The Sun Also Rises ( D21 )

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the adjacent section to the south of the previous image. Some of my weak
spots are in this image. It's going to get rougher in this area during the winter
I have a feeling.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's another area with a large gap. So far Elmer has been staying in his area
and I've been staying in mine and it's been working out. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviet units came rushing into the area where the Hungarians are now from the
NE and ambushed the Hungarians enough to evaporate several of them and the rest are
in poor shape. Now they are good only for garrison mode. OR maybe I should just
disband the rest of them and do away with the entire formation. No, I might need
them for something. And the Slovaks are only a few units as well and they aren't
all that handy either.

But about the problem with the Hungarians......I'm going to have to rush some more
people in here to releave them. To get the Hungarians out of the AO entirely.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation in the south right now. I've gotten myself in a pickel
and it's going to be tricky getting everybody out of their predicaments and into a
well formed front line again. And the Soviet Winter Offensive is just about to start
too. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a closeup of the aflicted area in question....the area giving me the most trouble
right now. I've gotten overextended and strung out and my small groups can't really
support each other and Soviet units have been approaching and I'm thinking there's
going to be some more of them yet and that will swamp my defenders. I'm wondering if
I should pull back or is it possible to defend in place.

EDIT: I've decided that it would be best if I pulled the easternmost group to the west a couple of
hexes and get more of a front line kind of thing going.

[larryfulkerson]

I tried to pull back three of the four units and one routed and two got stuck in an
adjacent hex. So they can't pull back....so I had to bring in some cooks and bottle
washers to grab their rifle and stand a spot in the front lines. Engineers mostly,
but really whoever was handy at the time I needed them. The lack of people is real
obvious. I've got no reserves of course.

[larryfulkerson]

I found the Italians doing nothing and got them moving to the area where they are
needed right away.

[larryfulkerson]

I've scheduled some attacks down south near the port of Sevastopol and this is what
it looks like just before the attacks. I'm trying to clear out a hex that has some
Soviet CD guns in it so I can position a couple of divisions there so that I can
attack the port from two hexes instead of just one. The immediately previous turn
has exhausted most of the arty tubes so I'm depending on the aircraft to add some
juice to the attack. The Rumanians are to attack a Soviet division in the other
corner of the pocket in an attempt to get the Soviet arty to use up their ammo on
this attack instead of the attack near the port. Sort of a sacrafice on the part
of the Runamians. The Soviets are all going to have to be destroyed sooner or
later anyway. There is only limited Axis arty for this attack as well so I'm
again depending on the air power to make up the difference.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Sevastopol after the attacks for T44. Just a couple more hexes and it'll be
all over and everybody can rest and refit later.

[AppendixSE]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Here's the adjacent section to the south of the previous image. Some of my weak
spots are in this image. It's going to get rougher in this area during the winter
I have a feeling.

Love your AAR's

I would try and shorten the lines up there. Anchor a line of defence between the lakes. Ilmen is a good anchor with the rails closeby.Then you can have a small reserve and a continuous line. Otherwise you will burn unit cohesionif retreating when the offensive starts.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: AppendixSE

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Here's the adjacent section to the south of the previous image. Some of my weak
spots are in this image. It's going to get rougher in this area during the winter
I have a feeling.

Love your AAR's
I would try and shorten the lines up there. Anchor a line of defence between the lakes.
Ilmen is a good anchor with the rails closeby.Then you can have a small reserve and a
continuous line. Otherwise you will burn unit cohesionif retreating when the offensive
starts.

That sounds like a great idea...I'll get busy and do it. Glad you like the publication
I'm producing. I think it helps me to get organized better when I do an AAR. Makes me
think of the way the reader will see it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T45 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation at Sevastopol right now. There's still two CD gun emplacements
and the one on the lower left doesn't have any arty besides the CD gun so I'm keen to
kill everything in that hex. The port hex itself contains the other CD gun so taking
down that hex will be a bonus when the port falls. All this is going to cost a lot of
people and I've already lost a lot of people before these planned attacks. There may
not be much left of the Rumanians for quite a while after this.

[larryfulkerson]

Just for grins I zoomed out and asked for all the tracks and this is what I saw. The
objectives go much further to the east than where the current front lines are. They
must have been optimistic for the Axis PO. I'll have to let Elmer play Elmer for 45
turns one of these days just to see if they can actually get out that far.

[TPOO]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Just for grins I zoomed out and asked for all the tracks and this is what I saw. The
objectives go much further to the east than where the current front lines are. They
must have been optimistic for the Axis PO. I'll have to let Elmer play Elmer for 45
turns one of these days just to see if they can actually get out that far.

They will never make it. The Soviet PO destroys they Axis PO all by themselves if you let a game play out. The Axis need more units, would have to break all the divisions into regiments and beef them up to make a fair fight. The Axis PO probably needs more than the 5 objective tracks available in order to program them correctly with this size of a map. I have been thinking of a way to do it but it takes a lot of reworking and it would have to be a totally separate scenario from this one because a lot of events would have to be changed as well the the OOB. The Axis wear themselves out by the time they reach Smolensk and need a lot of boosters. The one thing the PO does well is build the rail network out but I think it cheats.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Kharkov right now. I've got ample targets to pursue but instead of moving or
firing I'm digging in to prepare for the winter olympics which is to start in T46 I
think and that's next turn. So all the umits are going to three-dots and the arty is
prepped and registered and the airplanes are all ready, all are green, INT missions
are few and most of the fleet is on CS and the Me-110's that I usually put on AS are
going on CS for a while. I think I'm ready.....but that's what I said the last time.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally captured Murmansk.....after a couple of turns of attacking it folded suddenly. Now I'll get some CD guns up
here, spawning next turn I think.

[larryfulkerson]

I stopped the Soviet turn to get a quick look at the losses on the Soviet side so far.
They seem to be down to their last 3K rifle squads on hand. That might be enough for
the Soviet Winter Offensive.

EDIT: I just now noticed after I posted this thing, that the Soviets are going to
start producing HRS's in T48 and thereafter. That's a bad sign. I'll have to start
dealing with a lot more HRS's in their units.

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviet Winter Offensive hasn't even started yet and they have already achieved a
breakthrough. And I don't have any reserves in this area. This might be really bad
news.

[larryfulkerson]

It's just a coincidence that Murmansk and Sevastopol fell in the same turn. I hadn't
planned that. But I've got the use of the Bulgarians now and they are fresh and ready
to go. Just what I needed very badly. There's not that much to clean up aroud S-town
right now so I think I'll use the Bulgarians to stop up the Kerch Straits bottleneck
and move the Rumanians and the 11th Army to the front lines around Stalino.