"Kick in the barn door" - Speedy vs Gunnulf (no Gun)

[Gunnulf]

So finally I get to read the other side of the story. Thanks to Speedy for a good hard fought game, a great AAR for posterity and importantly his patience once we worked out there were problems with the version somehow. I got lucky with a fairly high risk strategy to try to deny the Dvina line long enough to blow the bridges. Without 3 divisions from BMD that were activated enough to slip through in time I don't think it would have been viable. Then mud at a critical point allowed me to disengage the heroic 27th Army to fight another day further north. Of course in reality Stalin would never have sanctioned such a craven move.
Secondly activating an army in Minsk was suicidal, but was done just in time to hold out until 14 July, delaying the FSB move and buying time to assemble 3 armies in the next line. As you can see in the south 2 PzGp broke through this with ease whereas 3 PzGp faltered. Both similar troops levels behind a river, the only big difference being across a bridge. I was in the process of scattering in the south and I didnt expect the north flank to hold much longer, however I feel I could have got most troops away and maybe held the line down to the wire around Moscow in the end. This was the least secure sector though despite being the one that was causing the most trouble at the end. In a recent game as Germans against Devoncop I came across a similar line. We battered through and took Moscow in the end but at heavy cost with AGC panzers at 15% runners overall. This game might easily have been that brutal here too...
In the Southern Front I also feel I got a bit lucky in one small action: opening the breakout to Lvov for just 1 turn allowed then to hold out that bit longer than usual and again delay an FSB move. Think had knock on effects throughout the chain and while Kiev was about to be surrounded, a good strong garrison was likely to hold a while. I think Rostov would have be a close run thing but again as good a chance as any that logistics and time might have fell in my favour.
All in all a good game and I look forward to a rematch against Speedy at some point, a true gent of an opponent.

[Speedysteve]

Too kind of you to say so sir. I was outplayed in this fair and square and I've always believed that when you're doing well you have luck on your side (i.e. you make you own luck)[8D]