FITE Chambers vs Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Da_Huge_D
In my opinion, Larry, you should pull back northern line almost to Leningrad, and try keep that city long as you can.

Yeah, I'd do that but I'd lose my entrenchment value and so what if he gains Leningrad? I admit there is good terrain to defend in around there but still.....

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines as of the start of turn 168. The Soviet equipment is beginning to venture out and grab real estate. Curt is trying to do two things at the same time....destroy some Axis equipment and grab terrain. I think he's got enough units to do that with ease. My engineers and late arrivers are blowing bridges as fast as they come to them so the Soviet dude will have his hands full trying to re-build them.

[Raindem]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work

yah but he put a lot more effort into going further east elsewhere - much more fun doin' ur own thing

That's the real key to this particular match between Larry and I. I had vastly overbuilt my southern forces in anticipation of a move by Larry, not to mention my own offensive designs in the area. Larry clearly won the contest of force ratio placement by holding steady in the south and making huge gains in the north. Even now, as most of the eastern front is falling apart, I can't budge those northern troops. I'm just going to have to wait until they are surrounded.

[larryfulkerson]

I've put a token force in Helsinki but it won't hold the Soviets back very long. So the Finns are done for. Curt is advancing slowly everywhere else and I'm not sure he knows that taking the capitals of the minor countries will eliminate them from the game as well. Given the speed of his advance I'd say it will be at the earliest late spring or summer before he meets my new front lines. So we're looking at very little game action until turn 200 or so. And by then there will only be 200 turns left give or take. I'm not sure it's possible to hold the Soviet dude back for 200 turns with the force I have left but that's the situation I'm going to have.

Anyway, here's the front lines at the start of turn 171:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines at turn 176. Curt is still creaping slowly westward in small groups grabbing terrain and stuff like that.

[SMK-at-work]

have u been tempted to send out some hard hitting mobile units (Pz Corps?) to smack over his lead troops while the bulk are still well to the rear?

[Raindem]

I'm not intentionally advancing slowly.  With a shortage of engineers and huge pockets of German troops still in the rear, I'm moving about as fast as my little feet will carry me.

There's no way I could ever quickly poke through Larry's defensive line anyway.  So I might as well take my time and get the whole army in place before the next phase of the campaign.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work
have u been tempted to send out some hard hitting mobile units (Pz Corps?) to smack over his lead troops while the bulk are still well to the rear?

Oh, have I ever. I thought about it many a time and always decided that maybe it'd be best if I conserve my strength for the coming battles. I've waited too long to attack his forward scouts now and the troops bringing up the rear are in the area available to help out now. Here's the abbrev. version of the front lines as of the start of turn 181:

[larryfulkerson]

Helsinki is under seige and can't hold out for very long. That means the Finns will go bye bye soon.

[Silvanski]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkersonHere's the abbrev. version of the front lines as of the start of turn 181:

Dang, that's one heck of a Festung Deutschland there. It'll be interesting to see how this one's gonna turn out

[larryfulkerson]

I can't stand the suspense anymore....I just gotta attack Curt's forces. He's at the end of his supply line, his troops are tired from hot footing it across Russia and he's not got much arty to support them. He's coming at me piecemeal and a little at a time and I have more chance of defeating them a little at a time than I do all at once. He's moved them close enough for me to strike them within one movement turn and it's just too good to turn down this time. Here's me moving into position to attack on the northeast end of the front lines:

[Da_Huge_D]

Thats nice counter-offensive!
"Attack is best defence"

[Silvanski]

I imagine that the Wehrmacht wouldn't be able to sustain a trench-style battle of attrition against the Red Bear.
 

[desert]

This might be overly optimistic, but would there be any chance of destroying his entire army in one fell swoop by launching a sudden, massive offensive once the majority of his forces have arrived?

[SMK-at-work]

can't imagine so - the Sov just slows down the rest of his advance - he gets such massive replacements that there's no chance of destroying his army any more.

[larryfulkerson]

Yeah, what he said.  There's going to be a spring mud pause in about turn 186 for about 9 turns.  I suspect that Curt is going to use that time to move what forces he can toward the fighting and even if by some miracle I am able to defeat all those units he has already moved up to the fighting area, there's still about 50+ units still in Lapland and near Murmansk and out in the east mopping up the last of the German remnants that I cannot reach and can't destroy.  He's amassed enough replacement rifle squads to replace whatever I destroy and by the late-fall
early-winter '43 time period he would have his army back ready to move them into positions of attack again.  I'm afraid it's all over but the shouting for the Axis.  This game will be over by early '44 at the latest I'm thinking.

[larryfulkerson]

Curt and I are trading shots at each other and some units are being damaged but for the most part not much is being accomplished. I'm not killing Soviet units like I would like and I'm mainly just making my units tired and depleted. So when the mud season starts I'm going to pull back to the other side of the river and just wait for the final assault.

The other thing that happened this turn is Helsinki fell ( turn 183 ) and the Finns surrendered and were removed from the game. So the German units near Murmansk are toast and those Soviet units up there now will shortly be marching south.

It's looking more and more like we're in the end game stage you guys.

Here's the front lines as of the start of turn 184.

[Telumar]

I don't understand why you are defending along the 1937 border of Germany in the south (along the old czech border). Wouldn't it make more sense to defend a line running from Silesia through Slovakia, down to the Croatian Adriastic Sea? I think the line would be shorter and the terrain is more suitable for defence.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Telumar
I don't understand why you are defending along the 1937 border of Germany in the south (along the old czech border). Wouldn't it make more sense to defend a line running from Silesia through Slovakia, down to the Croatian Adriastic Sea? I think the line would be shorter and the terrain is more suitable for defence.

I'm all in favor of shorter more defensable lines....so I'll move now during the mud season.

Hey you guys....I got hit by a virus and now I can't get on the web. I took my computer to the shop and they're working on it. I should have it back in about a week. I'm typing this on my mom's laptop and she wants it back so I guess there won't be many updates for about a week. You're not missing much though since it's the mud season and nothing interesting is happening. Stay tuned.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay....I got my computer back from the shop....they had to reinstall the OS ( Windows XP Pro SP3 ) and it's better than new. I had them install a new hard drive while they had it open so now I have two identical hard drives in there.

About the game.....we're still in the middle of the mud season and not much is happening. Curt is still moving units to the west and getting into position for his attacks.

Here's the latest on the front lines now: