HITMAN202 versus THEPRO's Sean is welcomed ... Sillyflower is allowed.

[Seminole]

How much of German manpower is tied up in forts?
From the commander's report you can filter and see how many of your 3.4 million are in the Luftwaffe, HQs, forts, etc.
I'm just curious what the trade off is for the 'Eastern Wall'

[HITMAN202]

I may not be looking at it correctly, but around 70,000 in the forts and 360,000 in the Luftwaffe.

I've done a few things I haven't shared that has spared troops. One is that on turn 1 I intentionally set all HQ's TOE at 55 % and that keeps them at 85-90 % (why not lower ???). It funnels more troops to the combat units and will reduce attrition during the upcoming blizzard.

[smokindave34]

What is the "Odessa problem"? Does Sean still hold Odessa? Although the "pros" won't be able to launch any major offensives from Odessa it will tie down some of your troops and cause your lines to be a bit thinner than you'd like. If Sean still holds it I vote for snuffing it out during the snow turns.

[HITMAN202]

Yea I didn't take it out in the first 10 turns and went after (and got) the Crimea. I and II Corp will hopefully eradicate it the first snow turn. I will not delay its capture in the future.

I was going to share some of my strategy with morale sooner, but now's the time. Each turn up thru the 19th, the morale of the infantry divisions has increased to where it is now at the highest of any the 7 games I've played ... a tad over 80.6. The German starts with 92 divisions with an average morale of about 77.5. Each turn I strive to have any divisions with a 76 or less morale engage in a victorius combat. Why ??? For units with a morale 90 or greater it's my estimate that only 5% of the time morale goes up by 1 point with a victory. Units with morale of 82-89 and 77-81 it's 8-10% and 12-15 % respectively (a very rough estimate.) But for the units 76 or less morale wlli increase by an average of over 1.5 points per victory

So starting on the first turn I intentionally make winning attacks with these low morale units. These attacks to me are far more critical then forcing these units east to engage the retreating Soviet horde. The first turn I average about 145 total point gain in the total infantry morale. Each turn thereafter the increase drastically slows and peaks at about the 10-12 th turn when the combat defeats increase against the strengthening Soviet fort line .

I also remain viligent to keep unit supply> 30 % (using air supply at times)

Presently my lowest morale German infantry are 71,73,75,75,75. The rest are higher

[Michael T]

Thank goodness you changed your avatar hitman, the last one was hideous.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

Despite Hitman's caption, I would like to reassure readers that I find the attempt to replicate my avatar with a large, hairy arm somewhat disturbing. Oh well, each to their own taste.

[HITMAN202]

I will not take offense to the two previous posts. Michael T., the old HITMAN was wonderfully hideous and to me was appealing. Sillyflower, I can't change the impact of testosterone (thank goodness I wasn't a talented adolescent tenor in the Middle Ages) and if I had shown a facial shot, MT would be singing praises of my old avatar. More flowers of my efforts





This is an unusual vine called wisteria (Wisteria sinensis for you botanists), which I planted by my arbor 4 years ago. Last year it produced it's first spring blooms, which are purple flowers shaped in grape clusters. This year they were 12-18 inches (as you see.) The plants will slowly mature and produce clusters 3-4 feet long.

[sillyflower]

OK Hitman

I have to give you credit for dissipating my trash talk by morphing the AAR into Gardeners' Weekly. Perhaps we should abandon WiTE to play Plants v Zombies.

In the meantime Russian goats are being trained to deal with the latest Nazi menace. They will be ready to drop into Germany in Spring '42 therefore reducing German national morale by several points

[Flaviusx]

Hitman, what was that old avatar, anyways? A neanderthal?

[Disgruntled Veteran]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Hitman, what was that old avatar, anyways? A neanderthal?

That guy was an arch-villian on Blind Fury which starred Rutger Hauer.

[HITMAN202]

Flaviusx ... I'm going to teach you something on this forum. Every dog has his day. "Blind Fury" ??? Disdrunkled Veteran needs to watch a few movies with a clear mind. That's Tex Cobb in the movie "Raising Arizona", starring Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter. He was a first class boxer who lost to Larry Holmes in a one-sided fight and knocked out Ernie Shavers !!! I actually rewatched the movie 1 month ago. It's almost as good as the old "All's Quiet On The Western Front" Sillyflower !!

Sillyflower us "southern yanks" have an appreciation for mother nature by gardening. It's not often that one can do so little and see so much.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202
It's not often that one can do so little and see so much.

Seems like the makings of a good motto for the TV slob. Do nothing and see everything.

