The Blitz is on!

[carlkay58]

Bryansk & Western Front: Only minor counterattacks as the RDs are shuffled here too.

[carlkay58]

Southwestern Front: The pocket is opened again. The Axis IRs that made it next to Kiev are pushed back so Kiev should hold up for another two or more turns now.

[carlkay58]

Southern Front: The Kharkov MD is holding the Dnepr River between Cherkassy and D-Town. The Panzer XX that made it across the Dnepr is ZOCd in but that is about all I could do against them. The 34A from the Transcaucus MD is pulled back into reserve towards Sevastopol.

I decide to try and save some HI since I have the rail cap to do so. I rail out HI from Kiev, Bryansk, and Ordzhonoikidzegrad. These may be important in the long campaign.

I forced five retreats on the five attacks I made this turn but it is not enough to change the BP total. The Axis lose (4,796/132/49/9) vs the Soviets (2,971/25/28/16). The grand totals to date are now Axis (623,054/7,739/2,722/2,434) and Soviets (2,467,371/38,659/14,200/9,290). The Axis continue to lose about 40K per turn.

[carlkay58]

Axis Game Turn 18:

MUD everywhere but the North Soviet Zone where it is Blizzard!

Finland: Continues to be quiet.

[carlkay58]

AGN: The front lines are now regiments for the Axis. Divisions are pulled back into either refit or reserve modes. If reserve mode, then any attacks by me will be punished. If refit mode, then I could do some nice attacks on the regiments and possibly make some Axis retreats, but this would mean he is regrouping for a snow offensive which could carry some areas such as Leningrad.

[carlkay58]

AGC: Looks like he did the same for this portion of the front too. But here is the only portion of the line (other than north of Lake Ladoga) that includes the Blizzard zone just north of Smolensk.

[carlkay58]

AGS: Continues to be the same story as the northern portions. The same concerns apply in this area. The bridgehead over the Dnepr River remains only a single PD.

[carlkay58]

Romania: Nikoleav is completely cut off now and the Romanians and Italians are taking over part of the Dnepr River line.

[carlkay58]

Soviet Game Turn 18:

Andrei Eremenko, commanding 31A, is promoted to GENP. Uncle Joe continues to purge Air Commanders as he arrests and executes Evgeny Ptukhin, the Southwestern Air Commander. He is replaced by Aleksandr Golovanov who has his initiative rating reduced to 4.

Now that it is mud weather, the lines will not change that much from the Axis to Soviet turn. So I will highlight in greater detail specific areas. We talked it over and upgraded to the newest test version (.11). I also finagled the code to turn on the Mild Winter flag. We shall see what that does come December.

Leningrad: I have good fort levels (except Shlisselburg which lost two levels in last turn's attack). But the Axis player has better troop quality and CVs. I will have to trust in the weather and terrain to help me here. It will probably fall and grant the Axis another two BPs before Turn 25 is done.

[carlkay58]

Smolensk: My five attacks against his front line regiments all succeed and push them back. All of the areas I attacked were in Blizzard so that helped, where there is Mud my penalty is just as bad as his.

[carlkay58]

Dnepr Bend: This shows the front lines for D-Town, Z-Town, and the bridgehead with the single PD on it. The Axis front line is regimental but mostly Panzer forces as his infantry has not made it to the front yet. This is most likely about the only area that his rail net does not cover since this territory was just recently conquered in good depth.

I rail out the HI from Stalino, Makeevka, and Gorlovka.

I went five retreats for five attacks. Not bad, but not enough to really matter except for the positioning around Smolensk. The losses this turn were Axis (1,790/67/1/4) vs Soviet (1,696/15/42/7). The totals to date are now Axis (644,979/7,884/2,770/2,442) and Soviet (2,494,271/38,865/14,268/9,367). The Axis lose only 21K this turn. With the lower tempo that MUD brings it will be hard to cause the Axis sufficient casualties to reach the 1M mark.

The BP total remains at four.

[carlkay58]

Axis Game Turn 19:

MUD in all except the Snow in South Soviet Zone.

Finland: Fortification levels are increasing on both sides of the line as they are manned by minimal units to avoid attritional losses.

[carlkay58]

AGN: The Panzers are out of the front lines. Most of the front lines are manned by infantry regiments as the rest of the troops are behind in reserve/refit modes. Everyone that can are resting and recovering for a winter offensive.

[carlkay58]

AGC: The majority of the line is held by infantry regiments with the exception of south of Gomel where the Panzers are still stuck in the front lines.

[carlkay58]

AGS: This area is also 'resting' and waiting for the snow. The bridgehead over the Dnepr River is now two PDs and fairly invulnerable to anything I could throw at it in mud.

[carlkay58]

Romania: Nikolaev has fallen and the SS PDs have crossed the Dnepr and holding a bridgehead. I doubt I will be able to do anything against that one other than try and contain it. An attack by Panzers just north of Z-Town has forced the Soviet defending CD to retreat but the Axis was unable to get anyone across to make a bridgehead. Last turn this front was MUD like the rest and the Axis were deployed in their rest/refit modes but this turn is Snow and they are able to make some advances. This is a preview of the oncoming Snow season where the Axis will be able to get a jump on me. This is a major advantage of random weather for the Axis - they get to have a 'free turn' when the weather changes because they know before the Soviets do.

[carlkay58]

Soviet Turn 19:

Wow, I now have the 1st Gds Tank Division! Between that and GENA Dmitry Pavlov still alive and commanding Western Front things have been going well for the Soviets this game. Fyodor Tolbukhin, commander of 21A, is promoted to GENL.

As before, I will concentrate on the hot spots.

Leningrad: Mostly concentrating on the fort levels. I still have not gotten the fort level on Shlisselburg high enough. I will need it to be a 3 or 4 to have a hope of holding out in Leningrad. The other hexes are important but Shlisselburg is the key to the land link.

[carlkay58]

Bend: The Z-Town/D-Town areas. The CDs defending behind the Dnepr are not going to be able to slow him down for long in the snow. I am trying to build up another reserve army for this area to help it out. The PDs in the bridgehead are now facing my "Mountain Army". This may be able to hold against them.

[carlkay58]

SS Bridgehead: The two SS XXs will make short work of the Soviet forces in the area, but they are mostly backed by Romanians and Italians. This should offset the danger here, besides the Crimea Peninsula is being fortified and well reinforced.

His low attrition strategy with only regiments in most of the front line is working too well. He has suffered only 15K in losses this past turn. My forces just do not have the CV to work well in the mud and try to harm him.

His grind strategy is working well. My ARM pool is at 0 and has been since late August. Without the destruction of large numbers of RDs, I have had to go through the TOE 'upgrade' system from 41a RD to the 41b RD. There is still some bad stuff in the changeover because my full strength rifle squads become reduced rifle squads and lose all of their experience and weapons. So I get hit with a loss of about 20 exp and a lot of ARM pts in each division. Usually the captured RDs don't come back until the TOE upgrade is in process and they start off with the new TOE, but with few RDs being captured, I have had a lot of RDs make the change over and it has cost me big time.

The BP count remains at four. He is running low on time, but he should be able to get Kiev and probably Leningrad for another three points and possibly pick up some more in the south to make the ten.

[carlkay58]

Axis Game Turn 20:

The weather makes the news again this turn as MUD is every where but the South Soviet Zone where the weather is CLEAR.

Romania: This is the only front where changes have happened. The Axis takes advantage of the two turns of good weather (for them) and makes a bridgehead between D & Z-Towns. The SS Divisions are able to blow out the Soviet defenders and reach the Crimea Peninsula while trapping a Soviet army.