Graviteam Tactics Operation Star

[jw custom 56]

To be fair, that isn´t a huge problem. The high res texture DLC is just for vehicles wich look totally fine even without it. The DLC adds slightly better textures along with some weathering effects and decals. They made that DLC long after the initial release to get some money to continue work on mius front. You absolutelly don´t have to buy it.

 

Fair enough, i'll re-think it :)

[Tonci87 163]

Nothern assault

 

 

So, the attack up north is beginning, let´s take a look at the forces.

 

Soviet:

Akmetchins rifle platoon (Ereskij doesn´t count since almost the whole platoon has been wiped out in a previous battle)

Shebennikovs Machinegun company

3-4 unknown units.

 

The Machinegun company gives the Soviets a huge ammount of anti-infantry firepower. Especially since they´ll all be dug in. The unknown units might contain some more tanks.

 

Germans:

1x Mechanised Panzergrenadier platoon in SdKfz

1x Tank Platoon consisting of 5 Panzer IIIs with the long 5cm gun.

2x light AT gun platoons armed with 2,8cm heavy AT rifles (Schwere Panzerbüchse 41) and a few 5cm Pak38 AT guns.

1x AT gun platoon armed with 5cm Pak38 AT guns.

1x 7,5cm light infantery gun 18 battery with four guns

 

Our offensive capabilities are actually quite limited with the Panzergrenadiers and the Tanks being the only primarily offensive force. They will have to advance with a lot of support from the light infantry guns. However, should the enemy have tanks we can fall back into the cover of our AT guns and let them deal with the threat. I had concentrated a lot of defensive AT weapons up north because I feared the Soviets might try to use their tanks on the open fields up there.

 

 

My defensive troops are deployed in the few available treelines, the Panzergreandiers and the tanks are deployed a bit to the back. Depending on where I spot the enemy troops the will advance along the main road or take the road up to Dolomite 2 in the north.

 

 

When deploying a defensive weapon always use the "check area of sight" button to see if the unit has a clear field of fire and where it might have blindspots.

 

 

The battle has started, I spotted a few trenches during the initial deployment phase and set up a few targets for my offmap artillery using my artillery spotter. I´m not sure if these trenches are occupied or not, but better be safe than sorry.

 

 

There is a huge trench cluster in the fields near Dolomite 2 and enemy presence has been confirmed by a green signal flare....green signal flare? That is the sign for an attack, isn´t it? I abort the Artillery strike on those other trenches and start to move my Panzergrenadiers and tanks up north.

 

 

Indeed the Soviets are advancing, this is actually very surprising. I think they don´t know what kinds of units I have up here.

 

 

Well at least they are using heavy mortars to support their attack, but still.....

 

 

I can use this! Those Mortars will be out of service very fast.

 

 

Let me sing you the song of my MG42

 

 

And yeah, as predicted, that mortar is fucked.

 

 

Oh look, a red flare. That must be a signal for „Abort attack“

There are a lot of Soviet soldiers though....

 

 

A convoy of SdKfzs is moving up my Panzergrenadiers to the treeline. Three tanks are also on the way. The other two tanks are needed on my right flank where the Soviets are currently moving into my flank.

 

 

The tanks are rolling up.

 

 

I´m constantly on the lookout for enemy mortars to give them the LIG treatment. Those things are just too dangerous to be left alive.

 

 

I also call in some artillery on the Soviet infantry.

The ammount of fire power I now have in those treelines due to the Halftracks and the tanks is just insane.

 

 

The Soviet soldiers choose to demonstrate how fast they can run. I can´t blame them really.

 

 

Panzergrenadiers are clearing out trenches while two tanks and their APC provide overwatch and supressive fire.

 

 

We have a complete breakthrough situation, my Tanks can race on to chase down the enemy.

 

Full speed ahead to new adventures. (By the way, vehicles get dirtier throughout the battle)

 

 

The enemy retreats after having suffered insane losses. My guess is that the Soviets didn´t know about the tanks and halftracks I had since those arrived here only recently. They thought they could crush me in a mass infantry attack, wich maybe would have suceeded if it wasn´t for my tanks. They had the numerical advantage after all. When they finally realised what they are up against their soldiers where already out of their trenches and cought out in the open.

I only lost one MG42 squad, one 2,8cm AT rifle and a few soldiers here and there.

 

 

Every grey dot is at least one dead soldier

 

 

Really a complete breakthrough. I managed to punch through all the way to the victory point. My men now control the road towards Voronezh. The enemy is still in control of the forest near the road though.

