FITE2 Soren(S) and Fogger(A)

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of John's losses so far. The number of Infantry squads lost, usually the catagory w/ the highest losses, is remarkable
for being so low.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Soren reports as his losses in the air war for T2:

[larryfulkerson]

Soren has lost over 14K infantry squads already. It's getting bloody out there.

[larryfulkerson]

Soren gave me permission to post this quote from his email:

On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 7:16 AM, Søren Kjærulff Gaun wrote:
Mostly running away and burning bridges., however this being my 3 game, i can see some lack of progress in the south, but a very strong and fast thrust agains Minsk. I am assuming the main advance axis is towards Moscow, and deploy accordingly. Evacuating Hangô is quite dangerous because of the Finnish Coastal Artillery, this also means the evacuation of the Baltic islands will be into Lithuania and walt towards Neva from there.

Timing the sea transport will be a pain, as i also need to reinforce Murmansk sector with forces from Arkhangelsk, and Odessa from Black sea ports.

Rail move was interdicted, and i made a crucial error of moving my artillery, and they were interdicted to pieces. This is indeed band news as heavy artillery is scarce, Note to self.. don't move it until turn 3, were you will have at least some working fighter cover

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T3 front lines from the Axis point of view. You can see from the image that John is pushing his recon units far out in front of
the main body. It's still a race to the river, the next natural barrier Soren can use to delay John's advance. There aren't very many
Soviet units visible but there are some there I'm betting. Soren is counting on using the river as a very big roadblock and if John can
get some of his units on the east side he can trap a lot of Soviet units on the west side of the river. It doesn't happen that way very often
but it's a huge advantage if it can be done. Riga isn't that far away now and is one of the keys to getting across the river. Riga is usually
defended with a medium sized stack or two of Soviet units and if John can reach Riga before Soren can set up a descent defense then
the take down will be easier. One of the advantages of the Axis units is their mobility, especially the Panzer units.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Minsk area now. Minsk is one of the objectives that John wants to capture early because it effects the Soviet production
effort. Also it's a major road intersection and can control a lot of traffic headed east. It's usually defended and I'm sure Soren has plans
to defend it with at least a roadblock and maybe even a strong point w/ stacks of units. I'm pretty sure Soren wants to hang onto it as
long as possible. John probably has plans to run his supply lines through there w/ a rail line. Speaking of which, I haven't been keeping
up w/ how the Axis supply line is doing......I'll have to find it and point it out in a future post.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the area around the mouth of the marshes. Soren has been busy busting bridges all over the place. John has engineers that
can repair those but it's time consuming and tedius. Not many Soviet units are visible in this image but those that are visible are being
surrounded and will soon be destroyed. It looks like John has his units flowing into the areas of least resistance, spreading out and
gaining ground. The goal is to reach the east side of the marshes and spread out north and south and trap Soviet units in a giant
pocket in the marshes. With all the broken bridges that may be hard to do. I'm pretty sure Soren is counting on the busted bridges to
delay and thwart the progress of the Axis advance.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Lvov area now. John's units are streaming South and East and are overrunning the Soviet positions. Soren has a lot of units
that are still in garrison mode and can't be moved and that's frustrating when you see situations that can profit from being able to move.
It's a choice for Soren whether to defend forward or run for your life and with units in garrison mode that choice is made for him. Not
much of a choice there really. Those Soviet units that can move are falling back and blowing bridges. I'll bet Soren is trying to form a
defensive line or two in various places. And lots of strong points like roadblocks.

[larryfulkerson]

This is how John see's the air war progress. Lots of airfield strikes are ongoing and Soviet aircraft units are being destroyed. John
reports that the Soviet aircraft units have a way of disappearing when struck. I'll bet Soren wishes he could move them to a safe area to
rest them until their readiness climbs out of the low 20's. When I was playing John I tried to move them to the Moscow area to refit
and I don't know if Soren is doing that or not. Lots of the Soviet aircraft are in reorg and can't be moved yet. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of John's infantry losses so far. It appears that John's ground losses are slight so far. But that doesn't mean that the
fighting hasn't been brutal, just one-sided.

