Climbing the Mountian

[ackack]

CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN
...or “tumulus”

Campaign:
Stepanovka-Marinovka (18 turns)

Playing as:
USSR

Against:
Wehrmacht

Difficulty:
Normal, Simulator (defaults)

PREFACE:
Don’t want to spend too much time explaining things here, I just want to quickly point out that I plan on starting this AAR on the 7th turn into the campaign for a few reasons:
1.) I REALLY don’t want to restart my current Soviet campaign. It’s taken me a month just to get this far...
2.) I don’t want to start playing as Germans - that campaign seems too easy atm, so it may not make for as interesting of an AAR (imo).
3.) I’ll be playing the rest of the turns (after turn 6) blind.

You’ll be missing a lot of gameplay, but nothing too special imo. Things started to get more interesting only a turn or two ago, with the recent German counterattack,  so maybe this will be like skipping the more “boring” parts and getting to the good stuff. I’ll give a short summary as to what happened in the first 6 turns and move on from there.


TURNS 1-6

Here’s what the map looks like on turn 1:




Here’s the map by the beginning of turn 7:



As you can see, our forces have managed to penetrate a good 6km west on the northern border, 3km west on the southern. We now hold all key positions in Marinovka-Fedorovka and almost all in Stepanovka (the Germans still occupy a VP southwest of the village).


Here’s a look at the current operation statistics, as of turn 7 (USSR on top, Germany on bottom):



We posses 1:7 ratio in infantry losses, but only 3:4 in tanks and spgs. The German 75mm guns have been very effective at sniping our T34s and T70s at long range. So far, superior numbers combined with liberal use of artillery has allowed us to deal with this disadvantage. However, the recent counterattack in the south may allow the Germans to match us in quantity of tanks. If that happens we may be in trouble...  

I won’t go through the entire OOB for the Russians, let’s just say there are LOTS of everything. Here’s a list of all of the currently involved HQs, just to give you an idea (listed north to south on the map):

32 gds TBde 22 gds det TR 5 gds MR Bde 116 gds RR 1543 hvy SPGR 234 gds RR 4 gds MR Bde 103 gds RR 107 gds RR 105 gds RR

362 RR 15 destr AT Arty Bde 1328 RR 8 sep destr AT Arty Bde 6 gds MR Bde 724 RR

Gds TBde                       = guards tank brigade
Gds det TR                     = guards detached tank regiment
Gds MR Bde                   = guards motorized rifle brigade
Gds RR                          = guards rifle regiment
Hvy SPGR                      = heavy self-propelled gun regiment
RR                                = rifle regiment
Destr AT Arty Bde          = tank-destroyer artillery brigade  
sep destr AT Arty Bde    = separate tank-destroyer artillery brigade  


Our current strategic goals are as follows:



Continue the advance northwest with concentrated tank forces, cutting off all possible enemy reinforcement from the north, then turn south to attack into the flank of enemy forces currently west of Stepanovka. Advance on mnt. Sour-Mogila will commence once sufficient infantry forces in the north catch up to the advancing armor. Everywhere else, a defensive posture will be taken until German armored units operating in the south are sufficiently weakened or diverted north.

[ackack]

TURN 7
18th July, 1943
18:00h, dusk
Weather: clear


Operation Phase, Setup:

In the north, tank companies of 32nd gds TBde and 5th gds MR Bde are moved into position to take the victory point just southeast of gul. Zapadnaya. Infantry and guns from 116 gds RR follow behind. As the tanks move into position a company of Marders, already identified from a previous engagement, is spotted to the south:



This is a little surprising - I didn’t expect the AI to actually shift armor up north this quickly. We will most likely outnumber them at least 2:1 or 3:1 in tanks, but they still pose a serious threat. There are also some unknown contacts which may also be tank/SPG companies; if that’s the case we may be in some serious trouble.

In Stepanovka, elements of the 103 gds RR are positioned in the village to defend against enemy counter attacks. The Germans have been continuously counterattacking here (for the victory points I assume), but only with infantry and guns so far. For AT support, tanks from the 22 gds det TR as well as a few AT batteries are stationed in and around the village. The 22nd has seen a lot of action over the past 24 hours; they are resting now, waiting for ammo replenishment and repairs to finish.

