5 x heavy industries evacuated from Dnepropetrovsk. 4 x heavy industries evacuated from Zaporozhye. 4 x heavy industries evacuated from Kharkov.
Along the Luga line only one attack was made by the Germans to clear the rail hex on the south side of the river. Supplies must be low or something or he's waiting for more infantry to arrive before crossing the river.
East of Pskov the Germans broke my line along the Shelon River and crossed over into the marsh hex that anchored the south end of that line. I was forced to withdraw to far less defensible positions just to the east. I'd have withdrawn further east, but with no forts dug yet behind the Polist River I wanted to give the weak units along that new line some time to dig in.
North of Velikie Luki the Germans actually withdrew from the swamps, so I advanced slightly to grab some more breathing space for the new line formed behind the Lovat River this turn.
The attack I expected at Velikie Luki last turn did not develop, so perhaps he was doing an HQ buildup. Things remained pretty stagnant from Velikie Luki South to just north of Mogilev where the Germans managed to get a one hex foothold across the Dnepr with strong infantry assaults clearing 2 of my level 3 fort hexes. With German infantry on my side of the river, I disbanded my two fortress units and began preparing the next line east behind the Pronya River.
West of Gomel saw the Germans clear all but one hex on their side of the Dnepr, so I abandoned the last position and began preparing for the inevitable crossing about to occur. I found this area a bit light in units now that the natural chokepoint on the west bank of the Dnepr is cleared out, so I'll have to send some more units to this area as soon as I can.
The Germans cleared the west bank of the Dnepr just South of Kiev this turn. I've beefed up my side of the river to 2 divisions per hex, so I'm hopeful I can hold for a turn or two. I don't want to withdraw from the area, but at the same time I'm very mindful of huge potential pockets getting formed, so things will be dicey near Kiev over the next few turns.
Near Odessa some Axis minor divisions carelessly sauntered up to my lines so I executed some attacks. I'm not about to let him dig an opposing fort line on the cheap. I committed a lot to Odessa, so he'll need to commit a lot too if he wants to encircle it with his own ring of forts. I easily retreated a lone Italian infantry division on the north side and then a lone Rumanian Infantry division on the south side (required two attacks).
Unfortunately I was flush with victory disease and decided to leave my forts and executed an ill advised 4 division plotted attack on 2 Rumanian infantry divisions and an HQ unit. The attack succeeded, but one of my divisions ended up getting stuck outside my fort line. My defense around Odessa is still strong, but I'll miss that division if it routes instead of retreats in the German turn. I should have simply been satisfied with the two lone divisions I spanked and left that stack alone. That said, it was nice forcing the Rumanian HQ to rebase.
Near Moscow you can see the reconstituted divisions are starting to arrive in good numbers now. In another couple of turns I'll have two solid lines of diggers building my fort lines. The large numbers of brigades due to arrive soon will go to man the border with Finland and start digging behind the rest of the unoccupied hexes of the Dnepr River down south.
