The Sun Also Rises ( D21 )

[larryfulkerson]

I've done a save game and attached the file here below in case somebody wanted to play it from here on
or wanted to check out the Soviet side, or check out all the dialogs, etc.

[larryfulkerson]

The supply system has collapsed. There's no supply at all at the tip of the spear.
I guess I'll dig in and wait it out. It's going to return in about 10 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a recon unit that has started an adventure. He drove north and dropped
some key bridges and plans on moving north next turn to get some more bridges if
possible. This is the worst time to go on an adventure but I count the recon unit
as expendable and the mission is worthwhile.

[larryfulkerson]

The news string said "Storms" and I thought I'd investigate a bit and turned nn the
clouds and it looks to be raining and snowing and T-storming and generally bad weather
all over the map. I'm thinking of standing down the airplanes except for the
fighters which will AS as usual on the off chance that they might shoot something down.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the battlefield at Kharkov right now. I captured the red balloon and now it's
blue and I've got a trickle of supply in this area even though it's mud season. The
blue balloon is in danger however and needs more juice for me to be comfortable with
it so I'm looking into sending another regiment or something to add to the force there
already or replace it if it gets too combat dense target-wise ( if I get one of those
density colored dots either yellow or orange or red ).

[larryfulkerson]

I've checked out the weather above Sevastopol right now and I''ve found an area inside
some bad weather where there are clear skies and good weather and I'm planning on doing
some more bombing to soften up the S. defenses a little bit. I'm letting the arty rest
to save up their supply because there's none to be had down here right now. But I do
want to continue the S. take-down in whatever way I can. Bombing is indicated.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's an area SW of Moscow out in the middle of nowhere and you can see that the supply
level is too low for sustained operations so I've just been digging everybody in where
they are and going to the next turn. These mud turns have been fast for me.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of Sevastopol right now. The railhead has finally entered the arena
and I did my first serious attack last turn and emptied out a hex of enemy units
but the turn ended before I could move somebody into the hex and now I'm wondering
if I should. I think another attack is coming soon but my boys need to rest a bit
first.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T43 front lines before I have moved anybody. The fall mud season is over
and the supply lines are restored and operation Typhoon can continue. On to Moscow.

I'm running into really poor supply conditions in the south and need to put a halt to the operations
down there unless there's enough supply to warrent action somewhere. Also, I need to
start thinking about some good stop positions for the Soviet Winter Offensive. I don't
want to be caught flat-footed again. In November there will be a lot of digging in and
straightening of the lines and so on to get ready. I especially want everybody on 'F'
status before the serious Soviet attacks start in earnest.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a place south of Leningrad where I've gotten my formations strung out way too
far from the main body and it's makng me uncomfortable. They have been out there
since before the mud season and Elmer hasn't responded very much and so I've been
leaving them there. Elmer will eventually wake up and discover what's going on and
do something about it probably so I'll have to watch this area closely.

[larryfulkerson]

The 12th Infantry Division took onboard a new element, and it's got untried troops
which will dilute the readiness of the veteran pieces when I combine them again.
I notice that it's missing some of it's Finn rifle squads so I looked them up on the
inventory and find that I'm running low on Finns on-hand. No wonder it's missing
some troops and this presages the probable news that other units are having this
problem. The strength of the average Finn unit just got a little less. The actual
numbers used in resolving combat are much higher than the numbers that are displayed
to us. All the units are scaled to display numbers in a certain range rather than
the numbers in the thousands, say. And it's the actual numbers that are calculated
by the equipment in the unit and those missing squads will actually make a difference
to the combat resolution.

EDIT: I took a look at the other two pieces and they have 70 and 57 out of 117 squads
respectively. This is a unit in trouble. I suspect most of them have a similiar
story to tell.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Sevastopol right now. My arty is still busy pounding the front line Soviet
units in order to soften up the Soviet front lines. In specific spots at first. I'm
trying to make a weak spot. At least temporarily. It's already into November and I've
not made much progress. I'm going to have to step up the attacking even despite the
low supply. That means higher losses. I hope it's worth it to get the Bulgarian
units.

[larryfulkerson]

Elmer is using his CD guns to bombard my troops so I thought it prudent to bring in
some arty that has a longer range to take them out, if possible. So I railed in some
RR arty with a range of 7 hexes to bombard Elmer's CD guns. It's the longest range
arty in my inventory I do believe. And if it turns out that it isn't getting any hits
on anything then I can use it to pound the Soviet arty out of their range. Why fight
fair?

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what is happening near Murmansk right now. The supply level is too low to
actually do anything. So I'm mostly going to sit this war out up here I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a place down south where I'm getting swamped by Soviet units and that just
happens to be my poorest supply area. The rails aren't close or I would rail some
people in to help out. As it is I'm busy shifting forces to try to plug the gaps
and stop up the holes. It's been working so far. But Elmer knows how to work the
tactical angle and he's better at RBC's than I am so I'm not comfortable with this
situation.

[larryfulkerson]

Unless I misunderstand, the Axis supply points scattered throughout the Soviet territory
are going to be removed at the end of November and that's not far away so I'm going to
be depending on the rails all that much more. Good thing I moved a lot of RR engineers
to this route to get it built quickly. The supply level in this area seems to be okay
but without that supply point I have no idea what will happen with the supply levels.

[larryfulkerson]

I stopped the Soviet side, curious about the final disposition for Finland and it
looks like there are tracks that lead to Helsinki all right. The game is currently
playing track 4 and this picture is of track 3 so there's no jepardy for the Finns
for the next little while unless or until the game switches to track 3 ( by events ).
I was hoping I could just park the Finns and more or less ignore Soviet attacks and
concentrate on the war south of Leningrad but as it turns out I'll have to fight the
Finns too for a long time to come yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T44 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the northern front lines right now. They withstood some pretty hard attacks
last turn amd they are all dug in backed up by arty and ready for another turn of
hard attacks. Soviet units have been evaporating, I saw a couple of them last turn.
I haven't been attacking a whole lot during the month of November, digging in instead
and conserving supply and readiness. I'm getting ready for the Soviet Winter Offensive
that's going to start about T49 or so. I'm hoping I'm ready for it this time.

EDIT: I wanted to move the Panzers to the reserve but they are so far needed in the
front lines. So I still don't have any reserve troops.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the adjacent section to the previous image. I can get away with these huge
gaps in my lines because I'm playing Elmer. It's worked out so far but one of these
turns Elmer is goig to wake up and do something about the excursion into his property.