From: Chuck Lietz Subject: Operation Typhoon! - 1997 (long) Operation Typhoon - 1997 I was fortunate enough to participate in fellow consimmer Ross Hagglund's hosting of SPI's Operation Typhoon (OT) this weekend. For those who haven't played OT, it uses a variation of the Panzergruppe Guderian system that eventually became the Victory in the West system to simulate the first German drive towards Moscow. The system is generally made in the playable monster category which may sound like an oxymoron but really isn't. Some of the basic rules highlights are that units are rated for size and morale but actual strengths are determined by drawing a chit randomly at the point where your unit first enters combat. The fog of war is also incorporated into the game in that you can not examine what is under an enemy stack. This means you generally will know relative strength by the size and morale ratings but actual strengths may have some very high deviations, particularly in some of the Russian units. Air power and supply are abstracted very nicely and while there are some rules quirkiness (Germans can trace road supply through Moscow and back around to the West edge of the board to avoid isolation), the game plays very well. The CRT uses 2D6 with harmful results being in even high odds attacks which when combined with the variable unit strength approach, causes combat to frequently become a "leap of faith" in that you have to believe your troops can be successful rather than counting factors for perfect odds. We ended up with five players; myself who had played some of Patton's 3rd Army which uses the Victory in the West system with Ross, Ross who I think had the most experience with this game and system, Greg who has played Europa frequently, and Jeff and Tim who play some with Ross but were new to the system. We divided up into Greg and I on the German side, myself with 3rd and 4th Panzer armies in the north and Greg with 4th Army and 2nd Panzer army in the south. Jeff took the northern Russians, Ross had the center, while Tim took the south. Ross and I both tried to take notes of the highlights to post to the list so from here on out, this will be from the German perspective. Ross, will comment at some point from the Russian view. (One quick note, when we started Saturday morning, my notes were nice and readable and as time went by, became much more illegible) INITIAL GERMAN STRATEGY The first step was to choose which of three victory choices the German has; the historical "Take Moscow" plan, the "double envelopment" plan, or the broad front offensive plan. I had never met Greg before and so I was a little unsure of trying the double envelopment as that would require some serious coordination and Greg concurred. I thought the drive on Moscow option was the easier one to achieve while Greg felt it would be easier to just try and kill units. I wasn't as sure about our ability to exit 30 combat units off the east edge of the board but agreed to the broad front strategy. The overall plan in the early going was to maneuver in the south with 2 PzA as it was out of supply while positioning to attack Tula. The other three armies were intending to pressure across the line, even if that meant attacking with out of supply units in the early going to keep the Russian from using their rail mobility to shift reinforcement to threatened areas. DAY 1 Weather - Overcast - Ground Freeze The Germans are hampered here by having all units left out of supply on Turn 1 which cuts attack values in half. However, the Russian set-up leaves some very inviting targets available and so we chose to start off being aggressive. 4th Army made some attacks with mixed results while my 4 PzA blew a wide gap open along an initially valuable road line. 2 PzA and 3 PzA both moved into position and re-organized for the most part. The Russians generally retreat back in good order to take up more defensible positions and the day ends with only the impending winds of the future storm. DAY 2 Weather - Clear - Stream Freeze (Russian-types didn't like that), note for those who haven't played this game, frozen ground allows armor units dramatically more hexes of movement over mud or snow. In the early part of the game, the Russian is hoping for warm weather or snow to slow us down.) The Panzers get ready to roll now as only two German HQ's of 4 PzA were left unsupported. 3 PzA drives through the forest streams with impunity and smashes into the unsuspecting Russians. 4 PzA and 4th Army both push selectively towards Russian weakpoints. 2 PzA sends 24th Armor (? more on this later) striking out in a due east through the open terrain. The attacks in the north go extremely well! Russian chit pulls were atrocious getting a couple "2" strength "A1" pulls that ended up being destroyed as they were only two step units. Our chit pulls were about average although in general, the larger chits unfortunately went to "A3" infantry units instead of mech units. In the center, we lost a tank battalion due to an ill-advised attack but all in all, had favorable results that will force the Russians to make some tough decisions on covering the advances we made. The Russians have some tough decision to make in the north-center and they choose to open a small gap in their lines through some of the many woods hexes. The Russian commander was heard over the radio saying "We would rather be a rock than a pebble". Overall, the Russians gave up quite a bit of territory , especially in the north as it looks like they are really trying to avoid casualties. We radio General von Bock that the Russian lines appear to be weakening and that the next few days will be critical. DAY THREE Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze (More Russian muttering to the weather gods) We choose not to exploit the gap in the center with 4 PzA instead choosing to attack and press on the "rocks" that are on either side of the gap that was left. I figured that if I was able to hit these units hard, the Russians would have an even bigger problem closing the gap which then would potential link up with a critical road line towards Istra, a town NW of Moscow. My attacks however mostly just push Ross' units back with only one or two negligible step losses. The 3 PzA moved forward to consolidate some of their gains and start to move towards threatening Klin but no major targets were reachable so it was pretty uneventful. 4th Army in the south center starts peeling the critical armor strike force stacks heading SE towards the vital city of Serpukhov. In our initial strategy meeting, we discussed how critical the cities of Tula, Serpukhov, and Klin were. There gain us victory points if we hold them and in the case of Klin and Serpukhov, provide critical bridges which allow our armor units to cross the Oka and Lipka rivers. Also, the vital road networks for supply purposes also would become much more favorable for the German cause. 2 PzA continued moving due east through the clear terrain as the lack of supplies severely limit their ability to attack so the moved as quickly as possible to really try and stretch out the Russian line. The Russians continue to fall back quickly, especially in the south. Ross gambles again in the center in order to attack a cadred motorized infantry unit I had left exposed but in so doing, he left a fairly large gap in his lines. The north also looks particularly weakened as the remnants of the Russian units tended to get bunched up in their zeal to run away from us. In the north, the Russians get divided up with the remnants of the 30th going NE towards the Volga while the 16th headed towards Klin. DAY FOUR Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze (Russian are NOT pleased as the panzers will continue to roll) 2 PzA can't reach the retreating Russians but his division of forces allows for a unit to dart forth north along the Lipka River to hex 2520 which effectively will at least contest or control a critical road/bridge hex over the Lipka to get at Klin. 2 PzA effectively is moving due east punching basically into "thin air". 