Adventures in Russia

[700851McCall]

They get their tanks later in the war I think. Most of them withdraw to refit at some point.

[TPOO]

ORIGINAL: 700851McCall

They get their tanks later in the war I think. Most of them withdraw to refit at some point.

Yes this is correct. They were all just motorized SS infantry divisions at the start and were upgraded later. That being said though there is a fix that is needed as the SS LAH did receive a tank battalion of 3 companies in early 1942. So that will have to be added to the scenario.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm trying again to get some units into a position to isolate Leningrad from the
rest of Russia and again I'm finding the shortage of units a handicap. The Soviets
are slowly being pushed backward and the city is getting closer each turn. The losses
for both sides are heavy, moreso for the Soviets. I've sunk the Soviet ships so I can
pull mine in close and bombard at will. As many times as supply will allow. Lots of
Soviet units have been killed by the ships. I'm expecting Elmer to bombard my ships
with his CD guns but so far he hasn't. Lots of CS is being flown in this AO.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what typically happens in the field....I come upon some Soviet units and
start to form a ring around it/them and Elmer sends more units and the group gets
larger and a sort of a line starts to form and pretty soon we have a front line of
sorts and I develop it so that I can slowly surround them and kill them. This image
is of a sequence like that in mid-process. I've parked most of the CS bombers in the
middle of the map where they can reach out and touch someone easier. Their range arcs
cover the middle really well. There's a few planes resting but almost all of them are
in the green at the start of the turn and then mid-turn they start turning yellow and
I rest them. I've decided it's more fun to let them rest when they are rather than
fly them to Warsaw to rest. When that got too far away I moved the rest camp to Minsk
and now they just rest where they are. Maybe moved them to better supply in a few
cases.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd try again to cut off Leningrad from Russia and I found several small-fry
that volunteered to run north and try to hold the line against Soviet assaults. I
need to get some arty up there to those folks. It might work this time because I've
been killing Soviet units and there's fewer of them now.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a lot of fierce fighting going on in front of Moscow. Most of it's centered
around the roads and rails and neither side has established dominance yet. Lots of
CS being flown in this area. If you ask me what I need the most it's probably people
that I need. Units that I can use to stand on the front lines. As it is there's lots
of gaps in the lines and that's dangerous because the Soviets can exploit those before
I can plug the hole. It's a chance I'm taking necessarily, and because I'm fighting
against Elmer I think I might be able to get away with it. Don't try this at home, I
am a professional.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a section of the front lines where we have a sort of stand off in that I
don't have enough available troops to form a line and the Soviets are focused on
their objectives and I haven't driven over their trigger yet I guess. So we're
staring at each other thro the binoculars. My troops are resting and his are
probably in some kind of training. I've arranged for one of those independant
supply units for these people because the supply levels are so low and you can
see it in this image on the left edge toward the bottom, on the road. I've backed
these up with aircraft and each division has it's own organic arty. I don't remember
seeing any stand alone arty units. I'm just about to finish some mopping up and then
with a short rest they will be ready to press east some more. The problem with supply
is going to cause a halt to the advance for a while. Unless there's a supply point
nearby. I'll have to look for those.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm sneaking up on Kharkov and the supply point there. I'm going to try to
surround the city before I take it down. Also, I'd like to get the supply
point as the first goal, then the city in that order. If possible. I'll
probably need some people to protect the flanks for the operation and that
would depend on how fast the mopping up goes. I have too few people to properly
contain all the Soviet units coming at me.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T29 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Up in the north, just south of Leningrad I appear to have defeated the Soviet defender
and all of a sudden I have two pockets. I drove some units into the hole and I'm planning
on seeing if I can't destroy all those Soviet units between the Finns and down to the
German front line. There must be at last 25 Soviet divisions represented here and various
supporting units and I'd like to kill all of them.

