1.04.10 Fulkerson vs Pelton

[Ridgeway]

I'm not sure and I have no proof but this partisan attack may have disabled all the supply to Pelton's northernmost troops.

I doubt it -- he should be able to draw supply through L-grad and (I think) Finland.

Could you post your tank production figures? It looks like you are really low on tanks.

[hfarrish]

Could you post your tank production figures? It looks like you are really low on tanks.

Are there many pre-existing tank factories in the Urals such that you are ok even if you lose Kharkov, Moscow and Leningrad's factories (I believe all there have tank production, with the bulk being in Kharkov, of course).

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the tank production figures. I guess from the numbers shown I AM low on tanks. I'm not aware of any AFV factories in the Urals. Those in Gorky, Moscow, Leningrad, and of course Kharkov are the only important ones I'm aware of.

[kevini1000]

What is scary is that the 41 barb has been as successful as could be hoped for and the Russian army looks big and strong going into fall and winter weather. I mean what more could the Germans have done. It will be interesting to see the long term effect of the loss of the factories. It looked as though Pelton sort of slowed the offensive very much toward the end. But also all of the operation objectives have really been met for 1941.
The Russian losses only appear to be 3.5 mil thus far also.

[Ketza]

Remember that for your counter offensive you need to kill Germans and not so much worry about territory. You also need to build up the quality of your troops by getting as many victories as possible.

[jwduquette1]

ORIGINAL: sath

What is scary is that the 41 barb has been as successful as could be hoped for and the Russian army looks big and strong going into fall and winter weather. I mean what more could the Germans have done. It will be interesting to see the long term effect of the loss of the factories. It looked as though Pelton sort of slowed the offensive very much toward the end. But also all of the operation objectives have really been met for 1941.
The Russian losses only appear to be 3.5 mil thus far also.

Agree....and WOW!! look at all those Partisans. That cant be right. Are those all active??

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: jwduquette1
...look at all those Partisans. That cant be right. Are those all active??

I read a post in the main section of the forum that said that the partisans were "bumped up" a bit with this 1.04.11 patch and that there still needs to be some fine tuning on the partisans yet. I'm not sure they are ALL active but I have seen some successful attacks on Axis rail. Especially in the Riga -> Leningrad area.

[Ridgeway]

ORIGINAL: sath

What is scary is that the 41 barb has been as successful as could be hoped for and the Russian army looks big and strong going into fall and winter weather. I mean what more could the Germans have done. It will be interesting to see the long term effect of the loss of the factories. It looked as though Pelton sort of slowed the offensive very much toward the end. But also all of the operation objectives have really been met for 1941.
The Russian losses only appear to be 3.5 mil thus far also.

Without seeing the unit strength screen, I suspect Larry will not have the ability to carry on much of an offensive. His manpower production is only about 110,000/turn I think. It looks like he has lost about 178 infantry divisions. These only come back as shells, and he doesn't have the manpower to bring them up to fighting strength. Moreover, it looks like he has lost all of his tank divisions and about half his cavalry. I suspect the morale of the surviving units is poor. This will result in an inability to advance much because of high movement costs, especially given the limited number of mobile units. Furthermore, low morale units become unready very easily, which really decreases their offensive abilities.

I suspect Pelton is busy creating fortified lines, and will continue to do so in the mud. Then once the snow starts, he will emerge and make spoiling attacks anywhere Larry has any concentrations of force. This will further erode the units' morale, and make it tougher to attack on the first blizzard turn, when the Sovs seem strongest and the Germans weakest. It is much easier for the germans to do the recon necessary to identify all the Sov troop concentrations -- the Sovs just dont seem to have enpugh planes to do so.

Finally, the far north looks like a potential disaster. It seems very weakly held, and if it stays like that, the Finns should be able steamroll almost to Vologda during the winter.

Good luck in any event!

