Great campaign: Southern Whites:First moves

[Clovis]

Beware: it's just a quick and dirty illustration of the first turns as Southern Whites in the Great Campaign. Not the time to write long stories. But it could help to start.

Southern White are in a very poor situation at start, and they must absolutely conquer Ekaterinodar and the Kuban before the end of 1918 to hope survive to winter.

Fortunatly, the large communist forces have poor ratings when Whites have few but good units

First turn plan:




In the North, the goal is to cut the rail line between Moscow and Tzaitsyn



First White victory

[Clovis]

I'm following my plan, wishing to conquer the vital cities quickly






I'm adding an operation aagainst Communist Garrison of Grozny in the South

[Clovis]

Whites are once again victorious, even if a communist relief column from Astrakhan came to Grozny, a little too late and was repulsed

[Clovis]

Red are in full trouble; only remains Ekaterinodar I will target after having achieved destruction of the Caucasus Army ; I've yet seized the crucial rail crossroads.

Turn 3 should be an easy task

[Clovis]

After having beaten once again the Red Army, Denikin will now move to Ekaterinodar which seems lightly defended




From grozny, I try to join my forces under unified command. I've bought some replacements, but manpower is limited

[Clovis]

But Reds are converging on Ekaterinodar, now a true fortress I can't assault immediatly, Denikin's men being in short condition. I've to siege the town one or two turns first

[Clovis]

But on this turn 5, I'm going confident, and I launch a recon action around Tzaritsyn. Who knows? a snake assault on a undermanned garrison could be possible

[Clovis]

But the turn 5 is the end of the triumphant and easy White march.

Stalin is coming with an huge army from the North and he takes back the vital railiroad




My weak flank is almost destroyed.

So maybe Tzarisyn can be conquered, and Stalin isolated?


No.

Trotsky is coming too

[Clovis]

Turn 6: Denikin and Stalin fight for the vital crossroad; if lost by the Whites, Stalin armored trains could take back Rostov and Novocherssask, the only base of Whites until ow, and lightly defended

Denikin wins but that's a pyrrhic victory in a now grim situation for a depleted White army.







Soince AACW, I have never seen a so engrossing game.

Played against Red AI, +2 fow, more time.

The best thing : Stalin isn't always coming South. More often, he goes on the Volga front...He surprised me

[barbu]

You had a bit of bad luck, Denikin usually beats the reds in the first few battles.

BTW, Stalin *and* Trotsky? RUS must have activated the Defeat_The_Game_Developer sub-code

[Clovis]

You had a bit of bad luck, Denikin usually beats the reds in the first few battles.

BTW, Stalin *and* Trotsky? Athena must have activated her Defeat_The_Game_Developer sub-code

Dunno Never wanted that.

Anything is possible, never a GC will be exactly the same. Situation turnover are always possible. I know generally Dinikin ahas a rather easy task, but the real challenge is to trap the Red forces. If not, they generally retreat North and fight on the Volga against Siberians...And Siberians, when checked, will not be the threath needed to distract Red forces which could concentrate against Southern Whites later...

[Kev_uk]

I played my first GC as the Reds, and I found the Whites to be strong in the south - they took all the main cities the first three turns and severely depleted my Red forces - all I am left with is Tsaritsyn. Challenging.

You right that no GC plays the same - this is what makes the game more interesting and replayable and thats good.

[Clovis]

I played my first GC as the Reds, and I found the Whites to be strong in the south - they took all the main cities the first three turns and severely depleted my Red forces - all I am left with is Tsaritsyn. Challenging.

You right that no GC plays the same - this is what makes the game more interesting and replayable and thats good.

The Red AI is doing a little better against Southern Whites AI .

Seriously, I don't think Whites to be strong. You will learn to check them but the game is IMHO balanced for this portion.

I've made all my possible to avoid predictability for IA. You will see patterns and habit, but anything unusual is possible.

[Kev_uk]

I am to be honest finding it challenging with the Reds. Up to Jan 1919, lost a lot of cities, both East and South, and considering the size of the AI's forces and its stacking of usually up to around 20k troops and my small, widespread forces, depleted at that, its tough to hold ground. Using Trotsky combined with two divisions as a kind of 'fire-brigade' to try and retake various places after AI has moved on, but cant hold much.

AI has an FOW advantage of +1, may take that off next game!

[Clovis]

I am to be honest finding it challenging with the Reds. Up to Jan 1919, lost a lot of cities, both East and South, and considering the size of the AI's forces and its stacking of usually up to around 20k troops and my small, widespread forces, depleted at that, its tough to hold ground. Using Trotsky combined with two divisions as a kind of 'fire-brigade' to try and retake various places after AI has moved on, but cant hold much.

AI has an FOW advantage of +1, may take that off next game!

You can't hold all and need to concentrate on one Front. I'm now doing what Red AI do: extract as much as possible Red forces from the South to hold the Volga line, keep the Tzaritsyn checkpoint, and build as much forces as possible to crush the weaker White faction at the Spring 1919.

We are evaluating ressources at disposal. but don't be afraid: Whites aren't so strong: if they concentrate in some points, they are very weak on others. You have to find the weak points and flank the AI to force it to retreat...

[Kev_uk]

Thanks for the pointers. It is a very fluid, quite messy campaign, with cities behind my line being taken over, so having a central place, such as Moscow to build reinforcements and send out forces to retake areas etc, is a must, and also keeping those rail tracks repaired is important too.

AI is not bad. Having fun, but to stabilise a 'line', or a front is proving hard. Too scattered and no focus.

[Clovis]

Just as a side note: in my current test game, Stalin has come again, with less troops but some dreaded armored trains. This time, I have fortunatly destroyed the rail line