Old Dog v Young Pup Sillyflower(G) v Fiva(R) GC41 (no Fiva)

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

It's like watching a boxer with fluffy legs facing a huge gorilla.

I don't know where you live, but I don't think we have that Sky channel in the UK

[sillyflower]

A picture of somewhere



Pushed forward to the Luga. About the only forts he has are here but not much behind them. Noone digging in at L it seems ( for those with nothing more exciting to do like washing your hair, for recce flights see Finnish post above)

[sillyflower]

AGC



Pushing through. Fiva kept casualties down by retreating but he can't lose 3-4 hexex every turn

[sillyflower]

AGS



As you can see Fiva fell back in response to my thrust. A clear corridor meant that my inf were able to clear the nearest commies. These were almost all squishy cav units that almost always rout after 1 inf div does a deliberate attack, if they are out in the open. With luck a sign of Fiva's desperation but he did extremely well in getting the Dnepr line manned and a ckeckerboard between me and D&Z towns.

Sqishy cav and fragile amour were pretty much what I was facing in the clockwise thrust and I hope pocket holds. Either I'm rubbish at making them secure or Fiva is a genius at breaking them. Probably a bit of both. I can't help feeling he won't try as it would mean he would be very exposed next turn.

Inf also closed up to the dnepr so should be able to cross next turn.

[sillyflower]

Overview

large territorial gains, reasonable losses inflicted - will be over 150K after attrition. Gomel only major city taken. He can't keep running at this rate with 10 clear turns to go.
I will keep bashing away. Many of his units must be noobs with poor experience/morale. I did not expect to get so far after opening my turn.

German players must learn to be patient sometimes.

[sillyflower]

Posts above written after Fiva had finished his turn but before I opened it. A suprise awaited

[sillyflower]

AGS.

Kiev abandoned and only a brigade in Nikopol. Can my Rumanians recapture it this turn. Does or should anyone care?

No fallback @ Leningrad but no attempt to relieve pocket other than 1 div stepped up to restore supply. A noble but ultimately futile gesture. Luga line down to 2 divs per hex and signs of fort building next to L town.

The shock was too great for my computer which did a full crash after I took the screenshots. Luckily I hadn't done any moves apart from a few recce flights which I shall now have to try to reproduce faithfully.

Too little too late for Fiva in the North? Tune in tomorrow for the next installment

[sillyflower]

Finns



Efforts to slow the Finns appear unsuccessful with only dead commies to show for it.

Fiva starting to look to the close in defences of L at last.

[sillyflower]

AGN



Believe it or not this picture is WAD. Units removed for Op Sec reasons as I'm posting before F has started his turn.

Am across the Luga in strength. Failed attack is the only 1 of the turn. I knew I should not have made it but didn't do many attacks this turn apart from pocket clearing and was getting cocky. That will teach me not to break my own rules.

The pocket W of Luga contains 3 divs + inf x + security ant who are all busy writng wills. Don't know why - they won't be able to post them out.

[sillyflower]

AGC's ghost warriors



At least removing units makes it easier for my Gentle Readers to admire the extent of my glorious advances. Pocket NE of Vitebsk cleared with minimal casualties using only 2 divs to eliminate 5. Victors now rushing to the front.

A reinforced 78 Sturm div charged unopposed across the Upper Dnepr to find a strange, large white flag covering the area. Assuming It is not pushed back, this will be a useful bridgehead over the last river between Moscow and its intended new owners. Stalin did not leave the hex empty - other heroes routed the weak defenders- so he cannot divert the blame onto his generals.

No pockets in the picture - just empty hexes that will flip.

Only 140 miles to the outskirts and 9 more weeks of clear weather. Quite a lot of clear terrain too after Fiva gave up a good defensive area of marsh and wooded towns without serious resistance. The shop window is cracking as the commies flee.

[sillyflower]

AGS



More Robinovitch except at Dnepr river line where I'm now across in 4 places with inf divs that did not attack in my turn so should be relatively safe. He probably hasn't got the counterattack ability to take out more than 1 crossing point anyway.

Anyone else old enough to remember 'Keep on running' by (IIRC) the Spencer Davis Band? Long before Fiva was born.

Kiev was undefended and troops which entered retreated the sole airborne x left in E Kiev and I had another div to enter that city as well.

The trouble with writing on screenshots is that it shows up my lousy typing as well as my lousy drawing.

[sillyflower]

ground losses



Nearly the right picture anyway. It's important to keep killing units as it makes all sorts of defences tougher to maintain but especially checkerboard.

[sillyflower]

Could be anything



Good Lord. Air losses at last.

Not sure what happpened to ground losses but they were very similar to last turn's in which he lost 160K after attrition losses in his turn. Russian losses should therefore be just over 1.7M after his T8

[sillyflower]

My secret weapon for the 1st winter. A rare photo of a secret training programme at the Wolfsschanze. Note SS guards at the bunker entrance behind them.



Everyone go Ahhh!

To give an idea of scale the large male ( not quite the same breed as the other 2 - I think they added in a bit of bear- is 71kg/156lb

[Michael T]

SS attack dogs....yikes!

[sillyflower]

NKVD infiltrators have been spotted

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

SS attack dogs....yikes!

If you still want your ashes trophy, please do pop round to collect it.

[CarnageINC]

Beautiful dogs [8D]

[sillyflower]

overview/strategy

Fiva has posted his T8 but I have not yet opened it.
Apart from the obvious pursuit last turn mainly by inf I took the chance to rest the pz armies ( only 3 Pz/mot divs attacked last turn), ensuring pretty much all were or stayed within 10 hexes of railhead + put the more battered ones on railhead for refit. A bit of a wrench but worth it IMHO as it was only T8 and I will need them later.

Still have not used HQ build up which will have many readers (or my single reader ) tutting perhaps. I don't particularly like the rule and use it sparingly as was I think intended. Anyway one of the testers ?Flavius said somewhere Germans don't need it and they are always right, aren't they?

Plan is working more or less I think and I'm still confident of meeting my objectives. Fiva asked me what type of R defence I thought was best, so I'm now playing with his brain

Lets hope I can cause it to freeze in the face of multiple crises this turn. Anyway 2 of the wolves have come in demanding attention so I have to stop here.

[sillyflower]

T9 from the top



Slightly odd looking but hey-ho.

Fiva's 3 high stacks across a river in level 3 forts + bad terrain looked a little. hard, so I went round after cleaning up the pocket using 2 divs and netting 30K baddies. He was only holding the last 3 hexes of his line with 2 inf brigades. I had put my armour in reserve positions this last turn, so they could go left, right or up the middle, but I did not expect to get so far round

To plagiarise from Supertramp's Breakfast in America:

Take a look at my pocket, pocket.
Not much of a pocket
but it's the only one I got.

He can obviously reopen with ease as I could not close it, but I should trap most of the 9 divs next turn. There is a lone inf brigade (top left under recce counter that is a definite dead duck.

Doesn't seem to be much once I'm past this lot though. SS div will probably be kicked out of Orienbaum but it destroyed a level 4 fort and sent an HQ packing. Leningrad's factories still all in situ.