D21 larry Axis, computer Soviets

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Kiev area looking south and shows the extent of the advance so far down south. The supply levels are adequate so far and lots of progress is being made each turn. The Axis minors are coming in handy. They aren't much good in combat operations but they CAN convert the hexes to Axis control. And there's quite a few of them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the north. I've got this cropped wrong and it looks funny. I'll try harder next time.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on just above Leningrad. Most of the Finn units are settled in on the stop line and there's only a little bit to do yet. My ships don't have the range that the Soviet BB has so I exect Elmer to sink them any turn now. I'm going to have to address that threat with my Stukas.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Orsha / Smolensk area right now and you can see that I've blown a hole in the Soviet lines and I've driven some units through it and now I'm getting closer to Smolensk. There's a penalty on the Soviets for the Axis capture of Smolensk of some kind. I think it's 5% of Soviet supply that get's cut. Whatever it is it's worth capturing, since I'm here already and the troops can do it eventually. The railhead is getting further and further away each turn. The supply levels are really low and I'm going to have to halt the advance for a while to let the supply lines catch up.

[Hellen_slith]

Hello, Larry, I am enjoying your AAR about D21. I too am trying that scenario out and am now on T14. As a rank amateur at this game, I am encouraged that I have progressed almost as well, but obviously you know more about the little things that help the Germans ... esp. w/re/to Leningrad and the naval support there. I haven't fiddled at all w/ the naval support, and am hoping you might give me some pointers. How do you get the German navy in there to support the Leningrad front?

Our games are practically identical as far as the front goes ... but I have run dangerously low on supplies, esp. around Kiev (already taken ... just biding my time to resupply before a push across the river there.)

In the meantime, I am trying to clear out the Pripyet Marshes near Kiev ... lots of resistance there.

Also, I see a few Italian units for you in the South, but I have not been able to find any that I can rail up into Romania. Are those contingent upon events? I'm trying to get the allies to rally around a pincer south of Kiev, but things are not going well for me there. The Russkies are putting up a difficult "hit and run" down there, slowing down my AGS.

Also, I am trying to get around Pskov better, but rear actions have slowed me down there. Seems like some Russkies keep popping up out of nowhere, my SS and police forces are having a hard time dealing w/ them.

Anyway, thanks again for the AAR, and any tips are greatly appreciated!

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Hellen

Hello, Larry, I am enjoying your AAR about D21. I too am trying that scenario out and am now on T14. As a rank amateur at this game, I am encouraged that I have progressed almost as well, but obviously you know more about the little things that help the Germans ... esp. w/re/to Leningrad and the naval support there. I haven't fiddled at all w/ the naval support, and am hoping you might give me some pointers. How do you get the German navy in there to support the Leningrad front?

Our games are practically identical as far as the front goes ... but I have run dangerously low on supplies, esp. around Kiev (already taken ... just biding my time to resupply before a push across the river there.)

In the meantime, I am trying to clear out the Pripyet Marshes near Kiev ... lots of resistance there.

Also, I see a few Italian units for you in the South, but I have not been able to find any that I can rail up into Romania. Are those contingent upon events? I'm trying to get the allies to rally around a pincer south of Kiev, but things are not going well for me there. The Russkies are putting up a difficult "hit and run" down there, slowing down my AGS.

Also, I am trying to get around Pskov better, but rear actions have slowed me down there. Seems like some Russkies keep popping up out of nowhere, my SS and police forces are having a hard time dealing w/ them.

Anyway, thanks again for the AAR, and any tips are greatly appreciated!

How do you get the German navy in there to support the Leningrad front? There are CD guns on the western coast of Estonia and Latvia that must be avoided but careful sailing can permit ships to move up to the north coast where there is an exclusion zones preventing movement east along the north coast near Talinin. You have to destroy the Soviet defenders in the hexes that block your movement to Helsinki. Hanko I think it's called. And yeah, we're on almost the same turn. I think you're a better player than you realize. The Finns activate on turns 5, 6, and 7 and the Rumanians activate on turn 4 and there's an event that has to happen to release the Bulgarians: you have to capture Sevastopol by midnight on 4Dec41 to release them. I'm glad you like the AAR; I'll try to make it more entertaining.

