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Ae2 DL2o3DG
United States
Fort Wayne
Indiana
Four Time Stanley Cup Champion
Seven Time Norris Trophy Winner
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Another game that Bill and I played over VASSAL a while back. As with the last AAR, this was originally posted elsewhere as more of an ongoing report than anything else. This is an awesome scenario, one that I'm looking forward to getting on a table sometime in the future during a long weekend.
26 July, 1942: The Germans have captured Rostov and are jumping off their drive to the oil fields in the south.
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28 July, 1942: The German assault has started and the SS Wiking division was able to clear the bridge over the Don just south of Rostov, allowing the 3rd and 13th Panzer divisions to break south to surround and destroy two Soviet armored battalions along with an NKVD infantry division. To the east elements of the Grossdeutschland division were able to destroy a Soviet infantry division holding the bridge crossing the Sal river allowing the 23rd Panzer division to easily cross and destroy yet another Soviet division (with the help of some Stuka sorties to help soften things up a bit). For their part, the Soviets pretty much ran away from the front line to find more defensible positions.
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30 July, 1942: South of Rostov the German Panzer divisions have a lot of open ground to work with and have been able to destroy several Russian Infantry divisions along with a few artillery regiments. This costs quite a bit in supply to do though, so they'll probably have to pause a turn or two to let the supply stock up a bit.
The GD Motorized and the 23rd Panzer divisions are preparing to cross the Manych River. Mechanized units can only cross a major river at bridged hexsides. Road and rail lines provide the obvious bridged locations, but engineering units can also bridge a river and here the 44th Corps HQ is preparing to do just that at the marked hexsides.
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Part way through the August 1st turn and the Germans have taken Kushchevskaya and set up shop there to resupply for the push further south. This is currently the staging area for the 3rd and 13th Panzer divisions, the 16th Motorized division, the SS Wiking division, and several other infantry divisions, supporting artillery and assault gun battalions. The three supply points at Kushchevskaya are no where near enough to push any further, so it they'll stay put here for a week or so to restock.
The GD Motorized and 23rd Panzer divisions successfully crossed the Manych river and captured Mechetinskaya and will also sit a spell before continuing to move south.
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Here's the current situation as of August 22, 1942:
The Germans have their first objective, Krasnodar (extreme lower left), completely surrounded and are planning on starving them out as opposed to assaulting the city. Attacking would probably end up costing over two supply points and I just don't have that much to spare. There is a 3-level airfield in Krasnodar (under the DG marker) that I really need to get my hands on in order to continue my drive south. This airfield also is important to the Russians, as it allows them to fly supply into the city, allowing them to survive even when cut off. This is where the airfield at Timashevskaya (about eight hexes north of Krasnodar - with the 4-3-3 Russian Naval Brigade) comes in. Right now the Russians can fly supply into Krasnodar without any risk, as the German air units are stationed too far away to stop them. The airfield at Timashevskaya would allow me to station a few fighter units close enough to Krasnodar to prevent air resupply of the city, forcing the Russian units there to either break out or die. Timashevskaya is also surrounded at this point by a combination of German, Turkish and Cossack troops. With any luck it will fall in a turn or two and I'll be able to rebase some of my fighter units.
The other major area of action is Kropotkin on the right side of the map, just south of the Romanian cavalry and mountain units. The only major road and rail line heading south towards Grozny runs right through Kropotkin so it's a vital objective for the Germans. The city will be completely cut off in the upcoming exploitation phase as the German 16th motorized division will release itself from reserve and move south to surround it. As with Krasnodar, there will be no direct assault on the city, as I need all of the supply I can get to keep the panzers rolling south. Even if both cities take a few turns longer to fall than I think they will, it's not a bad thing as I'll be able to build up some much needed supply for my next main objective, the oil fields of Maikop.
At the very top center of the map is Rostov, where all the German units jumped off from nine turns ago. We've been able to cover quite a bit of ground to this point, but the Russian hordes are quickly approaching from the south, and have been saving up quite a bit of supply as well, so I have a feeling things are going to get brutal before too much longer.
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The first week of September and the German SS Wiking and 13 Panzer divisions have started their assault on Maikop. This is likely to be the first major battle of the operation, as the Russians finally have some non-open ground from which to make a stand. The oil fields are a very important goal for the Germans, as it will help improve their supply situation a bit once the they're captured and occupied by the German oil exploitation units.
There air fields in Krasnodar and Timashevskaya are still in Russian hands as the units holding them have been able to hold out longer than suspected despite being surrounded. The Germans were even forced to build their own air field at Korenovskaya to keep the Russian transports from delivering supply to Krasnodar. Once built two squadrons of Messerschmitt Bf 109s rebased to thwart the Russian resupply effort.
Kropotkin is also holding out quite well, delaying the German's drive towards Grozny.
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The End
The overall positions on the southern portion of the play area. The jump off line for the Germans was an entire map north that isn't shown here. Normally the supply points wouldn't be displayed as they are in this picture, but we wanted to take a count of what we each had at the end of the game. The Germans had somewhere around 20 over the entire map, while the Russians had well over 60.
Although not a victory objective of the Germans, the oil fields of Maikop provided a nice shift in supply status once the Oil Exploitation unit showed up for work. The 49th Mountain Corps' move on Tuapse never materialized as the focus (and supply) was on getting to Grozny. Those German infantry divisions are nice and strong, but cost a ton of supply when attacking, and I had more fun overrunning Russians with my Panzer divisions than I would've slugging it out with them in the mountains.
This is as far as the Germans were able to push before the end of the scenario. They're actually in fairly decent shape here after flanking the Russian line earlier along the river running along the north west portion of this area of the map. The 16th Motorized and the 3rd Panzer smashed through some weak Soviet divisions to force the Russians back to their final defensive line while pocketing a fairly decent amount near Pyatigorsk.
The one actual game objective the Germans obtained. While I would've liked to have the 23rd participating in the drive towards Grozny, there were enough Russians hanging around that I thought it best to keep them in reserve in the Krasnodar area. You can see the German Stukas on alert in the Krasnodar airfields.
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