[Tonci87 163]

Stream of bullets

 

 

This will be a weird one. The enemy is attacking me but I´ll be deploying all my troops on the other side of the river and they won´t be able to cross since the bridges are gone. Are we just gonna shoot at each other across the river?

 

I have two mechanised Panzergrenadier platoons, one mechanised recon platoon and the commander of third company with a few attached squads.

The Soviets have one rifle platoon and at least four unknown units. I suspect it´s mostly infantry.

 

 

Actually there are a few places that look shallow enough to allow infantry to cross. I will have to guard those.

 

 

A look at the map reveals that indeed that place seems to be shallow enough.

 

 

My deployment is very simple. A few scouts near shallow places with the bulk of my force near that very shallow place near the bridge. I will loose Diana 1, but I really don´t care.

 

 

Use the initial orders phase to mark areas for Artillery bombardment. This way it will be very accurate and also arrive very fast.

 

 

One of my Recon APCs is immediatelly retreating because it´s gun traverse has been damaged in the previous battle and the crew had no time to repair it.

 

 

First enemy sighting near Yakovlevka. They are moving east. What worries me is that there are a lot of them and they seem to be moving towards that shallow passage I mentioned earlier.

 

 

I move my mortar APC to a new position closer to that suspected ford.

 

 

I call in a bit of artillery on enemies that try to hide in the tall grass. What I suspected could be a ford isn´t one after all. Or the Soviets just can´t get enough people across the open ground to attempt a crossing. And so we now have a standoff situation where the Germans and the Soviets shoot at each other across the river.

 

Sadly I loose one Scout halftrack to AT rifle fire.

 

 

Actually there are places that are shallow enough. Soviet forces just faintedthe attack on the large shallows. A large force has attacked in another place. The enemy is crossing!

 

Reinforcements are on the way. These small scout APCs are really hauling ass.

 

 

The enemy is unable to cross in sufficient numbers and has to abort that plan.

 

 

The enemy offers a ceasefire and I accept because I am using up a lot of ammo that I can´t replenish as easily as the enemy. I have lost one halftrack and another has been damaged.

 

 

Now I know that the enemy has a lot of infantry down in Yakovlevka.

[Tonci87 163]

TURN 9 05.07.1942 18:00

 

 

Historical:

21Infantry Regiment together with the 24 Panzerregiment started an attack between two woodlands to the south of Voronezh that were still occupied by the enemy in order to approach the city outskirts as close as possible.

 

So, historically the Wehrmacht, after having been pushed out of Trushkino by the Soviet practice battalion of the 232 Rifle division, went for a concentrated attack into the flank of the Soviet advance.

 

 

Of course, our situation looks a lot different. We already achieved the main objectives of this campaign wich were to secure Shilovo and the nothern road leading to Voronezh.

Right now only one main objective remains. We have to secure the crossing over the Voronezh river by capturing Yakovlevka and Tavrovo.

And of course, we have to hold what we captured so far.

 

 

First I reorganise my Platoons.

Take this one as an example. You see that two squads only have three men left in them. Like this they are both combat ineffective. I choose to disband the one that has a damaged APC by righklicking on it.

 

 

You can see that those three guys have been sent to other squads inside that platoon. But I don´t like having one of the combat squads with only four men in it. I choose to reinforce that squad, again by righ klicking on it and selecting reinforce this time.

 

 

Now it has five men in it because one member of the command squad got transfered to the Panzergrenadier squad. Five men is still not a lot for a combat squad. Usually I would consider disbanding it at this strenght, but the squad does have an APC and I consider this to be a large enough force multiplier.

 

 

If you klick on one empty bracket you may have access to reserve squads (left side of screen). Double klick on one of them and it will be added to the platoon

 

 

Now this platoon has a MG42 squad attached to it. One of the Panzergrenadier squads is out of ammo as can be seen by the red bullets. Selecting replenish ammo in the right klick menu will distribute the ammo across the platoon.

 

 

So, this is our plan for the next turn....It´s basically all out attack across the whole front. We have to further secure the road up north and we have to push towards the two villages. I brought a lot of tanks to the area around Shilovo to assist in the attack.

Let´s see what the Soviets will do.

 

 

They are counterattacking in a few places. Up north they will try to recapture the road to prevent a fast advance of Wehrmacht troops towards Voronezh.

Down south they will try to counterattack towards Shilovo from the east and the south across the river.

 

I haven´t decided yet wich battle I will fight first.

[Tonci87 163]

They see me rolling.....

 

OK, this is the battle we will fight first. Nightime is approaching and the Luftwaffe won´t be able to fly sorties once it gets too dark. In this area I have two Air target spotters, so I will use their ability as long as there is some light left. I also have a HUGE tank force wich will also benefit from not having to fight in darkness....yet.