I don't know the film but will look out for it. The Outlaw Josey Wales is probably my favourite American film

[Flaviusx]

The hell of it is that I actually have seen Raising Arizona, although not in many, many years. As in, since it was released. Can't recall this fellow at all. There's a good chance I wasn't sober when I watched it, this is back in college days...

If they ever make another caveman movie, he's a shoo in for a part.

[Scook_99]

Be careful Sillyflower, the men I know as gardeners had a tendency to be the head of Italian families. If you ever got an invite it usually meant some issues needed to be cleared up, and the plants needed more fertilizer.

[sillyflower]

Hitman's ancestors are from further north luckily. Anyway I'm more used to English gardeners who tend to be a fairly placid lot.

[HITMAN202]

TURN 20 ... TURN 20 ... TURN 20 ... TURN 20 ... TURN 20

I am truly not passive. In fact a previous pastor at our church labelled me as "confrontational;" I really didn't know what he meant at the time, but clearly I was not afraid to voice my opinions and , more importantly, act on them. I'm glad I'm not a 1st century Christian. I don't think I would have run from the lions.

I would have instinctly done what David Stanley (I'm in error, his name was David Liningstone. When I woke up this am this error flashed in my head. Strange. Wiki states Henry Stanley was a reporter sent by the New York Herald to interview (first find) Livivngston and their famous " Mr Livivngston I presume" occurred at thier encounter in 1869 on the shores of Lake Tanganynika ), the famous Scottish missionary/explorer (Sillyflower, he was sent to Africa during the 19 th century by the London Missionary Society, so would I be more accurate to call him British ???) learned to do. He found when confronted by lions it was best to stand one's ground. Running away was a recipe for being torn apart by a Panthera leo. In over 200 encounters with them he was never harmed ... except three times.

Am I going to be harmed by THEPROS this blizzard ??? Clearly not by Sillyflower. Here's both my reasoning and instinct. First my reasoning..

[HITMAN202]

The reasoning is obvious. Sillyflower, the supreme commander and northern force leader, has only 30-35 units "refitting" behind the front; 1/3 in AGN, 2/3 in AGC (red stars.) Belphegor, his vassal and subordinate (Sean clearly praises Sillyflower for tutoring him in WITE) has over 60 similar units in AGS (red stars). The Soviet build-up is in the south. So much the reasoning.

But instinctively I feel that Sillyflower will surrender the blizzard offense to Sean because there has been little action in the south during the first 20 turns. He will give Sean the fun. Also Sillyflower is probably anxtious about his upcoming bout with MT, and since he sees that I am following MT's advice in defending AGN, he will not want to lose confidence in a poor blizzard performance.
I think I'll be spot on.

Will Sean have fun ??? I'm going to watch M60's AAR closely and see how he takes advantage of an over-extended Axis force. I will hopefully pick up on some tactics. My strategy is clearly sound.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202
"Blind Fury" ??? Disdrunkled Veteran needs to watch a few movies with a clear mind.

Perhaps it is you who doesn't know your man as much. That is indeed the arch-villian from Blind Fury. I'm positive.

[HITMAN202]

Nope. The pic is from a screen shot of Raising Arizona,. I was thinking about Flaviusx's comment that my old avatar looked like a caveman. I mentally visualized the image with a blank mind and saw, in descending order of likeness, 1) a Hell's Angel, 2) John the Baptist, 3) premedieval European barbarian, 4) William Wallace, and 5) a Cro-Magnon. Disdrunkled Vet and I can go to Celebration Recovery together.

[HITMAN202]

An TURN 20's stats





A few more tdbits.

1) Arm points.. 87K 2) man pool 102K 3) Hill 124K

2) So many AAR's (really campaign games) stop because of (and I give my Rx following the Dx) 1) burnout... 2/3 moves a week ?? Go slower bros 2) bad play ... you aren't going to get better by quitting 3) boredom for the Axis after turn 17 .... make strategical goals and monitor their progress (I will share more below) and 4) disinterest ,, get to know your opponent. For example in this AAR readers only superficially see my discourse with Sillyflower. We communicate far more personally in e-mails and I have found that he is quite a remakable fellow, IMO

3) Point #3. Maintaing a high average infantry morale is a major strategical focus for me in this game. I've kept the % supply in all infantry units over 30 and lost only a hand full of morale points this turn.. Still at 80.6. I am not bored

4) I went back to Pelton's AAR in his match with MT to pickup on some Axis strategy (I do need to eventually read the rules) and found some interesting stuff. But later.....