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So this is tied as my favorite DC game alongside Ardennes. I've been playing it on and off for years now, started out pirating it, then bought a copy for myself and a buddy. The point is I've existed in this games orbit for quite some time.

I possess moderate wargaming experience, I've played (marginally) competent campaigns of WITE2 versus a player, and I've beaten this game (once) on Normal years back. This should've been a disaster, as the game ended with my units routing, cut off, and destroyed, but I'd pushed hard enough that I won on a technicality. I aim to remedy this.

This campaign is the culmination of maybe a year of fiddling with this game, and a number of unsuccessful campaigns. One that is rather noteworthy, is I tried a Hard campaign, and the Soviets ended up pushing into Romania. So that was something.

Regardless, I am currently on Turn 7 so I'll be posting things from the first six turns as catch up before this AAR is live.

Fairly standard start: I ingratiated myself to Hitler for the PP. Seems great unless you get really unlucky.
Normal difficulty, Slow deliberation speed, no Geneva conventions; everything else default.

For brevity, I'm leaving out the Finns and the Ukranian / Romainian front as these didn't change much until where I'm at.

I focused primarily on destroying large chunks of the Soviet army. Hopefully this pays off.

Turn 3 -- I was chasing pockets. I've tried rushing territory before, and unless you're lucky you get bogged down.

Skipping forward to Turn 5.

Turn 6 is mostly pocket clearing. Onto turn 7 and 8. 7 was mostly staging. Bridgeheads across the Dvina were held and expanded after clearing large pockets. Entries will be larger from here on out.

Some lone infantry divisions are clearing out Windau and the depleted divisions there.

Turn 8 ----

I took a screen of my relations, but it bugged out. To summarize, I'm prioritizing appeasing my front commanders and my truck guy; the rest be damned!

Here is the one where I stop and go into detail about my priorities. In my past games, I've gone much harder for Leningrad and captured it around September. Unfortunately, this usually allows them to amass more of an army and stall me around Smolensk, even if I eventually capture it. The benefits of this are also rather slow; it takes time to divert the PG down towards Moscow, and even then the terrain is not conducive to operations.

Thus I have stumbled into a more Southern-oriented strategy this round.

Summarizing what I've seen so far:

* Turn 10 shows the Soviets deploying a new army in AGN, south of Talinn.


This is good because I'm not prioritizing going there; my panzers, and rail conversion are heading the shortest route through Luga.

In AGC, I've stalled as I've switched the FOB to Minsk. I've been airlifting fuel to my panzers in the interrim.
I initially was thiinking about sending PG2 south. This would allow them to assist PG1, who've had considerable success in and around Kiev. I pocketed the reserve army that the Soviets mobilized in front of Kiev, leaving little in the way of resistance for my panzers to make a daring dash into Kiev -- pocketing the remainder.
AGS:




This will have developments in the next turn...

Here are the general stats:

New developments in turn 11:

In the north, the siege of Riga continues; it'll probably go on for a while longer. With that newly deployed army out of position by Talinn, I think I can actually make a play for Leningrad. Blowing some holes with infantry NE of Pskov, my mobile forces met considerable success. To the south, the brutal slog continues. I've diverted the rest of PG2 and we're now going headlong for Smolensk, as many of the units here were low org, damaged units. I was able to push aside several stacks and seize Orsha. Next round may be decisive and I hope to now push onward to Smolensk, where I will end the offensive in this sector. Finally, in the South PG1 seems to be doing just fine save for the trucks. We've seized Kiev, encircled most of the reinforcing army, and are now bringing up the FSB to Proskurov. After a brief rest I hope to drive on Rostov. I am suffering from PP however. I'm basically ignoring winter preparations because I've insisted on refitting my trucks in several theaters. This will definitely come back to bite me if enough of the Soviets are alive come winter.