4 PzA realizing that the north is starting to crumble starts shifting the 11 Pz Division within striking range of Klin from the SW. The Gross Deutchland motorized infantry units boldly slash through the open gap to attack the lone HQ left in Istra. We surround this bulk of the center north troops and threaten to isolate them which will force Ross to pull back further or attack. Istra falls on Day Four without a fight as the HQ uses its auto retreat option. Since we primarily had maneuvered in the north, most of the airpower was free so 4th Army was free to launch a broad offensive. Greg continued to drive SE towards Serpukhov with the bulk of his armor units but the first German set-back occurs. A critical 7-1 in the woods of a surrounded "A2" Russian unit who drew a "16" chit ended up rolling a "3" on the 2D6 which was about the only unfavorable result to the attacker. We hear coming over the radio from 4th Army HQ "The dice gods have 'shat' upon me." This was also particularly nasty as by surrounding this unit, Greg left some key mech units exposed who are now facing "at least" one 16 strength unit. In the far south, 2nd PzA continues to crawl along in a single minded drive east ward with the 24th Armored. The infantry starts to bunch up to prepare to knock out Tula. In the North, the Russians continue to pull a vanishing act pulling far back while the north-center Russians extricate their finger and start to fall back east. The first entrenchment line is starting to be occupied by Russian units as we have pushed to with about 50 Km (Greg made me convert everything to kilometers as we were Germans) of Moscow proper. Still there were a lot of quality Russian forces that we were unable to attack. In the South-Center, the Russian launched a large-scale counterattack supported by the more numerous Russian air units and 4th Army takes some serious step losses. The quote here was "Horrific counter-attacks, much lives lost". The other issue is that this turn took a lot of the wind out of Greg's offensive psyche. In the far south, Tula is relatively abandoned! The Russians leave one "B2" unit that we could see and possibly one other unit but the German commanders are somewhat stunned. However, as we were to find out after we had moved to encircle it, the Russian commanders had neglected to remember the entrenchments that were built in Tula that double Russian defenders. (i.e. Ross and Tim didn't realize there was the entrenchment marker on the Tula city hex) The capture and holding of Tula is worth 10 big VP's for the Germans and also significantly will improve our road/supply options. There were some minor Russian counter-attacks in the far south as well but nothing of consequence. I have to quit this report here but the next four days will follow tomorrow or Wednesday. I have some general observations at this point. The German position looked really favorable at this point. In the far north, the Russians were in full retreat and Klin was severly threatened from both the NW and SW. In the center-north, Istra had fallen without a fight so territorially, we look in great shape but there still are some fairly potent Russian units out there. I hadn't paid too close of attention to what Greg was doing in the south but there were some mixed results at this point. First, Greg had more troops than he could manage in a reasonable amount of time so the turns were taking a "long" time. Second, due to his inexperience as we started pushing him to hurry along, he started losing track of divisional integrity, particularly with the 2 PzA armored divisions. HQ's were out of place for supply purposes as well. Still, strategically, Greg had performed reasonably well as in the South-Center, Serpukhov looked seriously threatened from both the NW and W although the one attack and counterattack. Certainly made things a little brighter for the Russians. The south was starting to resemble the combat in north Africa rather than the Russian front as German units were stretched out almost to the east edge of the map. From: Ross Hagglund Subject: Operation Typhoon! - 1997 (long) (The Soviet Response) My notes are nearly as complete as Chuck's, so I figure a "my side of the story" to some of his comments would give you the feel for how us Russians were *REALLY* doing... INITIAL SOVIET STRATEGY 1) Don't lose to many units. Since regardless of the plan the Germans took the victory conditions depend on victory points which are generated from dead russians. No dead russians no victory points :) 2) give any ground that is needed, but don't flat out run away. Our feeling was that we could retake any citys which the Germans happened to get, and if we stayed just within reach they wouldn't be able to hit us at full strength every turn (and might damage some of there better units). 3) The individual front assignments: A) North: 16th & 30th Armies were to draw good chits and push back 3Pz Army. They appear to be the best balanced (vs. the Germans) at the start of the game. B) Center: Stay out of 4th Army & 4th Pz Army's way while falling back on the outer Moscow fortifications. There is odd piece of road network just south of Moscow which the Germans can't maintain supply past unless 2Pz Army can linkup (or open a cooridor) for supplying the north. C) South: Prevent 2nd Pz Army from being useful. He could give the entire southern map to the German, as long as he didn't get cut off, or destroyed in a standup fight we felt safe. The eventual goal was to pull 50th 10th & 49?th armies back behind the Ore? river (the one 10-15 hexes south of Moscow). > DAY 1 > Weather - Overcast - Ground Freeze We better position ourselves. The goal here was to pull the lines back a little while creating armor proof stacks (1inf 1arm). > DAY 2 > Weather - Clear - Stream Freeze (Russian-types didn't like that) The Weather was never a friend to us. Even when things looked good (weather wise), it was just baiting us out of our defensive positions. > The Russians have some tough decision to make in the north-center and they > choose to open a small gap in their lines through some of the many woods > hexes. The Russian commander was heard over the radio saying "We would > rather be a rock than a pebble". Overall, the Russians gave up quite a bit > of territory , especially in the north as it looks like they are really > trying to avoid casualties. This was a problem. However I didn't have enough troops to maintain a line that could provide any real defense (they would have just been pebbles under his feet. Instead I chose to create some strong points from which to base my defense around. Since not all of his infantry Corps were in supply I felt that his armor would either have to return to deal with my "rocks" or take low odds attacks with the infantry.) > DAY THREE > Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze (More Russian muttering to the weather gods) > > The 3 PzA moved forward to consolidate some of their gains and start to > move towards threatening Klin but no major targets were reachable so it was > pretty uneventful. Our Northern armies were about half the average values for their chit pulls. This caused all sorts of weakness in the North, eventually the 26th and 1st shock armies were used to shore up the position (but they are reinforcements, so not available at this time) Often we had to retreat farther than we wanted for fear of both northern armies being wiped from the board and not having anything to impede 3rd Pz Army. The weakness in the north was forcing me (the center) to hold, and be a little more aggressive, in an attempt to distract Chuck. I believe day three was also when one of my "rocks" struck back at a cadre'd pzg regiment. The theroy here was if I could kill it he'd lose divisional integrity for one of his high speed units (of which they had 12 or so). The attack wen't off well and no counter attack ever materialized (I was able to withdrawl the entire group back to moscow eventually) > DAY FOUR > Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze (Russian are NOT pleased as the panzers will > continue to roll) > > 3 PzA can't reach the retreating Russians but his division of forces allows > for a unit to dart forth north along the Lipka River to hex 2520 which > effectively will at least contest or control a critical road/bridge hex over > the Lipka to get at Klin. 3 PzA effectively is moving due east punching > basically into "thin air". Little did he know how weak we truly were. > Since we primarily had maneuvered in the north, most of the airpower was > free so 4th Army was free to launch a broad offensive. Greg continued to > drive SE towards Serpukhov with the bulk of his armor units but the first > German set-back occurs. A critical 7-1 in the woods of a surrounded "A2" > Russian unit who drew a "16" chit ended up rolling a "3" on the 2D6 which > was about the only unfavorable result to the attacker. We hear coming over > the radio from 4th Army HQ "The dice gods have 'shat' upon me." This was > also particularly nasty as by surrounding this unit, Greg left some key mech > units exposed who are now facing "at least" one 16 strength unit. The "chit gods" were also in on this, as almost every chit we had to draw this turn was well above average and two were maximum or just under. Since Greg did alot (too much?) of his attack determination using the "average russian is..." reasoning, this caused alot of his attacks against A-2-5 infantry units to go very badly for him. We managed to destroyed 3 panzer battalions this turn (two in the German phase), and the stack which had been surrounded fought its way back to the Russian lines (destroying its entrapper in the process) > In the far south, 2nd PzA continues to crawl along in a single minded drive > east ward with the 24th Armored. The infantry starts to bunch up to prepare > to knock out Tula. Our southern commander had been just watching the 2nd PzA until this point. Now he started to feel threatened and started to pull back. > In the South-Center, the Russian launched a large-scale counterattack > supported by the more numerous Russian air units and 4th Army takes some > serious step losses. The quote here was "Horrific counter-attacks, much > lives lost". The other issue is that this turn took a lot of the wind out > of Greg's offensive psyche. While the Germans appeared to get alot more attacks, they often were at four or five to one and would do 1 step of damage. We would only attack when we could get six to one or better and as such our attacks would kill 2 steps, and force farther retreats. > In the far south, Tula is relatively abandoned! The Russians leave one > "B2" unit that we could see and possibly one other unit but the German Actually it was an A-1-5 and an A-1-3 and had we seen the fortification we would have left a little something more. However we didn't have any concerns about retaking tula. > or Wednesday. I have some general observations at this point. The German > position looked really favorable at this point. In the far north, the > Russians were in full retreat and Klin was severly threatened from both the > NW and SW. In the center-north, Istra had fallen without a fight so > territorially, we look in great shape but there still are some fairly potent > Russian units out there. And... they had only killed 4-6 units at this time. I'll followup when Chuck posts his next 4 days. Ross (ross@informix.com) From: Chuck Lietz Subject: Operation Typhoon! 