Objective Kiev with stronger Russian position

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Concentrating on first two turns for this set of games:

1. Find optimal attacking configuration.
2. Ensure Russian mechanized attack back with 2x, then 1.5x on first two turns.

The idea is to play several rounds of 2 turns, to figure out optimal strategy for punching through the Russian line.

Round 1

Here's the setup with the Russian mechs flipped after calling all attacks.

1. 30 Corps against 9 Corps with Air Support, 6:1, 30 Corps will advance.

2. 4 Corps against 24 Corps with Air Support, will also be 6:1 and 4 Corps will advance. This may turn out to be a mistake, as the Russians may be able to counter-attack with armies. Eliminated.

3. 48 Armor and 49 Mtn against 8 Corps, 16:3 which is 5:1. DRL eliminates.

4. 3, 11 and 14 Corps against 9 Army at 4:1. DRL eliminates as it has to retreat through EZOCs established from previous attacks.

Here's at the end of the Russian special movement phase for Turn 1:

One mistake was using 4 Corps to attack across river. One of the armored units would have been a better bet, because that unit could have moved into hex 0602 and been protected by woods, and from surrounding attack.

1. 22, 26, and 38 attack German 4 at 3:1 using doubled mech attack factor. EX eliminating 4 Inf Corps.

2. 2, 4 and 5 attack German 48 Armor at 32:10 net 2:1 with woods shift. NE. Lucky for Germans, en EX roll would have eliminated 48 armor, a DR would have step reduced at best.

3. 12 and 19 attack 54 Corps at 2:1. NE.

The NE results sort of suck for the Russians. EX rolls would have been better for both whittling down the Germans and possibly getting more eliminations from the retreats.

Germans got lucky even though they didn't completely break through.

Round 2

No photos for Round 2.

Highlights are Russians eliminating 3 Pz from an EX result where it was surrounded.

However, there was a pretty clear shot to Kiev which had to be covered by mechanized units because 48 Pz would otherwise occupy it.

Round 3

The initial breakthrough wasn't spectacular, but for some reason, the Russian response didn't do quite enough damage to the Germans. This allowed the Germans to enter Kiev in Turn 3 with a reduced Panzer corps, and completely cut off communication by the end of German Turn 4, the exact halfway point of the game. While there were still 4 full strength infantry armies behind German lines, Russians called it there. The Germans would easily defeat in detail the remaining Russian units. The key is not elimininating the Russians, just reducing them so that they can't get to 1:1 odds for attacks. With communication cut off, there is no way for them to get replacements.

Here's the situation the Russians are looking at going into their Turn 4:

Pretty grim.

With all communication cut off, no way to flip those big armies to full strength. Even if they could bring in replacements, they would be limited to 1 mech unit per turn.

AAR

The upshot is that the Germans need to balance aggression with caution to be able punch through the line effectively, without losing too many steps.

Getting to the east edge as fast as possible seems to be the major strategy. Once supply is cut off, the Russians are pretty well doomed. In the third round, note that all the Russian armies are still on the board, the majority at full strength!

It's probably ok to allow the Panzers to take a step loss, as long as they can be in communication with the western edge once Germans start getting replacements in Turn 3.

The Russians, on the other hand, attempted to hold the line a little too long, and probably should have sent the mech units back to guard the east edge. As long as the Russians can bring in units for replacements, the Germans have an increasingly difficult time to win it. That is, if the Russians can prevent an early win by the Germans, they can probably go the distance.

I'm pretty stoked on this game. I need to find more opponents.

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