 

 

This is my setup for this battle. I will advance eastwards and get as much land as I can. Do you see that huge tank force east of Shilovo? Nothing will be able to stand in the way of that!

 

 

This battle has a new unit participating in it, the Panzer IV.

Originally this tank was designed as a support tank for the infantry while the Panzer 3 was supposed to be the main battle tank of the Wehrmacht. However, evolutions in Armor technology quickly confronted the Germans with a huge problem. Their Panzer 3s couldn´t be upgraded to anything with more punch than a long 5cm gun. It simply wasn´t enough to deal with Soviet armor advances.

So the Germans did this:

 

 

Instead of the short 7,5cm gun the Panzer 4 ausf. F/2 was upgraded with a long 7,5cm KwK40 gun.

This gun could penetrate Soviet tanks at high ranges and so the Panzer 4 became the main battle tank of the Wehrmacht up to the end of the war.

 

 

Here we go, the tanks begin to roll.

 

 

Artillery barrages start raining down on known enemy positions.

I arranged those together with all the attack commands during the initial orders pahse. That way the attack is rolling and I´ll only have to invest command points if something is out of the ordinary

 

 

The sporadic soviet resistance is beeing crushed by the advance of my tanks.

 

 

And the Luftwafffe has joined the party as well.

 

 

They are precision bombing the Soviet squads.

 

 

My tanks don´t hesitate to shoot at enemy positions.

 

 

The advance is going very well.

 

The enemy simply doesn´t have the power to stand in the way of my advancing tanks. The Soviets retreat.

 

Don´t mind that the statistics claim this was a draw, it was a crushing victory with minimal losses on my side.

 

 

We gained another sector, could have been more but it´s OK. The soviets are crumbling.

[Tonci87 163]

Bushwhacking

 

Again we will have a battle across the river.

This time I brought new units. Two panzergrenadier platoons with their halftracks, one panzergrenadier platoon without halftracks, one combat engineer platoon, and one Panzer 3 tank platoon.

We will have to fight mostly infantry but the enemy also has one T34. I don´t know if that one is operational or still damaged from a previous battle.

 

Defensive setup covering every part of the river that might be shallow enough to allow crossing. Later on I might try to cross myself if the opportunity presents itself.

 

 

The enemy is advancing towards the river, my vehicles use their Machineguns.

 

One of my tanks is positioning itself near the bridge, it has to get through a little swamp to get there. Please don´t get stuck....

 

 

Now he is in a very prominent overwatch position. A Shame that the bridge got destroyed, otherwise I now might be able to drive across.... although...who knows how stable that bridge was in the first place, maybe not stable enough for a tank.

 

Artillery strike on my positions! I have to get my men out of there.

I loose one halftrack along with almost a whole Panzergrenadier squad and one MG42 squad on top of that. At least the tank makes it out undamaged

 

Somewhere else the Soviets are raining down white phosphorous shells on my men. This tank is immobilized due to a round that landed very close to it.

 

 

My mortar returns the favour and the enemy infantry is much more exposed to it than a tank crew.

 

 

The T34 appears and is shooting at my men with his MG.

 

 

Shouting Urrah! at the top of their lungs, the Soviets are charging to get into the reeds beside the river. 

 

A Panzer 2 is trying to hold them back with his autocannon and HE ammo. Reinforcements are on the way.

 

 

The tank reinforcements have arrived just in the nick of time. We are able to prevent a soviet crossing, for now.

 

 

Fresh Artillery barrages rain down on my positions.

 

 

One of my tanks has spotted the T34 and is engaging it. (You can order units to prioritize a specific enemy unit. Press T and drag a frame around the units you wish to focus your units fire on. They will be marked with a orange x)

 

 

Use the check line of fire tool to meassure the distance to another unit. In this case the T34 is almost 700 meters away.

 

 

If we open the penetration diagram we can see that our tank has a chance of penetrating the hull armor at ranges up to 890 meters when using the Panzergranate 39 APC round. However, this diagram doesn´t take angled armor into account. The real effective range is much lower. Unless we manage to hit a weakspot, like a viewport or the hull machinegunport, our chances of penetrating are actually very slim.

 

 

After shooting it a lot with two of my tanks the T34 still isn´t defeated. We just can´t penetrate it at that range. The armor shows a few gashes but that is about it. The enemy offers a ceasefire and I accept.

 

 

Yep, this one really is a draw. Both sides suffered losses and there haven´t been any significant ground gains. Well at least the Soviets suffered more.

