Reprise: Comintern

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1940

Still waiting for the German attack.

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1940

The Finish campaign comes to a close.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1940

Waiting for the German onslaught.

[cpdeyoung]

There are panzers and a lot, a big lot, of air power in North Africa. These are serious Axis campaigners.

They are also pushing ahead in Yugoslavia.

Chuck

[Chocolino]

Thanks for the update (I was basing my comment on your now outdated 7-16-40 observations). Good to know these troublemakers are roaming the world elsewhere and are not lingering near any of our borders. But that will change eventually I guess.

[Chocolino]

August 16th, 1940

There was no real change in the situation at Russia's borders, so there was no new Soviet communique in recent weeks. We are waiting patiently, prepare and upgrade. The state of the border makes an imminent German attack unlikely but we are prepared as best as we can be.

[Chocolino]

October 16th, 1940

The Soviet union is still at peace and hence there is little to report. But there are strange things going on at the German Russian border and we start to get worried about possible future activities in the Caucasus since Turkey will not hold against the Axis onslaught for long we suspect.

[Chocolino]

February 1st, 1941

(Just to give a sign of life from the Politburo).

The USSR is still neutral and has not been engaged in any active campaigns since the fall of Finland. But since Turkey was attacked by the Axis, we had to prepare for a Caucasus defense as an alternative route into Russia. While hard to pull off for the Axis crossing mountains with limited supply only, high mobility, strong German tanks may succeed. There is also the option to land amphibiously at a Russian Black Sea port now as Istanbul is now in Axis hands. An Axis amphibious landing was always an option in the Baltic and Finland of course.

So far it seems though that the Germans are heading south out of Turkey to aid the Africa corps.

[Chocolino]

May 16th, 1941

The overall political situation for the USSR is still fully neutral. But as we approach the critical June '41 time frame we turn a very watchful eye to our borders. There are now many more screening units visible but not yet a noteworthy attack force with the exception of a L2 tank corps near Koenigsberg. What will the next Axis move be? Will they turn their attention to the British Isles or the USSR?

[Chocolino]

June 9th, 1941

The long wait is over. Apparently discouraged by the strong British defenses of their home isles, the Axis seeks out the weakest of the remaining major nations and declares war on the USSR. They do it very circumspectly as is their nature and attack on all available fronts including the Caucasus where we actually suspect the larger concentration of force at the moment. But the efficient and superior German transportation network will allow them to shift strong key units fairly quickly from one theater to the other. That is another advantage this setup provides to them.

[Chocolino]

June 16th, 1941

Our defensive was caught a bit on the wrong foot by the strong attack in the Caucasus. We transfer units in to prevent the worst but it may be to late to contain the Germans in the mountains. We try to make the best of it and start a counterattack towards Poland.

[Chocolino]

June 24th, 1941

This move came a bit as a shock to the Russian High Command as we realized just how strong the German attack in the Caucasus really is. We countedr 12 tank corps in this theater alone. At least we don't have to loose sleep anymore and blame our lackluster lineup here. In all likelihood nothing we could have fielded would have been sufficient (yes, that is a weak consolation). In the meanwhile our tanks close in on Kaunas which is under siege together with Grodno.

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1941

It is not looking pretty in the Caucasus while we achieve little in the Baltic.

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1941

There are now at least 15 German plus one Italian tank corps operating in Russia. Almost all of those are at the Caucasus front and we are afraid this will be the last turn we can call it that. (Soon it will be the Rostov or Stalingrad front - if we manage to establish one in these locations that is.

[JagdFlanker]

seeing how the germans got a seemingly big barbarossa lift by invading turkey, is there any disadvantage to germany to consider this strategy in every game they play? or, is the germans not penetrating as far into the ussr from the west the drawback? (i'm assuming you still holding them around kaunas is "behind schedule")

[Chocolino]

Hello Flank Leader. Thanks for reading.

Yes, the Germans have concentrated force in the Caucasus and as a result are not in a position to really attack out of Poland. Not sure if this is really a drawback, though since the Caucasus is nearer to resource hexes and also Stalingrad. Coming from Poland, the Axis has to cross a lot of land with cities that have no production at all.

In a regular game (without +50% German PP), the Axis would have trouble to field sufficient force to cross the Caucasus and still feel save to at least hold in Poland. I am not sure if it is a viable idea then. However, with the 50% up they can as they have demonstrated. I did not defend very well either as you may have noticed. I did not take this serious enough and could at least have slowed the Axis advance at the crest of the mountains if I had a full line there. The other AARs with this setting seem to indicate however that Germany will win against Russia in any case.

But Gary also executed it masterly with the simultaneous attack on Soci and by defending Germany only with division sized units, trusting that it will take me time to get going after my defensive setup. After that his new buys went into strengthening the Baltic which was fully in time. This is a nice novelty and made the game exciting.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1941

The Red Army has not yet found a recipe to deal with the Caucasus attack. We are in serious trouble here while our attack around Kaunas is already running out of steam facing 3 German tank corps.