Fite Mod 2010: Jdub vs Wolftone

[Jdub]

I'm playing Germans against Wolftone as Soviets. We are on turn 2 right now and I figure I'll post a zoomed out shot of the AGC/AGN sector. The Arrows show the plans from now (Jun 25) to July 1st. I'm hoping that Riga can be captured next turn and I can force my way through to the Baltic States instead of having to encircle and reduce the city.

Minsk will likely be reached by lead elements of 3rd Pz. Army next turn and hopefully captured the turn after.

[Jdub]

After a break, we are back to playing. It is turn 5 right now. The remainder of the Soviet forces around Minsk are being mopped up and I am left trying to plan my next move. I have significantly reinforced AGC in the 2 weeks since the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. At this point I am very confident that a drive through Smolensk-Vyazma-Moscow could secure the capital in a month or two. However, I don't know exactly how many troops are between me and Moscow and I can already see that Karl is preparing defensive lines in front of the city.

Next turn, the battle for the Smolensk Oblast will begin and once again, I am hoping for an easy victory and the total collapse of Soviet forces facing me. If this is accomplished, I will be one step closer to Moscow.

Edit: Posted wrong image. Will replace soon

[Jdub]

Animation showing turns 4-7. Most of the hard fought battles are occurring in the south as I attempt to break my way through the Stalin line. Karl is using a lot of road blocks to try and slow my advance. They are working so far however the beginnings of a breakthrough to Kiev can be seen at the end of turn 7

[shauny1987]

Good animation! keep it up looks like the Soviet player is going to get smeared? Though i can see the slowdown in the south!

[Jdub]

An interesting note in the campaign: The Battles occurring around Murmansk.

Near the port, my forces have driven to a standstill. I am currently unable to take the city due to a lack of artillery and so few men. If this situation doesn't change soon, I could be in trouble.

However, farther south, I have turned the tide after encircling and destroying the retreating 14th army. Reinforcements are gathering near the coast in attempt to defend the port from being cutoff by land. However, the reinforcements are too little too late and I might just be able to destroy them and then transfer some troops to strike Murmansk

[Jdub]

... Ignore this post...

[Jdub]

The next series of turns.

The stripped AGN was looking like it might be in trouble trying to continue its attack so I retreated to defensible positions. I've also freed up quite a few armored and infantry divisions from the North to support my drive farther south.

I advanced very slowly through the bottleneck around Gomel on the Dnieper. However, I have a feeling that I am about to breakout and race further into the interior in a couple of turns.

The Soviets have a lot of units in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper that are slowing my advance somewhat. However, these units once encircled are easy to wipe out with minimal losses on my part.

The Red airforce has been starting to appear in the skies and is starting to become somewhat of an annoyance. Still, I have been able to keep planes on interdiction with few losses of aircraft.

Further north, more soviets were railed in and some enemy troops were landed in several ports. To avoid disaster, I am stopping the offensive and repositioning troops into defensive positions to avoid disaster around Murmansk

[Jdub]

Situation Analysis, 1.5 months into Barbarossa:

Murmansk and Arctic: The Axis to capture Murmansk and wipe out the Russian forces stationed in the arctic seems to have failed. After seeing promising gains initially in their attempts to cut off Murmansk by land, Axis forces are now blocked by a numerically superior Red Army force. Russians have landed some units capturing Petsamo and some ports in the far north forcing the recall of a couple of divisions to meet the new threat. Continual bombardment and assaults on Murmansk itself came close to capturing the port in the last week. However, the port has held and the small attack force has been repelled with large casualties. It might be awhile before forces necessary to storm the port can be gathered giving the enemy time to regroup and reinforce their units.

Army Group North: AGN has accomplished its goals set forth at the beginning of the campaign occupying the Baltic states and now holding strong positions running down from Narva to west of Smolensk.

Army Group Center: After capturing Minsk, the heavily reinforced AGC split into two groups with one moving to capture Smolensk and threaten Moscow while another moved south through the edges of the Pripyet Marshes to ready for an assault on Bryansk and/or Kiev. The Red Army defense was light and now both battle groups are moving East towards Bryansk. The northern group completely bypassed the defenses west of Smolensk and now holds positions less than 20km away from the city to the south. The battle to pick off the city is estimated to take around a week or so.

Army Group South: After initially heavy resistance by powerful Red Army forces around the Stalin line, AGS has been able to fan out and race southeast to finish off Soviet resistance west of the Dnieper. A few more weeks and the western Ukraine should be finished. The exception of course is Odessa which represents a powerful thorn in the side of the Axis. Defenses west and North of the port are considerable leading German high command to postpone the assault at least until the port can be cut off by land.

[Jdub]

By late August, my forces have ripped through the southern Ukraine along a broad front and are closing in on Kharkov and the vital industrial area of the Donbass. Facing me are a motley assortment of rifle units, fortress formations and a few new tank brigades attempting to hold along a vast line.
The last few weeks of advance have seen an unbroken string of easily won battles as the Reds retreat and retreat again each time leaving a few units as roadblocks. Some reinforcements have been railed in by the enemy in the Donbass which could potentially hold up operations. However, I don't think these are enough to hold for any good amount of time and probably just more roadblocks to destroy.

My one mistake in this area was committing the Romanians and the 11th army against Odessa. It could have been besieged and mopped up later on while those units capture areas east of the port securing the last Soviet controlled areas west of the Dnieper.