In  the south, we plan to hold the line at Fedorovka:



Just 2 turns ago the Germans counterattacked us in this sector with lots of armor. At least 4 or 5 full companies comprised of PzIIIs, Marder SPGs and PzIVs all equipped with 50mm or 75mm long barrel guns. We managed to hold them off and inflict some good casualties on them, but not without suffering serious losses ourselves. The flat, wide open terrain west of Fedorovka gives more advantage to German guns over our own. Because of this, the plan now is to force German armor to attack us through the poor terrain in and around Fedorovka-Marinovka; we will not risk getting caught out in the open. Elements of 105, 362 and 724 RR will be occupying the villages, along with tanks from the 6th gds MR Bde and 4th gds MR Bde. Friendly tanks in this sector have been hit hard by recent engagements and are severely reduced in strength.

During this turn the 1543th heavy SPG regiment finally arrived with those brand new SU-152s:



For now I plan on keeping them mostly in reserve, although I decide to move one platoon up north to assist with advances taking place in that sector. Despite their big guns, I don’t see them as a very helpful asset. Low ammo count, very long reload times and mediocre armor make them not nearly as effective as the T34s, imo. I would much rather have another full regiment of T34s, but oh well - at least they look cool  .


Operation Phase, Combat:

We only initiate one attack this turn, in the north to take the hill 224 VP. Meanwhile the Germans attack all along the front:



The first attack will take place in Stepanovka; this battle looks very problematic for us. The Germans decided to divert more armor from the south besides the Marder company we saw earlier. In Stepanovka, they brought in a medium tank company, comprised of Pz IVs armed with 75mm long barrels:



This would be difficult even if I had tanks to draw on. As it turns out, none of my T34 companies operating in the area were able to make it into the radius of this particular battle  . We will have to rely on our AT batteries, superior infantry numbers and raw courage to defeat the fascist long barrels...

[ackack]

TURN 7, Battle #1

Time: 18:00, dusk
Weather: clear
Location: Stepanovka village



This will be the 3rd or 4th battle taking place in Stepanovka village since the campaign began. As you can see, the landscape is starting to show some wear and tear...


Here’s a list of our forces:

103 RR
    2nd Rifle Battalion
        (Battalion Command)
        (45mm Guns Platoon: 53-Ks)
    5th Rifle Company
        (Company Command)
        (1st Platoon)
        (2nd Platoon)
        (3rd Platoon)

105 RR
    1st Company
        (2nd Platoon)
        (3rd Platoon)
    4th Company
        (3rd Platoon)
    Arty Regiment
        (1st Battery: ZIS-3s and F22s)

15 Dest AT Arty Bde
    (1st Battery: ZIS-3s)

22 gds det TR
    Engineer Company
        (Company Command)
        (1st Platoon)
        (2nd Platoon)

We also might have close air support available but it’s not guaranteed to enter the battle. We have at least two arty spotters present; 120mm motors and M30s with full ammo


The plan:



•Keep infantry hidden in houses, holding fire so as not to draw fire from the tanks.
•Position the AT guns in cover, on the heights of the farm and central Stepanovka north of the village
•Try to catch the enemy out in the open before they manage to gain a foothold in the village.

Forces will be concentrated on the central and eastern capture points. Western Stepanovka will be abandoned for now, we’ll shift over there if needed. The main advance is expected to fall on the center.



Combat begins:

18:04:00 - A lone PzIV F mounted with infantry appears on the crest of hill 218, just south of  Stepanovka South CP.




18:05:00 - Another PzIV appears, this one is an ausf G. The 2 tanks now start to advance down a road leading into the village. The AT battery positioned up at Farm CP should be able to get some good shots on them once they get close enough. I also decide to start ranging in artillery just ahead of them.




18:07:33 - Infantry begin racing across the hills from the southwest. I start ranging in 122mm howitzers on that position, which was already marked in the Initial Orders phase.




In the meantime, arty begins falling on the 2 advancing PzIVs and the infantry disembark.

 

I decide to keep the AT guns holding fire; I’m not sure if the tanks are in range yet.


18:08:53 - Out of nowhere, a single s.PzB 41 shows up to the west of Stepanovka South CP in between the first row of houses. Not sure what these guys were thinking . The crew is taken out by Molotov cocktails before they manage to get a shot off.




18:09:50 - The two tanks from before stop short of entering the village and begin moving back to the hill. In doing so they expose their back sides and I decide to let the ZIS-3 battery up near Farm CP open up. They manage to hit the PzIVG, and it lights up. The panzer becomes a grill for infantry sitting on top  .





18:15:00 - The rest of the medium tank company shows up on the crest of the hill opposite Stepanovka South CP;  a mixture of PzIIIs, PzIVFs, and at least two more PzIVGs. A few halftracks tag along with them, I assume arty spotters. This is good news - I originally thought this tank company contained mostly PzIVGs but it turns out to be a more mix made up of short barrel PzIVFs and even some PzIIIs. A large group of infantry also appears on the crest - it looks like they are assembling the main assault force.


While arty is falling on their positions, I decide to let the AT battery positioned back near Stepanovka CP to open fire on the tanks; they manage to get a few kills.







They still havn’t decided to move on the village, they just continue to sit on the crest for now...


18:17:36 -  The main assault force begins to rapidly shift east.




18:21:04 - The enemy starts dropping arty on the main Stepanovka CP. An engineer squad taking cover in a building is virtually wiped out by a single round.





18:22:50 - Enemy tanks start returning fire on our guns and we start taking serious casualties...




18:31:00 - The enemy finally begins a proper advance on Stepanovka South CP with a combined tank and infantry force. They manage to spot my infantry hiding in the first row of houses, and a large firefight ensues. I tell all units to open fire...





18:32:00 - Just as the enemy appears to be breaking through the first row of houses, they offer a cease fire  . Apparently we manage to inflict enough casualties on the advancing force. They still had a few tanks left (at least one PzIVG), so I think they had a decent chance taking ground, but who knows.





Result:



We accept the offer and get “Minor Defeat”. We lose 76 men to their 108. Most of our casualties are concentrated around Stepanovka CP - the enemy dropped lots of accurate arty there. The 105 RR AT battery lost 3 out of 4 guns and almost an entire platoon of engineers from 22 gds det TR was destroyed. Despite this, we manage to hold all territory and take out at least 3 long barrel PzIVs; this medium tank company should now be much easier for the T34s to deal with.

I didn’t do a real in-depth tour of the battlefield for some reason… I’ll make sure to do that for upcoming battles.



The next battle will take place just south of Fedorovka:



This time we have 3 full tank companies defending against one weakened tank company and some guns, however there are also two unknown contacts. These could be fresh tank companies for all I know, but if not, we may be in a position to deal some serious damage to German forces in the southern sector...

[ackack]

TURN 7, Battle #2

Time: 18:33, dusk
Weather: clear
Location: Fedorovka-Marinovka village



The area in and around Fedorovka-Marinovka village has probably seen more action than any other sector on the map. After clearing the area of German infantry and guns yesterday, today we’re on defense holding against a large armored counterattack.


 Our forces:

6th gds MR Bde
    Tank regiment
        - 2nd Tank Company (T34)
        - 3rd Tank Company (T70)

4th gds MR Bde
    Tank Regiment
        - 2nd Tank Company (T34)
    Recon Company on APC
        - 2nd APC Platoon
107 gds RR
     1st Rifle Battalion
        1st Company
            - 2nd Platoon
724 RR
    1st Rifle Battalion
        - 45mm Guns Platoon
    2nd Rifle Battalion
        4th Company
            - Command
            - 1st Platoon
            - 2nd Platoon
            - 3rd Platoon
362 RR
    2nd Rifle Battalion
        - Command
Off map arty
    - 4 X 120mm Motors, full ammo
    - 4 X ZIS-3, full ammo

I overestimated the strength or our tanks. 2nd company of 4th gds MR Bde is particularly low on ammo and few tanks are completely destroyed. Despite this, we still have at least 10+ fully operational T34s and a fresh company of T70s.


Based on information gathered from the operations map, we know some of the enemy's composition for this battle:
- 6 medium tanks (most likely PzIIIs)
- 6 guns
- 2 arty spotters


The plan:



Hold the area around the villages, below the crest of hill 203.4, wait for the enemy to reveal themselves, then counterattack if possible.


