Eastern Front Command Ops: Across the Tartar Ditch AAR

Across the Tartar Ditch is a new scenario I am finishing up about the fight for the Perekop isthmus, a crucial approach to the port city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea.  The scenario, set in September of 1941, is 2 days and 15 hours long.

LIV Corps of the German 11th Army is matched up against the Soviet 51st army.  The build of this scenario is almost complete.  I still need to finish adding Soviet units as well as 1-2 additional German infantry battalions.

This morning I play-tested it for the first time and ended up with a marginal defeat as the German player.  I actually had the upper hand for much of the battle but I didn't push as aggressively as I should have on Day 2 and was unable to complete the capture of three of the five terrain objectives.

I am also using Snagit for the first time.  So far I like it for these blogs as it is always hard to understand what is going on based on a screenshot.


Day 1 attacks by the 73rd Inf division's 170th and 185th infantry regiments against unknown Soviet forces (ive not completed in the intel display portion of the scenario build).  1st SS Panzer Division arrives on Day 2 and they draw the heavy assignment of seizing Perekop, crossing the Tartar Ditch and finally seizing Armyansk.


My initial attacks are stalling out.  II bn 185th is moving out of reserves into a support role for the attack on Alexsandrovka and the 170th Pioneer bn is also moving up.
1st SS Panzer division enters the battlefield on Day 2.

1st SS PZ division orders for Day 2.  My attack is stalling at Chaban and instead of taking the objective with just the two infantry regiments I am pulling the 2nd SS PG regiment off of it's initial line of attack to support the Chaban drive.
With hours to go I have every objective under attack and two of them under control including the town of Perekop at the entrance to the Tartar Ditch.  My attack on Alexandrovska continues to stall, even with supporting artillery barrages from four artillery battalions.

The final screen.

The final result.  As I mentioned earlier, I was a little slow to develop an aggressive attack plan for Day 2 and this really set me back.  A full Soviet OOB would make this much harder and I can't wait to finish adding the naval infantry to this scenario.

My hope is to have this scenario ready to play by the end of next week.  More to follow...

Comments

Doug Miller said…
Looking great Chris! Can't wait to play it.

I also like what you're doing with SnagIt. I'm going to look into that myself.
February 6, 2014 at 6:54 PM
Chris said…
Thanks Doug. There is a free 14 day trial version which I am using. So far from what I've seen I am going to get it. There is also a video capture option.

As for this scenario, I think its one of my favorite ones that I've done. The Soviets actually outnumber the Germans and have air superiority. You can't see it in these screenshots but the two infantry regiments took a beating from the six soviet artillery units that are nearby. For most of day 1 they pounded those regiments near Chaban. I ended up moving all of the divisions artillery into a supporting role just to keep my men in the fight until the 1st SS Panzer arrived.
February 6, 2014 at 8:42 PM
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