AshesFall

Turn 4 Im going to try to include more information on the pictures and type less of an essay every turn . So what went on this turn in general? We began an attack on Persia that will provide critical funds for the duration of the game. I have no idea whether Steel32 will continue north or strike east and join up with the forces around Kiev, I think that is what worries me more, as Kiev is as good as fallen already, cant defend it. If the central and southern armies join up and push the germans may very well conquer the entire south with all the important resources. To that end, concentrating mech to mount a resistance might be a good idea. Also, with the fall of Smolensk guaranteed, german armour could reach the few forces I had, so a retreat was necessary. '

Turn 3 Losses continue to be extremely high. That worries me a bit, but looking back over the first three turns there really hasnt been much I could do about it. The two first turns were nothing but a mad scramble to retreat as many units as possible, a frankly brilliant first turn made that an almost impossible prospect though. Studying the pictures show pretty much every unit lost these three turns to be on low supply and unable to retreat, what little could be operated has been, several cheap screen units have also died to attempt to save mechanized units. This has also been largely unsuccessful, in the north again due to impossible supply situations and in the south due to a successful link-up between axis minors and german invasion force. I'll have to remember that move, I dont think its possible to stop it, but perhaps delay it. The graphs and losses screen shows a dire situation, I try to remember that this is only turn 3, and I could not have prevented most of these losses. The only place I could have done so is in the south, but that would have meant giving up immense amounts of ground to save a handful of units, probably not worth it. I will have to be more cautious with throwing away units from this point on though. The finnish front sees the first minor victory of the war for the Soviets. The finns pushed the mechanized units blocking the approach to viipuri hard and moved an unupgraded corps into an exposed position. I doubt the loss matters, but it sure feels good. Ash morale, +1! Otherwise I continue to seed cities with cheap disposable USSR corps, doing this means it will usually take two armour units to smash a city open, and will perhaps slow the advance a little. Riga (not shown) proved the first objective the germans set not immediately taken, the two defending armies were annihilated, but the city stood. Force marched units blocked any possibility of reinforcement though. The centre gets a short breather as the immense weight of 5 armour corps chew down remaining units behind the lines and in a critical railway city. In anticipation of smolensk falling to those 5 panzers, the mech units around there are withdrawn as much as possible. Attempts to save mech here have been unsuccessful, and probably resulted in 6 unnecessary losses. I'll have to try and concentrate my mech on one front eventually, to effect meaningful resistance. Im gathering an air group around the centre, but due to the weight of losses taken I'll have to simply withdraw them while in good supply and not reinforce them. Other units take precedence. The south saw another devestating strike, two mech units got caught and destroyed, one of them mainly due to an unlucky retreat by town defenders. I'm attempting to open up a little distance slowly while reinforcing. Since most axis units have merged towards the west and no attack seems forthcoming from the southern side of odessa all units there are redeployed to the line.

Hey everyone, I'm mired in law school finals atm and the game is on a short break, turns should be ticking in regularly starting this weekend!

Entirely a matter of taste, this is my personal opinion; Global conflict gold needs either Assault on Democracy or Assault on Communism to be really interesting, I personally dont like the scale of AoD much, Europe feels very "small" and doesnt allow much actual maneuver warfare. WWI breakthrough on the other hand has an awesome European map with really large areas to move around in. Somehow the scale of that map just feels "right" to me. More importantly, you get both the awesome WWI scenarios AND a European War WW2 scenario more bang for your buck! I really like the WWI scenario, it lacks the formulaic Poland-France-USSR progression of most ww2 campaigns, instead there are tons of options all around the map and everyone is thrown into the fight from the get go.