Combat Begins (18:33:00):

 18:41:10 - An enemy PzIII reveals itself for a brief moment on hill 203.4 before disappearing. It looks like the enemy advance will indeed be focused on hill 203.4 CP. I begin zeroing in artillery on that position.

18:47:20 - A halftrack full of infantry appears on the hill, along with some infantry on foot. They continue advancing down the hill towards Fedorovka.


18:48:00 - The PzIII + infantry is revealed on the hill within LOS of our tanks in the valley below.

The PzIII seems to be within range (800-900m), so I let our T34s open fire.

18:50:48 - After a few minutes of exchanging rounds, the PzIII is detracked and the crew bails out.

Most of our T34s bounce the enemy's 50mm rounds, but at least one T34 becomes immobilized via chassis damage.

18:52:00 - Recon units reach the northwest and southwest corners of the battlefield. No contacts are spotted. So far the enemy is just focusing on hill 203 CP.

18:55:00 - While probing in the north west sector of the battlefield, one of our M3 scout cars comes under fire from a pak38.

It appears as though the enemy has set up a gun line here, just west of hill 203.

The car takes a hit, but somehow manages to survive - the round bounces off of the wheel  

The car manages to make it back into cover, but 2 comrades on foot aren't so lucky…

18:59:26 - The crew of the PzIII up on the hill return to their tank. The tracks are knocked out, but the turret and gun mech appear to be fully functional. The T34s aren't able to get any kind of penetrations on it; the extra armor plating on the front of the PzIII-L variant is proving to be very effective at this range . They start wasting too much ammo, so I tell them to hold fire. Meanwhile, the PzIII continues to take pot shots at our tanks down near the villages, inflicting some damage. Since it's immobilized, I figure that artillery may be the best solution here.

19:03:12 - After a few minutes of artillery bombardment, the tank still lives. My impatience gets the best of be and I decide to move up a T34 and a few T70s to try and get a flank shot on the PzIII.

This doesn't go so well; the T34 manages to get a few hits on the side of the PzIII, but nothing effective. The PzIII eventually notices and manages to penetrate the T34 in the turret, knocking it out . It may just be bad luck but I really should not have tried to micro manage here with just a few tanks.

19:10:14 - The PzIII manages to score another kill.  


19:17:57 - After 50 or so incendiary rounds, the PzIII begins to burn and greys out. May he RIP for good this time.



19:22:30 - At this point it looks like the Germans are just going to camp hill 203; recon still hasn’t detected any other movements. We need to make sure that we don’t lose that CP before time runs out, otherwise some units will be forced into retreat on the op map. I decide to start moving out some T34s and T70s from dug in positions, in preparation for an assault on hill 203.

19:30:33 - Our armored assault force begins moving out.

We’re going to stay on the north eastern side of the hill, making sure not to expose ourselves to the west; enemy guns will likely be concentrated there.

19:40:00 - We begin moving recon units up to the top of hill 203.4. They run into two PzIIIs sitting on the southern face.

They're positioned just behind the hill, making it difficult for us to engage without exposing ourselves too much. Instead of taking the risk of cresting the hill, I decide to sit back and drop more arty; might as well, if they're just going to be camping there.

19:46:00 - The enemy is kind enough to sit still and take our arty punishment. Eventually one of the PzIIIs is knocked out by incendiary rounds. I also manage to find a good LOF on the PzIIIs without having to crest the hill, a platoon of T34s is moved in and we manage to knock out the other PzIII. As per usual, there was also some infantry riding on top.


Not long after the 2nd PzIII gets knocked out, the enemy asks for a cease fire. I take it after I ensure that hill 203.4 CP is under our control.

We get “Minor Defeat”, taking 12 casualties to their 90. We lost one T34 and one T70, while they lost 3 PzIIIs. I would say that the trade in hardware and manpower was pretty fair while managing to hold all CPs; I would say this battle was a "minor victory" for us.

Touring the battlefield afterwards reveals a large concentration of German AT guns just to the west of hill 203. It’s a good thing we decided not to crest the hill...



