Hitler's fumble. A story of idiocy.

[larryfulkerson]

T12, Front Lines
I just realized that I haven't posted anything showing the front lines so this is what it looks like in T12. I'm sneaking up on Leningrad and Kiev and D-town and K-town and I've defeated the Soviet defenders at the entrance to the Crimea so I'll soon be besieging Sevastopol and trying to force my way across the Kerch Straits. It's going to take at least another two months of game time to reach the suburbs of Moscow because of all the resistance. Elmer has been counterattacking the last few turns and my recon units are beat up and need rest. I'm thinking of sending all my unemployed recon units to the south where the terrain is ideal for motorized units. There have been no partisans since the beginning of the game and I doubt that they will show up at all. Supply levels are adequate all over the map for a change. Having RR engineers in the HQ units is making this game more fun than the vanilla version. Although, it's certaintly not "historical" and therefore not realistic to real life.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Glukhov
I'm posting this image to show you what's going on to the NE of Kiev out in the middle of nowhere. There are very few Soviet units so far and my boys are running into mostly open terrain and cities for the taking. I have surrounded a small Soviet group against the river and I need to stop up the exits so they can't get away and then destroy them. That will take maybe four or five turns I'm guessing. This is the kind of terrain where my motorized units can shine. Lots of progress can be had in this AO. I'm shipping more and more units this way to be able to run rampant.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Smolensk
There has been such a huge infusion of Soviet units into the game as reinforcements that they are able to build a proper front line now and there are less gaps and places to get into the Soviet backfield and surround them. So I've been trying to surround just a few of them at a time to destroy them and so far it's working. It's slower than just driving around them and blocking their exit(s). I see a couple of Soviet supply points to the east of Yvazma and I'm wondering if they turn into an Axis supply point if I capture them. I'll have to see. Maybe they are listed in the scenario notes as a possibility. I'll have to look that up.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Kiev
Here's a view of the east side of the Dnieper near Kiev and shows how I'm moving units east and south. I'm especially keen on destroying the Soviet units along the riverbank before they can get away. I need to rail a lot more units into this AO so as to extend the front lines to the east and all the while have a line of units moving south to trap the enemy units near the riverbank before they can get away. All but two of my aircraft are green and the AS levels are now: 42 Axis, 22 Soviet. Also their air shock has reached 75% so they aren't such a pushover any longer. I've seen Mig-3's in air combats so they are introducing new models of fighters to replace their biplanes ( I-15's ) and the near useless I-16's. My Finn air force has been taking losses since they have a higher proportion of obsolete aircraft so I need to send some of my fighters to the Leningrad area to help them out. I sank all the Soviet ships so now my Stuka's are doing CS. I like to order them to do direct attacks on tanks and arty and especially HQ's because there's a chance to drive a formation into reorg if the HQ unit for that formation suffers enough damage.

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I see a couple of Soviet supply points to the east of Yvazma and I'm wondering if they turn into an Axis supply point if I capture them.

[font="Verdana"]Open the scenario in the editor and select “deployment”. That will show you the Russian, German and dual use supply points.[/font]

[larryfulkerson]

Hey that's a good idea. Thanks Steve dude.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Kremenchuk
Here's a view of the southern front lines right now. I'm using engineers to get across the river and into the Soviet backfield and I'm hoping to get enough troops across the river to hold onto what I've gained so far. I've trapped all the D-town Soviet defenders and I hope to destroy them this turn. Z-town is defended by a single AA unit so I'm thinking I can blast through there easy enough. The Romanians are breaking into the Crimea so lots of progress is being made in this AO.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Kherson
Here's what's going on in the Crimea now. The Romanians are being helped out by the 11th Army units and soon we'll be in Sevastopol. Losses are light so far. The aircraft are helping out a lot.

[larryfulkerson]

T14, Ta-152
I got to looking at my losses and quit by accident I discovered that the inventory of fighters did not include the famous Ta-152. So I did a search on Google and found a WikiPedia article about it. According to W. only about 70 of these bad boys were ever built late in '44 and very few of them saw any action at all. I guess that's why they were left out of the game.

Editor Games
I used the scenario editor part of TOAW IV to add some Ta-152's to a squadron at random and saved the scenario with a test name and then loaded it in the game and looked at what kind of AS values it has and it's superior to every other propeller driven German fighter. Only the Me-262 is better. Too bad it's not in the game as a token force of maybe 3 of them just for the added chrome. There's some of the early German jets missing from the list of planes available as well. That rocket driven plane for instance. The rocket engine drove it up to the upper stratosphere and it would glide for a one-pass attack on a formation of Allied bombers and then hope it had enough energy to make it back to it's field. Usually their missions lasted a little over maybe a half an hour. Whether or not it was difficult to reset it for another launch the same day is a matter of opinion. It depends on how you define "difficult". High ranking German officers usually had them at least try to launch it again the same day.

