Adventures in Russia

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviet BB's near Leningrad finally became visible and I thought I'd pay one of
them a visit. I lost a lot of planes but almost sank the BB. One ore strike might
do it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of some of the attacks and as you can see quite a few remnants
were mopped up. This is good news. The advance can continue in some areas.

[larryfulkerson]

I've gotten across the river in force and I'm attacking Riga's fortress hex and at
Dagavpils he's got a mechanized regiment guarding it and it's maybe going to take
more than one attack to push him over.

[larryfulkerson]

At the north end of the Stalin Line down south I thought I'd try to run some recon
units around the lines of Soviet units to see if I can cut them off from their supply
and make it easier to take them down. It might not work.

[larryfulkerson]

The Rumanians became active this turn and I've got them busy attacking the river
crossings because it's important that we capture the river crossings on the next
river to the east. I'm hoping to prevent a lot of Soviet troops to get away.

[larryfulkerson]

Riga finally fell on combat round 7 and of course the bridge is busted. But the
good news is that the railhead ( selected unit ) is close to Riga and that's a vary
good thing. Supply will be good for a while. So the advance continues.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the combat results for turn four. Lot's of attacks this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the north right now. I haven't moved anybody yet so there are possibilities.
I'm indicating the advance path in yellow arrows. I'm aiming for Pskov and the
bottleneck near Narva. I'm going to have to run the operations to the bottleneck
on a shoestring because troops are few.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I'm going to try to do in the middle around the marshes. I want to stick
to the roads and rails, especially the rails, while the advance goes forward.

[larryfulkerson]

And in the south I'm going ato penetrate the holes in the Soviet line, surround them
and kill them. I don't have a pincer ready yet but I'm building one for a thrust
toward Kiev.

[larryfulkerson]

The front lines have advanced further than the rails and the RR arty is almost out
of a job. I railed some down to the Odessa area to help the Rumanians get across
the river. Plus, later this arty will be handy in the take-down of Odessa. I'm
thinking about railing more RR arty down there yet. I need to find a job for them
or their services will be wasted.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been sending all the yellow planes to Warsaw because of the collection of
airfields there...makes a good airdrome. Anyway, I finally scrapped up one more
HQ for the other airfield that didn't have one. I fly the planes here to rest and
refit and the next turn they are almost as good as new. In one turn they go from 56%
to 75%, that kind of a jump. It's worth having the HQ's there I do believe.

[larryfulkerson]

I did a save game just now and zipped it up and attached it here below for those of
you that want to check things in detail. Or maybe check out the Soviet side. Or
play it yourself from this point, whatever.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm in the process of investing Minsk and it's going rather well.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm bumping up against the Stalin Line and I'm getting through his lines and putting
the surround on some small group of Soviet units. Now to destroy them. Progress is
being made.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the 42nd Flak unit and originally I moved him to the airfield that has the
Rumanian bomber on it but then I remembered the stacking rule about Axis minors and
thought maybe I ought to move it still. But then the thought occured to me, what if
it was a Rumanian AA unit....could it park itself there. Just the AA unit and the
planes. I'm thinking maybe so. I think these things need to be logical and realistic.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally got the city of Mimsk surrounded and as a bonus I got a unit into the city
itself and there's a very slim chance that the Soviets can kick me out. I should have
Misk cleaned up in a day or two.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm away from the river near Riga and I'm spreading out and converting hexes and
looking for Soviet units. I've found some defenders and I'm in the process of
developing the battlefield....seeing if I can somehow surround them and kill them.
I should be at Pskov within about two turns. Depending on resistance of course.

[larryfulkerson]

An element of the 1st Panzer division just now pulled adjacent to Pskov, way earlier
than I was planning. Now I just need to defend the dude from counterattacks. Put
some more units in the area.

[larryfulkerson]

The next unit to move in OOB order is this HQ unit but he seems to be thriving right
where he is. And I noticed the collection of tired planes, some of them red, and
wonder how long it's going to take to fix all those planes. They just flew in here
to rest and refit when I checked the deployment of the planes ( first thing I do each
turn ) so they won't start healing until next turn I guess. I suppose I could write
their readiness down and watch turn by turn how fast it rises. That would be interesting.