FITE Chambers vs Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Berlin looks like now ( red rectangle ) and I have drawn some red arrows depicting the predicted path of some Soviet units as the most likely attack axis for his final push from the South. Other holes in the line will have simular paths and I'm thinking he'll probably surround Berlin completely destroying units and pushing units back simultaneously until they have nowhere else to go. I'm guessing it'll all be over by turn 250 or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the front lines look like at the start of Axis turn 237. Not as bad as I expected but still pretty bad. It only looks this good because Curt got a very short turn and didn't get to take advantage of the breaks he made in my lines. Next turn I won't be so lucky.

[larryfulkerson]

In the midst of all the Soviet attacks and stuff I forgot to check if there were going to be any units that are going to withdraw soon and there were some and I didn't know about it and there were some weak spots in the front lines so Curt took advantage of them. He made some significant progress this turn. I'll post a picture to show you in the next post.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines at the beginning of Axis turn 238. There's a couple of breaks but mostly the dudes are holding magnificantly, for now at least.

[HamburgerHill]

 I only recently joined this forum, but I have been watching it for probably 3 or 4 years.
 
I just wanted to say thanx Larry for all the great AAR's you have made. I've folowed at least a dozen of them from begining to end and they were always great fun.[:D]

[damezzi]

I'll second that. I think Larry makes the difference in keeping this forum active with his AARs.
Even if sometimes no feedback is posted, I'm sure he knows everyone is watching.

[Dr. Foo]

I'm guessing it'll all be over by turn 250 or so.

Looks like its over now. Great AAR's I look forward to many more!

[BigDuke66]

Seeing this major withdrawal already in 1943 I wonder if something has to be adjusted or did only the players made this big difference?

[Veer]

On reading the AAR it's hard to say. Larry did better than the Germans historically (he captured Leningrad) but his losses were severe. Without any idea of what Soviet losses were like we're a bit in the dark.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66
Seeing this major withdrawal already in 1943 I wonder if something has to be adjusted or did only the players made this big difference?

The simple fact is that I just lost my nerve and pulled back prematurely. If I had stayed there and fought it out I may have salvaged a bad situation and it might have turned out lots better than it's ending up as.
I phrased that lousily. Anyway Curt and I have corresponded back and forth about it via email and I think we agree that I pulled back too soon and that's what made this big difference. At least I think so. And I agree that not knowing what the Soviet losses were during the various stages of the game is a huge drawback on what might or might not be grounds for some design changes to FITE. This is turning out to be my favorite scenario as you may have already guessed. Curt is a great player and I've learned a thing or two during this bout.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't know if you guys want to watch the gruesome details or not but I thought I'd post the surround and destroy phase as it happens so you don't miss anything. Here's the picture as of the start of Axis turn 239 and you can see the penetration of the Soviet units into the Axis hinterland.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the situation looks like at the beginning of Axis turn 240. I'm ruined since the mud season didn't start in 240 like I had planned. So it looks like the Soviets may be able to isolate a large portion of my front line units and I won't be able to use them in the final defense post-mud season. The Axis unit have made large incursions into the rear areas and I have nothing left to chase them down. The German units don't retreat very well since there aren't very many recon units to screen their movements so it's looking like the will be mostly destroyed in place.

Please note the attempted invasion via Sea on the coast area behind my lines. I may be able to hold out there for a while using my ships.

Oh, and thanks for all your kind words about the AAR's. I'd do it even if nobody watched it but I'm glad you guys are keeping up and enjoying it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some more detail on the southeast corner of the front lines where the Soviets made their largest incursion so far. You can see the weakness and frailty of my units in that area.

[desert]

Looking through the older pages in the AAR subforum, one can see that pretty much half of all the AARs are by you. [8D]
 
Every strategy game has its AAR champions; you, sir, are the TOAW champion!

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like in the northeast corner.

[Veer]

Looks like your troops in the Ostrowiec Pocket ( southeast cornerpic) are pretty much done for as there is no road leading out of it.

Once the Mud Season starts are you planning a retreat to the Oder?

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the front lines look like at the end of the Axis turn 240. I haven't been able to stop the incursions but maybe I can slow them down enough to give me time to pull back to the Oder river once the mud season starts, which will be soon I hope.

[Raindem]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66
Seeing this major withdrawal already in 1943 I wonder if something has to be adjusted or did only the players made this big difference?

The simple fact is that I just lost my nerve and pulled back prematurely. If I had stayed there and fought it out I may have salvaged a bad situation and it might have turned out lots better than it's ending up as.
I phrased that lousily. Anyway Curt and I have corresponded back and forth about it via email and I think we agree that I pulled back too soon and that's what made this big difference. At least I think so. And I agree that not knowing what the Soviet losses were during the various stages of the game is a huge drawback on what might or might not be grounds for some design changes to FITE. This is turning out to be my favorite scenario as you may have already guessed. Curt is a great player and I've learned a thing or two during this bout.

I completely agree with Larry's assessment here. If he would have held on to the next mud season he could have disengaged his entire army without penalty and retreated to the original start line, or somewhere around there. Even with everything in my favor and a 90 - 4 air superiority I've had to sustain many casualties to make any breaks in his line.

[larryfulkerson]

Curt was kind enough to share his END_OF_TURN file with us so we could see what the Soviet losses are. Thanks Curt.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like at the end of Axis turn 241. This is the first of the mud season turns and I finally have a chance to pull my dudes back to the Oder river and set up my final defensive line. I'm going to invest some effort destroying the bridges from where they were to where they are going so that the Soviet dudes will have just that much more hassle getting to my dudes, not that it will make all that much difference. Not much will be happening during the mud turns so I'll be posting less frequently until the war starts up again. Although it might be instructive to post a series of detailed pictures of the final front lines so you guys can see what they look like. I'll do that when they get into position.

Some of my dudes were in reorg and couldn't move and some were isolated and it didn't make sense to try to move them very far. Other than that most of my dudes are headed to the west for the final showdown.