Workshop for the new guys - Directive 21 (D21)

[larryfulkerson]

One of my longer-ranged arty units ( RR arty ) had such a big range arc that he covered a lot of enemy positions and
supported a lot of attacks and has exhausted it's supply. It needs to rest now to gather some supply and refit.
And get a shipment of ammo from Corps. supply and get ready for next turn. Although, it's so low on supply I doubt
it's going to be ready next turn. Supply levels climb slowly.

[TPOO]

ORIGINAL: marion61

I'm not sure if the scenario designer had a special reason for creating most of those soviet units with the "unit size" as squads or not. Even some of the motorized and tank divisions have the "unit size" set to squads, but they are divisions, I checked their TOE's. The majority of those border units are battalion size or regiments, which uses the symbol "II", or "III" on the icons, but that soviet tank division shows it's a squad on it's icon also, and should be an "XX". Maybe an over-sight? It doesn't deter from the game play, but it's just strange to see squad symbols over a divisional sized unit or a battalion.

It was intentional. Elmer for some reason wants to divide the tank divisions into smaller units making them extremely weak and could be routed by a lesser unit. These units do not reconstruct and will eventually be destroyed within the first 20 turns of the game. It does not affect game play in anyway.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been getting an enormous number of RBC's lately. The entire Soviet front is being pushed backward. It might even
collapse soon.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been moving units and the Soviet front lines appear to be fracturing because lots of holes are starting to begin
to start showing. The front lines are crumbling.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the west end of the Marshes and the fighting is still going on. Many battles, mostly RBC's and a few stubborn
ones. The Soviet units are weak and low on supply, few of them stand and fight. It's a harsh unforgiving environment.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a shot of down south where I made a tiny hole and started moving people through it and now it's a full-fledged
breech of the Soviet lines. I'm getting into his backfield and the next consequtive front line complex.

[larryfulkerson]

And where there used to be a giant V of Soviet front lines previously, not much trace of it exists still. The Soviets
have crumbled before the Axis forces and now Germans are rushing in from all angles and taking over the territory and
isolating and destroying the enemy. It's a blood bath.

EDIT: Which reminds me. I've been working on this for a couple of days now and I'm still on Turn 1 round 2. This is
a huge scenario. Karri and I were playing FITE once upon a time and Karri said that he watched the playback
( back when it had an event counter ) and there were something like 11K+ events in turn one. I believe him.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie, I've moved everybody, now to review the battles to find and adjust the outlayers. I open the Planned Battles
and sure enough near the bottom I find an outlayer. I've got to investigate that bad boy to see if there's isn't some
way to adjust it, if not to postpone it.

[larryfulkerson]

And so I click on the 82,179 button and I get the combat planner for that battle and I see that I'm attacking with my
engineers and I don't like to do that because the engineers are sort of precious. So I'm going to stop that but then
the two remaining attackers are doing a flank attack on the unit and both are needed for that attack so the solution
for this problem is to postpone the attack for a round or two. I'm still planning on doing the attack, just later in
the turn so I don't burn any rounds unnecessarily.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the post-battles dialog and you can see how many airfield attacks there were and how many bridge busting
missions they flew and I actually targeted some Soviet arty for special treatment so there was a good mix of
mission types this round. I've got all the bombers on CS right now but as part of the last thing I do this turn
I want to put a lot of bombers on INT duty.

[larryfulkerson]

So the next thing I do after the end of the combat phase is to check the aircraft and I found several that needed to be
stood down for some rest. I flew three groups to Berlin to rest. The hangers there are filling up. Then I started at
the beginning of the OOB to move the units and the first unit was OKH and it's already dug in for this turn and the
next thing to move is the first of the paratroopers. There's five of them and I need to use them to capture bridges and
hold them until they are releaved. I've already picked out their target DZ's ( noted on the map ). Those are some of
the more important bridges right now. I need to stop the Soviet traffic across those bridges for a while. Not long
just long enough.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's where I landed the paratroopers. One unit evaporated because it landed in a hex where there was an enemy unit
and we didn't know that before hand. We know now.

[larryfulkerson]

So this is round 4 and I'm aiming for attacks up to and including round 6 so I'll go through all the units moving those
that still have MP's and move them all scedualing those attacks that I deem necessary and the cycle repeats.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the north right now. There's a lot of pushing and shoving going on and lot of pending attacks.
Now the movement is short and close and the sweeping movements are gone now. We're fighting adjacent battles over the
remnants of the battlefield.

[larryfulkerson]

Almost everybody in the north has moved already so this is the face of the war in the north now. A lot of the Soviet
defenders are gone now and the way forward is clear and progress is being made.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at the south now that I've been moving units. The Soviets are for the most part falling back but every
once in a while you'll find a stubborn one and have to attack it. Other than that the Ais units are moving between
the Soviet units surrounding them isolating them destroying them. It's inspiring.

[larryfulkerson]

So this is what the front lines look like in round 5. Bulges and probes are starting to form and lots of Soviet units
are missing the rest are mostly further out in a concentric series of front lines, strong points, and roadblocks. It's
busy on the map, almost every unit is moving.

EDIT: You'd think I'd turn off the mini-map when making these screenshots. I'll try to do better.

[larryfulkerson]

So here's the planned battles that I'm planning on having this time. There's one at the bottom that is longer than the
rest and I'm thinking I need to investigate and see if I can adjust it or postpone it.

[larryfulkerson]

Over 100 battles already. And a lot of them had 100% for the results. That's when a Soviet unit dies.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a bomber that was on a three-dot setting for some reason, I missed it earlier I guess, and it ran through all
the available supply it had and now is low. I'm going to change to a single dot setting and rest this guy because
if I don't next turn he won't be combat ready. He may not be in any case since the supply level is so low.