[larryfulkerson]

Near Sevastopol, I advanced on the highway to the coast and discovered that I have
appearantly trapped some Soviet units along the road leading to the Kerch Straits.
The supply levels here are in the low single digits so I'm going to have to save
up enough supply to move again and shoot again so that's going to take a turn or
two; meanwhile the Soviets are probably going to contest the dividing spot and move
some units that way. I'll have to reinforce most likely. Now we have developed a
group with me trying to put a ring of units around it. I'll use the troops that
are closest to this situation.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm using the OOB order to move the units and I've come to the Slovaks and their
fighter. I've forwarded their fighter to an AOL adjacent to a Soviet unit. I
wonder how that's going to work out. I guess we'll see. That Slovak fighter unit
might just go into reorg from being that close to an enemy unit. We'll see.

Meanwhile, the Axis units are getting into position to slowly, eventually surround
Kharkov and kill all the Soviet units there. I'm starting to get a front line formed
and all this for another supply point. And Kharkov.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a quick peek at some of the losses so far. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

There's been two combat rounds and I've been moving units and this is the northern
front lines right now. I defeated a Soviet defender in the middle of the line and
advanced into the hole and now I have two pockets I'm trying to reduce. The ships
are helping out on the west side but I've run out of heavy guns units to hold the
line for me and I'm using engineers and recon units. If they come under a determined
Soviet attack I'm afraid they will fold up and give way.

[larryfulkerson]

I captured Orel and their industry center. It had a Soviet supply unit in that
hex and I just pushed him out and walked in. I think there's a supply unit there
too, or nearby. My units are moving to the extent of their MP's because the
battlefield is so sparse and the Soviet units are so far apart in this area. I
really like how the Panzers are shining down here. They can slash and dash and
get in behind the enemy easily and cut off their supply and the take down is easier.
It's been working so far. The supply levels are too low in this area for sustained
operations and the units are having to save up their supply to conduct operations.

[larryfulkerson]

I was going to do a left hook on the Moscow - Leningrad traffic but Elmer got wind
of my plan and has been feeding in units to this one specific spot so that I never
got started properly on the left hook. I'm too busy fending off Soviet units. This
is what happens when you don't have enough people. Had I more troops I would have
outflanked them, surrounded them, and killed them about five turns ago. I've flown
in a lot of aircraft to do a lot of CS in this area and it's helping out but more
people would help more. I'm thinking of railing a division or two up here to lend
a hand. I think the southern group can afford that. Although, most of the progress
is being made in the south. People are too sparse along the entire front lines if
you want my honest opinion and I really hope the Axis side gets more people for the
late war period.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally finished cleaning up around Kiev and the riverbank and now I'm going to try
to get some troops behind the first line of Soviet troops and see if I can't surround
them and kill them. The winter season is almost upon us and I'm not optimistic about
further operations when that starts because there's an additional event that happens
also: the crash of the Axis supply system. I'm not sure how much of an impact that
will have out on the front lines but I expect a heafty drop in supplies. I've been
keeping the units more or less green all the time so I'm almost ready for the Soviet
Winter Offensive this time. I'm going to look up the timing of the various events
but I know it's soon.

[larryfulkerson]

I guess I must have driven over a trigger of some kind because Elmer finally woke
up some of his units and ambushed my Hungarians. They can't stand up to the Soviet
units without stacking and they can't stack so I need to come to their rescue now.
I've got units headed that way but it's going to take a turn or two to arrive and
the Hungarians will be chewed up pretty good by then. I may have to retire the
Hungarians to garrison duty after this. It should be interesting. I'll keep you
in the loop.

[larryfulkerson]

There used to be a sizeable Soviet stack at Bryansk but it's down to just two more
units to kill. Axis forces bypassed it and follow on forces couldn't deal with
the stack so I diverted a Panzer unit to bring their tanks in there and take care
of it for me an they did. Now it's an infantry problem and the Panzers are free to
zoom off to the NE as soon as I find somebody to take their places in the front lines.
Bryansk has a supply point as well so that will help out a lot.

[larryfulkerson]

All those troops that were involved in mopping up around Kiev are starting to arrive
at the front lines and they are finding Soviets already there and there's all kinds
of meeting engagements going on. The supply level is too low to advance much further
to the east and I'm going to have to call a halt to the advance in this area for a
while. The supply crisis I'm going to have associated with the mud season is going
to gut my supply lines and I'm probably going to cut back on the shooting and moving
and just wait until the supply levels rise again about 10 turns later. That's going
to be hard to do because I'm fairly aggressive for an old man.