1997 - (part 2) Operation Typhoon! 1997 (Part 2) When we last left off, the Germans had shown large territorial gains but most of the Russians had retreated in reasonable order. In reading Ross' strategy notes, I think part of their logic that must be explained is that we had *intended* to play the extended campaign. (Hah!) One other interesting point of question is that through the first four turns, we had not used a single accelerated assault. DAY FIVE Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze The first major error of the German side occurs in the support phase. I agreed to divide up the support points with 4 for both 4th Army and 4 PzA while giving the remaining two points to the 2 PzA. This led to all of 4th Army HQ's being supported, 3 for 4 PzA, 1 for 2 PzA in the south and left the poor 3 PzA which had shown such incredible gains in the north go out of supply. Further worsening things, I blundered and left the 56th Armored HQ unsupported. More on how this affected the next four days later. Things were getting really wild in the south when I finally got a chance to look at things. At this point, Greg had units all strung out across the board and significant Russian reinforcements were coming on board from the south edge of the mapboard. Further, since we had launched virtually no attacks and the Russians had stripped the Tula garrison, there were also quite a number of large units retreating right into our spread out forces. The German commanders conferred and agreed the Rommel-esque gambit had paid off in that we had taken Tula by maneuver rather than force of arms. Further though, Greg had let his units become woefully separated from their parent HQ's and it was time to hopefully try and get our units pulled back in some semblance of order. So, 2 PzA mainly pulled back as far as possible retreating back towards the slower infantry massing around Tula. The 53rd Inf uses its accelerated assault to destroy a good portion of the Tula garrison this turn. 4th Army in the south-center end up driving eastward, further flanking Serpukhov but made very little if any attacks. Still, their early objective of securing the city and allowing 2 PzA easy access across the Oka look to be well ahead of schedule. 4 PzA basically were forced to consolidate our position and most of all of the armor is now in position to strike in and around Klin from the SW. 2 PzA limp slowly after the retreating Russians due to their lack of supplies and consolidate their position of the key bridge hex at 2520 over the Lipka. An interesting point has to be made about how the German line was getting stretched. Most noticeably, 4 PzA and 4th Army were starting to separate away from each other as the former drove towards Klin in the north and the later went for Serpukhov in the south. I had left basically a very weak, out of supply infantry division to insure that the Russians didn't try any funny supply cutting raids but for all intents and purposes. The German efforts in the center were going in opposite directions and the ability to coordinate at any level was pretty much lost by this turn. I believe this was a play-style issue too. My style was to let Greg pretty much do what he wished and we communicated very little about strategy. The Russian team, partly due to Ross two co-commander's lack of experience, really worked well in planning their moves, especially when things looked bleak for them, they always seemed to come up with a credible response by talking things out. The wily southern Russians though do not let 24th Armor escape by encircling them, far from where anyone can reach them in a short amount of time. This coupled with the failed attacks of last turn really demoralized Greg. However, things were not all bad as the Russians simply abandoned Klin to us. Granted, we would have taken it anyway but we expected at least some token resistance to slow us down and disrupt our supply lines. I guess being outflanked by a lot of out of supply units was scarier than I thought. DAY SIX Weather - Warm Precipitation - (Yech!) The Russians rejoice as the skies finally open up and with the ground warming up, the forests become muddy quagmires for the german mech units. 2 PzA and 4 PzA advance into Klin but can't catch up to any of the invisible defenders. The south and south-center though continue to be the center of the action this turn. Tula continues to take step losses but remains in Soviet hands by the narrowest of margins. Still, a good roll this turn could have taken it but it will certainly fall tomorrow. Greg though, becomes bold though and launches a perfectly co-ordinated accelerated assault with 13th Inf around Serpukhov. Every unit of the 13th ended up participating in a high odds attack and Serpukhov is definitely looking threatened. Generally though, the die continues to give us average to below average results and while we gained some key hexes, the Russians still look pretty strong in this sector. The surrounded 24th Armor also decides to accelerated assault as well before it dies but little is accomplished by so doing. Still, the German commanders toast their early successes as Klin and Istra have fallen, Tula will fall the next day, and Serpukhov will be assaulted in directly tomorrow. The capture of these cities really is critical for our overall plan as we look to strike out in earnest towards the east map edge. The Russians move was more of the same in the north, more just pulling as far back as possible and with the muddy weather, this wasn't that difficult. The south-center though saw the Russians strike back and they pushed back a key hex around Serpukhov keeping it from being surrounded in our next turn. The only good news is that the pocketed 24th Armor HQ and troops repulsed a critical 6-1 attack in the rough. We had a small rules discussion as to how the retreat should be conducted but the three "R's", (Russians, Ross, and Rules) were against us and the retreat still kept our units surrounded. Still, we can try for a breakthrough of our choosing and we at least won't have to counter-attack all of those stacks. DAY SEVEN Weather - Warm - Clear A quick note here. My notes are starting to get sparser and so I'm going from memory mostly. We had been playing for at least twelve hours at this point and things were starting to look interesting in my sector again. The Russians had allowed us to pretty much channel NW of Moscow and while the Russians look thin in the outer entrenchments, all my armor is slowed by the mud to where it can't really position itself for an assault. My plan at this point was to try and get my two infantry divisions in position for an accelerated assault on the entrenchements while keeping the armor to the north to prepare for the impending breakthrough. 3 PzA strikes out east from Klin into about the only large tract of clear ground in this sector. 4 PzA starts to wheel back SE towards the entrenchments at Moscow. Ross is going to have to pull back the units outside of the entrenchment ring, opening things up for me or face some strong attacks this next turn. 4th Army continues to clear out the Russian units in and around Serpukhov and achieves generally reasonable results but we still haven't killed a lot of Russians yet. 2 PzA finally takes Tula which will put the pressure on all the Russian units currently besieging the 24th Armor HQ to finish the job before the infantry guys can get up to threaten them. The Russians pull back in the north but significant units of the reserves in and around Moscow have been released, especially those nasty B-3-9 ski troops. (Skiing in the mud?) All of the units within striking range have pulled back and it will need to be direct strike towards Moscow if we want it. In the south the 24th HQ survives another round of attacks but is doomed at this point and won't last the next turn. Now Ross will probably differ from me but the stacks in the entrenchments looked pretty imposing to my tired and bleary eyes. Further, my chit draws had been average to below average for most of my mech units and so most of my stacks were only 5 - 7 strength points. I was looking at basically probably getting a couple of initial 2-1's in the woods against the stacks in the outer entrenchments, with maybe one divisional integrity and one air shift. Not particularly appealing odds. Ross had correctly moved most of those crappy Russian tank companies into the entrenchment line, or at least enough to make me wonder whether he had combined arms defense. If he did, I would probably lose my armor units and waste my tank battalions. DAY EIGHT Weather - Clear - Normal Battle fatigue has set in for all players. Given the above in retrospect, the effect for me was that in some way I lost my willingness to attack. In other words, I had the chance to force the issue on the entrenchment line but instead, I blinked and continued to just bypass Moscow to the north. This was partly due though to our victory conditions which didn't require us to take Moscow. I felt if we could get units to the east edge of the map and hold Tula and maybe Klin, we would be able to win. However, the validity of the Russian strategy was starting to be proved as large strength Russian stacks were being formed in all three sectors for counter-attack purposes. (Darn stacking rules really favor the Russians here) The separation between 4 PzA and 4th Army is total now and the map looks almost like three separate games; my two armies in the north, Greg units around Serpukhov, and the remains of the 2 PzA who are facing a fairly potent Russian force due east of Tula. As the Germans, we had committed the cardinal error of allowing the Russians to react with impunity to whichever sector we chose to supply as they could act on their interior lines. However, we're doing a real good impression that we're going for the double envelopment. I really blew my HQ support for the 4 PzA too. I supporting one of the Inf HQ which was pushing towards Istra and Radov and left the 56th Armored HQ unsupported. This was a really bad move as out-of-supply mech units are penalized much more severely than out of supply infantry units. Last, I had hoped to change the support allocation and leave the 2 PzA without supplies for the next four days and so I was planning on getting the armored HQ's supported in preparation for the upcoming assaults so they would attack at full strength. So, what could have become the critical turn was allowed to pass almost without incident. 3 PzA moved NE over the Volga river chasing down the remains of the Russian 30th Inf. 4 PzA were now within range of attacking both the Moscow fortification ring OR the main north-south entrenchment line but no attacks to speak of. 4th Army takes Serpukhov but I'm not sure if it was by force if the Russians had abandoned it. 2 PzA didn't do anything of note other than move the infantry eastward from Tula. In my sleepy condition, I made a very foolish error. In order to get a better frontage for one of my infantry units, I moved within the seven hex limit of the uncommitted forces and freed up two stacks of Russian reserves in Moscow, definitely a bad move any way you look at it. The Russians in the north, had the appearance of a strong line in the entrenchments and were now starting to get bold by striking out at my weak infantry, due west of Moscow. There were also large stacks between the Moscow ring and the north-south entrenchment line north of Moscow, that now had a lot more armor due to my blunder that looked to threaten my supply lines of any move east towards Dmitrov. And so part two must come to close as I prepared to return home for some much needed sleep. We decided to do the weather roll before I left and we had SNOW!!! Greg and I were really depressed now as snow does bad things for the Germans. We had a strategy session as Greg intended to carry on in my absence and basically, I thought we needed to ignore the south completely and focus our supplies on the north. Further, I told him of my plan to eventually strike either towards Moscow or Dmitrov and the roads leading east but a lot would depend on how bold the Russian became in the favorable weather. Still, the geographic situation looked good, but there were a lot of Red units running around. The situation had definitely turned against us here but the game certainly was not over yet as we shall see in part three. . . From: Ross Hagglund Subject: Operation Typhoon! 1997 - (part 2) (Russian Response) Operation Typhoon! 1997 (Part 2) DAY FIVE Weather - Clear - Ground Freeze > So, 2 PzA mainly pulled back as far as possible retreating back towards the > slower infantry massing around Tula. The 53rd Inf uses its accelerated > assault to destroy a good portion of the Tula garrison this turn. We were very happy the Germans focused so much attention on Tula. They tied down several Corps of Infantry for several turns which could have supported the 24th Pz Corps. > 4th Army in the south-center end up driving eastward, further flanking > Serpukhov but made very little if any attacks. Still, their early objective > of securing the city and allowing 2 PzA easy access across the Oka look to > be well ahead of schedule. They did a marvelous job at taking Serpukhov. Very well conducted set piece operation. We began to work out a withdrawl policy in this area on this turn. Part of the Russian problem was Serpukhov was on an Army Group boundry between the southern commander and myself. The 24th Corps had the southern commander so distracted he didn't pay attention to Serpukhov, and I was worried about 4th Pz army turning south I didn't pay attention either til it was to late. > The wily southern Russians though do not let 24th Armor escape by > encircling them, far from where anyone can reach them in a short amount of > time. This coupled with the failed attacks of last turn really demoralized > Greg. However, things were not all bad as the Russians simply abandoned > Klin to us. Granted, we would have taken it anyway but we expected at least > some token resistance to slow us down and disrupt our supply lines. I guess > being outflanked by a lot of out of supply units was scarier than I thought. In the South Tim was pretty disrupted during the first 4 turns with the 24th's actions. It wasn't until he was figuring out what to do for turn five that he turn and commented "Hey!, I think I can kill these guys here." at which point we needed some morale boost so we threw in our air power and he proceeded to destroy a panzer battalion and PG regiment which had been hanging too far out on their own. He also surrounded the HQ, thus cutting off the only feasible relief force (since they became "isolated" or "out of supply" on day 6) Up North Jeff was in better spirits but with far fewer (and weaker troops). The 30th Army had pulled alot of bad chits and most of it was dead or cadred. I believe we were down to about 14 combat points between 5 units at this point. Defending Klin would have destroyed the 30th. So we elected to preserve the army (and wait for snow...) DAY SIX Weather - Warm Precipitation - (Yech!) It you can't have snow, hope for MUD!!!! > Still, the German commanders toast their early successes as Klin and Istra > have fallen, Tula will fall the next day, and Serpukhov will be assaulted in > directly tomorrow. The capture of these cities really is critical for our > overall plan as we look to strike out in earnest towards the east map edge. Part of our overall plan was to give away these victory point cities as early as possible. We felt we could take them back during the second half of the game, and they boost the chances to free the strategic reserves (day 6 was a good day for the 20th army (moscow reserve)). My fear was with Tula that the Germans would simply isolate it and destroy it latter which reinforce- ments coming up from the rear. > The south-center though saw the Russians strike back and they pushed back a > key hex around Serpukhov keeping it from being surrounded in our next turn. This was the "Killer Stack" in the Russian center 24 points of combined arms, it was more a show of things to come, and helped to keep the Germans cautious in future moves (based on hearing comments of "'its' out there somewhere" during 4th Army moves). > The only good news is that the pocketed 24th Armor HQ and troops repulsed a > critical 6-1 attack in the rough. We had a small rules discussion as to how > the retreat should be conducted but the three "R's", (Russians, Ross, and > Rules) were against us and the retreat still kept our units surrounded. But only surrounded by ZOC now. Had the Germans bypassed Tula after their initial attack I believe they would have had 2 turns to have attempted a relief of the 24th. (loosing this HQ would knock all of the armor in the south to half speed, which would greatly lower it's ability to influence Russian moves) DAY SEVEN Weather - Warm - Clear > 4 PzA starts to wheel back SE towards the entrenchments at Moscow. Ross > is going to have to pull back the units outside of the entrenchment ring, > opening things up for me or face some strong attacks this next turn. This move in particular led us to believe that the Germans were going for the encircling move. The 4th and 4thPz armies were far apart flanking both sides of the moscow outer fortifications. We had been pulling back field armies into these trenches for the last two days. We started to discuss what we could do to change this situation, but the situation in the North wasn't encouraging enough to try more than laying "speed bumps" in front of Chuck's two Panzer armies. > 4th Army continues to clear out the Russian units in and around Serpukhov > and achieves generally reasonable results but we still haven't killed a lot > of Russians yet. You can't kill what you can't catch (and the 4th Army wasn't up to risking the 57th Pz Corps by itself, while the 24th was being exterminated, the loss of the 57th would have left no (effective) armor south of Moscow (except Russian ;)) > Now Ross will probably differ from me but the stacks in the entrenchments > looked pretty imposing to my tired and bleary eyes. Further, my chit draws > had been average to below average for most of my mech units and so most of > my stacks were only 5 - 7 strength points. I was looking at basically > probably getting a couple of initial 2-1's in the woods against the stacks > in the outer entrenchments, with maybe one divisional integrity and one air > shift. Not particularly appealing odds. Ross had correctly moved most of > those crappy Russian tank companies into the entrenchment line, or at least > enough to make me wonder whether he had combined arms defense. If he did, I > would probably lose my armor units and waste my tank battalions. I would agree with you. The entrenchments looked imposing, but... there were a couple of stacks which were "lets say a little underpowered". I was trying to look bigger than I was until reinforcements arrived. If the 4th army had arrived at the southern side of the city things would have been different, but they were still slowly advancing (still at least one turn away). DAY EIGHT Weather - Clear - Normal > Battle fatigue has set in for all players. Given the above in retrospect, > the effect for me was that in some way I lost my willingness to attack. We were still praying for snow (Tim pointed out that Soviets were atheists, which may have been compounding the problem). We were also wearing down, we hadn't had a good victory in a few days (since turn 4?) and needed something to lift our spirits. > However, the > validity of the Russian strategy was starting to be proved as large strength > Russian stacks were being formed in all three sectors for counter-attack > purposes. (Darn stacking rules really favor the Russians here) The Stacking Rules state (going from memory) 3 German combat units + 1 HQ + 1 Cadre In combat Germans are allowed 1 Regiment + 2 Battalions + 1HQ + 1 Cadre 2 Russian combat units + 1 HQ + 1 Cadre + 1 company/battalion In combat Russian are allowed 1 Division + 1 Brigade + 1 HQ + 1 Cadre + 1 company/battalion Here is the rub... The only German Battalions are the tanks (12 of them total), all Russian Armor is Brigade or smaller, and there are Brigade sized infantry as well, so the combinations possible to the Russian are far greater than those to the German. We Russians realized during our pre-game discussion and focused on killing German tank battalions at any opportunity. To be fair the Germans have this little thing called "Divisional Integrity" which when used correctly (and believe me they knew how to use it correctly) would shift the combat odds 3 columns on offense or 1 on defense. > The separation between 4 PzA and 4th Army is total now and the map looks > almost like three separate games; my two armies in the north, Greg units > around Serpukhov, and the remains of the 2 PzA who are facing a fairly > potent Russian force due east of Tula. As the Germans, we had committed the > cardinal error of allowing the Russians to react with impunity to whichever > sector we chose to supply as they could act on their interior lines. > However, we're doing a real good impression that we're going for the double > envelopment. We have shifted 25th army (10th or 50th I forget which) and the 1st Shock army to the Northern front (and it still looked bleak up there). Each "front" had developed these "U" shaped frontages which provided for their own flank support as contact with neighboring army groups had lengthened to 8-12 hexes. We had finally put togther some firepower which could be used offensively (more than just the one stack we had previously). We had 4 units in the North, 6 in the center, and 2 in the south which were as good or better than anything the Germans had (prior to column shifts). These groups also defended very well as they included armor to negate the German panzers. > 4th Army takes Serpukhov but I'm not sure if it was by force if the Russians > had abandoned it. A little of both, but I'd tip my hat to an excellently conducted attack on the part of the German 4th army commander (sadly one of his last :) ). > In my sleepy condition, I made a very foolish error. In order to get a > better frontage for one of my infantry units, I moved within the seven hex > limit of the uncommitted forces and freed up two stacks of Russian reserves actually three stacks, and it was all the tank company/battalion counters which can just be added to existing stacks... This allowed us to vastly improve our defense against the two panzer armies. > north-south entrenchment line north of Moscow, that now had a lot more armor > due to my blunder that looked to threaten my supply lines of any move east > towards Dmitrov. The probalem is supply lines mean very little if you take your corps HQs with and Chuck had done this. > And so part two must come to close as I prepared to return home for some > much needed sleep. We decided to do the weather roll before I left and we > had SNOW!!! Greg and I were really depressed now as snow does bad things > for the Germans. We had a strategy session as Greg intended to carry on in > my absence and basically, I thought we needed to ignore the south completely > and focus our supplies on the north. Further, I told him of my plan to > eventually strike either towards Moscow or Dmitrov and the roads leading > east but a lot would depend on how bold the Russian became in the favorable > weather. Still, the geographic situation looked good, but there were a lot > of Red units running around. The situation had definitely turned against us > here but the game certainly was not over yet as we shall see in part three. . . Snow :) (til then) Ross (ross@informix.com) From: Chuck Lietz Subject: Operation Typhoon - 1997 (Part 3) Operation Typhoon! 1997 (Part 3) When I last left off, I had just retired for the evening dead on my feet with the situation looking very bleak. The weather had turned against us and the Russians had a lot of combined arms stacks due to my movement gaffe. My partner Greg went ahead and played through one turn and so for the next day, I'll be going off his sparse notes and hope that Ross can fill in more what happened. DAY NINE Weather - Snow The Germans fall back across the line but the half movement rates limit this severly. Some units it appears were intentionally sacrificed, particularly on the flanks of each of the three sectors. It appeared that Ross was the most aggressive in the center as when I returned, the German lines looked pretty intact and only a few units appeared to have been attacked. DAY TEN Weather - Warm - Clear The snow melts however the mud will slow us down. I arrive back early Sunday morning and this is what I see. In the south, we continue to have the standoff, west of Tula. In the south-center, the Germans have gotten bunched up into this very small, unit-dense line running at an angle in front of Serpukhov. The Russian seemed to be achored on the Oka river and seem to be flanking deep on the German left of this position, which has the potential to cut some supply lines if we don't respond. In the north, the 3 PzA has divided from the 4 PzA and is now almost on the north edge of the map on the wrong side of the Volga river. Strong reinforcements though for 3 PzA are moving forward along the road through Klin. The 4 PzA has pretty much pulled back in line NE of Istra and is bunched up as well. One critical point is that all of my mech units are on roads though. 