[Klydon]

While the Russians still have a lot of issues (some of which can't be fixed now like the total loss of industry and armaments), there is reason to believe that he will be able to mount some sort of campaign in the winter. While 3.4 million Russians have been put out of action, he still has the Siberians coming yet and those units are not shells. The danger point here will be what happens for the 3 turns after mud during the snow. I fully expect Pelton to launch spoiling attacks to disrupt any winter offensive plans Larry may have, so Larry is going to have to be very careful during those turns. He doesn't need to press Pelton hard or he is going to get his block knocked off. He needs his Russians fresh and ready to kick some Axis butt as soon as the blizzard starts and if he has to waste the first turn or two of the blizzard to do that, then so be it. Plenty of blizzard time after that and better to do it with a mostly intact Russian army than trying to get greedy with a fast start. The Russians simply don't have the troops to afford that type of action.

The other thing that will likely happen is Larry will be unable to launch a front wide offensive, so he must choose where he plans to go. I am sure Pelton will be more than happy to camp a pile of troops around Moscow, etc and will give ground in other areas, but Larry gets to pick where the action will be at.

*Edit* one other thing is I would consider dropping a crap unit on the Kerch bottle neck to get those Axis clowns putting pressure in the deep south to back off. You don't want them there come spring time and the Crimea is a lot of area to cover against the threat of invasion, even if you don't seriously mount one.

[Ridgeway]

ORIGINAL: Klydon

While the Russians still have a lot of issues (some of which can't be fixed now like the total loss of industry and armaments), there is reason to believe that he will be able to mount some sort of campaign in the winter. While 3.4 million Russians have been put out of action, he still has the Siberians coming yet and those units are not shells. The danger point here will be what happens for the 3 turns after mud during the snow. I fully expect Pelton to launch spoiling attacks to disrupt any winter offensive plans Larry may have, so Larry is going to have to be very careful during those turns. He doesn't need to press Pelton hard or he is going to get his block knocked off. He needs his Russians fresh and ready to kick some Axis butt as soon as the blizzard starts and if he has to waste the first turn or two of the blizzard to do that, then so be it. Plenty of blizzard time after that and better to do it with a mostly intact Russian army than trying to get greedy with a fast start. The Russians simply don't have the troops to afford that type of action.

The other thing that will likely happen is Larry will be unable to launch a front wide offensive, so he must choose where he plans to go. I am sure Pelton will be more than happy to camp a pile of troops around Moscow, etc and will give ground in other areas, but Larry gets to pick where the action will be at.

*Edit* one other thing is I would consider dropping a crap unit on the Kerch bottle neck to get those Axis clowns putting pressure in the deep south to back off. You don't want them there come spring time and the Crimea is a lot of area to cover against the threat of invasion, even if you don't seriously mount one.

That sounds pretty accurate to me. I did not mean he couldn't attack at all -- just that his ability to concentrate high-morale/CV and mobile units would be very limited, and that really limits Ivan's ability to open a bottle of whup-vodka up on Jerry. When I looked at the map, the far South around Stalino seemed like the best target.

Another thing to keep in mind is that attacking in the blizzard also causes a lot of Russian casualties -- in my current game (which is my first vs a human, so I may be talking out of my a@@) well over 100k per turn if you are conducting multi-front offensives and include attrition. If you started the blizzard reasonably strong, this is not a problem, but here it could be.

One other thing I noted was that Larry seems to have 0 recon air units. I wonder if they were destroyed, or if they got accidentally disbanded.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Ridgeway
One other thing I noted was that Larry seems to have 0 recon air units. I wonder if they were destroyed, or if they got accidentally disbanded.

I don't remember disbanding anything aeronautical at any time so far in the game. Here's the air losses as of turn 18:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's all the recon planes I have active on the front lines ( they're all SB-2's and there is no other kind of recon plane so far:)

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in turn 18 before the Soviets move anything:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the ground losses:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the OOB:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet production as of turn 18:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some representative sizes of various Brigades and Divisions:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the turn 19 front lines before any Soviet movement:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the air losses screen:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the ground losses: