1.05.18 beta Farfarer vs Fulkerson (sov)

[M60A3TTS]

The reserves you have, if it consists of the four guards divisions in Moscow, is inadequate. You might pull some more guards off the line in the north. I'm also not sure why you created a cav corps for the Volkhov Front. Seems to serve little purpose there.

Is there a particular reason you are not flying recon missions? It's looking ominous again for the Soviets, the cav corps aren't all sitting on rail hexes to the rear ready to be shipped to the places you will want to counterattack, the tank corps are scattered, and the reserves look thin. You need to be ready to mass your troops and time is about up.

[larryfulkerson]

T49 is a mud turn and for some reason Far didn't attack. But he will when the mud goes away. I found some units in the north that
aren't doing all that much and I'm shipping them south. I'm looking around for some tanks to send south too. In this picture I'm
showing the dispositions before any Soviet stuff has moved excepting the guys on rail.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
The reserves you have, if it consists of the four guards divisions in Moscow, is inadequate. You might pull some more guards off the line in the north. I'm also not sure why you created a cav corps for the Volkhov Front. Seems to serve little purpose there.

Is there a particular reason you are not flying recon missions? It's looking ominous again for the Soviets, the cav corps aren't all sitting on rail hexes to the rear ready to be shipped to the places you will want to counterattack, the tank corps are scattered, and the reserves look thin. You need to be ready to mass your troops and time is about up.

I've lost my focus for this game. It's an artifact of playing multiple games simultaneously. I need to look around, taking my time, and
really learn the front lines again. As it is I'm guessing about important things. That's not good enough. Thanks for you guys being
sources of good ideas and helpful hints and most of the time really important things I've missed. I'm still learning this game, can you tell?

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a boat-load of AP's, which is a good thing because I intend to build a boat-load of Cav Corps, Tank Corps, and Rifle Corps when
they become available. T49 is May 1942 so it's turning into the time when I'll need the services of units like that.

Vehicles are still more than adequate. In my game with KLilly it's turn 70+ and I'm running out of vehicles already, so I suspect that the
vehicle supply will dwindle in this game as well. Maybe I should build the tank Corps now before vehicles becomes a problem.

[larryfulkerson]

It's still early in the turn and I've just now started to move units and I'm looking at the situatiion with the purple guys. The Volkhov Front.
I'm moving the Cav Corps south and I've already gotten the guards units in this area started toward the rail line intending to ship them
south toward the area of the breakout.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew some recon just now and here's what it showed.........an ominous build up of Panzers.

[Kronolog]

That buildup does indeed look ominous.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of the buildup. You can see the stacks of units ready to bust my lines open and race to the east.

[Flaviusx]

Now you know where to pile your reserves.

Keep stripping stuff away from static areas of the map where he only has infantry holding the line. There's no economy of force in defending such areas in depth or placing an undifferentiated carpet along the length of the whole front. You can get by with a lot less than that in quiet sectors...and will need a lot more than that in the active ones.

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Here's a close up of the buildup. You can see the stacks of units ready to bust my lines open and race to the east.

I think it is unlikely he will head straight east as it leaves your forces north and south of him. There isn't a whole lot due east that he would even want.

Although some players downplay the idea, I suspect fanfarer is going to try and execute Fall Blau.
To do that, he would strike southeast from Kharkov and race to Rostov in hopes of pinning your southern forces against the sea. They would be eliminated, then he would send some troops south to link up with his forces in the Kuban region, trapping still more of your troops. With them out of the way, he can head for the Caucasus and Stalingrad while you try and rebuild your army.

The logical counter-move would be for you to abandon your front line positions south of Kharkov and withdraw to the east. Position your reserves north or east of Voroshilovgrad, and he would have a difficult choice to make. If he goes to Rostov, then heads for the second set of objectives, you do exactly what the Soviets threatened to do in 1943. That is, attack towards Rostov and threaten to cut off hundreds of thousands of Axis forces.

The trouble is you don't have the reserves in that position, and I'm not sure you will soon enough. So at this stage your best bet may be the pull back south of Kharkov part, and get reserves assembled as the Axis offensive kicks off. Then you figure out where to go from there.

Amidst all this he may try something around Moscow to keep your attention, so panzer counting comes in useful in that case.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T50 front lines before any Soviet movement. I'm thinking of trying to cut off his spearheads and save as many troops as
possible.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of the breakout. I don't see much probability of stopping his drive with the troops at hand so I'm going to try to mob
the spearheads and rail some troops down there to help contain the damage.

[larryfulkerson]

Do me a favor and check out my thinking on this one.........I'm thinking I'm going to have to combine forces better to have much impact on
the breakthrough and Far is on the verge of breaking through in the Kuban anyway ( he would have done it already if not for the mud
turns ). So I'm thinking I need the Kuban dudes to protect Stalingrad and the south flank while I try to run the gauntlet of Axis forces
closing the pocket. It may already be too late for the guys inside the pocket. I donno.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what is still in Stalingrad that needs to be railed out yet. I'm not through using the rail to move troops though at the moment, so
moving industry will have to wait for a later turn........but I can't put it off too much longer or it may not all get moved to safety.

[M60A3TTS]

Not very pretty and you should really take your time with this. If I have this situation, the first thing I do is plaster the area he broke through in with all the recon planes available so there are no surprises. Specifically need to know what units may lie between those visible units that broke through just east of Stalino. There appear to be a couple gaps between units but have to be certain. The units on the deeper penetration that are unidentified, use the air recon to determine their type. Don't plan on running for the hills just yet.

[Flaviusx]

Use your mobile units to isolate the spearheads. You've got enough cavalry and armor around there that you should be able to cut something off.

[larryfulkerson]

Thanks for all the advice you guys. Here's what I did for moves. I pulled back in some places, swamped his spearheads, cut off the
advancing units, and generally made a nusence of myself to Far. I'm not all that happy with the moves so far but it's looking better
than before.

[larryfulkerson]

And I had enough rail cap. left to move 48 of the 55 T-34 factories in Stalingrad.

[larryfulkerson]

T51: Here's the effected area now. Lots of pockets and not a lot of Soviet defenders ready to save the day.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my moves. I'm trying to isolate his spearheads and save some troops both at the same time.