Red Army Fanboy takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque...

[Flaviusx]

And winds up running the Wehrmacht. What's up with all these funny looking dudes goosemarching and stuff?

Anyways, it's Michael T and me giving this a whirl. We'll switch sides when this is done for giggles.

Options are historical, no plots, straight up vanilla. No helpers. Let's do this the old fashioned way before getting fancy.

I go with Corporal Shicklegruber's war plans. He's an idiot, but he's flush with PPs. Hopefully I can make his military genius work somehow. He has this habit of changing his mind a lot. One misses the murderous focus of Stalin. Nothing concentrates the mind so much as a prospect of a hanging, right?

My opener is a sloppier version of what Micheal does. He has honed it to near perfection. Because I'm a happy go lucky Russian sort, we don't bother with this degree of excessive precision and aim for good enough for government work.

Up north:

[Flaviusx]

The center.

[Flaviusx]

And the south.

[Flaviusx]

Arty goes to 18th, 4th, and 17th armies as per usual. 4th, 2nd and 1st PG get focus. I send the siege train to Brest because I didn't get next to Lvov anyways and frankly I'm not at all sure I can take Brest on turn 2. Better safe than sorry.

[Flaviusx]

Turn 2 Shicklegruber invites me to join his party. I love parties! So I agree. Hope they have vodka shots there.

Meanwhile, AGN clears out some of the riff raff on the road to Dunaburg.

[Flaviusx]

Sure enough, I take a whack at Brest and it laughs at me. Glad I sent the seige arty there.

AGC finishes off the Bialystock salient. A garrison in Vilnius gives me problems as foolishly try to take it with single division attacks by mobile units. My progress along the Minsk highway is not amazing, either. AGC is starting to look like a bit of a problem child, but at least 4th and 9th armies are marching forward now unimpeded. The 2 PG infantry is stuck on seige duty around Brest. Not good. It should fall next turn.

[Flaviusx]

AGS makes excellent progress this turn, wiping out 6A and also surrounding Lvov and taking that. Am not entirely satisfied with 6th Army's progress, been too tentative in this area, merely pushing the Soviet back instead of making some small encirclements. They may need some help.

I will probably hold off advancing the FSB to Lvov for a bit. May even delay things until I take Proskurow, which admittedly puts a serious strain on logistics.

[Flaviusx]

Not shown: Romanians and 11th army activated and mostly just occupy empty ground since the Soviet fell back. Kishinev falls.

I forgot to mention that the Finns took Vyborg last turn. This turn they continue to chase 23. Army back across the stop line. Then it's up to AGN to activate them. Will switch the Finns to sustained offensive soon, possibly next turn.

PP situation is excellent. But those truck related decisions will start showing up soon and they cost a fortune. My officer relations are okay except for Brauschists, but he's a putz. He didn't get an invite to Schicklegruber's party and is sulking.

I will have tactical aviation from the Luftwaffe starting next turn.

[Flaviusx]

Turn 3. My fuel situation is becoming problematic up north and south.

[Flaviusx]

The deadpile. I like killing those HQs, 2 extra PPs per. I wish this data refreshed during the turn, it only updates at the beginning of each turn.

[Flaviusx]

Casualties as of the beginning of turn 3, once again these don't seem to refresh over the course of the turn.

[Flaviusx]

AGN is a comedy of errors this turn.

First of all that Bavarian swine Leeb doesn't like me enough to accept a focus card on PG4. In the Red Army, we know how to deal with such generals and would simply replace him with somebody who knows how to follow orders, or else.

But I'm stuck with this dude. So much for Germanic efficiency.

Secondly, I march a motorized division adjacent to Riga and it is shown as empty. This division doesn't have enough APs to march in there. I have 4 divisions set up for an assault on Dunaberg, and one of them can reach Riga. So, yay! Except, that when I command it to seize the objective, it is revealed as occupied. I thought these Germans had good signal intelligence? Perversely, I am proud of our Soviet maskirovka abilities.

And then the 3 division assault on Dunaberg barely fails.

[Flaviusx]

AGC cleans up the rear and is set to seize Minsk next turn. I'm basically satisfied with the progress here. One army HQ dies in the process. 4. Army is in the swamps and I leave that alone for the moment, so be killed by follow on elements.

Brest falls thanks to the seige arty, which releases all the PG2 infantry for further operations. I send the seige engine to Riga. Not taking any chances here. There's too many enemy troops in the vicinity and prior experience suggest this objective should not be taken for granted if the enemy drops a garrison backed up by other elements.

[Flaviusx]

The south...ah so many opportunities. But I cannot really do everything at once. I can either dispose of the Soviet 5. Army in the north, which is giving my own 6. army troubles. Or I can swing south and cut off 12. Army and link up with the Romanians.

I decide to dispose of 5. army. There's a few elements left at the end of this sweep, but they are out of command because I killed the HQ.

All well and good but these movement consume much fuel and our reserves flatline. Reluctantly, I decide it is time for a pause that refreshes and move the FSB to Lvov. The Luftwaffe is also relocated here. So SW Front and 26 army likely get away from me assuming they activate. The landsers won't be able to catch them on their own. It is what it is.

I forget to set PG1 to refit before finishing the turn. That brainfart is all on me, and I'm glad that I'm working for Schiklegruber instead of Stalin, who is not so forgiving. Truthfully, a minor error, said refit can wait until I take Kiev. Even so.

[Flaviusx]

Not shown: Romanians and 11th Army advancing slowly towards Odessa.

Up in Finland the Soviets have mostly withdrawn past the stop line and I decide to suspend operations here for the time being and switch the Finns to sustained offensive posture.

[wadortch]

So what is your trick for taking Kaunas on the first move of the game if that info is not a State Secret? Tried many combinations and always end up with one Soviet unit holding there!

[Flaviusx]

Not a secret. Clear a path with infantry, save all the mobile units for the attack on Kaunas. Besides the one motorized unit used to envelop from the north.

[lancer]

Hi Flaviusx,

I noticed when you were attacking Dunaberg you had both a Panzer and Motorised Div attacking across across the river via a bridge.

This is doable but you get hit with a very stiff penalty (50% offensive combat penalty). If the city is well defended you'll take heavy casualties.

On the other hand if you wait too long they might blow the bridge.

Cheers,
Cameron

[Flaviusx]

Originally, I had 2 divisions north of the river and 2 south. It was a doable attack at that point. But I got greedy and fell victim to Soviet maskirovka. And memo to self: putting a division next to a city will not necessarily reveal contents.

[Flaviusx]

Turn 4. Fuel situation critical in AGN and AGC. With the FSB relocating to Lvov, no fuel in the south.