From: arseno@phy.*nospam*ulaval.ca (Henri H. Arsenault) Subject: Korsun pocket AAR After playing through the tutorials, I decided to try the small 10-turn scenario "Wiking Whiteout" (available on the wargamer wachtamrhein webg site) to get the hang of the game with a small number of units. In this scenario played on the NW part of the Korsun map, some 20 units on each side collide. Each has two supply and two artillery units, two armored divisions (corps for the Soviets) and two or three infantry divisions. I quickly sent my 3 unattached recon units as far as possible, stopping on villages so they could resist some attacks. Most of my units came in on the second or third turn, so I pushed what I had aggressively. My plan was to use the recon units to cut off supply to any over-aggressive Soviet units.I don't understand the supply lines completely, so that was more or less successful. I left my Northern front too weakly defended, and the AI exploited this by sending an armored corps behind my lines. Since there was no river there, they came in really fast before I could react. I threw the only unit I had in the area in the way, but they destroyed the engineering unit, which at least delayed them before they could get to my supply sources, and gave me time to bring in some support. In the center, I eliminated an enemy recon unit, then a stroke of luck gave me a significant advantage: one of my recon units bumped into a Soviet supply unit, and fortunately I had some armor close enough to intervene, and the enemy supply unit was wiped out. This left the enemy with only one supply truck, not enough to cover the whole front. In addition, the Soviet 18th armored Corps in the NE was too aggressive, and found itself surrounded by two of my divisions.I blasted away at it and after a couple of moves, one of the two Soviet armored corps was history along with its four brigades.This was the hinge of fate. I made another mistake of my own in the South when I left a hole in my line and the Soviet 5th Guard Tank Corps zipped across the frozen river and destroyed one of my two artillery units. I was lucky they didn't get one of my supply units as well. I had to backtrack the divisions that had crossed the river while the enemy captured objective Annovka behind my lines.In the meantime, the Soviet 3rd Tank corps was threatening the city of Muni in the South, and I could spare only one battalion to hold the objective while the rest of two divisions went after the Soviet tank corps. In the meantime, my recon units were trying to cut off Soviet supplies in the south by blowing bridges and holding key intersections. It must have been somewhat successful, because the Soviets diverted one corps to wipe out one of the recon units. This delayed their arrival near Muni and probably saved the single battalion dug in there. After the Soviet 18th Armored Corps was wiped out in the North, I diverted one of my divisions from there to the battle in the South, realizing that if I could surround and destroy the 5th Tank Corps, the battle was over for all practical purposes. I sent the rest of my units across the river in the center and North to keep the arriving Soviet units there -and especially the supply truck - busy. The 18th Tank Corps was no match for three German divisions, especially since in was probably low on supplies due to the single supply truck busy in the North helping to hold the line there. After some pounding, they were surrounded and wiped out. Now I was free to bring three more divisions West across the river in the South, and there was no way that the outnumbered Soviets could block this advance. The scenario ended before I could get very far across the river. I got an overwhelming victory, losing only 3 units to the Soviet 13 losses, not counting step losses. This scenario shows that to some extent at least, the game supports maneuver warfare, where supply considerations dominate. It is possible that the AI could have captured some of my supply sources when they got behind my lines, but of course they did not know exactly where they were (neither did I for their supplies). Losing artillery units is second only to losing artillery units in the realm of disasters. If your supply trucks can't cover the front, you could be in big trouble against a maneuvering enemy. Henri From: henri Arsenault Subject: Re: Korsun pocket AAR More comments on this AAR after sleeping on it. In retrospect, the key turning point of the battle was the loss of one of the two supply trucks by the Soviets. This made it impossible to supply the whole front; as a matter of fact, when the game finished, the whole lower half of the map was unsupplied by the Soviets. When the Soviet 18th Armored corps was surrounded and destroyed, the Russians began to pull some units back, probably realizing that they had lost the initiative. Unfortunately this sealed the fate of the 5th Gd Armor Corps in the South, left alone to fight what eventually amounted to four German divisions. At that point, I expected the Soviets to launch an attack in the South on Muni, defended by a single German battalion, which would have forced me to bring in some help, thus reducing the pressure on the 5th Armor. The fact that I had four divisions fighint two Soviet divisions behind my lines means that the soviets had two divisions more than I did across the river to the West. This means that a determined Russian push supported by the two extra divisions would have had a pretty good chance of reaching the besieged units sitting on objectives behind my lines before I could destroy them. On the other hand, with my recon units blocking key intersections and with only one supply truck, this could well have been a recipe for disaster. Considering the supply situation, perhaps the best bet for the Soviets would have been to go on the defensive as soon as they lost the supply truck. But this would have handed me the victory on a platter, albeit not such a decisive one as in the actual game. Had they not lost the supply truck, my own early loss of one of my two artillery units could have tipped the balance in favor of the Soviets, because half of my army would have found itself without any artillery support. Tam alea jactet... Henri