Field Marshal von Fogger vs Comrade Marshal Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

I've been playing FITE against the Soviet AI just so I can get a feel of what John might be thinking. And I'm up to turn 5 and this is the
Riga area and this is the situation I expect John will unleash on me sometime soon.

[Wuffer]

just wanted to thank you for all the work with the AAR - may it looong continue

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Wuffer
Just wanted to thank you for all the work with the AAR - may it looong continue

Hey there Wuffer dude. Thanks for posting your thanks. I was wondering if anybody is reading this thing. I'm hoping I can find some
interesting stuff to post so you guys won't be bored to tears reading this AAR. Suggestions are welcome. I especially like pictures in my
AAR so I'm trying to make this thing read like a comic book with a picture on each panel and with some explaination verbage to go with
it. So far so good. This post is my 17,798th one and for the life of me I can't remember posting that much stuff. Really.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my best guess as to what Axis squadrons exist, their location, their mission and their current condition. This is from my anti-AI
game and this is the beginning of turn 6 thereof.

[larryfulkerson]

Meanwhile, here's all the surviving Soviet aircraft.

EDIT: This is the end of turn 3:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's all the news messages, annotated by me for publication

[Petey]

Larry your Southern flank looks to be stabilizing well. Not so sure about your center and North. Any feel where the Axis main effort is?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Petey
Larry your Southern flank looks to be stabilizing well. Not so sure about your center and North. Any feel where the Axis main effort is?

Hey there Petey dude. Thanks for your interest. I'm having a blast with this game and I'm trying to give that impression in what I post.
Um.......yeah the southern flank is almost ready for combat but you're correct about the center and the north. I'm almost proud of
what's happening in the south but in the c. and n. I'm scrambling still. I have roadblocks at the major river crossings and I have people
headed to where I'm building a front line but they aren't there yet and I'm not nearly ready for combat there. I've got a sort of grouping
of units, not to call it a front line yet, building into a line west of Smolensk and I'm getting Leningrad ready for action and in the Center
I've got only river crossing roadblocks so far.

Um.....his main effort......usually you can tell where the Axis main effort is going by finding the Panzers and tracking where they go and I
haven't yet gotten a good look at where they all are. My theater recon isn't particularly good and most of his stuff is invisible to me so
far. In WITE you can fly what amount to recon missions and take a look around in various areas but no such mission is available to
me here.

I'm pretty happy with happenings so far. I've just gotten some moves from Jim so until I get some more moves from John I guess I'll go
fight the WITP-AE war.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie........I've received some moves from John and I've watched the replay etc. This is the beginning of Soviet turn 4 front lines.
Well, this is the north half of the front lines:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the south half of the front lines:

[larryfulkerson]

John has exploded across the Dvina River and is expanding his bridgehead. No borders is turned on else I would be able to gauge how
far he has expanded already. I have depicted his toehold w/ a red circle and I have reason to believe he hasn't exceeded that range yet.
I may be in serious trouble because I don't have nearly enough units handy to contain his invaders and I'm afraid the character of the
game has changed. It's no longer a race to the river, as he's already across it. Now I'm having to change my plans and re-think what I'm
to do. I guess I'll build a front line along the next river in his path and see if I can't delay him enough to get some more units into the AO.

I'm not sure where his main effort is going but I expect him to drive for Leningrad at the very least. The main line of resistance is forming
up to the west of Smolensk and is almost ready now. I'll post a picture to show you.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Minsk area now. I have no idea where his units are in that blank area in the middle. I have reason to believe he has units in
that blank area because I see a recon element near Minsk. I'm ready as I'm ever going to be for an assault on the city but I know it's just
a matter of time before Minsk falls. Minsk is worth 5% of my production so I want to hand onto it as long as I can and so I've put some
major roadblocks there.

[larryfulkerson]

John has reached and has started his pre-attack positioning on my Stalin Line. This is the north half of the Stalin Line and again due to
the no borders being turned on I have no idea how close the rest of his units are yet. I have reason to believe they are close to the rest
of the Stalin Line. I have no expectation that my Stalin Line will slow John down all that much and it's really a matter of time until he blows
through it.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the south half of the Stalin Line and as you can see John has already begun thrusting Romanian units across the river to get
behind my units and force them to defend in a new direction. I don't have any spare units handy to form another line along the river so
I'm guessing John will be across the river in force next turn. D'oh. I'm in serious trouble already.

[larryfulkerson]

I didn't think my IL-4's could reach Berlin but lo and behold I busted a bridge near there. My idea is to bust all the bridges to the east of
Berlin so as to force John to dispatch some engineers to fix them and maybe force him to station some fighters in Berlin. Another
thought was to bomb the Ploesti refineries when I get into a position to do so.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved all the planes to the Moscow area to rest and refit so as to be able to hold their own in the skies better. My IL-4's are recovered
enough to start using them but the fighters are still wimpy and I don't plan to deploy them to the field until another turn or two has passed.
I'm planning on using my planes all in the Smolensk area to concentrate their strength together but John isn't there yet so there's a turn
or two to play with yet. I hesitate to deploy my planes within range of his because they are so badly outnumbered right now. I'm getting
those squadrons that were decimated earlier but I still don't have parity yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a couple of proposed targets Ploesti and Bucharest. I guess I was thinking of WITE where you can bomb the city industry. I guess
in TOAW I'll have to settle for busting the bridges leading out of there. I can reach these targets from Odessa and I'm thinking of flying
the IL-4's down there to see what they can do. But I have to do it before I get forced out of Odessa. Actually, the IL-4's can reach these
targets from about 171 hexes away so there's no hurry I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie......I've received John's turn 5 moves and I've watched the combat replay etc. This is the north half of the front lines. John is
already landing units via the sea to the north of Riga and thereby bypassing all my defenders to the south. D'oh. I'm in seriious trouble.
I'm going to have to try to build some front lines near Pskov and hope for the best.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the south end of the front lines and as you can see John has already got units across the river and is fighting to get a better toe
hold and maybe force the south end of my Stalin Line to displace to the east. I don't have any units handy yet to block him properly so
I'm guessing I'll be displacing soon.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a Soviet perspective of the area north of Riga where the Axis units have been landing. John has used his paratroopers brilliantly
this turn by making some strategic drops to grab airfields and block my units from any utility in the near future. It's moves like this that are
going to win the game for him.

EDIT: No borders is turned on so we see no depiction of the front lines but I have reason to believe John landed some assets in Virtsu
as well. Although I don't know why it wouldn't show them to me if they were there.