Here’s the lone PzIII from the beginning of the battle

Looks like most rounds hit the bottom hull and shattered on impact. Nothing managed to hit the turret and cause any gun mech or turret damage.

  

The next battle will be taking place northwest of Stepanovka, just north of Saur Mogila:

We have 4 tank companies, 3 of them t34s, and lots of guns. No rifle platoons in this battle, not sure if that will be a problem or not; it's mostly wide open area with very little cover so hopefully they won't be needed.  We’ll be facing at least one company of Marders + infantry and some unknown contacts. The Marders may be difficult to deal with but we have overwhelming numbers on our side. As always the unknown contacts are the most worrying. We won’t be on the defense this time; the plan here is to sweep across the entire battlefield and roll over anything that happens to get in the way.  

[ackack]

TURN 7, Battle #3
Time: 19:57:20, dusk
Weather: clear
Location: somewhere north west of Stepanovka


CHANGE IN FORMAT:

Originally I thought I was going to able to do a play-by-play for each battle, giving a short explanation and a pic every time something happened. This is taking way too long - from now on I’m just going to give a brief summary of the entire battle, so more like an actual “after action report” instead of “lets play using text and pictures”. I was contemplating giving up all together on this AAR, but I think I can still churn out something as long as I keep it short and simple from now on.


anyways…


COMBAT REPORT:

Our forces managed to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy and eventually force a withdrawal from the field. All territory was captured.

Before:


After:



We managed to completely destroy the Marder company, although they were a real pain in the ass to deal with; we had at least five T34s and five T70s knocked out + damage and individual crew casualties in many other tanks. The German pak40 just completely outclasses the t34, it’s pathetic  . There were many times where just one or two Marders, in good hull down position, would face down up to 20 t34s at a time. Even when they manage to spot the enemy, the t34s just suck so bad at aiming. Add to that, many tanks are short on crew members (which never get replenished it seems), so I'm guessing that's also reducing spotting and targeting times quite a bit.  

All that said, we did manage to destroy the entire Marder company (9 Marders total) + lots of infantry and some guns. I didn’t take a picture of the final results screen (whoops...), but the personnel casualties were something like 40:250. The unknown contacts turned out to be just infantry.

After this battle, our tanks will have to stop and rest. They’re starting to run low on fuel and ammo, and they lack any infantry support. As it turns out, infantry support was sorely needed in this battle; there was lots of enemy infantry and some decent cover available to them. At least a couple of our tanks were knocked out or disabled by infantry AT weapons and a few commanders were killed by small arms fire while unbuttoned. There was actually one tank that got knocked out by MG fire that passed through the unbuttoned drivers hatch - I really need to remember to button those guys up more often.

The plan going forward is to hold in this sector, until ammo and fuel for the tanks is replenished and infantry forces catch up. Hopefully the German armored counter-attack is starting to peter out by now, I don’t know how much longer we can effectively fight against fresh German tank companies.

 Some pics:




Luckily the gunner was inside when this happened .


The next battle will take place in between Stepanovka and Fedorovka:


It doesn't look like the Germans have many to attack us with, but we don’t have very many units ourselves, and we will have to defend some very important VPs. It all depends on the unknown contacts.

[ackack]

TURN 7, Battle #4
Time: 19:50, dusk
Weather: clear
Location: In between Stepanovka and Fedorovka villages


COMBAT REPORT:



Not much happened in this battle. We were on the defensive, centered around Stepanovka mostly. The enemy shuffled around a bit, but eventually offered a ceasefire about one hour into the battle. No territory was taken or lost.

As it turns out, the unknown contact was another tank company, a “light” company consisting of 8 PzIIIs. Fortunately we had a company of T34s on hand to deal with them. Our T34s managed to knock out one PzIII at range with a shot to the side. Our tanks bounced all enemy rounds, taking no damage. There weren’t too many other casualties; we lost a few scouting infantry, and the enemy decided to drop some artillery on themselves (apparently that bug still exists).


Our scouts reported sightings of what appears to be a new German Wunderwaffe:



We can only speculate as to what it’s capabilities are...



This was the last battle for turn 7. Next time we will finally begin the operations phase for turn 8.

[Shadrach]

Oh noes it's Ze UnterErdeRattenGeschütz42!