 

 

Just to give you an idea how tough a T34 is. With all those shells I only managed to damage a track and the chassis. I´m glad it wasn´t able to shoot back because its gunsight got damaged in a previous fight.

No wonder the T34s were as effective as they were vs. the early war german tanks they encountered IRL.

 

 

Look at this, I was actually able to throw back the enemy a bit and now I might get myself a foothold on the other side of the river next turn.

Now to the battle up north.

[Tonci87 163]

Soviet assault

 

This is our final battle for this turn. Our force consists of a few AT guns, heavy AT rifles, a battery of light infantry guns, a platoon of combat engineers and a tank platoon.

We will fight the few survivors of a mortar batalion, a rifle platoon, 3^rd batalion command and a few unknown units.

Our goal is to defend this strategic point at all costs.

 

 

This is my setup. The defensive weapons are placed in a treeline, ready to defend towards the east and south. The combat engineers will sweep the edge of the forest supported by two Panzer 3s operatin from a road that runs along the edge of that forest. The other tanks are in reserve near a road. This will allow them to redeploy very fast. My LIG battery is in a treeline further back, ready to provide fire support.

Although my Panzer3s all have long 5cm guns, I really hope not to meet any Soviet tanks.

 

 

We make first contact, Soviet infantry is attacking out of the Dlinnaya groove.

 

 

I order one of my tanks into a position from where he can flank the enemy soldiers.

 

 

There is a lot of Soviet infantry rushing out of the woods. They will overwhelm my defensive line (mostly AT weapons) if I don´t do something fast.

 

 

I order the two tanks that should support the combat engineer advance to speed up.

 

 

Oh look, they have tanks. This little thing is a T60 and not that dangerous to other tanks. Its autocannon is devastating against infantry though. Even my heavy AT rifles have enough punch to deal with its armor. This shouldn´t be a problem for my tanks and AT guns.

 

 

After a well placed shot from one of my tanks that broke it´s left track, this tank is jerkes around and presents it´s side to my guns. Immediatelly it gets pumped full of shells and starts to burn.

 

 

This is something the Soviets didn´t expect. My tanks roll straight into the flank of their assault, breaking it. Without them the Soviets would have succeded in overwhelming my defensive line for sure.

 

 

Oh look, another of these little things has been spotted in the forest driving towards the fight. This one has lazy Soviets on it. (Notice how the guy on the right has a SVT rifle while his comrades are armed with Mosin Nagant rifles)

 

 

Oh crap.....

My two flanking tanks are shot at by a T34 that suddenly rolled out of the forest. They immediately reverse out of there.

I order my Tank reserve to attack towards the T34 as more Soviet T60s are puring out of the forest.

 

 

The concentrated fire forces the T34 to face the new threat and retreat towards the forest. This allows my other tanks to get shots into his side. Very quickly the T34 has a track blown off and his fuel tank on fire. The crew abandons it, but not before immobilising one of my tanks and killing a crewmember inside.

 

 

With their tanks dead and mine rolling up the Soviet infantry aborts the assault and retreats into the forest. My Combat engineers are now perfectly positioned in the flank of the panicked retreating soviet forces.

 

 

My tanks show no mercy.

 

 

The crew of my disabled tank starts with the repairs. I am sure that they won´t be finished before this battle ends. It takes a few hours to repair track and chassis.

 

 

My command tank drives into the forest to support my combat engineers against a particulary stubborn bunch of Soviets.

 

 

That is when we discover two ZIS-3 AT guns.

My tank takes out the crew of one with an HE shell.

 

 

And charges the other machinegun blazing...

 

 

Chrushing it under it´s tracks. This was only possible because their crews were supressed by my infantry.

 

 

Sadly there is one more AT gun off to the side. It manages to get a hit into the side of my tank before I can spot it. 3 of the five crewmembers are killed by the hit, the other two bail, only to be cut down by Soviet infantry.

 

As my other tanks advance the enemy retreats.

 

 

A win for me.

 

 

This battle has gained me more territory wich will really help to secure the strategic point.

[Tonci87 163]

TURN 10 05.07.1942 22:00

 

 

Historical: At 20:30 German positions were attacked by tanks. The Soviets were forced to withdraw to their initial positions, having faced heavy AT fire and loosing several tanks.

 

Report from 24 Pz Div, dated 05.07. 21:00:

„Division attack forced the enemy back to the east as far as 3km to the north of Shilovo.

Tank attack was carried out from the north, 12 T-34 and 1 KV were put out of action, their affiliation is not identified, presumably they are based in the vicinity of Maslovka station“

 

Well, I´m doing better than the germans did back then. I really do hope that I won´t meet any KV-1 tanks though. Those have so much armor that It is close to impossible for me to kill them with the weapons I have. My Panzer IV F/2s with their long 75cm gun are really the only things I have that can reliably hurt a KV1. Even those would have to get very close or on the KVs flank to do any damage.

