FIFTY SHADES OF WiTE: SILLYFLOWER V BRIANG

[Peltonx]

seems like you have allot of squads in pools and not in units

[sillyflower]

Indeed. I dialled down the TOEs af arty units of more than 150mm to 50% because replacements are too expensive,and the inf divs of morale lower than 80 to 90%. I got the latter idea from you [:D]

still have lots of arms points too. I think Brian will have a weak winter O (for him anyway) so I'm hoping for a very strong Wehrmacht to try to win in '42. Hence I'm happy to be building a war chest for refitting in the spring

[ericv]

not familiar yet with all the player names, but I meant the game saper222 vs ?. looking up the game now. Sorry, meant no disrespect. All players use the game mechanics as far as they know them. That is all I meant.

[ericv]

Again, i am sorry. This is the game I was talking about http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185572&mpage=2&key=. Saper222, vs M 60,used some fueldrop exploit, that was introduced after a patch. He kept on going and going. Mixed up your name with his.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: ericv

Again, i am sorry. This is the game I was talking about http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185572&mpage=2&key=. Saper222, vs M 60,used some fueldrop exploit, that was introduced after a patch. He kept on going and going. Mixed up your name with his.

Ignore anything Sapper did as all the fuel exploits have been fixed.

1.08.00 and even 1.07 were exploit free.

[sillyflower]

T17

As I've just done my last mud turn, I thought it time to start the dance of the 7 screenshots



Complete with my most skilled artwork to date as I'm often asked about rail heads. The FBD went to the centre a few turns ago, so I've been relying on the odds and sods battalions.

Brian obviously believes that Narva should be his ,which is good for my morale and bad for his. A pleasing amount of poor terrain gained this turn particularly in the marshes to the east of the Volkov and in the Valdai Hills. A sign of his lack of frontline strength as he's not one to give up good defensive terrain otherwise.

18th Army starts moving back to L'grad, so played little part in the offensive. If they want warm and comfy winter quarters, they have to finish the job of taking it in the snow.

[sillyflower]

You didn't think that I was going to post all the maps tonight did you?



Brian has obviously been spending AP on modernising the Red Airforce. I think it's been the most successful part of his game, apart from his losing hundreds of bombers in fairly futile bombing raids on my recce airbases.

[sillyflower]

south



Surprisingly, Brian was quite aggressive in the Donets bend and did retake Voroshilovograd. However, this left him far more exposed than if he'd stayed on his side if the major river. This enabled me to do some herding, netting 1 tk xx and 5 inf xx into secure pockets. That'll teach him . I will have to kill the tank xx next tun despite the mud to clear my supply lines, but the inf xx can spend the next month pondering their fate.

The Bolsheviks also got a bit uppity in the far south, coming out of the Crimea. How I long for the days when the Kerch straights did allow rail supply that way. I had to send an SS div to restore order and to prevent 2 Rum inf xx from becoming surrounded.

Otherwise trying to ensure minimum no. of divs will be isolated from 100+ MP supply chain next turn which is why I was never going to advance south this turn. I calculte that I will have 4 divs isolated next turn, but none the turn after. Manych occupied to get the AG A+B split next turn. Spoiler: I did get the split next turn despite the bug Pelton referred to.

[sillyflower]

Moscow at last



W Moscow succumbed this time, as did a lightly-held North Moscow which only had 2 divs in IIRC. Moscow central only has 2 divs and 30th Army HQ in so will fall easily in the snow. Better to clear both cities now than to risk struggling to clear them all in the snow.

To the SE of Moscow, Hube's 47th PzK took Kolima both to take its factories, and to cut direct communications between the Moscow area and the south.The nearest Russian-held rail bridge crossing over the Oka goes via Arzames which is 260 miles from Moscow.

[loki100]

that looks rather decisive ... very impressed [;)]

[Peltonx]

That will get you close to 260 VP's

Don't think we see Brian doing non random weather again - night and day - Big difference without those 2-3 mud turns.

Only 15 clear turns + the whatever momentum Germany had is stopped for the next and they all come early in summer turns 3-7.

