End of turn report.
Command and control has been partially restablished. Though HQ distances are a mess, and HQs are everywhere atm, at least its all the same color. The Red Airforce has been redeployed, about half of it in the South, 1/3 in the North and the rest in the center. We will begin night bombing airbases, night dropping supplies, and aggesively ground attacking panzer spearheads in the next turn. I will not spare the red airforce, the idea is to get rid of all those obsolete planes by flying them aggressively, then replacing them with newer models. The newer Il-4s, Il-2s and Migs are almost all in the south. As the panzers progress farther into Mother Russia, they will begin outrunning not only their supplies but also fighter cover. As fighters travel farther, they suffer more operational losses.
In the ground we have formed vast checkerboard defenses everywhere, particularly in the South. This comes at a price, as I need to start digging in on Leningrad ASAP, for example.
In the North the priority is to protect the direct approach to Leningrad and buy time. Von P does not have a rail head across the Dvina, and Turn 3 is normally when axis mobile units suffer a steep drop in performance and range. With reinforcements we can begin to dig in the ports. I need a good strategy on how to guard the finish border, as I want to use those troops to defend Leningrad. A soviet casualty suffered vs Finns is a waste atm.
What worries me is that if he turns east, von P might very well be able to capture Velkie Lukie and create a large salient north of Smolensk. Still I'd rather defend one place well then two places poorly, and Leningrad is more important.
In the Center Von P is paying for his choices, Minsk is not taken and Smolensk looks safe for at least two weeks. That said, this area got almost no reinforcements, and many of its HQs are vacationing in the Pripyat marshes. The only thing that worries me is an attack towards Velkie Luki will not meet much resistance and will create a large salient.
In the South we have formed a vast checkerboard, bringing in units from Kharkov, Orel, the Caucasses, everywhere. The price is that very little digging is going to occur across the Dnepr. Still, we have to delay von P for one more turn here and then proper defense can be set up. The best formation the motherland has to offer, 7th mech, with its best division, 1st motorized, guards the southern approach to Kiev. Also, given von P's reluctance to attack the pockets thus far, Soviet troops have launched an 'offensive' into the Reich, isolating a security division and hopefully forcing von P to deal with them sooner rather then latter (with minors). All soviet troops have been ordered to hug the Germans, and Axis supply must be a mess with all the Swiss chese going down there. Hopefully this will also increase attrition.
In the far south, we have intentionally left a vast gap and even moved in some empty airfields to be overrun. This is where we want von P's panzers. If he bites the bait my only concern is that the closests cities (except for Odessa) have not had there factories evacuated yet. Still, I cant fathom von Ps supply situation will allow for such a dash, and if it does, those panzers will be extremely exposed as there's no way the Romanians can cover such an advance.
