i) I agree.
ii) Capturing manpower centres a bit earlier is overrated. 1941 manpower multiplier is 55, so a the 21manpower of Kiev produce roughly 1k recruits per turn. If I can encircle a Soviet rilfe brigade with 4k men and have to delay the capture of Kiev by 2 turns, it is a good deal. Naturally, the weighing changes with the size of the city, if it were about Leningrad 4 turns early and or a rifle brigade pocketed now, Leningrad is the way to go of course.
That Leningrad, Moscow and other cities should be taken does not need to be debated. But I prefer to kill the units first and then have an easy advance as opposed to slugging through them repeatedly and killing them only when the objectives are captured. Given the choice by the Soviet player, I prefer to fight West, in good supply and with a still weak Soviet army instead of in late summer 1941 ad the very edge of my supply chain. That is even more true for 1.11.01+ with higher HQ BU costs.
Here the comparison is between capturing a couple of brigades and a rifle division by keeping six motorised divisions south of the Dvina, or instead see them past Pskow on turn 2. The units to capture ratio of the former is 3 motorised divisions per captured Soviet division - a bad ratio anyway.
The reason for the delay is only partially the encircling/locking of the three circled units.
The super Lvov in the South pulls units from the Southern centre. The southern centre therefure pulls from the Northern centre. The northern centre in addition is occupied with ZOC locking Minsk and encircling some units North of Minsk. Then the 4th PG also has the job of clearing the rail path to Riga for T2 which is not done in your opening. So not having said motorised units North of the Dvina pays for much more than just three units.
Of course one can debate if catching the three circled units is overbreeding of the idea. But I think not in line with my "the return is the higher the more you have already invested" idea as described in total war.
iii) Nothing to add.
Extra point: I do not understand the role of the 1st amendement here, but said person had "allot" of public relation issues [:D]