Weather is the biggest game changer and he played like a moron early on which snowballed to disaster after disaster.

BrianG played like a noob, you sure that was him?

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Pelton


BrianG played like a noob, you sure that was him?

I think so judging by his email address and his comments to me on your game. He may, of course, have an evil twin.
I think he played me either copying the way he played you, or else he (understandably) thought I wasn't much cop from the game that got to T7 before my RL got in the way. Now I'm retired, I can take much longer to do my turns so I have time to think properly and to do important stuff like sorting out SUs, stacking points, checking MPs to supply heads etc. That does make a big difference.

I'm not sure how big the weather will be with the much-anticipated .08 beta as it favours the germans quite a bit after the 1st 17 turns. It was a potential game changer when there were those early mud turns, but when they are gone............ but I prefer fixed mud when playing as Russians anyway.

[sillyflower]

dead units end my T17



the 2 axis losses are ally SUs

A further 27 inf xx, 2 tank xx, 1 mot xx and 1 cav xx are in secure pockets so effective bolshevik losses are:

31 tank xx
16 mot xx
139 inf xx
21 cav xx
6 mtn xx
(total 213 xx)

30 brigades

+ odds and sods.

[sillyflower]

losses



If I put back the HIWIs that have come from the captive pile, soviet losses would be as near as dammit to 3M

[sillyflower]

Last but not least, the OOB



Discounting all the units in pockets would reduce the russian OOB to 4M or ? a fraction lower.

[VigaBrand]

I think you will be wrong. I estimate, that he let the most of his formations not at full strength, so I didn't wonder if he had nearly half a million men in the pool and waiting for the winter battle.
I had a game with nearly 3.5 million soviet casualties and a soviet OOB with 4.3 Million.
But the destroyed industry in Moscow should give you a boost in the long run.
You had only 2.1 million Kia or captured soviets, that is in manpower terms not enough. So you should use your advantage and take some men and industry in the snow turns.

[sillyflower]

Thoughts on T17 and the summer

First, thanks to Vigabrand for his interesting comments.

@ V - was it T17 a game with the same version (soviet '41 manpower reinforcement rate have changed over time) and did you make the same geographic progress?

I would be very surprised if Brian held back 500K men given his decision to put everything in the front line. If he did do that through choice, it has cost him dear in the south and at Moscow. If he's got spare manpower because he's run out of arms points, he's gong to have that bottleneck for a long time. He's probably only getting 50K or arms point s per turn at this stage.

Still, a warning about not becoming over-confident is always good.

Anyway, it was a more productive T17 than I expected from all 3 AGs. Losses 13K to 46K. the worst yet but worth it. Air 78 to 216 thanks to at least 1 airbase overrun.

Factory losses now 76 arms, 40 HI and 16 vehicle. 9 more arms and 10 more vehicle factories trapped in Moscow along with loads of a/c factories. I know not everyone cares that much about vehicles, but I'm always short of them when playing Russians even without any factories being lost. Trucks are the only thing I'm ever short of from '43. An upside for Brian will be that the loss of so many a/c and vehicle factories will mean that he won't suffer from the loss of 40 HI.

Looking at the summer, i was not expecting to get all 3 of my starting objectives L'grad, Moscow and Rostov - the latter being the hardest to get because of the distance. I've also taken a lot of manpower centres, which is so important in keeping the Russian OOB down in '41 and much of '42.

All in all, I'm feeling quite happy. All I need to do now is to persuade Brian that the winter months (Dec to Feb) are going to be rather dull, so we should just cut to the quick and F12 the game through to the spring. I'm hoping that soviet losses will make for a dull blizzard - by Brian's standards anyway.

[ericv]

All the scrolling reminds of that other game.... what was it called again.

[chaos45]

Think Brian is going to be in for a tough 1942, as his Winter offensive should be abit stunted by the losses and esp the loss of Moscow.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: ericv

All the scrolling reminds of that other game.... what was it called again.

Love it - and that game too[:D]