Part 3 of FitE 5.0

[kfmiller41]

You think you will be able to mass the efoort to get Moscow now Larry or is is out of reach? Lenningrad looks like the better option.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: miller41
You think you will be able to mass the efoort to get Moscow now Larry or is is out of reach? Lenningrad looks like the better option.

The effort for the Axis to get into Moscow is probably out of reach but Leningrad is indeed still possible. I said that because there is a cease fire coming up in turn 32 ( that lasts until turn 39 ) and the Soviet will still be getting about 24 units per turn during the whole thing, and as it is the Soviet is able to plug all the holes that the Axis makes in the lines. So it looks like the Soviets might just be able to go on some kind of limited offensive this first winter.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis view of the Leningrad situation:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Kiev looks like to the Axis:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Another area of interest is the Zaporozhe region ( Axis view ):
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis losses so far ( before any combat in turn 27 ):
 

[larryfulkerson]

I find it interesting that even though the Soviets have more planes on air supremacy missions the Axis is still winning the air war.  The figures below were from just after the first combat round in turn 27:
 

[larryfulkerson]

There was a sea battle in turn 27 where the Axis battleships floated just out of range of the Soviet destroyers and pounded them from afar, meanwhile at least four squadrons of Stukas went for the Soviet capital ships and here's the result:
 

 
You may notice that a little more than half of the stukas made it out and back.  The Soviet air defenses were fearce in the Leningrad area and in hindsight I probably should have sent some fighter escorts.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the progress the Axis made in the Leningrad area in the first combat round of turn 27:
 

[Szilard]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

You may notice that a little more than half of the stukas made it out and back.  The Soviet air defenses were fearce in the Leningrad area and in hindsight I probably should have sent some fighter escorts.

May also be the AA bug at work; ships seem way over-powered in terms of AA at the moment.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Szilard

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

You may notice that a little more than half of the stukas made it out and back.  The Soviet air defenses were fearce in the Leningrad area and in hindsight I probably should have sent some fighter escorts.

May also be the AA bug at work; ships seem way over-powered in terms of AA at the moment.

Yeah but I'm beta testing the 3.0.0.17g version which supposedly has fixed the AA bug. So I'm guessing that it's the Soviet fighters at work here. I could be wrong of course.

[dobeln]

250+ fighters vs. undefended Stukas should be a slaughter, imho (An aside: Does the new version fix the AI:s tendency to suicide attack fleets with air assets?) 

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: dobeln
250+ fighters vs. undefended Stukas should be a slaughter, imho (An aside: Does the new version fix the AI:s tendency to suicide attack fleets with air assets?) 

I'm not sure. I'm hotseating this FitE game. But I'm pretty sure that's one of the things we're gonna test.

[larryfulkerson]

After two combat rounds in turn 27 the Axis is still seemingly winning in the air at least:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis progress made in the Leningrad area during turn 27:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Most of the Axis progress was in the Sevastopol pennsula as can be seen in this moves movie for turns 25 thru 27:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet losses so far ( before combat on turn 27 ):
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Axis losses so far ( before any combat on turn 28 ):



And here's the loss report after the first combat round:



And here is the Axis loss report after the second combat round:

[larryfulkerson]

If we take the 253rd Inf Division as an example we can see that several of the regiments are seriously understrength:
 

[larryfulkerson]

It is well known that the air loss report exaggerates the enemy losses but even with half the reported Soviet losses, it's an impressive shoot-down by the Axis, and this is before any combat takes place:



And after the first combat round:



And after the second combat round: