1.05.18 beta Farfarer vs Fulkerson (sov)

[Farfarer61]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Next going south is the XXVI Corps. I have no idea why the 217th Inf Div is sitting in one of the larger cities to the far left ( west ) in this
picture. Maybe Far was having the unit sit there to avoid the worst of the winter attrition losses or something. It's time now to get this
division into the action somehow. Doing something useful. But what to do? With him sitting there on the rail he can act as a sort of
strategic reserve and be ready to arrive at the place where he's needed to save the day. Or something. We leave him there for now.

The rear division is a garrison, chases partisans, and can be broken down if needed. When it's strenghth get sback up, it rotates into the line and a strength 4 Div comes out.

[Farfarer61]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

What's the advantage of having Divisions attached to a Corps HQ and THEN to an Army HQ at the end?  Why not just directly attach the divisions to the Army HQ and disband the Corps HQ's?  Does the advantage have something to do with a longer supply chain or something? 

There is a penalty for being attached to Armies and Army Groups/OKH. I keep the odd HQ free to control new formations.

[Farfarer61]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

This picture depicts the rail / supply situation in the south. I'm thinking of pulling all those guys back and reforming a line that is in
supply. I've just come recently from playing the Soviets and they are almost always in supply range so I've not had much practice in
counting hexes to the HQ units from the railheads etc. and I'm pretty sure most of those guys are not in good supply situations and
they will probably be running on fumes pretty soon.

What does the gaming community have to say reguarding strategic options for the rest of this game?

You have 4 FBDs doubled on 2 rail lines in the south, supply will come soon enough if you want.

[Farfarer61]

I sent all the aircraft to Reserve for the winter, and set TOE to 50%, save for 2 bases per Army Group for pure air defence. All the baes went home to avoid atrition. No need to have them back yet. Move the bases small and empty to use less rail cap and use fewre traucks. Then load them up from the National Reserve when they arrive where needed. Air power not a big factor in the South, so they are home training for now, save for 4 bases per Army Group with Bomber/Fighter mix.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: randallw
Imagine what kind of mystery Farfarer inherited from you!  [:D]

Yeah, I know. It was a higly pigly mess I made.

[Farfarer61]

Larry asked that I post some stuff from the "comeback side." The NW Front was kind of available so I plucked it up holus bolus and sent to the Steppes to save lots of AP.

[Farfarer61]

and here is how they deployed. Obviously I need to put something betwen the TransC Front and this area. BTW the TransC F HQ was in Krasnaya Polyana - isn't that the tourist hotel in Mount Elbrus?

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie here's my first tentative moves as the Axis player. There's an overlay showing my attacks:

[larryfulkerson]

And here's what the south looks like now:

[larryfulkerson]

T57: This is the OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production for the above same turn pictures:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T58 front lines before any recon or movement:

[larryfulkerson]

Soviet attacks in the deep south. Very interesting. I wonder what that means? Maybe Far is just doing attrition attacks and doesn't
have offensive plans in this area. That's my guess. It's July, 943 for crying out loud. How could he have offensive plans this early?
I'm thinking it's just attrition.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my moves, with an overlay showing my recon and attacks.

[larryfulkerson]

T59: Here's the front lines after some Axis recon:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the OOB, losses, and production. I'll post the destroyed units in the next post.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's the destroyed units for the turn:

[DTurtle]

I would try and crush his southern forces against the mountains. Cutting the rail line on the western tip (right next to your Rumanian mountain troops) and the eastern tip (straight south from your eastern most panzer division (the orange/red one in the T58 screenshot).

In addition, cut the rail line east of Stalingrad again. It is the only one from the rest of Russia down to the Caucasus. He will be unable to reinforce the southern theater any time soon except with newly built units or marching them down there.

You have a real opportunity there.

[larryfulkerson]

 
Far says: For the AAR:
 
Larry is faced witha classic choice. After killing/capturing 700k enemy, does he press for Baku, raid the Urals, or take the turtling opportunity? With his mech forces all south, he could attack there, or probably redopy anywhere and have reasonable casualty-focussed campaign before Mud.  

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T60 front lines after a little Soviet recon is applied:

[larryfulkerson]

See that dotted horizontal line in the middle of the below picture? It's the Axis Ally Limit Line and the Hungarians et. al. can't move
north of that line. So I gotta switch the Hungarians for some German unit more to their south. It's either that or give up on any
offensive plans in this area for now.