FITE v.5.0 try 2 same sides as before

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis forces are streaming south to enlarge the front lines and continue pushing east and south. Odessa has been bombarded several turns and I've started some light probes with corpulent arty support to gauge how much more bombardment is needed yet. The RR arty is pounding the defending front line troops to soften them up and during the assault itself. Odessa has a supply point I believe so I have to keep the pressure up to make any dent at all.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 22...3rd September 1941

More absolute carnage in the air as over 300 Soviet and Axis planes are lost in furious dogfights as the Germans appear to step up intensive interdiction. The Germans lose 3 entire units in furballs and two more units are lost to Soviet airfield attacks but there is equally heavy loss to the Soviets.

The fighting at Kiev continues in the streets around the centre but the weight of German forces is irresistible and I expect the city to fall in the next turn or two. Odessa's defences remain in fairly good shape and as it has a supply point it is vital I hold this as long as possible as otherwise German supply levels in the deep south with increase hugely.

In the centre there is more shuffling of the deck chairs on the titanic as the few intact armoured formations on the delaying line to the east of Orsha and Mogilev are shuffled around to try and plug gaps as exhausted Soviet infantry falls apart in the face of heavy German artillery,air and ground attack. The defences in the new line to the west of Moscow continue to be reinforced in anticipation of the delaying line's collapse any time.

On the Finnish/Soviet border north of Moscow the 6th SS Geb Division advance has been halted by heavy resistance but now increasing pressure is being felt by the troops manning the line to the west of Leningrad on the Narva River line.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Ian and I'm checking out the supply levels at the front and you can see in this image that the supply level has risen a lot and it's starting to approach operational levels. Those units that are ready can go ahead and push but there's a lot of units that can't move or shoot yet. I'd hate to have to rotate units back and forth from the high supply areas. The early game period saw a footrace but now most of the Soviet units headed for the front have already arrived and there's no longer a race and the hard part of the game starts....the part where I'm going to try to use movement to defeat them because I'm outnumbered and my only advantage is the movement of the Panzers. I'm going to try to replace all the Panzer Divisions with foot soliders so I can use the Panzers as a Reserve. The Soviets are starting to get serious about shooting back and attacking my smaller units. The recon units have been used lately to hold positions on the front lines. The MP's and security forces are chasing down partisanas.

[larryfulkerson]

Ian has built an MLR and it's fully manned and ready and I'm inching my units closer as more units arrive and the front line is getting longer and I'm planning on moving all the Romanians down here to take over the advance so that the Germans can be used elsewhere. I think that the Slavocs are more or less useless so I'm chasing down partisans with them. The Hungarians are camped out near the marshes and there's not been any partisan activity in that area for quite a while now so I'm thinking of moving them down to D-town to get them moving in the direction of Kharkov. I've been getting a lot of use out of the Italians so I'll move them down here too. They can be placeholders. And or outposts and strong points. I'm wondering how far south I have to go to influence the game. Probably all the way down to the oil refineries.

[devoncop]

Turn 24.........10th September 1941

The Germans commit to two huge assaults this turn. On the Odessa western perimeter over 1400 Romanian Rifle Squads and Heavy Rifle Squads are committed along with 200 Heavy guns against Soviet Marines and Infantry Divisions. With the help of reserve armour committed to the battle the position just holds and the Romanians lose over 200 Rifle squads for the loss of 60 Soviet.
In the north meanwhile Finns and SS troops assault the Leningrad defences to the north with over 1000 squads and although several Soviet units are pushed back the position just about holds.

Narva city is also attacked to the west of Leningrad and again just repels the attackers but the situation for Leningrad is also now looking serious.

North of Kiev up to Mogilev and Orsha the central Front remains precarious and the Germans gain further ground in attacks up and down the line without as yet breaking through.

[larryfulkerson]

I've employed some engineers to attempt to leap the river since D-town is such a fortress. Ian is covering his important river crossings with AA units I notice. He can read my mind. The railhead is very close to the fighting this time so the supply levels are excellent. I'm planning on repairing the rail even through the Crimea to support operations near Sevastopol. I'm slowly getting all the Romanians grouped in the south near the bottlenecks and I'm thinking of using the Italians near the Kerch Straits because the Soviets like to run their units through there. I notice the presence of ample Soviet arty while all I seem to have are the organic tubes of the HQ units. Most of the arty is near Kiev supporting the push-through I'm attempting. There are Axis units on the east side of the river now but they are too far north to help the Kiev effort. The Soviet air force has come out in force and the air war is so intense that a lot of my aircraft units are in reorg. About half a dozen aircraft have respawned already. So I'm losing aircraft faster than I can build them. And Ian is pushing fighters out of the factory three at a time. The face of the air war is slowly changing in the Soviet's favor.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 25...13th September 1941

Heavy fighting is now underway along all the crossings of the lower Dnepr. Cherkassy is the launch point for armoured attacks on the Soviet line which manage to hold and the same is the case at Dnepropetovsk.