[fogger]

While I am waiting for Soren's turn I though that I would give a close up of a near miss. I was going to drop the Comdo unit on the rail hex but then decided that I would capture the airfield and then cut the rail line. Good call as I could not see the 4 regts sitting next to the airfield. I quickly withdrew and called in 3 airstrikes. The following will detail the reports of the airstrikes.

[fogger]

and the picture

[fogger]

AXIS Turn 3 Battle at 224,322
AXIS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 5%
SOVIETS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 20%
Attackers
0/ 86 Me-109 E Replacements are available.
0/ 36 Me-109 F Replacements are available.
5/ 73 Me-110 C Replacements are available.
7/ 68 Ju-87D Replacements are available.
5/ 52 Do-17 Replacements are available.
3/ 38 Hs-123 Replacements are available.
Defenders
4/ 15 Soviet Command Squad Replacements are available.
3/ 10 Soviet Corps Command Squad Replacements are available.
3/ 12 Recon Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
88/482 Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
13/ 59 Engineer Squad (ODD) Replacements are available.
4/ 15 NKVD Squad w/PPSh 41 Replacements are available.
3/ 8 Mounted Recon Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
25/184 Soviet Support Squad Replacements are available.
21/100 MMG Squad 41 w/Maxim Replacements are available.
2/ 14 HMG Team w/DShK Replacements are available.
27/ 99 50mm Mortar M40 Replacements are available.
20/105 82mm Mortar BM-82 M41 Replacements are available.
12/ 22 120mm Mortar PM-120 M41 Replacements are available.
1/ 27 45mm AT-Gun M37 Replacements are available.
4/ 19 76mm/16,5 Inf Gun M27/39 Replacements are available.
3/ 8 76mm/40 Gun F-22-USV M39 Replacements are available.
12/ 24 122mm/22,7 M-30 How M38 Replacements are available.

AXIS Turn 3 Battle at 224,322
AXIS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 5%
SOVIETS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 9%
Attackers
0/ 86 Me-109 E Replacements are available.
0/ 71 Me-109 F Replacements are available.
12/104 Me-110 C Replacements are available.
1/ 32 Ju-87D Replacements are available.
4/ 47 Do-17 Replacements are available.
2/ 35 Hs-123 Replacements are available.
Defenders
2/ 11 Soviet Command Squad Replacements are available.
1/ 7 Soviet Corps Command Squad Replacements are available.
0/ 9 Recon Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
37/394 Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
3/ 46 Engineer Squad (ODD) Replacements are available.
2/ 11 NKVD Squad w/PPSh 41 Replacements are available.
0/ 5 Mounted Recon Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
21/159 Soviet Support Squad Replacements are available.
7/ 79 MMG Squad 41 w/Maxim Replacements are available.
2/ 12 HMG Team w/DShK Replacements are available.
4/ 72 50mm Mortar M40 Replacements are available.
9/ 85 82mm Mortar BM-82 M41 Replacements are available.
3/ 10 120mm Mortar PM-120 M41 Replacements are available.
1/ 26 45mm AT-Gun M37 Replacements are available.
1/ 15 76mm/16,5 Inf Gun M27/39 Replacements are available.
2/ 5 76mm/40 Gun F-22-USV M39 Replacements are available.
3/ 12 122mm/22,7 M-30 How M38 Replacements are available.

