm were a bit of a loss, but seeing as I found out that mortars make great on board cb support, they probably would have found themselves doing that anyway. Now they have the additional range of the 120mm.

Support forces for this battle consist of 5 ski pioneer platoons (3 squads each), 3 shelter bunkers (SBUNK) (Armed with 1 rifle and space for 40) and 2 bunkers (GBUNK) armed with a 45mm ATG, 2 Maxim HMG and a rifle. While it may seem unusual to select such forces, hear my reasoning. My biggest fears in this battle are tanks and artillery. While the russians have a good selection of ATGs (the 57mm being the prime example of an ATG), the enemy could come through the trees and avoid any open areas where my guns would work. My thought was to use groups of infantry that can move faster then the ATG could that would be able to knock out the tank. The other reason for getting ski pioneers is that, with the exception of my own engineers (6 squads) and my scouts (3 mountain, 2 regular 2 para), my infantry doesn't have anything that can effectivly take out a tank (that makes a remaining 25 squads). Also, as I found out, my infantry can't move vary fast in the snow. The Ski pioneers should solve all of these problems. The bunkers are to deal with the other fear. Seeing as my lagerst squads only have 11 men in them, I can put a whole platoon in the SBUNKs and at least one full squad (or two scounts) in the GBUNKs (carry capacity 12).

My current idea is one of fall back, wear down and counter attack. The reason for this is that I won't know where the enemy is coming from but I do know where he is going. The amount of trees in the area has the high potential of masking the enemy's movements until they are relitivly close to the objectives. That is where the bulk of my forces is currently located, with the SBUNKs being right on top of some of the flags. This way I can fall back all the way to the objectives and take shelter while I call in friendly artillary support very close to my own men. My 107mm mortars and 76 mm inf guns shouldn't (hope, hope) be a threat to any friendlies in the SBUNKs while they are suppressing, routeing and killing any Germans trying to take the flags. The idea is then to counter attack and push back through any objectives they have taken. Think of All quite on the Western Front when it describes the attack on the trenchs. The enemy attacks, do damage and fall back to next trench, frindly artillery hits newly enemy occupied trench, rally and counter attack, clear trench and send them packing.

When I get my screen shots up, I hope that some of you will chime in on ideas, but if I can't I'll give it a try on my own.

Updates to follow.

[Mobryan]

one thing to watch out for with the pioneers: It seems like any engineer type I've used for open combat has a serious rally problem. If they can stay fairly hidden, use scouts to locate unsupported tanks, hex in, blast 'em and split, they seem to do fine, but once they get pinned, you'll play hell getting them broke loose again. I've tried lots of different variations on that theme, and I'm still trying to work out the bugs


Matt

[Lt. Ketch]

Originally Posted by Mobryan

one thing to watch out for with the pioneers: It seems like any engineer type I've used for open combat has a serious rally problem. If they can stay fairly hidden, use scouts to locate unsupported tanks, hex in, blast 'em and split, they seem to do fine, but once they get pinned, you'll play hell getting them broke loose again. I've tried lots of different variations on that theme, and I'm still trying to work out the bugs


Matt

Thanks for the tip. I've got one platoon backed up with three KV-1s (1941s) and another by a bunker and half a company of Mountain troops. The others, while not having what I would call "equivical" support, are covered my other units so I hope that I'll be able to cover thier escapes well.

[Lt. Ketch]

Alright. Here are the screen shots I promised. I'm sorry if they aren't the best. This is my first time posting shots.

This first one is of the overall view of the objectives that I'm defending. As you can see, three are three clusters of varing size along the road (designated ROAD W, C and E from west to east), one on a hill north of the road (designated HILL N) and one in the far south (designatd HILL S). I'm not going to lable the maps since I think they are clutterd enough as it is And I don't want to have to re-upload them (go ahead and call me lazy), but I will continue to refer to them as such during th DAR. While there are clearings, they only boarder the objectives on one side, the HILL objectives on the north and the south for the ROAD objectives. I'm afraid the enemy will be able to make ample use of the forests to move his troops.

This next shot is of HILL N and ROAD C. You can see the Mountain Company encircilly the open area to the north of HILL N. There is a Ski platoon in the NW covering a gun bunker (GBUNK) that is trained on the objectives. Directly south of HILL N is an engineer platoon (non-ski) to cover any attemp to come at HILL N from the south. In the trench around HILL N is a half platoon of mountain with the other half located in the Shelter Bunker (SBUNK) directly behind them. The vichicles located due East are the platoon of T-34/76s that will act as support and counter attack. The sandbags NE of the open area are Zis-30s with 57mm guns trained in the clearing if any armour comes through. The field in the NE corner beyond them is covered by four 122mm howitzers and two more Zis-30s. Along the road, waiting in ambush are a ski platoon and ROAD C is held by a platoon of rifle infantry, two units in the trenchs across the road, the other two in the SBUNK directly behind the trench. Those trenchs in the field is where I stuck a platoon while during an early stage of deployment. I can't make them go away. Any ideas?