Interdiction continues but at a noticeably lower level and three more Axis air units are destroyed in furballs . Axis air losses are again over 300 aircraft by the end of the Soviet turn.

The Soviet navy, having skulked in the naval bases until now decides to try and help out in both the Baltic and the Black Sea. A flotilla emerges from Leningrad and manages to sink a bombarding German Cruiser whilst in the South the Black Sea fleet hits two airbases close to the shore destroying many planes.

Kiev manages to hold on again and it would be a huge bonus if it can hang on until the mud season ceasefire at turn 32.

There is yet another breach in the fragile lines North of Kiev however and reserve tank brigades are sent to try and close what is a 70 Km incursion but things are not looking good in this sector.

In more encouraging news the rail lines supplying German troops attempting to take Pskov are cut by partisans and hopefully this will hamper the determined attacks that continue to go in on the city.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Ian and here is the shape of the front lines now. I'm getting closer to Moscow. Notice the partisan at the end of the front lines near Pskov. I've been fighting with the partisans that appear in my backfield. I never know where they will appear but I seem to be able to get at least one unit next to the partisan on the turn it appears. So far so good. The advance has all but stopped except in the south. The bulge west of Moscow is getting bigger.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the southern part of the front lines. That bare area to the immediate west of the river is worrying. Ian could leap the river with engineers and cause all kinds of problems. I'm hoping he won't do that. Odessa was reduced by one hex but the defenders are determined and there's a supply point in Odessa so the takedown is going to be a major hassle. The rails have been repaired and it passes next to Kiev and extends to the south and ends at D-town so the supply levels are good. There's heavy fighting at D-town as the Axis units try to leap the river and clear the crossing. I'm optimistic.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 26......17th September 1941

Only 6 turns until the ceasefire but Kiev is doomed. It managed to hold on this turn but the Germans are now fighting in the city centre streets and the defenders are decimated and it is surely going to fall next turn.

On the plus side Narva and Genshesk held out more comfortably and I will be happy if the Narva area (both south and west of it) can be held for another six turns to give the Leningrad area some breathing space.

In the air war it was a huge turn. Over 600 Axis planes were destroyed in the air or on the ground for the loss of around 150 Soviet planes which I am hoping will give me some breathing space from what has been pretty intense interdiction since the start of the German invasion.

Down in the south a cheeky naval operation lands marines in the western crimea and cuts the rail line to Romanian and German troops besieging the Sevastapol isthmus and more reinforcements are landed in Odessa.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the scene of the crime. Ian sailed some troops into an empty port and moved some people to the bottleneck and dropped the bridge and stopped the flow of supply to all of the Crimea. I'm going to have to reply to that soonest. There's some troops at Odessa that I can strip off to handle this situation. That empty port is my fault. As I recall Ian did this in the last game we played too. Or maybe I'm thinking of another game with somebody else.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 27......21st September 1941

Amazingly Kiev holds for another turn which is a bonuus and overall things were not too disastrous. The central areas east of Mogilev and Orsha are still held by a couple of pieces of cardboard and string (metaphorically !) but hold they just about do. Moscow should be safe this winter now which is great news.

Down south the distraction landing by Soviet Marines down in the western Crimea is over as some are sent on to Odessa to reinforce the defenders there, whilst others return to Sevastapol.

The Soviet Cavalry continues to hold Kherson however blocking German supplies to the Crimea having blown the bridge before digging in.

In the north more airfields are hit and the Air Superiority for the Soviets hits almost 100 to about 15 so even with superior Axis air shock my fighters are now in a dominant position until the Germans recover.

Narva holds off another assault, as do Genichesk and Pechovy but the line around Dnepropetovsk is under a a lot of pressure.

[larryfulkerson]

I got some new moves from Ian and I'm checking out the Z-town area and I'm not seeing much progress. I've been pushing, usually losing more people than Ian is losing and as you can see there's been no progress. I'm battering my head against the wall. I'm attacking substantial sized stacks of Soviet units and the AR ratio is very low. I've got the arty supporting, Nefflewerfers, planes, etc. everybody is working out. And still the progress is nill. This isn't going to work, I've got to think of something else. Attack him where he's not expecting it.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 28.....24th September 1941

Kiev still hangs on against the odds. Four more Axis turns until the ceasefire....can they make it....?

