The D21 Road Not Taken....

[tyronec]

What have you done to change the map view, looks like you switched something over around page 3 ?

The rail lines are showing up more clearly, I find it hard to spot damaged rail with the default map.
Also think I prefer your terrain, easier to see what is there.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: tyronec
What have you done to change the map view, looks like you switched something over around page 3 ?

The rail lines are showing up more clearly, I find it hard to spot damaged rail with the default map.
Also think I prefer your terrain, easier to see what is there.

I'm using the Telu IV Map Mod which can be found here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4442672

Also, I can't remember where I got the damaged rail tiles but I've zipped them up and
moved them to a file server so you can download them from this link:

http://www.filedropper.com/htilesdamage ... agedbridge

[tyronec]

quote:

ORIGINAL: tyronec
What have you done to change the map view, looks like you switched something over around page 3 ?

The rail lines are showing up more clearly, I find it hard to spot damaged rail with the default map.
Also think I prefer your terrain, easier to see what is there.

I'm using the Telu IV Map Mod which can be found here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4442672

Also, I can't remember where I got the damaged rail tiles but I've zipped them up and
moved them to a file server so you can download them from this link:

http://www.filedropper.com/htilesdamage ... agedbridge

Thanks.
Couldn't get it to work in the Override folder so stuck them into the Graphics folder and that did the job.
So much easier to read the map.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm inching closer to Stalingrad. It's going to take me about a week or so to fight my way there.

[danprezell]

I dig your AARs Larry, keep them up. Being close to the end of your Leningrad operation, would you say that taking out the Soviet Fleet out is a priority? Is it worth the loss of the Stukas? And are the Stukas the only viable attack against them? I am approaching the city in my campaign and my first attack against the fleet with one Stuka air group was completely ineffective.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: danprezell
I dig your AARs Larry, keep them up. Being close to the end of your Leningrad operation, would you say that taking out the Soviet Fleet out is a priority? Is it worth the loss of the Stukas? And are the Stukas the only viable attack against them? I am approaching the city in my campaign and my first attack against the fleet with one Stuka air group was completely ineffective.

Thanks for your kind words. And yes the Soviet Fleet is a problem. I agree that the Stuka's performance is less than stellar. I'm wondering what kind of problem they would be if I just ignored the Soviet ships entirely. I hesitate to attack the ships again because of the massive losses that would result. I don't have very many Axis ships so I'm not keen to have some sea battles. Air attacks are expensive so I'm guessing that there's no good answer for the Soviet fleet. I've wondered how I could use my RR arty on the ships themselves but so far they haven't come into range. Probably just lose my RR arty attempting it. I'm going to ignore them for now. Good luck on your game.

[danprezell]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: danprezell
I dig your AARs Larry, keep them up. Being close to the end of your Leningrad operation, would you say that taking out the Soviet Fleet out is a priority? Is it worth the loss of the Stukas? And are the Stukas the only viable attack against them? I am approaching the city in my campaign and my first attack against the fleet with one Stuka air group was completely ineffective.

Thanks for your kind words. And yes the Soviet Fleet is a problem. I agree that the Stuka's performance is less than stellar. I'm wondering what kind of problem they would be if I just ignored the Soviet ships entirely. I hesitate to attack the ships again because of the massive losses that would result. I don't have very many Axis ships so I'm not keen to have some sea battles. Air attacks are expensive so I'm guessing that there's no good answer for the Soviet fleet. I've wondered how I could use my RR arty on the ships themselves but so far they haven't come into range. Probably just lose my RR arty attempting it. I'm going to ignore them for now. Good luck on your game.

The Soviet fleet units are within range of my 280mm 7hex range rail gun and it will not let me engage even though the equipment states having anti-shipping capability. Unless the ships were docked a railroad gun should not have much chance at hitting a ship at sea unless, maybe, it was direct fire. So I get that the game won't allow it. Hopefully they'll go to port soon.

[Zovs]

Stukas have an anti shipping value if 240 I believe and one of the best against naval (at least in TR 1942-45), so it just depends on the NAD value then.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Zovs
Stukas have an anti shipping value if 240 I believe and one of the best against naval (at least in TR 1942-45), so it just depends on the NAD value then.

These Stuka's have been modified by the scenario designer to be regular attack aircraft instead of ship killers. That's why the performance against ships has been less than stellar. Now, as it is, they are little more than recon aircraft. It's too bad too because this scenario is otherwise a great one. I suppose I need to mod the scenario to make the Stuka's ship killers and do a restart. Hey that's a good idea. I'll get busy and do just that.

[Zovs]

Thanks Larry.

Just checked the defaults and both the Ju-87 (early and late) have an anti-shipping value of 120.