AXIS Turn 3 Battle at 224,322
AXIS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 6%
SOVIETS approximate equipment and personnel losses - 11%
Attackers
0/ 55 Me-109 E Replacements are available.
0/ 36 Me-109 F Replacements are available.
8/ 92 Me-110 C Replacements are available.
5/ 86 Ju-87D Replacements are available.
6/ 79 Ju-88A Replacements are available.
6/ 25 He-111 H Replacements are available.
0/ 17 Do-17 Replacements are available.
Defenders
0/ 9 Soviet Command Squad Replacements are available.
1/ 6 Soviet Corps Command Squad Replacements are available.
0/ 9 Recon Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
46/357 Rifle Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
2/ 43 Engineer Squad (ODD) Replacements are available.
2/ 9 NKVD Squad w/PPSh 41 Replacements are available.
1/ 5 Mounted Recon Squad w/DP LMG Replacements are available.
13/138 Soviet Support Squad Replacements are available.
5/ 72 MMG Squad 41 w/Maxim Replacements are available.
3/ 10 HMG Team w/DShK Replacements are available.
13/ 68 50mm Mortar M40 Replacements are available.
8/ 76 82mm Mortar BM-82 M41 Replacements are available.
3/ 7 120mm Mortar PM-120 M41 Replacements are available.
2/ 25 45mm AT-Gun M37 Replacements are available.
1/ 14 76mm/16,5 Inf Gun M27/39 Replacements are available.
1/ 3 76mm/40 Gun F-22-USV M39 Replacements are available.
1/ 9 122mm/22,7 M-30 How M38 Replacements are available.

[fogger]

That HQ is on top of stack of 4 HQ's 4 Inf Regt and I motor Inf Regt.

[fogger]

Down south I have been able to slip an Inf Div the 9th Panzer Div and the LSSAH Motor regt across the river and form a bridgehead. The question is can I capture the bridge at 232,437? At present it has not been destroyed and it is a rail crossing.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's another quote from Soren:
Søren Kjærulff Gaun
12:05 PM (2 hours ago)

Running away blowing bridges, and a sudden discovery of German special forces in rear of Minsk caused some confusion. Even with heavy artillery supported counter attack with a completely surrounded enemy was a complete failure... but there is always another turn...

[Petey]

This is simply an amazing game!

[Petey]

John/Larry:

What has happened to the game? There have been no posts in a while.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Petey
John/Larry:
What has happened to the game? There have been no posts in a while.

Um........it wouldn't surprise me to find out that either one of them has found another problem to be fixed. Or maybe one of them had to
go into the hospital for a tune-up. Or something. I'm as curious as you are.

[fogger]

Sorry for the lack of intl. There is another team also testing the game and they are far ahead of Soren and myself. There are a number of corrections taking place. Here are some of them
Changes 25 May 2014

- Added a battalion of construction Squads to Finnish Engineer regiments. They can now Repair railroads.

- Changes Soviet reconstruction units. Names with RD, RR, and AT brigades do NOT reconstruct

- Changes some equipment that were flawed (Eg the 1st Mtn Brigade had 2 LMG Squads)

- Name changes ( Found quite a few errors)

- Road is redone so the Panzers can reach farther the first turn.

- Map corrections, the River Flotillas can now move to and trough the Sea of Azov

- Placed a German 50% supply unit at Taman 331,481 (The Black Sea)

- Placed a Soviet 50% supply unit at Kerch 328, 479 (The Black Sea)

- Corrected 4th Partisan brigade entry event to be keyed with the fall of Novgorod.

- Corrected entry locations for several units, and their turns.

- Barbarossa settings are redefined by: From turn 4 to 31 the Zoc movement cost for the Axis are reduced from 75% to 50 %

- Soviet rail damage turns 100% on turn 4, and not 3 as before.

- Supply radius is up to 8 for the Soviets (not 4 as original) Axis supply radius is up to 12, and not 8 as before. Soviet supply lv increases to 12 permanently after 1941 winter offensive.

- Fall Blau now increases supply radius to 16.

This is the just the latest list. There have also been a number of others.

There are also a couple of other ideas floating round with the aim of making the Russians defend forward to improve the game.

So I am afraid that Soren and I have stopped this game for the time being and will wait for the updated game and then start again. Also in my job I am about to start working 6 1/2 days per week for the next month or so a restart will work out well for me.

So stay turned. I am aiming for a restart in late August.