Fortunately, mounting an explosive device on Molerats trained to seek food under enemy tanks might seem like a Good Idea, but in reality they just prefer to find worms just wherever, often close to the own lines. Use it too often and you have a bunch of the little bastards underground and no idea where they are...

By the way, keep up the AAR if you can, I tend to check in from time to time and I find it very impressive with all the details you manage to put into it!

[ackack]

Oh noes it's Ze UnterErdeRattenGeschütz42!

Fortunately, mounting an explosive device on Molerats trained to seek food under enemy tanks might seem like a Good Idea, but in reality they just prefer to find worms just wherever, often close to the own lines. Use it too often and you have a bunch of the little bastards underground and no idea where they are...

By the way, keep up the AAR if you can, I tend to check in from time to time and I find it very impressive with all the details you manage to put into it!

Thanks for the reply, nice to know that someone out there is getting some entertainment from this .

I feel like this game's campaign system can make for really good story telling material but there aren't very many AARs or video let's plays out there for this game, hence why I wanted to write this thing up. Looking at the GTOS AAR forum, most of them are either really short or never get finished - kind of sad. For me, Let's plays and AARs are the best introduction to strategy games like this.

And yeah, explosive molerats on the loose... that might explain friendly fire among the enemy ranks  . 
           

[ackack]

TURN 8

18th July, 1943
22:00h, nightfall
Weather: clear


Operation Phase, setup:

During in the past 4 hours we’ve managed to successfully accomplish all strategic goals; continuing the advance northwest while holding in all other sectors. Despite our success we took significant casualties, mostly notably among our tank forces.

Statistics as of turn 8:

During turn 7, we suffered 141 personnel casualties and 13 tanks destroyed. The Germans suffered 469 personnel casualties, 14 tanks destroyed. The difference in infantry casualties is acceptable, but I’m not sure what to make of the tank casualties. I would think that exchanging tanks at a 1:1 ratio with the Germans would be good enough to get the job done, but idk how much armor they have left to draw on at this point in the campaign. Being only 8/18 turns in, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Germans have lots of tanks still sitting in reserve.

What I do know is that our tank forces are starting to get dangerously depleted. Our tank forces have seen almost non-stop action for 7 turns and we have no more reinforcements arriving. Another critical factor is the supply radius. I just noticed that the supply the radius for most HQs does not extend any further west of Stepanovka. Units operating in the far northwest reaches of the map are beyond their supply limits and are starting to run low on ammo and fuel. We have a supply truck available, but I think it only offers supply to units of it’s own HQ, not all units in radius.

Despite running low on supply, I decide to run our tanks down south, near Saur Mogila. This may be a dumb move, but I want to see if it’s possible to take Saur Mogilia this turn, and I'd also like to hold onto the territory we just gained (after paying so dearly for it...).

Noticing a clear shift in the enemy counter attack, from south to north, I decide it’s time we resume our offensive down south. We really need to free up more space down there; there are lots of fresh units unable to reach the front due to lack of space, and the territory in-between Federovka and Garany should be in good supply radius for our units.

It’s becoming apparent that supply range will be a huge limiting factor in our ability to advance (just like irl). It’s something I don't remember having to worry about in GTOS, and it kind of caught me off guard in this campaign. I was originally thinking I would be able to pull off a huge flanking move around the northwest corner of the map, but that’s not realistically going to happen because of supply radius limitations. Not that I’m complaining - IMO the new supply system is a really nice improvement over GTOS.


Operation Phase, result:

The enemy decides focus their attack in the north:

Enemy forces in the north look pretty strong, but enemy forces in-between Fedorovka and Stepanovka look very depleted.


The first battle will take place in Stepanovka, again:

And just like last turn the enemy has tanks and we don’t have any tank support in range   . All we have for AT support is one understrength battery of 53-Ks, no ZIS-3s or F22s  . So yeah, maybe the AI will finally get to take back some ground this turn thanks to my own stupidity  .  

  

[ackack]

Turn 8, Battle #1

Time: 22:00, dusk
Weather: clear
Location: Stepanovka village

The enemy launches an attack against the center of Stepanovka village with a combined arms force, consisting of about 1 company of infantry + 2 PzIII tanks. They smash through my first line of defence, but they don’t manage to progress any further. As the enemy gets bogged down in the first defensive line, we drop artillery on them and they are virtually wiped out.

