Flashing Sword of Retribution

[Ivan]

This is my first attempt at a AAR in the OPzCs so bear with me.

This excellent mod is by Marquo and comes highly recommended.

This is an an ongoing game and I'll post updates as the game progresses without trying to give anything away to my opponent.

I am playing Russians v herr_oberst an able German commander. This is a large campaign of 412 turns and based on previous experiences fortune can swing back and fore as the game progresses. Initially the initiative is with the Russians but I am under no illusions that this is likely to change at some point when Manstein with the help of herr_oberst strikes back.

This is the position to the evening of the 1st of February from a Russian perspective.



The battle has been in two phases so far:
(1) pushing the Germans to the line of the Oskol
(2) crossing the Oskol after some preparation and regrouping

Phase one was relatively easy as the Germans were outnumbered and lacked mobility. This was costly for the Germans.

The German commander then decided to make a stand at the Oskol and destroyed most of the bridges. This meant I had to construst bridges and develop bridgeheads such as this one at Pristin:



The Russian artillery proved very effective in this phase. There were a couple of times when I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew. The German airforce was very powerful at times and some bridgeheads had to be abandoned under fierce counterattack.

Next: thoughts about objectives, strengths and weaknesses.