The D21 Road Not Taken....

[larryfulkerson]

It's T20 and this is the Leningrad area right now. I'm trying to do a right hook to cut off Leningrad from it's supply source. That will help the take down a LOT. I've sunk all the Soviet ships with my Stukas and now I'm in a gunfight with the offshore CD guns. They don't shoot at my ships so I guess I've defeated their long-range guns and now what's left there is the riff raff that goes with a CD unit. I'm thinking of stopping the Soviet turn long enough for me to check out what's left at that offshore position I'm bombarding. The supply level is in the high teens so operations are still supported. The Finns are at the stop line so they won't be helping out from the north much. I'm wondering what would happen if I drove my ships SE past the CD unit and into the Leningrad bay / harbor area to support the land troops. If I remember correctly the Soviets have some CD guns ashore as well as out in the harbor. I'll have to watch out for those.

[larryfulkerson]

My mom was having problems with her computer again just now so she called me and I talked her through her logjam and I thought I'd post a picture of me helping her.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T20 and this is the D-town / Z-town area down south and I've forced the river crossing at D-town and I'm trying to get as many units across the river as possible. The supply situation is poor with single digits everywhere and I may have to put the exploit phase on hold.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T21 and this is what Leningrad looks like now. I'm still trying to do a right hook and cut off the city from their supply source but Soviet resistance has hardened and I'm hitting a brick wall. I'm sending all my RR arty to this area to help bring about the take down. The supply levels have risen a bit so operations can continue. Most of the progress I'm making is in the south still.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like in front of Moscow from Smolensk down to Orel and you can see how the front lines are broken and dynamic. There's lots of gaps and I know that's risky but I've run out of warm bodies to have a solid line from north to south. It's been working out so far. But it's just a matter of time before it bites me in the a$$.

I'm moving the RR arty toward Leningrad but the trip is so far that it's taking more than one turn. The railhead closest to Smolensk is just now reaching Minsk. That's how far behind it is. But the supply levels are in the low teens so I'm still pushing. About 1/3 of all the planes are yellow and need to rest. I'm playing this game using the red green yellow rules. Green units can move and shoot, yellow units can move but can't shoot, and red units can't more or shoot unless they are moving toward a better supply source. I got that rule from Steve Sill and I think it gives me a more realistic game. YMMV.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like in the Kiev area right now. I've pushed the Kiev defenders through the river crossing hex and I'm in the process of helping the Axis units on the east side of the river to destroy all the Soviet defenders. The supply level is in the high teens which is adequate for operations. I'm hoping to run a supply rail through the Kiev hexes and then SE from there.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T25 and I've finally captured Leningrad and now the Finns can move south and surround the Soviet units so that the German units can finish them off. I'm still trying to do the right hook and cut off Leningrad from it's supply source. I need to do that to make the take-down of all the Soviet units defending there. They are trapped and aren't going anywhere and I'm in no big hurry to kill them. I might ought to be.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the action just west of Moscow and you can see the dynamic nature of the front lines. The Soviets make a breakthrough every once and again and I need to stop everything and plug the hole and try to make the invader dissappear. I'm way to outnumbered to feel comfortable about this situation. I have no reserve because all the units are all busy already. The advance has stalled completely and very little progress is being made here. Soviet resistance is very heavy in this area and I'm trying to get a surround on one unit at a time and kill it before it can successfully fight it's way back to it's lines. I've got areas here that I need to use the engineers and recon units to stand in the line. Those are the weak areas where the Soviets make their breakthroughs. I feel like I need a lot more people to make this advance work. I think what I'll do is chose an area down south where I'm just about to enter a very low supply area and set up a screen and ship a lot of those people up here to help out.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the area SE of Kiev and you can see how I'm trying to trap the Soviet defenders along the river before they can get away. I'd like to kill as many of them as I can. The supply level is in the mid-teens so far so we're a go for liftoff still. I need the river crossings to allow the supply to flow from the west side of the river to the east side. The railhead is still west of Kiev still and is of no help down here that I can discern.