The next big objective is to get the Soviets out of Yakovlevka and Tavrovo. If only the damn bridge wasn´t destroyed. I fear I won´t be able to capture both within the timeframe of this campaign. First I need to reorganise my troops though.

 

OK, here it is. Now let´s see what the Soviets will do.

 

OK, a few counterattacks. Those coming from the east worry me.

[Tonci87 163]

River crossing.

 

I´ll start with this battle up north. I have a lot of infantry, some AT guns and three combat ready tanks. The Soviets have two AT guns and up to three unknown units.

 

 

A defensive setup. Notice how one of the strategic points is called „to Maslovka“? Remember that German report about the Soviet tanks most likely beeing based there? I have the suspicion that we might be facing tanks in this battle and I´m not that well prepared for them....

I´ll try to clear the area up to the river and then stay defensive. If the enemy deploys on this side of the river I will stay put and observe their strenght.

 

 

Green flares, a lot of them. I fear the worst.

 

 

Wait a second, the enemy does have to cross the river, I assume. I have a battery of light infantry guns. Shooting them at the ford should do some damage.

 

 

Sadly my guns didn´t have much ammo left and the enemy is on my side of the river. A skirmish unfolds. One of my tanks is beeing surprised by an AT gun and has it´s turret crew killed.

 

 

A lot of soviet infantry is now caught up between my advancing soldiers, tanks and the river.

 

 

We keep pushing the enemy back towards the river until they finally rout. No Soviet tanks in this battle after all :)

 

 

A nice victory for us.

 

 

That is that. The enemy up north seems to be done for.

 

[Tonci87 163]

Rolling Thunder

 

Oh this will be fun.

I have three tank platoons and one combat engineer platoon.

The enemy has a shitton of infantry and one T34 that is still unable to fight properly.

 

 

Thanks to the foothold I gained during the last battle across the river I´m now able to deploy my troops on their side. Yakovlevka won´t stand a chance. My tanks will drive the soviet infantry before them.

 

 

Even a small Panzer 2 is large enough to transport a whole squad. Select both and klick on mount in the lower right command panel. This way you can moove your infantry very fast and without exhausting them.

 

 

The enemy infantry doesn´t stand a chance. I expect the enemy to retreat very soon.

 

 

Enemies that are spotted die a quick death.

 

 

And with that my men manage to capture the village.

 

 

Look who we found!

 

 

Aww yeah, one shot from close up, straight into the ammorack. The Soviets retreat, finally.

 

 

One of my tanks was immobilised by AT grenades and one has lost two crewmembers due to Molotovs. Other than that my force is more or less alive.

The Soviets have suffered terrible losses.

 

 

And with that Yakovlevka is mine. Now I need to get more troops across and start pushing towards Tavrovo.

[Tonci87 163]

TURN 11 06.07.1942 02:00

 

As usual some reorganizing has been done and now I´m ready to attack various enemy positions.

Northeast of Shilovo my units will attempt to get rid of the last Soviets this side of the Voronezh river.

Down south, where we already crossed that river, we will attempt to obliterate a pocket of enemy resistance in the forest west of Yakovlevka and assault towards Tavrovo. Let´s see what the Soviets are up to.

 

OK, they are counterattacking in two places.

North of Tavrovo they are attacking across the Voronezh. I suspect the attacking unit might consist of tanks that want to break through towards the nothern main road. I will try not to fight them.

The Soviets are also counterattacking out of Tavrovo. My tanks there should have the situation under control. One thing that is of concern is that I´m pretty much out of Artillery spotters who would be able to call in flares. I suspect I´ll just have to find my way in the dark. The tracers will guide me.

[Tonci87 163]

Surprises

 

This is the first battle we will be fighting this turn. I hope that by winning this one I can force the enemy to cancel that counterattack, by what I assume is a tank unit.

 

 

To clear out Gypsum 1 is our main goal in this operation. Of course we will kill as many Soviets as we are able to.

 

 

In this battle I do have artillery spotters and so I proceed to light up the whole area so that my advancing troops can´t be ambushed by some Soviets hidden in the darkness.

 

 

I do have to relocate the spotters from time to time so that they can call in coverage across the whole front.

 

 

Panzergrenadiers are advancing along the road together with their halftracks.

 

 

Infantry, halftracks, tanks. A great number of units is slowly advancing through the shrubbery towards the river. I can´t imagine that the Soviets will be able to put up much of a fight against my force.

