Once again 1st Panzer jumps into the breach to push back the Soviets
Heavy fighting around Tolstyi Rogi continues. While the Engineers and defenders dig in, 1st Panzer buys time. So that the forces near Buki can hold a bit longer.
With a few more streams to offer a line the Germans abandon Rogi. Collapsing slowly towards their supply line.
In the 16th turn late on the 8th or early on the 9th of Feb we realize that the Soviets will eventually collapse the line, but not intime for the specific scenario conditions.
The Russians took too long to get into the swing of things and also had a hard time bringing force to bear, where needed. Their losses early game were too high also.
With the focus by the Soviet on the supply link cut, the Germans, slowed their advance, but in hind sight could easily have pressed home the advantage, by
Clearing the Gniloi loop above, and eventually threatened a decisive victory. Would this have forced a Soviet re assessment of their choice of target?
I think the next time we play, we will use random weather to remove the certainty of weather results and disable some of the forward planning the German player was able to do.
Formation losses during scenario 4.
Below the historical end state:
In game end state:
Fascinating. Historically both sides fought it differently. The Germans went for the more western axis, attempting to break through to the pocket while pocketing 6th Tank Army in the process. The Soviets responded by committing 2nd Tank Army to block the Germans frontally (except 2 tank brigades sent to 40th Army to harass the German left flank.)
In your game the Germans took the more eastern axis, pushing directly for the pocket instead of going wide. The Soviets responded, in your game, by going wide, and putting Bogdanov’s tankers to attempt to cave in the German flank.
It is worth noting that the Soviets scored a significant triumph by forcing VII Corps to retreat all along its line, which meant it lost control of the board edge where it was connected to. The set of rules you used does not penalize this, but should have. My bad, not yours. But the need to maintain that connection should have required the Germans to send enough force to correct this, which would have weakened their drive north.
In martial arts, it is wisdom not to oppose force with force, but to deflect it, and use it against the attacker. But in war, and I think in this scenario, failing to oppose force with force, by the defender, is to risk the attacker reaching his objective. By the Soviet commander failing to put enough force in the way of the attacker to stop him, he risked a breakthrough to the pocket, which the defender must prevent at all costs.
What’s nice about it being a game, one can explore these different approaches.
Thanks for the comments. I suspect that with further aggression by the Germans they could have forced the pocket. But they were wary of mud and isolation/supply. Once they achieved a modest break through they halted.
Further advance would have exposed more weakness. SO I halted. Caution is the better part of valour or something. As for the supply thing. Well I find it odd, that at start on the right flank we are fine with leaving the right flank basically wide open, yet the left flank is a ‘mandatory’ or much required to be kept locked up tight. – 1 supply route will do is what I figured. The Germans can let the Soviets press themback a bit, hold the line and if the game was ‘wider’ in scope maybe that creates an opportunity for a strike at the Soviet elsewhere. I dont have the entire front line mentally inmy mind like you do.
Meanwhile yes the Soviets force back the Germans and I think eventually cut that 2nd supply line and force a general retreat. The Soviet player has to accept lower odds attacks and keep on doing them and taking the losses.