[larryfulkerson]

[ Edit: the system seems to have deleted my image. I'll leave the verbage anyway. ]

This is the Crimea now and the railhead is just offscreen one hex from the rail on the left side of the image. So supply isn't a problem so far. There's not a lot of Soviet units near Sevastopol so I think I may have enough units present to take down the port. There's two Soviet naval units that I need to set my Stukas on. There's another group on the right that's clearing out the way to the Kerch Straits. At least there's enough airfields to park a lot of my planes. I'd like to see if it's possible to ship one or more of the RR arty units down here when the rail is repaired enough to give them enough range to be helpful. That would help the take down significantly. It would take two turns for them to arrive once started on their journey to the south. Freeing up Sevastopol before 4Dec41 will release the Bulgarians and I could sure use them this coming winter.

[larryfulkerson]

The system seems to have deleted my image. I don't remember what it was about so I've deleted this post entirely.

[larryfulkerson]

the system seems to have deleted my embedded JPG image so I've deleted this post. It was about the Finns pushing south into the Leningrad city area and you know how boring that can be.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's T30 and the view of the area just east of the Leningrad area. The city is mine so the Finns are attacking south and will be tasked to the push to the NE to attempt to isolate Archangel to cut off some of the Lend Lease if possible. The railhead has finally made it close enough to the front to be useful and once the rail reaches the front itself I'm going to move the RR engineers to repair the rail going east from Minsk. The RR arty that helped take down Leningrad is being railed to the Crimea to help in the takedown of Sevastopol. The first of many Cold Fronts has moved into the theater so I'm expecting the supply levels to drop down to nothing soon. All my movement and attacking will have to stop until about T35 or so when the supply level rises again to about half the value it has now and it's in the teens right now. I've got to start thinking of the Soviet Winter Offensive ( T49 ) and see if I can't develop some local reserves at the very least.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking....those two engineer units racing for the road junction are exposed and vulnerable and I'm not unaware of their risk but that's what it is....a risk. They knew what they were getting into when they signed on as engineers. I use them to repair the bridges but I've also found that I can use them to capture bridges and repair them as needed. They seem like they are all alone but I'm optimistic that I can get some units to join them either this turn or the next. The Soviets have seemingly rushed everybody they had handy up to the front lines and the backfield is sparcely populated by the Soviets. I've been taking risks like this since the beginning of the game and about 70% of them work out just fine.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd show you what Leningrad looks like now. I'm still trying to do the left hook and I may have managed to trap the Leningrad defenders before they could escape to the east which is pretty kool. The supply level is more than adequate and I'm optimistic about operations up here. I've parked OKH at Leningrad just to rub it in a little.

[larryfulkerson]