Turn 2 The slaughter continues unabated, total losses after this turn is 35, likely to continue to rise. In 41 the Soviets balance a difficult slack rope between slowing the Germans sufficiently and limiting serious losses to maintain a dangerous presence in 42. I'm a little worried that I'm currently flailing over to accepting few to many losses but at the same time I -must- slow Steel down a little in the first turn to allow my anchors backward to entrench. The one positive note of the turn is that most of the losses were damaged and surrounded units that were never making it out alive anyway. Local counterattacks and attempts to screen retreating light armour are the themes of the North, Smolensk is surrounded by a ring of newly arrived units, hopefully that will allow the armour to escape. An attack against an 11 Panzer in the centre leaves it at 9, but also leaves the soviet toy tanks with nowhere good to go. I'm hoping the armour near Riga will take a readiness hit due to doomed pocketed soviets messing with supply lines, if it does, Riga might hold one turn. Unlikely, but fingers crossed. The Germans are moving crazy fast in the south and already the approach to Kiev is exposed. The Wehrmacht has also managed to link up with minor forces to the west, the pressure there is going to be difficult to withstand. Again, Soviets retreating from imminent encirclement attempt to bedevil the supply process for the advancing hun, striking a HQ near the front. A lot of reinforcing in the south, attempting to gain some entrenchment and readiness to make a more effective fighting force. Romanians retreat in the far south, and the Soviets do the same not wishing to become too exposed. Mission accomplished with the withdrawal in any case, time bought for the units behind the river to reinforce and entrench. German armour have taken a bit of damage now, especially in the north where the five central groups are around str 9, not sure about their supply, but I'm hoping to start dropping their readiness if they do not stop to rest.

Good thoughts so far! In essence; Pressure the south with the aid of the starting artillery, the aim is the nancy or Belfort areas, and the ultimate aim is to reach a favorable starting position for a "real" offensive in 1915, capturing nancy or belfort are good bonuses. Alternatively, go all out and hope for the best in the attrition war. Build up for an offensive in 1915 that aims to go through Belgium and take advantage of the southern position. - What would you guys suggest building and researching? 1/2 Chits in Shell tech, Industry/production, entrenchment? Meanwhile, attack the British fleet when it enters the war, hoping to isolate smaller parts. Ultimately, this is to prevent the establishment of a full blockade.

Following a discussion in an older abandoned AAR (http://community.battlefront.com/topic/112555-barbarossa-to-berlin-%E2%80%93-ash-vs-will-axis/) where I pondered gross failure of my Germans and how both myself and my offtime opponent Will95 struggle with the Axis in this campaign, Steel32 graciously offered to show me some strategies. This promises to be very interesting, and though I doubt I will be able to put up too much resistance, I will certainly do my best and perhaps learn something in the bargain! Steel32 is hoping to make an AAR from his point of view (chinese internetz allowing) but even if that does not work out you'll have my musings to keep you company through the twists and turns of another "Barbarossa to Berlin" game. I hope it will prove entertaining! Turn 1 Steel32 got off to a great start with a strong opening variant, focused on crippling HQ's and obliterating most of the forward airforce. Consequently, most of the remaining forces in the border areas were annihilated and the few survivors left in pitiful supply with resulting low chance of escape. I decided to try a middling route in the defence of the North, most of the remaining forces staggered backwards, placing themselves as much as possible to mount one last fatal distraction to the advancing enemy. The Caucasus garrisons and other diverse divisions were railed in to provide a light screen for retreating light armour, I want to save as many of those as at all possible. The HQs are all doomed, placed as roadbumps more than anything else. Otherwise, infantry was railed into most towns on the immediate axis of advance to build entrenchment as quickly as possible. Armor losses were unfortunately very low for the advancing germans, only two groups lost anything beyond the elite steps. The south saw more of the same, albeit in lesser scale. A headlong rush to reach and cripple HQ's and isolate border cities. For my part i pull back, railing in some armies to block and buy time to reinforce, as well as making a local counterattack from Odessa, driving back a romanian corps and erecting a flimsy screen on the approach. Due to the accumulated costs of reinforcing, railing and preparing a little operation of my own in the Caucasus, investments in tech will have to wait a turn or two.

Hey everyone. I've been hotseating the first year of the call to arms 1914 scenario a dozen times or so this past week, trying to find a viable "west first" variant strategy. What is a "west first" strategy? A "west first" strategy would involve focusing the strength of the Germans to attempt to cripple or knock out at least one of the western powers While maintaining a smaller defensive posture in the east. Ideally, this strategy should aim to reach this goal by 1916 or 1917 at the latest, to then turn attention firmly towards the Russians. Attempts so far So far I've made several attempts to tackle france directly without going through Belgium, the theory being that Frances lack of initial funds will allow mutual attrition to hit that much harder on the French and cause enough temporary "strength tilt" to allow real gains. Despite horrendous losses however, such gains seem impossible to make. I've made these attempts supported by artillery, both in the south salient around Mulhausen and near Verdun. Verdun cannot be taken, Nancy can, but the losses are untenable. Another attempt has been the historical route through belgium to outflank, this has also failed. I've looked into crippling the Brits by sinking the British fleet and confining them to the British Isles, thereby weakening the French enough to topple them. Unfortunately this seems to hinge on gross mismanagement and bad play from the British, and cannot be relied upon as a strategy (any strategy that relies on your opponent playing badly is not a good strategy). Suggestions? So, I thought I would ask the community for input and discuss alternatives. It would be nice to create a viable alternative for the old-samey "dont do much in the west, ahistorically place everything possible east as early as possible for the possible win". Game on!