2 PzA continues doing very little in the south. The Russian lines look fairly strong here due to some reinforcements coming in. The problem is that the German initiative has been lost here as the German units are too weak to threaten an envelopment and to some degree, the 2 PzA's mission has become to defend and hold Tula. 4th Army in the south center is basically doing very little other than guarding Serpukhov. I suggest to Greg that he still has strong units, particularly along the Oka and that he should start to press along the river line to see if the 2 PzA could be linked up with at the critical bridge over the the river. Greg dutifully pushes forward in that area but pulls his line backwards and closer to Serpukhov on his left side. The problem here is that by massing our units, this also allows Ross the ability to mass his Russian units as well and pick off stray regiments that will hurt our ability to get divisional integrity. Now in Greg's defense, the road net east of Serpukhov was not favorable to his situation so his ability to shift his one mech division was not easy. However, I feel we could have really made things a lot more difficult for the Russians had we stretched our lines out and force Ross to react accordingly. I'm not sure how much we could have dictated to the Russians in this area as they looked pretty imposing but at least we shouldn't have allowed Ross to concentrate without making him pay a price to do so. Enough musing about the south, because the game was about to take another turn. In looking at the mapboard I noticed that in the Russians attempt to find defensible terrain, they not only abandoned the road to Dmitrov but also moved more than the critical three hexes that would allow me to use strategic movement. Now I would have to bypass two hexes in the clear before I could continue on the road but I was stunned as there basically was no Russian units between me and the east edge of the board along this critical east-west road line! Now, I looked at this for a long time as I had some problems I would need to overcome if I wanted to exploit this opportunity; the 3 PzA was woefully out of position north of the Volga river but still were on road hexes for the most part, very little if any of my infantry could support a deep thrust and so this would be an all mech gamble, and last, Greg had left the 56th Armored unsupported in favor of the 7th Infantry. Now the 7th is a big unit with a lot of A-3-4 regiments but still, these guys were only the screening force NE of Istra and were not going to do much. However, I decided that any hope of a German victory would have to come from the north so I plunged forward. All of my mechanized formations leapt forward finally being unshackled by being able to ignore Russian units. The question became though, how best to position my units; should I go totally for speed and send the mech units forward with their HQ's to try and find the east edge or try and allow the infantry time to secure the supply lines. In the end, I compromised sending only the 40th and 46th Armored through the breech moving one stack through the entrechment lines east of Dmitrov while fanning the other 4-6 stacks out along the north-south roads in the fortifications. At the time, I was not convinced I could get the required 30 units to the east edge of the map and I rationalized my move thinking that I could always turn back and strike at the Russian units who would be forced to move north to try and stop me. I was feeling quite pleased at this turn of events and I could see by the long looks the Russian commanders were giving each other, they were starting to have more than a little concern. The Russians requested some time for a long strategy session to see how they could salvage things which made me feel even better about my move. "Yes, we can still snatch a victory here", I thought. Upon coming back, the Russians grim but determined countenances told the story, there would be no collapse. At this point, I didn't pay any attention to what was going on in the south and south center so Ross will have to fill you in. In the north, the Russians desparately try and react to the threat. One lone ski unit is placed on the road to the east in front of my panzers at Dmitrov. Russian units move down from the north and south in the entrenchments but we are left out of enemy ZOC at Dmitrov. The Russians do however move significant units north and try to cut my supply lines west of Dmitrov. The attacks go well for the Russians and most distressing was that a 2-1 in the woods succeeded with a result of a "3" on 2D6. Arrgh! This hurt as the success of this attack has now allowed the Russian to cut-off the 40th and 46th Armored around Dmitrov putting them out of supply. What horrible luck and this definitely would change my plans. DAY ELEVEN Weather - Clear - Warm I instruct the southern commander that I need to extricate my panzers around Dmitrov and put them back in supply. There is 3-4 large Russian stacks that are pushing up NW of Moscow and I know they have some striking power as Greg informed these units got above average chit draws in the Russian counter-attacks in the snow. I was faced with a dilema at this point. I could try and wait for my guys to clear a supply line on the east-west road to Dmitrov or push forward with the now out of supply 40th and 46th Armored. At this point, I can see that my opportunity to push the 30 required units off the east edge of the map would be very difficult. So, having tired of all the constant posturing and positioning, I order an all-out offensive in the north, with accelarated assaults from the 56th and 41st Armored, and the 5th and 7th Infantry HQ's. There were two main Russian pockets, one west of Dmitrov and the other N-NW of Moscow. My goal was to pocket both if possible but at least be successful in locking these units in place so that would have to counter-attack my units, in a huge battle of attrition that I felt I could eventually win. In retrospect, this was probably optimistic but our game time was running short and so I felt this was the time to throw caution to the winds. The attacks ended up going very well for the Germans. We succeeded in re-establishing the supply line to the 40th and 46th Armored at Dmitrov as well as isolate the pocket of units west of the town. Even better though was the 7th Infantry attacked a lone tank brigade at 10-1 odds and got a breakthrough result. This allowed me to advance and isolate another two stacks of generally high quality units. This was a gamble in that if the pockets weren't severely damaged in their attacks, my infantry units would in turn be isolated and probably killed. Still, I think things were still looking somewhat grim from the Russian side as I had succeeded in pretty much doing what I had intended, draw the Russian out of the entrenchments and put them in a position where they couldn't just retreat away without sacrificing a lot of good units. I have no idea what happened in the south but since I requested all the air units, I don't recall much happening. I did happen to notice that Ross had turned the 4th Army's left flank pretty badly and Greg's defensive play was not helping his situation much. I basically tried to tell him, just hold Serpukhov and if you could threaten or kill units along the north bank of the Oka, go for it. Other than that, there was little or no chance of much being done to help the strategic situation. In the north, Ross (Jeff had to step out for some time on Sunday) correctly went with a bold Russian attack to free up the larger pocket of his units on the north-south road from Moscow. If successful, not only would he free most of his units but he would also isolate my exposed infantry, and lock me into either counter-attacking or retreating with all my units. Now, I would like to report that Ross did make one somewhat minor mistake on how he chose to split his attacks with the isolated units west of Dmitrov which would have allowed some units to survive another turn but his units there were doomed. Overall though, the Russians were able to have reasonably successful attacks in the larger, more critical battles and his units were re-supplied for my upcoming turn. However, I think I killed something like 8-9 Russian units on this turn alone and I think we were up to 22 killed Russian units for the game. DAY TWELVE Weather - Clear - Warm The game had move into its pontentially bloody climax at this point but the time factor starting working against us. We probably could only finish this turn and maybe one more before we had to break things up. This led to a "political" decision being made. Greg had seen me use all the air units and make some critical accelearated assaults last turn and he wished to do the same this turn in the south. I looked at all of the exposed Russian large stacks that I could isolate again this turn but in the interest of fairness, I relented to his having all the air units this turn. The reason this was critical was that I needed to secure at least one favoable results in order to stay in contact with the Russian stacks to isolate him. I still also had the 40th and 46th armored that I had intentionally saved for another round of accelerated assaults that I had planned to swing back west as well. So the critical battle in the north ended in a wimper as the Germans meekly retreated out of zone of control.leaving the isolated 7th Infantry to die. I also was learning the hard way about the one of my mistakes in my breakthrough at Dmitrov. Moving into the entrenchments is a terrible trap for the Germans as the Russians