Once more into the Breech with D21

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Bryansk area just now. I've got several Panzer divisions fighting their
way into the Soviet backfield. Even using the Panzers the going is slow. I can just
feel my schedule slipping. But there's nothing for it except to keep going and do
what we can with the troops we have.

[mccartyg]

Looks like you've got a breakthrough towards the Vyazma-Moscow MSR up there. If you start taking heavy losses don't do like what I just tried in my Korea tutorial game and keep attacking ;]. Your mind gets numb from play and the worst thing you can do is over extend and lose an Army Groups advance potential.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: mccartyg
Looks like you've got a breakthrough towards the Vyazma-Moscow MSR up there. If
you start taking heavy losses don't do like what I just tried in my Korea tutorial
game and keep attacking ;]. Your mind gets numb from play and the worst thing you
can do is over extend and lose an Army Groups advance potential.

Yeah, thanks for noticing that. But as you can see in this image of the Vyazma area
right now that I waited too long for some reinforcements and didn't flow into the
void and the Soviets filled it with their reserves. That's what I need: a reserve.
Maybe I should break all the units down and man the line with small stacks of pieces
and the reserve could be a couple of divisions that aren't broken down yet. I hate
to do that though because the division sized units are just about the minimum I
would try lt stand in the front lines with. I'm more comfortable with a two-stack
on the front lines.

I checked out the aircraft just now and the turn started with a couple of the aircraft
already yellow. i try to stand down those aircraft that are below 50% readiness and
these guys were still in the 60's so I put them on a CS mission. I like the INT
missions to have dark greem health because they usually finish the Soviet turn in a
yellow state and that's the only way I know I'm getting maximum performance from them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T21 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

I just now took a look at the aircraft inventory and here's what I found:
Heavy losses in medium bombers, I don't own any heavy bombers. Light losses
in the fighters so far and the Me-110's are just keeping up with losses.
Plus I'm not making any Do-17's anymore. I'll have to move them to a quiet
area.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd drop some paratroops on one of the smaller islands to see what happens
and I captured a supply point. The problem is that I don't have any sea trans.
points so nothing can move by sea. I'll have to rely on the ships for support.

[larryfulkerson]

I found the helicopters that were in the older version. I was aiming some arty on
the beach at the ship right offshore and noticed that it said that it's range was
22 and I thought that couldn't be right so I did a save game and went to the Soviet
side and found out about the helicopters.

[larryfulkerson]

The medium bombers were having heavy losses in my opinion so
I put all the bombers on CS missions and about 1/3 of the fighters got put on INT
missions. They don't have the range to go out very far so most of their hits will
be on the Soviet stuff local to the front lines. And the other 2/3 of the fighters
can protect them.

Edit: This is the northern part of the front lines and as you can see operations
are ongoing and I have high hopes for progress.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Smolensk area right now. I've surrounded a small group of Soviet
stuff in the city itself and have schueduled an attack to clear out the hex.
I've decided to roll up the lines heading north to see if I can't surround
some more Soviet stuff and kill it too. The idea is to kill as much Soviet
stuff as possible so that the disparity between army sizes won't be so vast.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on down south in the corner of the rivers. I'm going to go around the biggest bottlenecks and see
if I can't make some progress.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on to the west of Kursk. I'm getting in around the Soviet units and surrounding them and then
when I've saved up enough supply for an attack I kill the Soviet unit and move up to the edge of the front.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's D-town and Z-town again but I've been moving units and the war has changed.
I've gotten the Hungarians in behind the Soviets in the corner and the take down
is soon to follow. I've got to move the Slovakian troops ( the beige colored ones )
and get them separated from the Hungarians because they can't support each other
in a pinch. I've already moved the Italians to the east side of Kiev and they
can always use some more troops.

With my units making it up against the river the operation to clear out the territories
between the rivers is at an end. Now to clear out the territories between the
rivers on the east side of Kiev. Let's call that Operation Shiny Chevy.

[larryfulkerson]

I just now discovered something good to know. There's a workaround to attacking
those hexes that seemingly are empty but actually have an enemy unit in it just
select some arty unit ( or a unit that has a range ) and then use the attack
planner to show you a little intel about the unit.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like around Bryansk right now. I'm mopping up and will be moving east
momentarily

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the T22 front lines look like before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in the north right now. I'm pressing toward Leningrad but progress is stymied and the lines
are semi-permanent it seems.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of Kiev right now. I'm starting to get some units on the east side
of the city as I clear out the river crossings starting from north of Kiev and
working my way south. The supply level is rising slowly and the tidal wave of Axis
units are being moved from the far south to the east side of Kiev to the Gomel area
and then marched from the railhead down to the front lines. There's another dozen
divisions to be moved yet. Things are going rather well.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T23 and you can see a lot of progress in the middle and south. The north seems stalled.

[larryfulkerson]

I started to do a series of pictures like this one with an index on the left and the
detail on the right but I don't like the size of the detail image because it's not
big enough and I detest having to scroll to see the entire image so I'm going back
to the regular pictures.

Meanhile, this is some of the front lines right now. I don't seem to have enough
people to really dominate the north front lines and take the city. It's a slow
process with the resources I have at my disposal.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's an image from a little east of the previous image and shows the fragmented
nature of the front and how there's little groups confronting each other instead
of a proper adjacent-units style. But it's seemingly working and some slow progress
is being made.