 

 

Soon enough we do have contact, an enemy Machinegun opens up on my advancing soldiers.

 

 

Oh fuck me.... What I feared most has happened, the enemy has at least one KV1.

 

 

Actually there seems to be at least three of them. They move through the area with little subtlety.

 

 

The Soviet Infantry is having a much worse time.

 

 

Even my Panzer 4 F/2s don´t seem to be a match for these beasts.

 

 

One Panzer 4 manages to get close to a KV1 and puts a shot into him, it penetrates but the tank still isn´t out of action.

 

 

Oh my God, this is so tense, who will shoot first?

 

 

The KV shoots first....

 

 

My tanks are beeing torn apart one by one and their crews have either a very quick, or a very painfull death.

 

 

The KVS are now free to rampage amongst my panicked infantry. I still have three Panzer 3s with their long 5cm guns. I really hope that they will be able to at least disable a KV1.

 

 

Oh wow, the little Panzer 3s actually managed to do what the big Panzer 4s couldn´t. They take out one of the KV1s. Apparently they manged to penetrate the side of the turret.

 

 

My Panzer 3s corner another KV1 and proceed to pump shells into it.

 

 

They just can´t kill it though. I decide enough is enough and call in Artillery on it. That finally does the trick.

 

 

My remaining units finally reach the river. Their last KV1 drove a bit into the river and got so stuck that the crew had to abandon it. Serves you right for driving such a heavy beast onto soft soil.

 

 

I lost a lot in this battle. Compared to my losses the Soviet ones have been insignificant. Almost my whole Panzer 4 platoon has been wiped out or is too damaged to fight.

 

 

Just look at this! The ammount of shells this KV shrugged off is unreal. Thank God one shell managed to penetrate the gun mantlet and disable the gun that way. Otherwise this tank would have killed all my Panzer 3s. Even like this only one survived....

 

 

I cleared out the sector. No enemies left on my side of the river. Now I can proceed to attack Tavrovo from the north. I really hope that the Soviets don´t have any more tanks left. At least they did cancell their attack in this area.  

[Tonci87 163]

Assaulting Tavrovo.

 

I´m going straight for Tavrovo now. The enemy units are extremelly depleted and should be easy pickings for my tanks. The enemy also has logistics troops with a supply depot in Tavrovo. Without a doubt, the reason why the Soviet soldiers have been so steadfast is that they were always well supplied with ammunition. By getting rid of those logistics troops I hope to break the will of the last soviet defenders.

 

 

Straight offense. One Tank platoon will circle around the forest to the south of Tavrovo while infantry clears it. The other tank units will get in positions on the fields west of Tavrovo. Then they will cover the advance of the infantry into the town.

 

 

As my tanks advance they suddenly get Molotovs thrown at them. Enemy infantry is hiding in the grass near the road. Brave but ultimatelly stupid and fatal.

 

 

There are trenches in the fields, my tanks engage as they advance.

 

 

The assault looks like a really fancy lightshow.

 

 

As tanks provide overwatch I drive up infantry in an APC to check if there are any Soviet survivors in the ruined trenches. The important hing here is that I use the APC to give protection to my infantry to enable them to advance across open ground in a more or less safe way.

 

 

Now the Soviets on the edge of town get their share. Every tank has two Machineguns and they are almost all blazing away.

 

 

My infantry is assaulting the trenches on the edge of town while their APCs and my tanks provide supressive fire.

 

 

If there is an enemy in a house the whole building simply gets the tank cannon fire treatment.

 

 

Tanks and infantry are advancing through the streets, cleaning the village house by house. (The game has some pretty good particle effects when you consider when it was released.)

 

 

The Soviets are doing the best they can to defend but they simply aren´t a match for what is coming at them.

 

 

And so my forces finally capture the village as a new day begins to dawn.

(Yes this game has realtime lighting and weather changes. Notice how it was pretty dark at the start of the battle?)

 

 

A well deserved victory.

 

 

Well look at this. Unnoticed by me during the battle some Soviets snuck past my troops and retook Yakovlevka.... My fault for not leaving any guards behind. I´ll have to retake it now.

The AI is pretty good at exploiting your mistakes....

[Tonci87 163]

Forest fight

 

The last battle for this turn. Our goal is to get rid of this pocket of enemy resistance in the woods west of Yakovlevka. The enemy only has a beat up rifle platoon and the second company command with attached support units. This should be a piece of cake.

 

Simple, nobody escapes.

 

As the horizon starts to brighten up my infantry begins their advance supported by their halftracks.

 

Suddenly the edge of the forest errupts in fire as the hidden Soviets start shooting at my men.