Before:


After:


We manage to take out a PzIII with a carefully positioned 53-K gun, and shortly after that the AI calls for a ceasefire; no territory is gained or lost.



Turn 8, Battle #2

Time: 23:00ish, night
Weather: clear
Location: southwest of Fedorovka

Our objective for this battle is to sweep all enemy forces and take all territory. By now night has fallen, making conditions for attack not so ideal, but we outnumber the enemy quite a bit and we have plenty of star shells available for when we need to light things up.

We spend most of the battle just trying to find the enemy. After about 30 minutes of searching, we discover a depleted enemy force consisting of mostly infantry supported by a few AT guns and a lone PzIII. We lose a fair number of infantry, as they wander into enemy positions in the dark, but we eventually manage to destroy all enemy forces and take all territory. Unfortunately we only get to take 1km square on the operational map, which is a little disappointing. We had two SU-152 platoons available in this battle, but I don’t think they ever got a chance to do anything.



Turn 8, Battle #3

Time: 0:00ish, night
Weather: clear
Location: west of Stepanovka village

At around midnight, an enemy medium tank company + infantry and guns engaged tanks of the 5th gds MR, just west of Stepanovka village. Our T34s traded shots with enemy PzIIIs and PzIVs for about 30 minutes. Thanks to our 3:1 advantage in numbers, we manage to fend of the enemy attack and inflict serious casualties. Almost the entire enemy tank company was destroyed.



At least 6 of our tanks were disabled and almost all remaining AP ammo was expended during this long, drawn out engagement. Our tanks desperately need to fall back to the east to replenish ammo and repair.




Next time we will begin turn 9 operation phase...

[ppitm]

Are you planning to ever continue this AAR?

At Turn 4 I am in the same place you are, except that I have lost far fewer tanks.

How did you keep infantry losses so low? Mine are already over 1000 with all the random artillery the AI throws around.

[wodin]

One thing I learned quickly was to never position any troops in a town if it's also an OBJ. As arty is guaranteed to blast the area.

Enjoying he AAR:)

[ackack]

Yeah about the aar…

For starters, ever since June I’ve been pretty busy with work and didn’t have much time for videogames in general. Combine that with a lack of interest in this game (getting burned out). Combined with a lack patience for this specific campaign and combine that with a lack of patience to write about every single action that takes place. So yeah, for my own sanity I had to quickly finish out this campaign without finishing the aar.

I saved some pics of the final result just in case. I think I’ll plan on doing one final report - maybe with a little more flavor/rp.

My lessons learned from this campaign:
1) AARs (at least with lots of good detail) are much harder to do than I thought. I don’t think I really have the time/patience for them, at least not for a huge 18 turn campaign. If I ever do another AAR again I will make sure to FINISH the entire thing first, then post it all online all at once.
2.) I’m not that good at this game   . I think the biggest mistake I make is just not having the patience to wait out unfavorable situations. E.g. - in the early campaign, I would just rush my tanks at the enemy not really caring about losses too much. Turns out you are going to need your t34s badly in the later stages, much more so than in the beginning.
3.) WOW the Germans get a LOT of tanks in the later turns, a lot of PzGs with the 75mm long barrels. I feel like there was at least one, sometimes two, full companies of PzGs taking part in every battle after turn 10 or so. I really didn’t expect them to outnumber me in tanks (by a lot) by the end of the campaign.

[ackack]

FINAL RESULT


The official result is a “Minor Victory”: 1000 vp for Soviets, 724 for Germans.



Our forces manage to hold a line stretching from Stepanovka in the north to Fedorovka in the south, but we do not manage to penetrate any further. We are essentially locked in a stalemate.


Final Operation Statistics:





Despite getting a “Minor Victory” I would count this as mostly a defeat in my book. My ultimate goal (hence the title of the AAR) was to make it all the way to mnt. Saur-Mogila and we fell way short of achieving that.


**Also, keep in mind that bugs or strange AI behavior that I wrote about in the AAR is not indicative of the current state of the game. It seems like most (if not all) of that stuff has been addressed.