I cant for my life remember the password for the email files for the game, so I cant access the chart. Thats also most of the reason why this game wasnt continued, really annoying when you forget those sort of things! @Steele32: I highly doubt I'll be able to teach you anything if you've never lost a game regardless of side . I am really curious about german strategy though, so I'm up for a game! Would you be up for writing a strategy AAR as we play so that people can learn from your example? I'm thinking we might do an AAR each (from separate perspectives) in that case.

I've always wondered this as well, it is pretty aggrevating.

This was unfortunately abandoned due to a temporary RL morale dip combined with life getting very busy for a while. I thought about picking it up again, keeping up the fight would be educational if nothing else, but I'd forgotten the password . I made some bad mistakes this game, in hindsight I should probably have been content with Stalino and Kharkov, making some room around those cities and entrenching early. I had an idea regarding sending my armour and aircraft south to avoid the winter, but fierce fighting into late november rendered them unable to escape in time and most of my armour at this point is close to romania and in dismal condition. Regardless, with such lacking progress and the high armour losses this game was always going to be a steep uphill fight from here. Both Will and I continue to struggle with the Germans in this Scenario, maybe we'll unlock the secret to success at some point. I'm glad you guys followed the AAR regardless, more should come in the future!

So, a landslide victory for the Germans, gratz! Both myself and my ofttime opponent Will really struggle with the Germans in this scenario so I'm naturally very curious. If you would like to tell us more about your thoughts on the game, what were the main mistakes, successes and events on both sides to produce such a stunning win?

Check the "Past broadcasts" section I will try to combine several turns into one highlight later on.

No sign in should be necessary, try the new link and it should be accessible http://www.twitch.tv/ashfall81 Also updated first post

The first Episode is up! I apologize for my cat having a crazy fit in the background on this one

Hello everyone. I lieu of making a proper written AAR I'm going to livestream the turns for this one. Take a look at http://www.twitch.tv/ashfall81 or in the "hightlights" section to view the stream AAR!

No Orel unfortunately, Kursk was the extent of what I managed, I do wish I had gotten that! I also completely ignored Sevastopol, preferring not to spend time or strength taking it. Perhaps that will be a thing for 1942... Turn 26 - 28 January and February 1942 Winter has not been as bad as I feared, measured over the three initial hits and Jan-Feb soviet assaults. That does, however, not mean that the danger has passed. Quite the opposite. My focus on building the basic backbone of the Wehrmacht over 1941 has left me short of options to deal with Soviet armour, and the latest turns have left me little room to do anything but maintain str losses in the field and constructing a new full armour group for the summer, to be followed by my three “lost” groups as soon as funds allow. Will has been pushing up, and now has a very significant amount of forces facing the German army in the field. My total losses these three turns have been two divisions, and a total of 2300mpps or so of losses overall to both winter and attacks. The North has seen a fair amount of fighting throughout the first two months, I managed to almost destroy the defenders of Narva once, and even clear the town by forcing the retreat of defenders. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t advance to take it. Will launched that “causing a lot of trouble later” operation with his remaining paratroopers that I grumbled about at the start of the campaign, and cut a severely wounded Kuchler off with his army. Fortunately, the weather made Soviet attacks as ineffective as mine, and so far the fighting is desperate and there is a chance to keep the army alive provided Will fails to destroy the troops keeping the paras cut off. Hoth has railed to Rakvere by train with an army to help the encircled Germans. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top of this one. Meanwhile, I’ve been forced to slowly retreat backwards on the Pskov –Velikiye line, to the loss of one square. This will likely increase, but it’s expected. In the south the fighting has been fiercer. Fortunately, the infantry of the Wehrmacht does not seem to suffer the blatant hubris of the armour corps, and have been good with the retreats to avoid destruction. All but two units in the former Kharkov encirclement were destroyed, and lines established on the 1941 gains. So far I’m holding on to them. We’ll see if that lasts…

Absolutely no doubt about that unfortunately At this point, partly due to bad strategy, partly due to recklessness, and partly due to random (bad) luck its all about finding the silver lining.

