"Dortmund!" Axis vs Soviet AI

[Helpless]

The guy who killed Hoth has been found..

[Speedysteve]

LOL Helpless. That was him! I knew it! I sense some reprisals coming up....uh oh......

AGC orders 57th Pz Cps NE towards Polotsk and then east to Vitebsk. Both 12th and 19th Pz report heavy resistance at Polotsk which prevent them crossing the river to take the town! I blame Hoth's death on this......

39th Pz Cps make better progress easily taking Orsha with 20th Motorised in the vanguard 60 miles from Smolensk.

29th Pz Cps are held up at Bobruisk further south in the face of heavy resistance frm Soviet Airborne troops. 10th Motorised forces a crossing over the Berezina 20 miles further south.

46th Pz Cps swing south of Minsk. SS Das Reich occupying all escape routes trapping at least 4 divisions aroudn Minsk.

Further to the west the Landsers begin to reduce the pocket taking over 200,000 men and 2000 tanks prisoner.

[hgilmer3]

Looks like they aren't even defending the Orsa bridge at all!

[Speedysteve]

Hi,

They were but those 2 routed ARM units you see near Mogilev were removed there by 7th Pz and 20th Motorised.

For AGS 11, 13, 14th Pz Divisions pushed south through Tarnopol towards Chernovtsy where they were repulsed by 39th Tk Division and 17th Rifle Corps.

SS Wiking and LAH entered the fray and supported the flanks of this drive pushing back Soviet troops. Also very active was 16th Pz around the town of Lanovtsy engaging strong Soviet tank forces with success.

[Speedysteve]

Losses for Turn 2...47 units destroyed.

[Speedysteve]

Turn 3. The Soviets tried a couple of piecemeal attacks south of the Pripyat Marshes. They failed with over 100 tanks reported destroyed.

AGN -

Limited soviet resistance except when 46th and 51st Pz Cps approached Pskov on the 4th July. 56th swung around Pskov from the north and 41st from the south which encountered heavy resistance and bad terrain.

[Speedysteve]

AGC - A fairly good week for the Panzer Troopen in the centre drive.

39th Pz Cps smashed across the Orsha Bridgehead with 7th Pz heading for Smolensk and 14th Motorised heading for Roslaval.

57th Pz Cps had a rough time further north at Polotsk. They eventually secured a crossing and headed east to Vitebsk with Lehr Motorised in the vanguard.

To the south 24th Pz Cps secured Zhlobin and will attempt to cross the Dnepr next week.

In the rear Minsk was occupied and 4 Rifle divisions surrendered.

[Speedysteve]

AGS going is still tough. The sheer quantity of Soviet units makes swift conquest tough.

The Lvov pocket is now secure though as Chernovtsy is taken.

14th Pz Cps headed NE from Tarnopol crossing the Goryn encircling a Rifle and Cavalry division.

[Speedysteve]

Turn 4.

The AI did well in it's phase and cut off a few of my spearhead Motorised Divisions. I spent much of this turn restoring links to them..........

AGN - Infantry Corps are easily moving into Estonia with no opposition.

The sheer number of Russians around Pskov means I had to restore my LOC to 3rd Motorised Division. A couple of potential pockets are being formed unless the AI reacts.

Some of the Finns also come to life and break a few of the Soviet defensive positions.

[Speedysteve]

AGC - A tough week for the Panzer Truppen mainly spent reconnecting LOC with 7th Pz and 14th Mot. There's so many Soviet units around! My infantry is beginning to reach the front though which is good.

[Mynok]

Ah, nice to see another WitP brüder here. Maybe once I get a handle on this monster we can give a go at it.

[ComradeP]

Risky deployment Speedy. As the Soviets I'd try this, which dislocates 5 or 6 HQ's (depending on the MP's of that unit north of Lake Pskov) and isolates a whole bunch of units.

The units approaching Gomel also have a risky deployment, but I doubt I'd be able to move something behind the Panzer division. It could theoretically happen, though.

[Speedysteve]

Hi Mynok - good to see you Bro. How are you finding WITE?

Comrade - Indeed. I've made some mistakes in this drive and have been over-confident with my Pz Cps. Stuff I won't be doing n PBEM!

AGS - A successful day for AGS with the virtual annihilation of the Lvov Pocket. 8 Soviet Divisions remain to be mopped up as my Pz head east looking to create another encirclement around Zhitomir as thr Soviets pulled back from Rovno to form a new defensive line.

So far 150,000 men, 2200 guns and 900 tanks have been captured in the Lvov Pocket

[Speedysteve]

Losses for the turn.....35 enemy units have been destroyed but I fear my over-confidence with Pz Cps in AGN and AGC will lead to the Soviets being able to build strong defences to blunt my progress.

[Speedysteve]

The Finns start the week well surrounding 2 Soviet Divisions and almost a 3rd near Vyborg.....

[Speedysteve]

AGN - Much better co-ordination of forces from the GE allow 3 pockets of Soviet troops to be created. In total 27 Soviet units are trapped with little chance of escaping.

As always it's a trade-off between capturing and wiping out the enemy or advancing towards objectives. Due to the delays over the past 2 weeks around Pskov I doubt I'll be taking Leningrad before Winter but if I can take out a lot of the enemy it will help me get through the winter successfully.

Estonia's being occupied with troops from 1st and 50th Corps meeting no resistance until they reached Narva on the 20th July.

[Speedysteve]

AGC - With the infantry arriving the Panzers begin to move forward again to try and encircle more Soviets. There's a lot of them though! 20-40 miles were gained in some areas and 24th Pz Cps reports success in moving east of Gomel (which is still held strongly by the Soviets).

[DuckofTindalos]

You can take some chances when it's against the AI, that's for certain. I'm just crossing into September in my game (vs "normal" AI), and 18th Army troops are fighting in the southern suburbs of Leningrad, while Panzer Group 3 and 9th Army are eating away at Moscow's defences from the north and west (and I'm talking occupying the actual urban hexes). My speartips have been cut off a couple of times, but air drops and fast attacks have restored the situation.

[Speedysteve]

Hi T - definitely can take come chances against the AI. Would not try some of these things on PBEM!

AGS - The Lvov Pocket has been virtually eliminated after 2 weeks off battles. Another 7 units, 50,000 men and 450 Tanks were taken this week.

Further east 3rd, 14th and 48th Pz Cps attempt to work in conjunction to create pockets around Zhitomir. Strong Soviet resistance prevents any of these linking up though the danger is there. The Soviets either withdraw or they'll surrounded next week.

[Speedysteve]

Here's the situation further south with the Romanian's. Depending on how the Soviets react the plan here will be to keep the Soviets in place and hopefully divert some GE forces swinging SE to create anorther pocket. We'll see though.