[larryfulkerson]

T16, Leningrad
Here's what Leningrad looks like right now. The Finns have been trading arty barrages back and forth for about 10 turns now. I'm getting so close to the city that the CD guns are pounding my troops. I'm considering bombing the CD guns from the air. I'm hesitating because I can anticipate a lot of AA units protecting them. I would bring the RR arty up here to help out but they are fully employed at Odessa right now. The supply levels are in the high 20's up here and rising slowly. I'm trying to do a left hook around Leningrad to isolate the city from the rest of Russia, to prevent Elmer from shipping more troops into the AO, and to prevent the Soviet units from escaping to the east before I can destroy them all. All the aircraft are in the green and about a dozen of them are resting because of low supply levels in the unit. Most of the progress is being made in the deep south because of the better terrain and the sparcity of Soviet units.

[larryfulkerson]

T16, Bryansk
Here's what the Bryansk area looks like right now. I have a task force heading east and they have captured Bryansk and are now fighting to get into the more favorable terrain to the east. My motorized units can really shine in the clear terrain. I'm expecting to run into a lot more Soviet units to the east however so I'm going to have to bolster the task force with some Panzer divisions. Orel lies just off the edge of this image and I'm going to have to capture the road that leads there. And the rails. Supply levels are in the high teens which is enough to keep going a little further.

[larryfulkerson]

T16, Sevastopol
Here's what the Crimea looks like right now. I have forced my way through the bottleneck on the left and am rolling units directly south, converting the terrain and dealing with the Soviet units that have taken up blocking positions to delay the inevitable. I'm optimistic that I can take down the port city by 04Dec41. Successfully doing that will release the Bulgarians for operations and I could really use those troops in the south. Note the high level of supply at the tip end of the spear leading south.

[larryfulkerson]

T17, Vyazma
I've pushed east far enough to get the front lines and Moscow in the same image. The supply level gets down to the high 20's at the front but it's mostly outstanding everywhere else. The rails are repaired up to the front lines at Vyazma so I've sent the RR engineers to go to the south to get the rails caught up to the front lines and set off to the east toward Stalingrad.

[larryfulkerson]

T17, Kharkov
Here's what's going on in the middle of nowhere far east of Kiev near Kharkov. We're fighting over it because of all the rails that run through there. I need those rails. And it's got some convient airfields clustered there. About 1/3 of the planes are yellow and resting, and there's about 30K German Heavy Rifle Squads assigned to the force. Rather than hollow out my units I'm going to taper back on the attacks to try to maintain a level of about 30K HRS's assigned. I'll need about that many to hold the Soviets back when they launch their Soviet Winter Offensive.

[larryfulkerson]

T17, Kiev
Here's what's going on in Kiev right now. I have pretty much surrounded the Soviet units near the riverbank and now I'm liquidating them a few at a time. There's quite a few Soviet divisions in the catch and maybe a motorized unit or two. The advance has pushed on to the east and all the German units in this area doing mop up will eventually catch up to the front. The repaired rail travels south past Kiev down to D-town where it branches to the east and south. The Romanians are clearing the Crimea and are marching toward Sevastopol and the Kertch Straits. The terrain near Leningrad is forested and motorized operations in that kind of terrain is countraindicated. So I'm thinking of moving the Panzers down south to the kind of terrain that will show how they can shine. I'm dreaming of leaps forward of hundreds of kilometers per turn. To surround and isolate Soviet units arriving at the front by going around them.

[larryfulkerson]

T18, Kharkov
I have reached Kharkov and I'm trying to surround the enemy units and destroy them in place. The AS levels are 41 Axis and 31 Soviet. The Soviets are fielding more and more aircraft and the losses this turn so far are 7 Axis and 130 Soviet. I'm considering putting my fighters on a 2-dot stance rather than ignore losses since the air shock difference isn't that great any longer: 120% Axis and 75% Soviet. The bombers have been on 2-dots since the beginning of the game. There is plenty of enemy hexes in my backfield and I really do need to convert all of them so there's no possibility of Soviet units spawning in my backfield. The railroad is right up at the front so the supply levels are pretty good. There are some pretty large gaps in my front lines because of the presence of the river. I'm bringing up some engineers to help my troops leap over it. Progress is being made in this AO.

[larryfulkerson]

T18, Sevastopol
Here's what's happening just north of Sevastopol and shows how the Germans and Romanians are approaching the port city and are running into really stiff opposition. My troops have come into range of the CD guns north of the city and losses from bombardments are mounting. I think I need to surround the entire city before I get serious about attacking enmasse. If I had any capital ships I would use them now. I'm hoping my Stukas can sink the Soviet ships to prevent any raids on my airfields close to the coast. I'm going to fly all the Romanian aircraft into this area and adjust their range so that they are committed to this fight alone.

[larryfulkerson]

T19, Moscow
Here's a view of what's happening in the middle of the map. I'm sneaking up on Moscow slowly. I'm expecting a lot more Soviet units the closer I get to the city. I'm trying to surround a few of them at a time and destroy them. Elmer usually fills up the gap with more units and rinse and repeat. The supply levels are great so far and the air war is heating up since the Soviets have fielded a lot more fighters and their AS level has risen. I've changed my fighters from three-dots to a two-dot stance. Once I capture the city I'm going to build a big beautiful wall around it and I'm going to make the Mexicans pay for the wall. It's only late August and I'm almost at the surburbs of the city again. I think the scenario may still be unbalanced ( pro Axis ) so I'm thinking of taking the RR engineers from the divisional HQ's and just leave them in the Corps HQ units and see how that plays.