gleefully moved up next to my units while not having to attack me. This meant I either had to attack or move about the equivalent of one hex away due to the leaving ZOC movement penalties. Greg launched a massive assault with almost every unit of his command and while he was able to inflict some step-losses, I think only one unit was killed and he ended up losing the last of 2 PzA's tank battallion. The Russians merely bent there line in the south where necessary and continued rolling up the 4th Army's left flank to the point that Serpukhov probably would have been surrounded in another day or two. AFTERMATH Even though we didn't finish the game, I would have to say the game probably would have ended up being a draw or a Russian Tactical Victory. I think we could have held onto at least Klin and perhaps Tula if which would have meant killing another dozen Russian units as he counter-attacks to secure the draw. I don't think we did any better than our historical counter-parts but we certainly didn't do any worse. GERMAN PLAY Things we did right: 1) Greg's early end run in the south really put some pressure on that front in the early game. 2) We took all three of the important city hexes well ahead of our expectations 3) We took advantage of the opportunities that were presented, espcecially in the north 4) We used our combined arms and divisional integrity very well Things we did wrong: 1) Let the southern gambit last one turn too many 2) Greg and I didn't communicate and co-ordinate very well 3) We let our sectors become separated 4) I allowed Greg to lose strategic focus and he became lost in relation to the overall goals 5) We allowed chance and circumstance to demoralize us at critical junctures. Overall, I think I probably did have two chances for victory and "blinked" on both of them. As the Russians retreated to the outer entrenchment lines of Moscow, I should have pushed right for the city. Now part of this was dictated by the lack of supported HQ's of the 4 PzA and I had we not gotten snow on the critical Turn 9, I might have made a concentrated push towards Moscow. I don't feel particularly bad about this lost opportunity at least. However, when I did have the chance to go for the east edge, I lost the boldness required to become single-minded in my objective and therefore I wasn't able to achieve either. If I wanted to reach the east edge, I should have continued forward on Turn 11 and let the remainder of my forces simply tie up as many Russian units as possible. If I wanted to deliver the "bank-handed" blow striking back on the units moving north from Moscow, I should have moved back out of the entrenchments instead of getting portions of the 40th and 46th Armored trapped in them and been more forceful about demanding the air units on Turn 12 to raise the stakes one more time in those battles. So in the end, I achieved neither goal and so I ended my German career with Herr General Guderian, having both been relieved of our commands for failing to secure the final required German victory of 1941. I again would like to put a plug in for Operation Typhoon as this system is one of the most playable designs I've run across, particularly at the operational level. While the chit system can put off some of the diehards, the feeling of attacking on faith alone is a realistic part of operational command that is rarely if ever simulated. If you can find a reasonably priced copy, it is well worth it. From: Ross Hagglund Subject: Operation Typhoon - 1997 (Part 3) (Russian reply) (I was out on vacation so this isn't as timely as my other replies) Operation Typhoon! 1997 (Part 3) DAY NINE Weather - Snow > It appeared that Ross was the most aggressive in the center as when I > returned, the German lines looked pretty intact and only a few units > appeared to have been attacked. The Germans did a good job at securing defensible terrain for the Snow turn. The Russians were out of position for attacking. We made a dozen attacks (Germans lost ~18 steps, we lost 1) mostly on the infantry. This was another of those psychological swings, the Russians became aware they could attack. DAY TEN Weather - Warm - Clear The weather was a very clever German trap! We were baited out of our entrench- ments. There was a 50% chance for continued snow, had this happened, I believe the game would have been over as the Germans may not have had the ability to go back over to offense. Clear weather was another story... The Russian forces were now out in the open and attacked mercilessly in the north. The center and southern commander was still demoralized, and made only light attacks (not very well organized or supported) At this point in the game the Russian army is stronger than the German every- where south of Moscow, in large part due to the complete lack of armor support (since the 24th Pz Corps was destroyed, only the 57th was left and Greg didn't risk this formation.). > 2 PzA continues doing very little in the south. The Russian lines look > fairly strong here due to some reinforcements coming in. The problem is > that the German initiative has been lost here as the German units are too > weak to threaten an envelopment and to some degree, the 2 PzA's mission has > become to defend and hold Tula. We were both in strong defensive positions, any attacker would have to risk remaining in the open (clear terrain) if his attacks were not successful. I was waiting for snow before making any attacks (time and weather are on the side of the Russian player) > 4th Army in the south center is basically doing very little other than ... > out and force Ross to react accordingly. I'm not sure how much we could > have dictated to the Russians in this area as they looked pretty imposing > but at least we shouldn't have allowed Ross to concentrate without making > him pay a price to do so. I was having fun in this area, I had six "killer stacks" attacking (killing) 2-3 German regiments per turn. ( lots of good description of poor Russian troop deployment deleted) What can we say... Ooops!!! Jeff was kicking himself the rest of the day for that non-move (he forgot to shift two cadres to block road movement) > The Russians requested some time for a long strategy session to see how > they could salvage things which made me feel even better about my move. We shifted the 26th, 1st shock, and part of 20th armies to the North in an attempt to contain Chucks advance. The only miscalculation we made was in not pinning down the movement of the German reserves, and forgetting that Russian tank brigades are not defensive formations (more on this day 11) DAY ELEVEN Weather - Clear - Warm > I instruct the southern commander that I need to extricate my panzers > around Dmitrov and put them back in supply. There is 3-4 large Russian > stacks that are pushing up NW of Moscow and I know they have some striking ... > stacks of generally high quality units. This was a gamble in that if the > pockets weren't severely damaged in their attacks, my infantry units would > in turn be isolated and probably killed. Still, I think things were still > looking somewhat grim from the Russian side as I had succeeded in pretty > much doing what I had intended, draw the Russian out of the entrenchments > and put them in a position where they couldn't just retreat away without > sacrificing a lot of good units. Chuck had managed to isolate 80% of the striking power of the Northern armies in one turn (isolation is not a good thing). Jeff needed to leave for a few hours which left me in charge of the entire Russian army (and I hadn't a clue what was going on up north) > I have no idea what happened in the south but since I requested all the air > units, I don't recall much happening. The Germans made no progress. The Russians attack and maul another 2-3 regiments in the center. > In the north, Ross (Jeff had to step out for some time on Sunday) correctly > went with a bold Russian attack to free up the larger pocket of his units on > the north-south road from Moscow. If successful, not only would he free > most of his units but he would also isolate my exposed infantry, and lock me > into either counter-attacking or retreating with all my units. Now, I > would like to report that Ross did make one somewhat minor mistake on how he > chose to split his attacks with the isolated units west of Dmitrov which > would have allowed some units to survive another turn but his units there > were doomed. And Chuck, being the consumate sportsman tried to warn me that I was doing the incorrect thing (twice I ignored him). It wasn't until I had resolved the battle I realized what he was talking about. (thats what 4 hours of sleep gets ya) > Overall though, the Russians were able to have reasonably > successful attacks in the larger, more critical battles and his units were > re-supplied for my upcoming turn. However, I think I killed something like > 8-9 Russian units on this turn alone and I think we were up to 22 killed > Russian units for the game. I was amazed that we actually saved three of the five stacks, and the three we saved threatened the southern flank of