I know in The Their Reich 1942-1945 the values is 240.

[Edwire]

Soviet Fleet is the one thing that I was never able to sink in this scenario. In one of my plays, I set one JU-87 to "Sea Interdiction" and after many interdiction strikes, I got lucky, sinking a Soviet Black Fleet Battleship, but that's all. Soviet Baltic Fleet is still floating, despite I've captured Leningrad.

Just an Idea, perhaps there should be an event where Soviet mothball Baltic Fleet, giving several Marine Division if Axis is within 1 hex of Leningrad? Don't think they will do nothing if Leningrad is in immediate threat of being captured.

ORIGINAL: Zovs

Thanks Larry.

Just checked the defaults and both the Ju-87 (early and late) have an anti-shipping value of 120.

I know in The Their Reich 1942-1945 the values is 240.

I think the Third Reich 1942-1945 also has the same value of 120

[danprezell]

Ugh, their battleships just wrecked one of my full strength infantry divisions. Soviet Fleet delenda est. I don't care how many stukas have to die.

[700851McCall]

ORIGINAL: danprezell

I dig your AARs Larry, keep them up. Being close to the end of your Leningrad operation, would you say that taking out the Soviet Fleet out is a priority? Is it worth the loss of the Stukas? And are the Stukas the only viable attack against them? I am approaching the city in my campaign and my first attack against the fleet with one Stuka air group was completely ineffective.

Don't attempt an attack while they are in port. Wait for them to put to sea and wait until they are under clear skies (use the weather view toggle to check). When they are, then send in your Stukas. Will take a couple of missions but they will sink them pretty easily. Once the battleships and heavy cruisers are gone there's no longer a threat and your naval task force can sail in (after the coastal defences are destroyed) and finish the destroyers off at 4 hex range so they can't even fire back.

Wish I had time to have another go at this scenario, it's great.

[larryfulkerson]

I tried to install the TOAW v.5.2 Database but that gave both sides some yr2000 equipment so I dropped back to the original EQP file and then fixed the Stuka types so that they have a decent anti-ship value ( 120 ). I've zipped up the scenario and it's GraphicsOverride folder and attached it here below. This is the scenario I'm playtesting in this AAR.

[Zovs]

Thanks Larry for the updated.

Hopefully Steve will fix the Stuka's in a patch, no idea what they nerfed them all things considered, you can always tweak the NAD and the AAA lethality instead.

[larryfulkerson]

you can always tweak the NAD and the AAA lethality instead.

Yeah, but if you did that then all the ships would be underperformers
compared to real life. I would rather they all were accurate representations
and the Stuka's were wrong. But it was trivial to compare the TOAW v.5.2 Stuka
with the Stuka that Steve's EQP file had and change them to the better type.
Took less than a minute. I then had to run it through the editor to associate
the new EQP file to the scenario but that too was easy. I'm halfway through
my new turn 1.

[larryfulkerson]

It's 13July41 ( T7 ) and I've disposed Minsk and I'm getting units across the river into the Soviet backfield south of Orsha. The supply level is decreasing quickly now that we're so far east of the railhead. The relative AS values are Axis 50 against a Soviet 6 which is great so far. I've got my fighters set on three-dots which is helping clear the skies of Soviet aircraft. The Finns have started pushing south and the Rumanians are clearing out the Bessarabia and there's still rapid progress in the south. Supply levels are starting to be a real problem.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the north near Narva. The Axis units are busy clearing out the peninsula and pushing toward the bottleneck. The supply level at the face of the advance is between 10 and 12 per hex and that's still enough to sustain the push. The air war is still hot and Soviet planes are falling out of the sky. I've used my Stuka's to sink all the Soviet naval units so now I'm using them for combat support. The railhead is just NE of Riga and has made no progress for several turns now. I'm going to garrison all the captured ports so that there will be no Soviet adventurism. I have plans to clear out what I can of the smaller islands just off the west coast near Virtsu. I have no air cap and can't use the airborne units via air any longer. My rail cap is still inadequate for anything useful. Several of my HQ units have not received their arty yet and can lend no support.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Kiev right now. I'm slowly pushing the Soviets toward the city of Kiev and I've seen several Soviet units already who have escaped to the east side of the river. I need to wait until I've got units blocking the route over the river so I can kill more Soviet units. Besides I don't need heavy losses trying to force the Soviets through the bottleneck. I've been pounding the Soviets from the air to accellerate the take down.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Smolensk right now. I've forced the river crossing at Orsha and I'm getting units into the Soviet backfield and they have responded with a small horde of units to defend and my footprint on the east side of the river is growing slowly. Supply on the east side of the river is very low and the railhead is hardly leaving the Minsk area so progress is slow.