 

The Soviets have Mortars, I must be facing the command platoon here.

 

They might have Mortars, but I have this. A 3,7cm AT gun mounted on a halftrack. Not effective versus newer Soviet tanks but effective enough to deal with infantry positions.

 

 

The Soviet positions are just getting hammered.

 

 

The Soviets decide to break contact and rout.

 

 

Oh you silly Statistics, this wasn´t a draw. The fight was over very fast and both sides only suffered insignificant losses but I captured the territory.

 

 

See? Mine!

[Tonci87 163]

Turn 12 06.07.1942 6:00

 

 

Historical: Soon after dawn, German infantry and tanks launched an offensive towards the city of Voronezh. Redeployment of enemy troops on the left bank of the river Voronezh was detected [the bank with Yakovlevka and Tavrovo on it].

 

I´m still doing slightly better than the Germans did back then.

 

I already organised my troops. My main goals are to retake Yakovlevka and to expand my position in Tavrovo.

The Soviets actually brough in some reinforcements and will attempt to retake Tavrovo.

[Tonci87 163]

Clean sweep

 

This will most likely be a very short battle. The Soviets only seem to have one almost completely wiped out platoon of AT rifles.

I have much more than that, although my men are short on ammo.

 

 

This setup is a bit spaced out to make sure that the enemy doesn´t slip away. I took special care to guard the Ford. I really don´t want the Soviets to recapture that.

 

 

Since the enemy has AT rifles I want to keep my halftracks away from them. Using the filter option on the bottom center of the screen (look where my mouse is) I´m able to select only the infantry inside the selected groups and then move those without their APCs.

 

 

My infantry is advancing very carefully through the swamp. I don´t want to loose any men if possible. In the background the farm buildings across the river are still on fire.

 

 

In other places they have to advance across open ground.

 

 

We have located the enemy, they are somewhere in the tall grass just ahead of us.

 

 

Found them.

 

 

We proceed to kill them immediatelly

 

 

My men are victorious

 

 

I win this brief skirmish without a single loss.

 

 

One more enemy unit eliminated and my men are ever closer to capturing the area north of Tavrovo.

[Tonci87 163]

Yakovlevka. The second assault.

 

Since the enemy recaptured Yakovlevka it is our duty to take it away from them.....again

I have a crapton of units, also tanks. The enemy has two depleted infantry platoon and one unknown unit that might still be on full strenght. Nonetheless, unless they brought in a crapton of tanks of their own (or a crapton of AT guns) we shouldn´t have too much trouble recapturing this village.

 

 

My main goal is of course to assure that this time not a single Soviet soldier is able to slip past my troops and capture another area. I will take the village with overwhelming firepower.

 

 

My tanks begin to roll towards the village.

 

 

Oh God damn it. A soviet AT gun is positioned so that it can ambush my tanks and shoot directly into their side armor, the lead tank takes a hit.

 

 

Other tanks turn and take out the gun before it can do more damage. The Soviets seem to have a few AT guns around since another tank group gets shot at too.

 

 

The Soviets have set up a whole AT gun battery on the hill above the village. That must indeed have been the fresh unit they had. I can´t send in my infantry yet since they would get shot to pieces before coming close to the village.

 

 

Here a Panzer II almost takes a hit as he is shooting back at the guns, over half a kilometer away. At that range they have the advantage, but my tanks are starting to get their HE shots in.

 

 

And with that the gun position is soon destroyed, time to send in the Panzergrenadiers to clear out the houses.

 

 

Mortars, artillery, a lot of stuff is raining down on that village in order to supress the defenders.

 

 

Here comes my infantry in their halftracks, speeding towards the village to unload the guys into the cover of the houses and trees.

 

 

Faced with certain defeat the Soviets flee the field.

I win.

 

 

That is it for this battle, the enemy is defeated. I capture Yakovlevka, again. Better not loose it this time.

 

[Tonci87 163]

TAVROVO

 

The last battle for this turn, and if we are successful, maybe even the last battle of the campaign. Tavrovo. We still have to capture the center and eastern part of the village.

 

I have a lot of tanks, but very little infantry. The enemy has one MG company, some infantry and at least two fresh units of unknown composition. This one might go horribly wrong if the Soviets have some tanks...

 

 

The plan is that one tank group will flank south around the forest and then sweep northwards while the other one will force their way through the village with brute force. Infantry will assist them in that. This time Yakovlevka is out of the enemies reach.

I have Luftwaffe aircraft coming in and also one battery of light infantry guns for fire support.

 

 

The beautifull old church is nothing but rubble....Can´t use it as a spotting position

 

 

Almost immediatelly we have our first contacts, enemy soldiers inside a house. This officers isn´t shy to load a gun if he has too.