Chucks pincer enough for him to position some of his reserves in screening efforts. DAY TWELVE Weather - Clear - Warm > The game had move into its pontentially bloody climax at this point but the > time factor starting working against us. We probably could only finish this > turn and maybe one more before we had to break things up. This led to a > "political" decision being made. Greg had seen me use all the air units and > make some critical accelearated assaults last turn and he wished to do the > same this turn in the south. I looked at all of the exposed Russian large > stacks that I could isolate again this turn but in the interest of fairness, > I relented to his having all the air units this turn. The reason this was > critical was that I needed to secure at least one favoable results in order > to stay in contact with the Russian stacks to isolate him. I still also had > the 40th and 46th armored that I had intentionally saved for another round > of accelerated assaults that I had planned to swing back west as well. This brief relief from constant German pressure, allowed the Russian reserves coming from other fronts to bolster the defense, allowing us to regain our sense of composure. (i.e. organize a defense, instead of react) > Greg launched a massive assault with almost every unit of his command and > while he was able to inflict some step-losses, I think only one unit was > killed and he ended up losing the last of 2 PzA's tank battallion. Total results of the Southern "Offensive": Germans lost - 4 steps (two panzer battalions) Russians lost- 1 step (and about 10 hexes which could be retaken) > The Russians merely bent there line in the south where necessary and > continued rolling up the 4th Army's left flank to the point that Serpukhov > probably would have been surrounded in another day or two. More Germans die in the Center while the 57th Pz Corps sits helpless. The Germans did miserable in the south, especially once you consider they shot the remainder of their accelerated assaults (doubling their attack factors). The Russian plan was to consolidate and wait for reinforcements/snow... AFTERMATH > > Even though we didn't finish the game, I would have to say the game > probably would have ended up being a draw or a Russian Tactical Victory. I > think we could have held onto at least Klin and perhaps Tula if which would > have meant killing another dozen Russian units as he counter-attacks to > secure the draw. I don't think we did any better than our historical > counter-parts but we certainly didn't do any worse. I believe it would have been a Russian (Strategic or Tactical) Victory In another 20 turns the Germans would have been wiped from the board, it was simply a matter of how many Russians would die in the process. If they could kill 15-30? then it would be Tactical, less and it would be Strategic. We would have had no problems shifting the result one in our favor as the requirement for this is 12 units west of the start line (and we already had 6-8 units in the center) GERMAN PLAY > Things we did right: > 1) Greg's early end run in the south really put some pressure on that > front in the early game. True it disrupted Tim, who was worried to distraction the first 3-4 turns (though I think he came back nicely :) ) > 2) We took all three of the important city hexes well ahead of our expectations From a supply point they were useful. But cities aren't overly useful to the Germans, as the Russians will be able to retake cities unless you cripple their army. > 3) We took advantage of the opportunities that were presented, espcecially > in the north > 4) We used our combined arms and divisional integrity very well Too Well... Which the Germans need to do to have a chance at this game. > > Things we did wrong: > 1) Let the southern gambit last one turn too many > 2) Greg and I didn't communicate and co-ordinate very well an overall strategy would have been useful, your resources were often switched just as a breakthrough was about to happen. > 3) We let our sectors become separated > 4) I allowed Greg to lose strategic focus and he became lost in relation to > the overall goals he also had only two panzer corps in his entire army (until he lost one), this was considerably less firepower than Chuck had up north, though Greg should have been able to walk 4th Army up to the gates of Moscow and frontally assault the entrenchments to seize the city (4th army is that kinda army). > 5) We allowed chance and circumstance to demoralize us at critical junctures. Both sides did this... (I think it is one of the cool aspects of the game) > Overall, I think I probably did have two chances for victory and "blinked" > on both of them. As the Russians retreated to the outer entrenchment lines > of Moscow, I should have pushed right for the city. Now part of this was > dictated by the lack of supported HQ's of the 4 PzA and I had we not gotten > snow on the critical Turn 9, I might have made a concentrated push towards > Moscow. I don't feel particularly bad about this lost opportunity at least. > However, when I did have the chance to go for the east edge, I lost the > boldness required to become single-minded in my objective and therefore I > wasn't able to achieve either. If I wanted to reach the east edge, I should > have continued forward on Turn 11 and let the remainder of my forces simply > tie up as many Russian units as possible. If I wanted to deliver the > "bank-handed" blow striking back on the units moving north from Moscow, I > should have moved back out of the entrenchments instead of getting portions > of the 40th and 46th Armored trapped in them and been more forceful about > demanding the air units on Turn 12 to raise the stakes one more time in > those battles. So in the end, I achieved neither goal and so I ended my > German career with Herr General Guderian, having both been relieved of our > commands for failing to secure the final required German victory of 1941. I debriefed, Jeff, Tim, and Greg. The one point Greg brought up which I believes bears mention is "The Germans should attack, and attack, and attack". German casualties are not considered when calculating victory. Using accellerated attacks early in the game can keep the Russians from forming any coherent defense. Greg noticed that Chuck was able to rip huge holes in the Russian lines early in the game, and the Russians never completely recovered from that damage. Greg says he played to conservatively, and should have been more aggressive. The Germans should set a goal of fighting a dozen battles a turn. Russian Play things we did right 1) grouped those armor brigades with infantry ASAP to provide tank defense. 2) for the most part we didn't let the Germans get many "solid hits" on us. we stayed back enough to prevent large German concentration of force (there is a reason Russian infantry moves 1 faster than German) 3) didn't get caught up fighting on the start line. We were not well organized for defense until about turn 4, fighting from the start would have destroyed most of our armies. 4) didn't let the emotional lows keep us down. This game has alot of emotional peaks and valleys, if your play is influenced by how the game is going you will not do well 5) retreated cadres out of harms way (so they didn't get turned into victory points for the German) things we did wrong 1) we didn't use our rail system much 2) didn't anaylze the german intentions correctly. 3) let the 24th pz corps distract us from better defending Tula 4) didn't notice Tula was a fortress... (and left it under defended) 5) didn't use our airpower effectively (this was partly due to the split command thing, we couldn't agree on how to use our airpower) > I again would like to put a plug in for Operation Typhoon as this system is > one of the most playable designs I've run across, particularly at the > operational level. While the chit system can put off some of the diehards, > the feeling of attacking on faith alone is a realistic part of operational > command that is rarely if ever simulated. If you can find a reasonably > priced copy, it is well worth it. I agree with Chucks assesment of the game. The system works particularly well in this 3 mapper as keeping track of what enemy strength is near impossible. This game is one of bold action (or lack there of), none of this looking around for another point or two in order to bring the odds to 3-1, you make attacks with what units you can (having maneuvered yourself and your opponent to a favorable situation for yourself (hopefully)). One "odd" thing about the combat chart which Jeff pointed out. It is a "True odds" chart, so the results are not in any order other than the desired % of the outcome. Most charts have a high numbers are good, low numbers are bad table with die roll modifiers. In OT there are no die roll modifiers, just column shifts. It can take some getting use to, and can be demoralizing when you notice in some situations having one fewer column shift would have changed a result in your favor (of course you wouldn't have rolled the same on the lower odds chart ;) ) Ross