FitE2 (Fortuna [AXIS] v. Hellen [SOVS])

[kennethfortune]

There is actually about 145 men per unit. They are stealing gas from Old Men and Babushkas and making them help tear up RRs at gun point.

[Hellen_slith]

Ah, so stealing the peasant's самогон and running on that home-brew, eh?

Stalin: "TREASON!! SHOOT THE PEASANTS!!"
Pic of a Russian "Gas Station":

[Hellen_slith]

Ok,I just can't keep silent any more...
I'm a pretty easy going fellow, I just like to play.

I can take Italians on the Luka River in my other FitE1 game.
I can take Rumanians in Tallinn in THIS game.
I can take Hungarians air-dropping around Leningrad.
But what I can't take, is continual Finnish encroachment.

I have watched Finland air units flying all sorts of sorties out of bounds.
That's okay. I didn't say anything.
But now, ground units are over stepping the stop line.

You were supposed to wait until Leningrad FALLS before over stepping that line.
I'm going to chalk this up to me being such a great player,
that these things have to happen. That's okay. Just makes it all the more challenging to me.

But seriously ... come ON, man. You don't have to use these kind of tricks to beat little ol' ME, do you?
I mean ... come ON, man. <sigh>

[Hellen_slith]

Well, just finished watching the Colonel's playback of move,
all I can say is ... wow. I *think* I still held Leningrad,
but have to reiterate, keep those Finns back, Colonel Dawg, until it falls officially.
Some enroachment was there, I think, so 15 yard penalty please on you

But is ok, that Leningrad town was toast ... I am surprised that it held so long.

OK, well, now it is my turn again (Soviet turn 19 August 24th 1941)

Mud / Rain / Snow cannot get here soon enough!! Let's see what I can find in the magician's hat

[kennethfortune]

Sir,

On the Finns. I had captured the two identified Leningrad hexes on previous turns - I can certainly stop the Finns until the entire urban area around Leningrad is captured. As to the air units, none have ever been stationed outside of the stop line area. I have had them on either Air Superiority or Ground Support the entire game. They have launched no strikes beyond the stop line, they have performed auto support beyond the line run by the game program. Thus you have seen them involved in combat. I cannot stop that. Do you hold that the Finns should not fire artillery beyond the stop line or perform Naval Ops around Finland? I will hold the Finns where they are until the last two urban hexes go.

[Hellen_slith]

No problem, I was just noting that one last hex w/ the factory on it (and the factory itself) as still in Soviet hands. Moot point now-- Leningrad is entirely toast, so drive on.

If you take Moscow, I will surrender, but I am fighting for it. Morale has tanked all across the front. Your artillery strikes are cutting the Soviets to shreds.

At least I managed to evac most of the factories except Leningrad, so maybe there is enough juice left for me to make at least a cursory stab come the snow. If Moscow can last that long.

Well done!

[Hellen_slith]

Sept. 1, 1941:

STALIN ASSASINATED!

In light of the destruction of Leningrad,
and to forestall the impending destruction of Moscow and Stalingrad,

Soviet military leaders work up the courage to sue for peace.

Moscow's art treasures are saved,
at the cost of ceding 1000s upon 1000s of square miles for German Liebensraum....
and millions of peasants face starvation, slave labor, or worse ... at the hands of the Reich.

The German strategy has won an overwhelming victory!
Well done, Colonel! Kudos!

[StuccoFresco]

Endgame map?

[kennethfortune]

Íè÷åãî íå ïîäåëàåøü.

Ken Fortune

[Hellen_slith]

Soviet Debriefing:

My downfall came early on;
had I understood the German strategy earlier,
I may have been able to put up a better front.

Essentially, I tried a very flawed defense against a highly stylized Blitzkrieg that simply wiped out the Soviets.
I kept my units together and did not subdivide as I should have to be able to meet the German subdivisions at the same level of operation.

As a result, my opponent was able to infiltrate at a level that I was simply unable to answer.
We were, in essence, playing two different styles of war, and his was overwhelmingly successful.

At the end, I realized that I was fighting an entirely different type of "map" that he controlled entirely, and would control, all the way to the Urals.

I am simply not same level of player. It was as if, as a Class B Chess player, I was fighting a Grandmaster: simply no chance.

It was simply no contest, and Mr. Fortune deserves a better fight, a better opponent. Perhaps against cpt flam or another, he would have more challenge,

but I was simply crushed. At the last battle, when Moscow Front could not even scratch his paratroops at the Volga, and rails / reinforcements were entirely failed,

I realized that it was a lost cause. To save the treasures of Moscow, I capitulated.

Even Shostakovitch, in this go, did not finish his Leningrad Symphony.

Anyway, it was fun for a while, but descended (for the Soviets) into utter annihiliation.
This man is a Master, if not a Grandmaster. I bow to his skills.

[kennethfortune]

Hell on Wheels (aka a 2nd Armored Division guy),

I am just returned from overseas and just saw your post. Thank you for the comments but you are the one truly dedicated to our hobby. I thank you for the game.

Ken Fortune

[Hellen_slith]

Thank you for the kind words! I am sorry that I couldn't play it out more, but at the end I was faced with so many damn ,,, Dayum ... DAMNIT moments that I just could not fathom playing it out, b/c it was so obvious that I was crushed. Well played!!!

Anyway, I hope that you will look at my other AAR (Club Effort) and consider maybe taking on the role of a Southern Front Commander for Soviets (Odessa / Caucasus) on behalf of Cheltham ....

We are trying to play it out as a group effort, and Cheltham would be thrilled if you could take up command there around Odessa and against AGS.

Well, again, thanks for playing me in this one, you are the Master!