This next shot shows ROAD W, what I'm calling the sacrifical objective. Since this objective is so close to the deployment line and I will have little idea of what is attacking and in what numbers before it will most likely surcome of being overrun, I'm going to give it to the Germans. As you can see, I've mined the road (very left hex) as well as some of the hexes amoung the buildings. I will probably change at least two mines onto the road after I post this. I will also have the location targeted with Indirect fire, so when the flags flip, the mail comes in. You can see the Engineers and Ski platoon that are also in the last picture as well as units that are covering the road and in position to counter attack. These units include the platoon of T-34/57s, a platoon of rilfes and a platoon of engineers. There is also the company commander and the HMG of the Rifles + company covering the road. The Transport seen in the very bottom, just off center is one of the two scouts armed with stachel charges for quick mobility against possible armour. They will also be involved in the counter attack. If all goes according to plan (which it never does, but you still have to plan) the enemy will overrunn ROAD W, stall and be stoped at ROAD C and then we'll push flank their position at ROAD W and cut off any troops on the road. It things don't go to plan, it is possible that everybody will die. Ah, but what are risks for if not to take.

Shot number Four shows HILL S and it's contingency of guards. The vichels in the very front, next to the deployment line are my BA-6 ACs. They are going to try to spot the enemy without getting killed, which sums up their purpose in life very will. If possible they will harrass rear elements of the advance, but will not enter the enemy's rear where they could easily fall pray to ATGs, AAA, and such. The forward Infantry units are Ski Pioneers that are there to enact a fighting retreat through the forest, back towards HILL S or the units located to the north of them (which are the counter attack forces of ROAD W seen in the prvious picture.) The AFVs lcoated in the more open area are Kv-1s (1941). I'm depending on their tougher armour and more plentiful ammunition to seriously stall any incursion in this area untill artillery, help or both arrive to stop the enemy. The objective itselv is protected by a platoon of rifles, again, half in the trenches and half in the SBUNK. My platoon of 76mms are located just east of HILL S with at least two of the guns covering the area around and partally on the hill. These will fire directly if needed.

The last picture is a large perspective of the far norhtern aspect of the battle field. Since this includes several large areas with few trees, I feel that the enemy by try to use it as a path for mech forces including AFVs and mounted infantry. For this propose I have placed the other GBUNK in the NE courner of the far northern space along with my BM-20 FO vichiel. Their task will be to "discourage" any travel along this route. In the event that the enemy persests or nutralizes my assets, a Platoon of Ski pioneers awaits them in the trees between the open spaces and as prviously stated, the field is covered both by 122mm howiters and Zis-30 TDs with 57mm guns (One of the best ATGs you could ask for. There is also the T-34/76s that could arrive there quickly. The trick here will be to know when to start committing what units where. The three blips in the Center North part as a daring move to put a AOP behind enemy lines to direct accurate counter battery fire. The team is all on foot and consits of 2 para scouts and the AOP. If their mission is successful, I hope to neutralize all of the enmey artillary assets on the board. If it is not, then I hope to at least blow some stuff up before they go.


My other assets (Gaz-AAMG, ammo trucks, Gaz and konsomolets transports) are placed in positions that they will quickly be able to provide support for their respective elements. The AAMGs are in the center with decent fields of fire (I'm really hoping the enemy doesn't have air assets), the Ammo trucks are by the 122mm howiters and 120mm CB mortars and the trucks and Konsomolets are positioned along likely routes for routing infantry.

This is what I currently have planned. Units will fall back as nesissary in order to stall the enemy until their unit types and numbers are known. Friendly artillery will be used to disrupt the attacks as my units retreat, and will also be used to prep for armoured counter attacks. If nesissary, units will fall all the way back to the SBUNKs and take cover while heavy artillary lands around them. Then, when the enemy is sufficently supressed, or ideally running, they will come out to counter attack and push them back. ROAD W will be retaken if possible in the time allowed, but since I have 59 turns to work with, I don't think that will be the biggest of my problems. Any thoughts or suggestions about this plan, deployment or the chances of success of my ideas are gladly welcome and asked for.

Let me know what you think!