Turn 22 - 25 Late November and December The South - Progression The North - Current position Well then. Here we are. I think we can safely say at this point that as far as grand strategies go this one hasn’t been very successful. I tend to test outliers during some games as points of reference, and this one definitely needs some tweaking to become more viable. I don’t think my territorial goals were overly ambitious, but nonetheless I have failed to meet them. The goals in the north was so modest as to be embarrassing if not reached, and the ones in the south a little more ambitious. At least I managed to capture Rostov, if nothing else of note. The advance was definitively halted at Rostov, and the Kropotkin – Borisoglebsk line as well as both Markovka and Voronezh remains unconquered. I’ve also played an unorthodox method for me, I’m usually a careful methodical player, preferring to build experience and consolidate as I go. This time around I realized in September that I simply couldn’t play like that, I had to go balls to the wall, or face total failure with a vast red army to contend with. As an extension of this realization, I’ve dug in around my goal conquests as they were taken, the north has been dug in for a while, and Kursk as well. However, half the south front simply has not had the time, and that is a calculated risk. Faced with a choice of pretty much sitting still and letting the soviets get to critical mass from late October onwards or going for the larger and more important objectives (Kursk, Kharkov, Rostov) and trying to hit the Soviets as much as I’m going to be hit back I chose the latter. Unfortunately, my armour groups seem to have gotten a no retreat order from Hitler three years early and steadfastly refuse to save themselves when counter attacked, despite being led by Guderian and Manstein. I set up every opportunity to retreat behind an infantry screen, but it was not to be. In the final tally, as of 7th January 1942 I have at least captured the major cities of the immediate south, I’ll have to be satisfied with that, and with the losses incurred on the Soviets. Let’s look at comparative strength, starting with losses. The soviets have taken huge losses, most notably all but one light tank unit, two real tank units, and a total of 192 units, 181 of these being land units. Despite this they stand at 121 land units to 129, and 17 aircraft to 12. On the flip side, I’ve been badly hurt as well. Four armour groups, four corps down. Not good. Income and expenditure. The soviets have collected 13864mpps, lost units to a cost of 25288 and rebuilt for 12512. 49% of losses. Considering that quite a few of the lost units were destroyed out of supply this does actually represent something of a win for me. Fun fact, if not a single soviet unit was destroyed or produced by MPPS for the soviets through 41 they would still end at 180 land units. The Germans then, at a collected income of 9328, lost 11873 in units and built units at 7225. Only one of these units have been destroyed out of supply, which is fortunate. I didn’t quite manage to build the limit of corps and divisions before years end, 2 corps and 4 divisions I also went with Winter fox, which duly failed. at 90mpps for the germans and 120 for the soviets to counter, its usually worth it in my opinion. Funny thing though, when I did a hotseat all through 41 to have a look at winter effect dates, it succeeded. However, I saw no effect whatsoever on soviet income, something the event description hints at. When spring rolls around I'll share some thoughts on 1942 tactics and strategy.

Turn 19 - 21 Late October, Early November Well. Its about this point that I always feel pretty hopeless about the German situation with winter approaching, scrabbling to reach even the modest goals set at campaign start and watching soviet forces grow ridiculously huge despite all efforts to smash them. The North has been fairly uneventful, only action of note being Will advancing forces to hit my lines, no doubt hoping to draw forces from the south. No units lost for me so far, none for him either in my counter attack, but plenty of damage spread around. I’ve consolidated the peninsula, grabbing all the cities and now aiming to secure the northernmost passage around lake Peipus. Central Soviet has also stalled, I’m perfectly content to hold the corridor along Smolensk and in a pretty straight line southwards from there. The south is where the action is. October ended with the capture of Kursk. I debated a really long time about which direction to go and in which order to do things, and finally landed on Kursk as a logical first step. A thrust with armour to outflank Rostov in the south sets up either a strike south to take the city or east to cut the central soviet forces. I had to push a fairly large concentration of soviets around captured Kursk further north, and did so, while clearing the Rostov corridor further, fighting to this effect raged around November 4th, with no particularly good way of completing either flanking manoeuvre. As mid November rolls around however, a soviet counter attack with Siberian units manage the destruction of one German armour group. That is a shame, but at least I destroy one enemy “real” armour in turn. Sensing weakness around Rostov, I also use the clear weather to throw a spear straight east in an attempt to close the pocket and trap a fair few soviet units. I’ve had to abandon the last phase of planned territorial conquests, And Rostov will (if successful) be the extent of my territorial gains in 41. I’m definitely feeling the pinch of time, and I need to use massed armour to try and clear the pockets and capture the outlying settlements quickly. There is a quite a lot of German infantry coming, having been built throughout 41, so if I can only capture the cities I should not have any problems setting up a defensive line. We’ll see I guess.