Down in the Crimea the 64th Soviet Cavalry Division also carries on the fight in the streets of Kherson keeping the rail line from the West blocked whilst a sally out by the Soviet Black Sea fleet sinks a full Romanian River Flotilla off the Romanian coast.

Up in the north the beginnings of a counter attack are underway in Finland with troops being readied for the Soviet Winter shock advantage and Freshly raised Guards Armies are also being rushed west via Moscow to see if the thrust by AGC can finally be stopped properly.

Another 300 or so Axis planes are downed this turn. Interdiction is noticeably reduced....

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the northern front lines up near Leningrad and you can see that I have surrounded a partisan and I'm attacking to destroy it. I need the rail in that hex to work again. There's a creek that runs left to right along the front line Axis troops and there's no need for an engineer to get across it so I've advanced up to the Soviet units and I've been doing light probes and there's been a lot of artillery duels going on. None of my attacks have gone anywhere and just results in the loss of some fine infantry. I've got my paratroopers parked at an airfield just in case I need to move them to a brushfire quickly. I don't seem to have much use for paratroopers right now. I'm thinking of moving them to the south where the most progress is being made. Soviet fighters might shoot them down if I fly them south so I might ought to rail them instead.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 29.....28th September 1941

My partisans were wiped out during the German turn but the cavalry still hold on at Kherson in the Crimea. The Germans make some minor advances East of the Sozh River in the centre but the lines are largely stable. The garrison at Kiev hangs on again which is a big bonus and it may make it through to the ceasefire in two turns time...

For the first time in the game there is no interdiction and I manage to rail up to the Front lines fresh units from the Caucasus though storms in the Black Sea prevent extra units being sailed into Odessa.

Soviet bombers spend the turn concentrating on hitting Romanian, Bulgarian and Italian airfields in the South and Swedish ones in the North to keep the pressure on Axis air capability.

[larryfulkerson]

It's turn 30, two more turns to the mud season, and I've gotten over the river and I'm in more favorable terrain and supply is good but progress is slow because the Soviet units are stout and they are usually stacked and losses are high on both sides. The Soviets are interdicting my CS and Soviet planes are falling out of the sky. But his AS value is almost 4 times what my AS value is so eventually he's going to get air superiority because he's got aircraft to burn. I was hoping to be up to the next river to the east by now so I feel like I'm falling behind schedule. Ian and I are both looking forward to the mud season.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the area near the Crimea and the flow of supply is still cut off to most of my troops and the advance has halted and I'm sending people back to clear the obsticle and fix the rail etc. The railhead is approaching Z-town so eventually supply will be good again. I've flown a lot of fighters down south because Ian seems to be concentrating a lot of aircraft near Kherson looking south to Sevastopol. Maybe to protect his ships.

[devoncop]

Soviet Turn 30....1st October 1941

As the clouds darken with the imminent arrival of the rains Larry pulls off a move so cunning a fox would be proud [:)]and lands the 2nd Panzer Division behind the Narva River defence lines pushing out the small Soviet Cavalry garrison from the minor port at the location and driving 30Km inland. Reserves rush to try and cap the incursion but a Soviet Armoured counter attack is stopped with the help of the HQ artillery. A battalion of recce troops from 2nd Panzer is surrounded but overall it is a worrying development and neatly timed just before the ceasefire meaning the units can dig in in peace and possibly be reinforced...

Elsewhere the Soviet Cavalry at Kherson is finally overwhelmed but the bridge remains down for now.

Concentrated attacks by German troops on Rzhev, Geniichesk, Sol'tsy, Narva and Kiev all fail however and it seems Kiev will hang on and can be reinforced in the weeks ahead.

A local counter attack by Soviet armour pushes German infantry back across the Sozh river west of Moscow but otherwise activity is subdued and it is now a case of waiting to see how bad the situation is east of Narva when the last turn before the ceasefire comes back to me !

[SMK-at-work]

ORIGINAL: devoncop

Soviet Turn 30....1st October 1941

As the clouds darken with the imminent arrival of the rains Larry pulls off a move so cunning a fox would be proud [:)]and lands the 2nd Panzer Division behind the Narva River defence lines ....

House rule #3 comes with the scenario - later documentation confirms "invade" means sea landing - no sea-lifts for panzer divisions!!

3) Only Inf type units (Mtns, JG etc.) may invade. Only 1 Division for the Axis may invade pr. turn. Soviet forces may invade with (Current year-1940) divissions each turn. Eg this means the Soviet player may invade with 5 Divisions in 1945 and one in 1941.
Invasion is defined as entering a hex that before the turn started was enemy controlled.