 

 

One of my tanks gets his tracks blown off by an AT grenade thrown out of a window. Another tank decides to teach those defenders a lesson and rams into the house to bring down the roof on them.

Very effective.

 

 

The area is full of enemies. Infantry, Mgs and also apparently a lot of AT rifles. I decide to use my light infantry guns on them.

 

 

A fierce battle unfolds. My light infantry guns really give me the edge I need.

 

 

The enemy Infantry keeps fighting, but they slowly succumb to the onslaught of my tanks.

 

 

In the end they are forced to retreat. This battle has been costly for me, my halftracks got wrecked by AT rifle fire and some of my tanks are also damaged.

 

 

Tavrovo is now mine. It actaully looks like the Soviets have been wiped off the map!

 

This might be it, this might be the great victory!

[Tonci87 163]

TURN 13 06.07.1942 10:00

 

 

Historical

Starting from the 6^th July heavy artillery fire from the area of Semiluk [look for the symbol of the 1/16 destr. bde, destr det.] shelled the Don crossing near Yunyevka [off map, west of Malyshevo].

On the 7^th July these troops were indentified as the 687 Rifle Regiment 141 Rifle division.

 

 

I kind of doubt that any new Soviet units will arrive this turn since we pushed everything off the map. Still its a very good idea to prepare for everything so I moved up everything I could even if those units are extremely depleted.

 

 

Indeed more Soviets arrived but they had no way to break out of their deployment zone. This battle is over.

TOTAL VICTORY

 

Historic Debriefing:

 

Despite obstinate resistance of Soviet troops, the southern outskirtzs of Voronezh had been captured by Germans. Fierce battles broke out on the southern and western outskirts of the city.

 

Report from 24 Panzerdivision, dated 6^th July 14:15:

Enemy shows less and less resistance, at 10:30 first units of the division reached the southern outskirts of Voronezh, the bridge across the Voronezh river is captured.

 

On the 7^th and 8^th of July large parts of Voronezh were captured by the Wehrmacht, although it never captured it completelly.

 

The 24 Panzerdivision continued it´s way towards Stalingrad.

On the 4^th September it reached the first outskirts of the city as part of the 4^th army, plagued by supply problems.

At that time they only had 34 combat worthy tanks remaining.

After breaking through the Soviet defense perimeter the division arrived in the outskirt of Minnina on the 10^th of September.

At that point only half of the divisions personel and only 10 tanks remained combat worthy.

Tank companies of the 24^th PD were involved in all major battles across Stalingrad. From the fighting in the outskirts, and the south city, to Mamajew hill and the factory complex consisting of the tractor factory, Barricades and Red October.

The division was trapped in the Stalingrad cauldron and faught on until the end. 1500 Soldiers of the 24PD became prisoners of war, most of them never to return home.

 

 

Operational Statistics

 

From left to right:

Platoons total/lost

Victory points

Soldiers and officers killed/captured

Tanks and SPGs destroyed/captured

Guns, Mgs and Mortars destroyed/captured

APCs and trucks destroyed/captured

Soldiers and officers lost

Tanks and SPGs lost

Guns, Mgs and Mortars lost

APCs and Trucks lost

Wounded

Heavily wounded

Captured and MIA

Killed

 

 

 

 

 

I thank everybody who folowed this little series from start to finish. It was a very special experience to not only play this battle, but also do some research, write and reflect about it.

It was very fun to share my experiences with anybody who is interested.

 

Now that I have done some significant upgrades to my PC (GPU and SSD), I actually might record, and upload the next campaign I play on youtube.

I´m not yet sure wich one that would be, but I assume it will be one that takes place during Operation star in 1943.

Maybe Krasnaya Polyana?

 

 

German Panzer 3 of the 24PD near Stalingrad

 

 

Burning KV1 near Voronezh

[Tonci87 163]

Feel free to leave suggestions and critique for this series and possible future ones.

[krzychuzokecia 719]

Impressive stuff: the game, Your playthrough, all of it. It's really not your typical RTS blockbuster, and it seems that even simplest task may be quite challenging. Thanks for this presentation, I'll keep an eye on this game.

[jw custom 56]

Keep'em coming tonci87, i enjoyed the reading B)

[Tonci87 163]

Still in the process of slowly (very slowly) migrating to WIn10. I don´t want to start a new campaign on WIn 7 now.  :rolleyes:

[Tonci87 163]

Nothing new from me yet but somebody else made a video

 

Krasnaya Polyana might actually be the next campaign I play.

[Tonci87 163]

Another nice cinematic video