Turn 16 - 18 Late September, early October I’m slowing down as I am forced to consolidate and redeploy. Weather is starting to become a problem. The North is largely secure, with the corridor between the north and south front covered by army groups. I’m prepping the panzers to move south and assist with the years final attacks. The South also stalls for a bit, I’m transferring forces and setting up an encirclement of Stalino. I could have started this turn by cutting in with armour, but chose not to since it would not be very solid and let units re-establish supply leaving my own units stranded and vulnerable. The Soviets got their Siberian reinforcements, and are deploying a lot of units so I have to be slightly more careful. The coming fight for Rostov, Stalino and Kursk will determine whether this has been a successful year or if I’m in for a very hard time in 42. Time and initiative is essential in these last turns of 41, and I'm slightly worried that I might have lost it by preparing and not going full steam ahead. Time will tell! Will is investing in a lot of aircraft. I personally think this is a mistake early on as the Soviets, seeing as their fighter tech is sub-par. While it can be an annoyance and do some damage, it is also a constant drain on Soviet MPPs which could better be used on ground troops.

Turn 14 - 15 Early September September kicked off with the start of the battle of Stalino, destroying forward defenders on the advance. I started consolidating the plains, moving forces in the direction of Kursk along with the two panzers previously participating in the battle of Kiev. Will deployed reinforcements directly around Stalino, fortunately these begin in lower readiness and unentrenched, so the panzers easily swept them away and took Stalino with the help of Artillery and air bombardment. Panzers striking for Taganrog, hoping to find it undefended or almost so, instead found another HQ and destroyed it. Closing the ring around Stalino, I’m hoping that the mine will drop to 3 supply and that the units trapped wont make it out. If I can strike Kursk and trap the forces in Kharkov these will be major victories. Of course, Will always has the option to withdraw, which gives me time to take more ground, I need to be a bit reckless now to make it to my objectives in the south before winter. The centre is mostly slow consolidation, outflanking Smolensk from behind. Will withdrew to Roslavi, and the city fell under artillery and bombers. Rather than be outflanked Will again withdrew his forces on the Leningrad approach. I’m debating whether to push on here towards Leningrad, but I might need the armour to break soviet resistance in the centre and close my lines. Nevertheless, both the primary and secondary objective of army group North has been achieved, anything else is a bonus.

Happy to see you both following and commenting as always! I really have no idea whether this strategy will work or not, I'm usually more of a conservative player trying to keep losses low, and I like to go north to link with the finns as well. I thought I'd try something different this time and see how it turns out. I accepted the event with the strat bombers, and if I can get into range of the ural industries that should be fun!

Turn 11 - 13 Late august By mid-August I breached Kiev, and had done serious damage to the Dneprotovsk defensive line. The fighting saw the destruction of another light tank and several armies and as the soviets counter attacked to reduce a 12 step armor the other two light tanks went down. As august draws to an end axis forces flood out onto the southern plain and reach new soviet defensive lines, the next battle will be for Stalino. Axis lines moved to meet the advancing soviets in the north, and after some fighting I saw an opportunity to use panzers shifted northwards to try an encirclement. I need to catch and destroy as many of Wills units as possible before winter, the soviet economy rebuilds units frighteningly fast and they’re back up to 88 even after this latest turns casualties. The danger with encirclements is always that it’s easy to get cut off or badly hurt in turn. The HQ defending the now unoccupied town was destroyed, and with four units adjacent it should go down in supply. With the closer town at only 3, and the northernmost HQ hurt, I’m hoping that the units in the middle will be low on supply and not up for much counter attacking. We’ll see!

Another question, can someone tell me which turns exactly the winter events hit? I had it written down, but like a moron lost my note.