The Sun Also Rises ( D21 )

[larryfulkerson]

It's early in the turn yet and I haven't moved everybody yet but this is what it
looks like right now. I'm planning on getting most of these people on the east
side of the river sometime in the next couple of turns. Resistance is light to
moderate and varies from place to place because most of the combats are between
small groups as there's no Soviet front line as such yet.

[larryfulkerson]

The 6th Panzer Division just happened to be handy when I came upon a division that
needed a mission and a void that needed to be explored. I sent the recon units out
and it got just far enough to be within range of some Soviet arty. Great. Maybe a
few airstrikes on that arty unit might discourage it from firing. At least
disentranch it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Minsk right now. I'm surrounding the city and cutting off the defenders from
their supplies and their replacements. Dropping the paratroops helped stem the flow
of Soviet units leaving the area. Some still got away but not as many as would have
had they not been there.

The supply levels are adequate to conduct operations so the advance is continuing
without a pause. I expect it to take another couple of turns to take down Minsk.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south the front lines are broken and I'm continually meeting these small Soviet
groups instead of a front line per se. So my units are flowing like water in the
path of least resistance and covering the land like a flood. Building rails and
converting roads and repairing the occasional bridge. Progress is being made.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a bigger view of what's going on down south right now.

[larryfulkerson]

So I've got units clearing out the Bessarabia and they have run into another one of
those armor heavy roadblocks that's turned into a strongpoint. I'm surrounding it
with mostly infantry which is going to have a tough time unentrenching all that
armor because arty isn't great against armor. What I need is an armor unit to
tackle this job. There must be a Pznzer unit nearby that I can send. I'll look
around some more.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T5 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation up north right now. I've gotten the rail built tot he east side
of the river and now I'm repairing toward Daugavpils and then to the NE for a while
eventually ending up in Pskov on the way to Leningrad. I'm not sure what to do to
feed supplies to the bottleneck area since that's so far from the nearest rail. I
might have to dispatch one of these four RR engrs to the task of repairing the rail
toward the north part of the peninsula. The green line is where the supply is
coming from and the red line is what I'm thinking of repairing next. There's lots
of repaired rail interspersed with patches of broken rail on that route. I'm hoping
it won't take long to repair it.

[larryfulkerson]

There's another railhead near Minsk but it hasn't made any progress since last turn. But the city is slowly being
surrounded. I haven't moved any of these guys yet so maybe it can be done this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south I'm running into more and more Soviet units and the good news is that the
rail is up close to the front. I'd like to keep it there if possible so as to better
supply the troops. I'm planning on running the rail through Kiev eventually.

[Jukipo]

How are your losses so far? In my game I lost about 1000 HRS's per turn during the first 20 turns. Then 5000 HRS more on turns 21 to 30. Now I'm on turn 30 with over 35000 HRS.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Jukipo
How are your losses so far?

Really light I think. So far. I'm expecting to lose a lot of troops going through
the Stalin Line so my numbers are changing as we speak.

ORIGINAL: Jukipo
In my game I lost about 1000 HRS's per turn during the first 20 turns. Then 5000 HRS
more on turns 21 to 30. Now I'm on turn 30 with over 35000 HRS.

That sounds like what I'm going to have as well. Thanks for the update. I'm aiming
for about 30K for the lower limit on assigned HRS's in the army. I'm afraid to go
much lower than that. My last game showed how much preparation the Axis needs to do
to prepare for the Soviet Winter Offensive because I didn't do much in the way of
preparing and it showed. It was a disaster. I'm learning still.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm fully engaged in the Stalin Line down south. Some of the defenders are pushovers
but most are not. The advance has stalled until the Stalin Line is gone. I need to
punch a hole in it somewhere to get into the Soviet backfield and roll up his lines.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T6 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T7 front lines before I have moved anybody. Compare with T6's lines down south.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped some paratroops toward the middle of the map in an effort to accellerate
the process somewhat. Also to isolate the battlefield and prepare the ground for
the take down of all the Soviet units trapped in the pocket, a large pocket. I've
got two more paratroops to be dropped but not enough air cap for them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of Orsha right now. I'm sneakig up on the prepared Soviet positions
and I want to coordinate it so that everybody arrives at the same time. Can't have
weak spots develop now that we're this close to Moscow. The next local goal is
Smolensk. I've got to get the rails to perform somehow. This is the third time in
a row that the RR engrs haven't made any progress at all. None of them. I don't
know what the problem is with them.

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

...This is the third time in
a row that the RR engrs haven't made any progress at all. None of them. I don't
know what the problem is with them.

Larry


Do advancing forces still automatically destroy the same train tracks that they will need for the logistics train? From your report, looks like you must rebuild tracks destroyed during the advance.

Why is this? Doesn’t seem historical or realistic. In TOAW advancing units don’t destroy roads, bridges, forts, airfields or ports as they advance. Why only destroy rail roads? What is so special about rail roads that advancing troops automatically destroy their life line? Seems absurd to me.


Regards, RhinoBones

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: rhinobones

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
...This is the third time in a row that the RR engrs haven't made any progress at all.
None of them. I don't know what the problem is with them.

Larry
Do advancing forces still automatically destroy the same train tracks that they will
need for the logistics train? From your report, looks like you must rebuild tracks
destroyed during the advance. Why is this? Doesn’t seem historical or realistic.
In TOAW advancing units don’t destroy roads, bridges, forts, airfields or ports as
they advance. Why only destroy rail roads? What is so special about rail roads
that advancing troops automatically destroy their life line? Seems absurd to me.
Regards, RhinoBones

Hey there Steve dude. The idea is that the Soviets used a different gauge rail than
the rest of Europe so the captured Soviet rails had to be spaced for the Europen cars
that the Germans were using. It's the difference between four feet one inch and five
feet 2 inches. Or something like that. At the beginning of the game the rail damage value
was zero so that captured rail was automatically repaired upon capture and then in
turn two it was increased to 25% and then in turn three it was 75% and now later on
in the game it's 100%. It changes because of balancing issues I thik. We'd have to
hear from the scenario designer to know for sure, I'm only guessing.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Smolensk-Orsha area right now. My boys are getting tired and the supply
situation isn't the best but at least the Soviet resistance is fierce. The Soviets
have been counterattacking for the past several turns but they usually don't get
very many hits on Axis equipment. The CS missions are a significant factor in my
progress so far. And defensively it's a must.