[Hellen_slith]

Thanks for the tip about the navy...I tried to get some naval units up around Leningrad ... and they got sunk. But I am not a very good player, there is too much I don't know (e.g., on turn 26 or so, I only then figured out that those supply units [with the big dot on them) had a radius of six ... I had parked them too far back to do much good, but now they've gotten into the action, so that might help me.) Anyway, I just started my Axis move 28 ... and Leningrad is far from "under siege" ... my AGN got fractured a bit, and Elmer is doing a good job of keeping most of AGN away from Leningrad.

AGC: only 100 or so more kilometers to the edge of Moscow ... with most units just about worn out. Hopefully, getting a few of those big supply dots closer will help with supply there.

AGS: Elmer seems to have abandoned most of that area, now that I have secured the east bank of the Dneper ... I managed to wipe out most of the Soviet army that was defending that area east of Kiev / Chernassky, and now I drove armored units about 100 kilometers east of the Dneper, and the remaining Soviets down there seem to have retreated either to the Crimea, toward Stalingrad, or are heading toward Moscow... I'll try to post a screen shot to show how poorly I'm doing. I play the game on a diff. computer than this one that I use to internet type on, will see if I can email myself some screenshots. Also will try to start my own AAR thread about it, I don't want to hijack your thread!

Anyway, thanks again!

[larryfulkerson]

Also will try to start my own AAR thread about it, I don't want to hijack your thread!

You are of course welcome to post whatever you'd like in this AAR but if you start your own AAR thread
then I'll subscribe to it and see if I can't lend you a hand and supply some helpful hints if I can.
And feel free to hijack my thread all you want to. I like the way you think and I think you're better
at wargamming than you realize. I've never won a game of FITE even though I've played it about a dozen
times now. I tend to post a lot though, that's my only talent I guess. Is D21 the only game you have
going on right now? You might enjoy playing against a human player, I do. I've got about 4 games going
right now and I'm really busy.

[Hellen_slith]

Yes, thanks, D21 is the only one I'm playing right now. I used to play TOAW3 years ago, mostly solitaire, and I just got TOAW4 a month ago, so I am rusty. But I used to play the old S&T magazine games back when we had no computers and I was a fan of the "monster" games in the late 1970s / early 1980s when they were first coming out, so I really like TOAW! Anyway, yes I'll try to start a thread. I actually managed to take a screen shot LoL! Anyway, thanks again for the help!

[larryfulkerson]

Damon dude, you've inspired me to try D21 again. I never seem to get very far
but this time I have an excuse. My computer crashed and took my D21 files with it so
I'm having to start over. I, of course, have to use the most advanced game engine we
have so I'll be using a version that might play a tiny bit different, or there might
be panels that look different, or there might be a feature that we didn't use to have,
or something like that. Bug fixes at the very least. I'll keep you guys posted.

[Hellen_slith]

Ouch, yes, losing the game saves after so much time spent would be discouraging....I have taken to emailing myself "end of turn" saves, JIC. I have had two CTDs occur so far, seeming random, but they both happened just as the game had finished Elmer's turn, and it was spinning up my next chance to move (checking replacements etc.) and then BOOM ... desktop ... so I had to let Elmer replay his turn. I have noticed, that the game seems to "move faster" for Elmer if I minimize the game window, but of course then I don't get to see some of his movements. Ah well.

I have learned a lot the past few days about the power of artillery and the value of studying those combat reports from "softening up" the enemy lines and airfields. I just started turn 30, and am finally getting some beefy reinforcements. My AGN is coalescing (FINALLY) for a push on Leningrad, AGS has Kharkov in sight, and the Rumanians etc. have started to clean up the Crimea. and I'm looking at Stalino now.

Elmer's defense looks rather thin ... looks promising, but there's no telling what he might have up his sleeve. We shall see!

[larryfulkerson]

There's at least two schools of thought reguarding the use of your Panzer Divisions. (1) The first is the balanced approach where the Panzers are spread throughout the front lines to help break up log jams and hard spots. (2) The other approach is to use most of the Panzers in just the north, to get Leningrad, in the middle, to expidite the approach to Moscow, or in the south, where the terrain is ideal for motorized divisions, the Soviets are relatively sparse, and it's important to go as hard and as fast as possible to reach Sevastopol because S. must be captured by midnight of 04Dec41 to release the Bulgarians from garrison mode. It adds a little juice to your army. You can probably win the war without them but as long as you're going to go after that port anyway, you might as well see if you can get to the prize on time. Also, the oil fields in the south are vital to the Soviets and grabbing those will go a long way to making this a fair fight.

Which option to take is entirely up to you. I've been sending my Panzers to the south when they become available. Not all of them, but really most of them. I'm hoping that it might make the difference in my game this time.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Hellen
Ouch, yes, losing the game saves after so much time spent would be discouraging....I have taken to emailing myself "end of turn" saves, JIC. I have had two CTDs occur so far, seeming random, but they both happened just as the game had finished Elmer's turn, and it was spinning up my next chance to move (checking replacements etc.) and then BOOM ... desktop ... so I had to let Elmer replay his turn. I have noticed, that the game seems to "move faster" for Elmer if I minimize the game window, but of course then I don't get to see some of his movements. Ah well.

[ You probably already know about the cap locks key and the space bar and the "No update" and the "No Delay" settings in the "Play->Player Options" menu choice. Scroll to the second window in the group to find the settings you need to change. I've got my "No update" off and my "No Delay" off and I find it a tiny bit faster yet when they move on the map. Also, I LOVE the way you are saving previous turns. I'm going to start doing that, thanks. Well done. And about the CTD's: I'm sorry about that. That means there was at least one bug that got past me somehow. What version are you running? If you haven't updated to the latest version, then I'd like to encourage you to do that. The newer version will have all the bug fixes that have been accomplished by the development team so far, thanks you guys. Maybe you might consider posting a bug report kind of thing in the Tech Help section of the forum. ]

I have learned a lot the past few days about the power of artillery and the value of studying those combat reports from "softening up" the enemy lines and airfields. I just started turn 30, and am finally getting some beefy reinforcements. My AGN is coalescing (FINALLY) for a push on Leningrad, AGS has Kharkov in sight, and the Rumanians etc. have started to clean up the Crimea. and I'm looking at Stalino now.

Elmer's defense looks rather thin ... looks promising, but there's no telling what he might have up his sleeve. We shall see!

That sounds great. I'd like to see a picture of that. I think the mud season is going to start soon, maybe T32? and I think it lasts until about T42 or so. Something like that. There's not a whole lot you can do as the Axis player to influence the onset of the Mud season in any way so I usually just keep it in mind, consider it as one of the factors I have to consider when about to move a unit, where to move it, etc. but not to stress over it either. The fun really starts when the Sovies launch their Winter Offensive about a month after the mud subsides I think. Then you get to decide if you want to continue attacking, grab as much territory as possible, OR rest your troops so that they are all 150% in supply, and 100% in health, etc. to get them ready to be assaulted by berserk troops. I learned my lesson about 6 months ago when I carelessly kept attacking way too much more than I should have into terrain that was really low in supply and then in T32 I think it was, the supply net collapsed, the mud season suppressed movement, and everybody was yellow if not red. And the game engine set the strategic bias for the Soviets to "berserk" or something, but I absolutely got my butt kicked. I lost 1/3 of my army, had to fall back to Riga, and had to build a huge MLR from Riga looking south along the river. It was a rout. There's an AAR about it. I don't remember which one of the several I've posted.