BrianG v TDV (tdv ok for now)

[BrianG]

What to do? I thought retreat. I thought a lot about retreat.

One thing I failed to do was sufficiently reinforce Yaraslov after retaking it against a week german rear guard,
as he fought south.

This became bad mistake.

Will I become a 3x loser of the Volga river? [:-]

[chaos45]

Seems your playing with fire around Moscow but not sure where you are on VP count and maybe you cant afford to fall back.

In the south I would keep playing at trying to get that pockets as his forces look much weaker than yours overall and he has alot of assets at Moscow so not much to spare for the south I bet. Esp with over 2M losses so far- high for axis this early in the war.

Even if he keeps re-opening the pockets the troops inside get weaker as they arent getting re-supplied even if they arent counted as isolated.

[BrianG]

Vp is not an issue at this time early summer.

I think VP level was around 238ish. VP was issue in late 41. Not yet for 42 but its a long summer ahead.

Many cities have been lost and retaken. Yaraslov + Kharkov being the most.

Breakout direction was foremost concern. He can really take it in any direction.

[BrianG]

I routed these tanks. One issue which arises is that his routed tanks get refilled the next turn,
and are usually close to the line ready to exploit again.

I kept my trapped group forward here to keep pressure on his supply corridor.

[BrianG]

I failed to break the middle pocket. He really had a strong cv 28 in that hex.

I also now had large Gorki issues. I had failed to extract the industry over the winter as I needed everything.

So now I was also having to defend Gorki to allow the evacuation.

[BrianG]

Here TDV starts an infantry pincer movement. Now new worry was his tanks coming southwest and cutting off my troops in the south Moscow area.

My infantry here is strong enough to hit back. Still he was slowly progressing NE.

[BrianG]

I could not reclose the deal. His 3 stacks of german inf are usually too strong to budge.

It will become a huge slugfest.

I also launched a flanking tank attack to open up possibilities more west.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: BrianG

I could not reclose the deal. His 3 stacks of german inf are usually too strong to budge.

It will become a huge slugfest.

I also launched a flanking tank attack to open up possibilities more west.

think that is your best option ... really escalate the situation by creating a larger and larger threat. At some stage you'll either clean up big time or he'll have to respond by sending troops down here ... or his commitment around Moscow pays off in terms of VPs

[chaos45]

the key thing with Stalino is, as long as you keep all those Zocs on his supply line into his troops in Stalino they are getting almost no supplies. They may not be isolated but with the supplies they burn each turn they are slowly getting weaker.

Ive found once you can Zoc a supply line for 2-3 hexes it takes a long time for supplies to rebuild if at all, at the end of the chain. As all the extra MPs the supply line has to spend to get to the end users means not much gets through. You can see your having an effect as hes trying to pull back at this point. I would bet his guys inside are about out of supply even if not isolated.

[BrianG]

No photos. Mostly back and forth fighting over same stuff.

[BrianG]

They heavy fighting down here continued all along. About this turn he started withdrawing his 2 tank unit to move to Stalino as wel as more inf div over the next few turns.

I too started releasing troops to Stalino.

[BrianG]

I reformed the pocket with last tank corp reserves. I also pushed west to Big D and closer to Big Z.

TDV showed no concern and kept trying to recut my troops and corral them into bad position.

His reinforcements always did the job and restored order.. This might have been my last successful cutoff of his Stalino forward units

[BrianG]

Here I was able to sneak in a cav guard unit just south of Moscow which blocked clear rr thru Moscow.

Causing large mp in the eastern units. Every turn select armor is air resupplied.

Guess how bad I wanted another unit to run into the empty Moscow urban hex.

[BrianG]

File I see when I open his turn

[BrianG]

Air war.

I assume heavy for both?

[BrianG]

End Stalino positions turn 57.

This type of view gives a

THREAT LEVEL 0/0/0 What is this? Was it for some game detail that was never developed?

Almost took Big D. TDv tank reinforcements from Crimea launched attack north east midway between bid D and Stalino.

More mess to worry about.

[BrianG]

more action just east of Tula

Very weak flanks

[BrianG]

More head to head action. I keep pocket open.

[BrianG]

TDV finally breaks out (changes direction of attack from Gorki) and it's in direction towards Cherepovits north of Yaraslow.

I rush in a new defensive line. Major worries for troops far west and north of the attack.

[BrianG]

German attacks further North East but meet with desperate counterattacks.

He continues to out maneuver in tight space. Hoards my forward tanks into out of supply.