EDIT: I seem to have double posted here. This post has an edit ( second paragraph ).
Here's T30 and the view of the area just east of the Leningrad area. The city is mine so the Finns are attacking south and will be tasked to the push to the NE to attempt to isolate Archangel to cut off some of the Lend Lease if possible. The railhead has finally made it close enough to the front to be useful and once the rail reaches the front itself I'm going to move the RR engineers to repair the rail going east from Minsk. The RR arty that helped take down Leningrad is being railed to the Crimea to help in the takedown of Sevastopol. The first of many Cold Fronts has moved into the theater so I'm expecting the supply levels to drop down to nothing soon. All my movement and attacking will have to stop until about T35 or so when the supply level rises again to about half the value it has now and it's in the teens right now. I've got to start thinking of the Soviet Winter Offensive ( T49 ) and see if I can't develop some local reserves at the very least.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking....those two engineer units racing for the road junction are exposed and vulnerable and I'm not unaware of their risk but that's what it is....a risk. They knew what they were getting into when they signed on as engineers. I use them to repair the bridges but I've also found that I can use them to capture bridges and repair them as needed. They seem like they are all alone but I'm optimistic that I can get some units to join them either this turn or the next. The Soviets have seemingly rushed everybody they had handy up to the front lines and the backfield is sparcely populated by the Soviets. I've been taking risks like this since the beginning of the game and about 70% of them work out just fine.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally cornered all the Soviet defenders from the Leningrad area and am pushing to the NE to join up with the Finns. All the Axis ships are docked at Helsinki and are practically useless now. Maybe for the rest of the game. Supply levels are still more than adequate up here so operations are continuing. As soon as the railhead is flush with the front lines up here I'm going to move the RR engineers to the Minsk rail line.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally repaired the rail almost all the way to Sevastopol and it's within the range of my RR arty so they are on their way to this AO. In fact they are just offscreen to the north. The supply situation isn't the best but it's in the teens, high enough to be doable so operations are ongoing. My Stuka squadrons are usually set to Sea Int missions but I've already sunk all the Soviet ships down here so the Stuka's are doing mostly CS and a little bit of INT. It's 05Oct41 already and I have until 05Dec41 to capture Sevastopol if I want to activate the Bulgarian contingent. And I do. I've pushed the Soviets south toward the city and now the fixed arty around the city is in range to support the defenders and the attacks I make are expensive and don't accomplish much. That's why I need the RR arty down here ASAP to make any significant progress. I've been wondering if it's possible to attack the city from the SE somehow. Bypass all the Soviet fortifications north of the city and approach it from maybe a softer underbelly. It's worth a try if it's possible at all.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south I've gotten across the river and I'm just about to capture Kharkov and when that happens the Soviets will experience a drop in their production of about 5% IIRC. The supply net here is hit and miss at the bleeding edge. Good in some spots and not so good in others. Operations haven't slowed with the Axis southern groups since the beginning of the game and some of the units are showing signs of wear and tear. The Soviets are counterattacking all over the map and they are so serious about it that sometimes one or more of their units will evaporate during the attack. The mud period starts next turn so I expect the supply net to collapse soon. It's T31, early October and the weather has turned cold, a cold front has moved in and pretty soon now the rivers will freeze over. I've got to keep that in mind when I'm re-forming my front lines.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in front of Moscow and you can see that the supply situation is still pretty good so far so I'm keeping up the push in spite of it now being T32, the first turn of the mud season. We're going to have winter-time temperatures in a couple of turns and the rivers and streams will freeze over so I'll have to plan ahead for that to happen. The supply situation is so well developed here that I'm going to move the RR engineers to an area that needs it the most right now. And that area seems to be down south where most of the progress has been going on. The railhead down there is north of Sevastopol and it needs to be close to Kharkov and that's a far stretch to repair. I'm going to need most of the RR engineers to extend the railhead faster. Otherwise, I'll have to call a halt to the advance down there. The image in the mini-map is framed a little too far north but shows the progress in the Leningrad area so I thought I'd leave it as it is instead of this area. This is the start of the turn and I haven't moved anybody yet. About 10% of the aircraft are yellow and resting and the rest of the fleet is green and moved as far forward as they can go. The Soviets have been making airfield strikes but a lot of my airfields have AA units on them so when the Soviets strike they usually lose a LOT more planes than I do. I'll lose less than 10 planes and they will lose close to 50 per strike. Sometimes the IL-4's are involved and I love to see those go down in flames. That's the Soviet bomber with the longest range and unfortunately Berlin is still within range. Although so far there's been no Soviet strikes that far west. The shock level has been lowered to 75% for both sides so I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm assigning units to attacks.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a view of the ( T32 ) area SE of Leningrad and you can see how the supply net has collapsed due to the mud and it looks like I need to pull back to an area of better supply. The supply radius is only 2 this turn. The railhead is very close so I may not have to pull back very far. But before I pull up stakes and skedaddle I want to kill those Soviet units that I have surrounded. I'd hate to have to fight them all over again.