41-45GC - A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL - GLVACA (Sov) v SJ80 (Axis) - NO SJ80

[glvaca]

In the extreme South I'm compelled to stand and fight and pillage the D&Z-town screen and defences to bolster 9th Army.
Judging the movement cost to high for an outflanking maneuvre I feel safe to only lightly screen the Dnepr further NE.
Hmpf

[glvaca]

Ground losses

[glvaca]

Air losses

[glvaca]

Units lost

[glvaca]

OOB

[glvaca]

TURN 6

Just when I'm starting to think I've gotten at least some degree of controle over the flow of the game, the point is once again driven home that I'm facing a top notch opponent. Again his speed of action and relentless drive and energy comes to the fore with ruthless efficiency. This time in the North and South.

Overview South

[glvaca]

Outright dissaster befals Southern Fronts 9th Army.
All goes down the drain when 26th Cavalry divs routes after it's first combat. The bastards should be shot to the last!
This gap is quickly exploited by the Wiking division which, even after it's exertions of last week, has plenty of movement to spend and closes the trap on 9th Army pinning it to the Black Sea. To make matters even worse, the Wiking has enough movement to flip 4 hexes to the East making any attempt at relief impossible. That is to say if I would have anything to attempt a relief with, which I don't. All told, 9 inf. div, 3 Cav and 3 airborn brigades are cut off. To make matters absolutely distastefull, I have no airbase in the pocket.

With 9th Army bottled up (one of the strongest Armies I have with many 50/50 morale/experience divsions) my whole Southern flak is open with virtually nothing to plug the gap. In addition, the Crimea has now become undefendable. Bad, bad, bad!

Yes, that was really stupid of me [8|]
But these are the type of things you can get away with against a lesser opponent, I must stop underestimating this guy!

[glvaca]

Already in a bad mood I look further North for some good news, but find only more annoyance.
Again, with incredible speed he shifts direction and outflanks my carefully planned staged retreat from the Sula-Psel-Vorksla line, putting even my planed stand at Poltava in doubt. Even worse, no industry in Kharkov has been evacuated yet...
His mobility is frightening!

[glvaca]

Moving along further North, finally some good news. His panzers finally took a break after 5 weeks of constant action, allowing his infantry to move up.
Although all is not perfect, 29th cav division left as part of the screen is attacked and triggers the commitment of 14 Tank division from reserve! Rats, lesson learned, screen units should not be attached to armies with divisions in reserve!

All in all though, another good turn in the center.

[glvaca]

Mollified a little by the situation in the Center I move up North, only to drop right back into a horrible mood [;)]
Again he does the one thing I don't want him to do and attacks the hex on the junction between 11th and 24th armies, with a unit from the 7th independent Army in the mix as well. Failing enough AP's to sort out the C&C mixup last week I had no choice but to leave it like that. I'm wondering whether a sorted out C&C would have tipped the balance in my favor but that is water under the bridge. I lose the battle and he is over the Luga and threatening to outflank my whole defence by driving down the Volkov. A very unhealthy state of affairs indeed!

[glvaca]

Overview North & Center

[glvaca]

Still cursing myself for my stupidity I swear holly oaths never to let him surprise me again! An oath I will not be able to keep, but hey [:D]
In the extreme South I pillage the forming Wolga MD 30th Army protecting Sumy of it's best divisions and move in whatever I can scrape together of undermanned and undertrained divisions and put up a weak line on the Molochna. I'm not really expecting him to be in a possition to really drive East immediately but you never know.
Somehow I also find 5 divisions to garrison Sevastopol and assign them to Southern Front's Coastal army.
9th Army has strict orders to fight and die to the last for the Motherland by making as big a nuissance of itself as possible and protracting its unavoidable demise for as long as possible and thus, binding down as many enemy troops as possible.

[glvaca]

To the North I cannot resist the urge to hit the 25th Moterized Division just West of Lubny. I know I shouldn't as it means not all divisions will get far enough East to get them out of harmsway, but he has been very carefull in avoiding counterattacks this is the first real opportunity I get.
And yes, I feel better now, even if only till the next turn [:'(]

I decide to hugg up to him this time while I man the Poltava line and dig in. I also decide to sacrifice 3 almost depleted newly formed divisions and place the at Kremenchug. Hopefully he'll expend some energy in that direction. C&C is a mess but I just don't have the AP's to solve it in this state of constant flux. It'll just have to do.

On the positive side, his infantry is at least a march behind, probably 2, so whatever he does will be unsupported. At this point, I'm not even thinking about his panzers running out of fuel ever...

[glvaca]

South Overview

[glvaca]

In the Center there is another oppertunity to hit back which I most certainly can't resist. He carelessly marched 2 infantry divisions where I can actually completely surround them [:'(]
On one side I place an NKVD unit I've been retreating and saving for just this opportunity, and as luck might have it, a cavelry division has just enough movement to zoc ooze behind and close the ring. Eventhough the attack is a success, it is still bought at a very high price! Still, feeling much better I move up North [:D]

Gernally speaking I have now reached my next main line of resistance and will fight with all I have to at least delay him for several turns. Unfortunately, the need to put the strongest units at the right place forces me to mingle Western and Reserve front units all over the place. I'm not happy with that at all and eagerly await Orel MD's transformation to Bryansk Front and it's associated AP to sort things out.
The battle for Moscow is about to begin in earnest!

[glvaca]

combat report of attack in previous screenshot.

[glvaca]

Unfortunately there are no counter attack opportunities up North. His unexpected shift to my left in the direction of Novgorod cannot be ignored and needs the strongest possible reaction I can muster. As things pan out, the only way I can build up a solid defense is by taking divisions from my right ,and overall shifting units from my right to the left. This leaves the right undermanned but by flipping back some hexes I hope it will go undetected. It's not like I really have a choice, I cannot be strong everywhere, and I certainly cannot allow a drive down the Volkhov so I have to take risks.

[glvaca]

To finish turn 6, overview North & Center.

[glvaca]

TURN 7

Only just recovering my mood , and thinking that it can hardly be worse then last turn, I somewhat hesitantly open the next turn.
What I find ain't pretty...
Overview North & Center:

[glvaca]

Up North, he sniffs out my weak right flank like a hounddog and blows a hole in my defenses for his panzers to infiltrate and exploit, cutting off a sizeable portion of 28th Army in the process. Luckily, he is unable to penetrate my North-South line established to safeguard against this eventuality. Still, the Luga line is irreparibly broken.
With some bad luck neither stack defending the river neglect to retreat into the swamp hex behind, which would undoubtedly have complicated things somewhat.
The attack you're seeing is made by no less than 6 infantry divisions of 4 different Corps, including a division of 9th Armee's VIII Corps. So it seems that in addition to the 7th Panzer Division Sebastian has also sent an additional infantry Corps up North in a bid to quickly capture Leningrad.