Through the looking glass: the Soviet side of my mirror match

[eskuche]

Agree with above. Also might be worth merging brigades or worn down tank divisions into your strongest ones. I’ve noticed they less tend to “upgrade” to brigades when they have high TOE. Also note that unready units (Morale + TOE% < 90 I think) have a huge CV hit, and this happens most often with tank divisions because of their abnormally high TOE.

As for air, this is my personal opinion but the VVS cares naught for losses. You should on the map harassing the LW as much as the rules allow to kick up their fatigue and have the Bf’s drop out of the sky.

[CapAndGown]

Sept. 4, 1941
Pravda is pleased to report that our glorious Red Army has defeated a fascist armor division, throwing it back across the Samara river from its overly bold bridge head!

Our brave and dashing troops also encircled 6 enemy mobile divisions north of the Azov Sea. Enemy propaganda that our commanders were merely reacting to the enemy surrounding them first are LIES!!!

[CapAndGown]

In further news this day, our valiant army continues to withdraw (despite heavy enemy interdiction) from the Dnepr, leading the enemy in a huge trap where they will be completely destroyed!

[CapAndGown]

Finally, our handsome and dashing comrades continue to launch attacks against the enemy in front of Moscow while withdrawing from a potential pocket forming around Vyazma. Just remember, if you hear enemy propaganda in the next week that a number of our troops have been surrounded and cut off in this sector, those reports will be LIES!!!

Za Stalina, Za Pobedu!

[CapAndGown]

I did not realize the Finns could attack beyond the NO ATTACK LINE!!! once Leningrad fell. Oops. At least a large number of Finnish units will be withdrawing in a few turns.

[CapAndGown]

Around Moscow a significant number of our units around Vyazma became encircled as we had feared. A few counter attacks, however, allowed us to not only open the pocket, but also encircle 3 German mobile divisions. I am hoping this will eat up enemy time trying to digest the pocket. We also were able to launch a couple of counter attack against some SS brigades, resulting in the route of an SS motorized brigade. I am hoping that will lower its morale.

[CapAndGown]

In the center our pull back from the Dnepr continues.

[CapAndGown]

Things are falling apart in front of Stalino. Fortunately, all of the factories in the Stalino-Makeevka-Gorlovka complex are gone. We also took out 45 T-34 factories from Kharkov, leaving them 65% damaged in their new home. They will be able to start producing again in 5 turns. Voroshilovgrad and Rostov still have their original complement of factories, while Kharkov still has 15 armament factories. (I am leaving the Su-2 factories in Kharkov since they will cease production in a few months and do not upgrade to anything.) I am prioritizing heavy industry factories for evacuation.

[CapAndGown]

In a massive display of resistance to the fascist invaders, citizens in the occupied territories rose up en masse and attacked the German lines of communication. Two strikes against the main line from Germany to Smolensk were reported. This may slow down the fascist advance towards Moscow a little, though we are not hoping for much since an alternative line is being converted stretching from Pskov down to Velikiye Luki. Still, the Smolensk line had been hit twice now, meaning rail conversion along this line is 80 miles short of were it might have been.

Another attack, this time along the Kiev line, was reported as well. Since there is little enemy activity in this sector, this attack will have little effect beyond slowing down rail conversion in the direction of Sumy/Kursk.

Residents in the Pripyat marshes also launched attacks on rail lines in their region. While we appreciate their enthusiasm, such efforts seem more likely to get the local populace killed than inconvenience the Germans.

[CapAndGown]

An interesting development near Dnepropetrovsk is the diversion of German rail conversion to the south instead of straight east. This was no doubt necessitated by our continuing to hold positions along the Dnepr for so long, making further rail conversion toward Dnepropetrovsk not feasible.

[CapAndGown]

Are the Germans about to launch an assault south of Lake Ilmen? It sure looks that way. In preparation, I moved up some divisions to strengthen the front line, giving me 2 up, 1 back for the 3 hexes south of the lake.

[CapAndGown]

Around Moscow the Germans pocketed 6 more divisions southeast of Rzhev. Unfortunately, there was no possibility of reopening the pocket.

I had hoped to open the pocket southeast of Vyazma, but the motorized division we attacked fell back into some light woods, raising its defense value too high for us to hope for success in any further attacks. As a result, our first guards division will die next turn.

There was a major evacuation of factories from the Moscow complex this turn. The remaining factories are all in the Moscow hex and include:
1 - vehicle
9 - heavy industry
2x36 - Mig-3
16 - U-2VS

At least some of the Mig-3 factories need to be evac'ed since they convert to IL-2's in January. The U-2VS stays. It will not be missed.

My reserved rail percentage is down to 4% so that I can evac more factories. On the down side, it means fewer newly arriving troops from the east can be transported to the front. Last turn I did prioritize moving the Siberians to the Moscow front. Two of those divisions have a morale of 60 and elements with experience in the 40s.

[CapAndGown]

In the center, our retreat from the Dnepr has come to an end (at least for now). The enemy is concentrated around Moscow and Stalino, with very light forces between Poltava and Bryansk.

Kursk still has 2 armament factories, while Kharkov still has 15 armament factories, plus the 12 Su-2 factories that I am not going to evacuate.

[CapAndGown]

The Germans reached the gates of Stalino and even a little beyond, but we threw back the two lead divisions including routing the SS division. I would have liked to attack one of the two SS divisions west of Stalino to open the pocket there, but I did not have forces with the proper combination of movement points and combat value to pull that off.

The Dnepr is completely abandoned now with one division staying behind to garrison Dnepropetrovsk. I am going to hold at Poltava for now because of the defensible terrain, because it has a rail yard I need, and because I want to defend Kharkov until I can get those armaments factories out.

[CapAndGown]

With limited rail capacity, I can't really be wasting it on transporting tank brigade shells to the front where they will be useless. So all my new tank brigades arriving on the east edge of the map have been marshaled under one army (which feeds them supply) and will slowly make their way to the western front. (War in the East my foot! Its a war in the west you Eurocentric snobs! [;)]) I have left their TOE at 20% so that tanks will flow to the units nearer the front, but have set them all to "refit" so that they can increase their morale and experience.

[redrum68]

Just a heads up, often when units first arrive on the map they'll have very low TOE which means very low rail capacity usage. It can actually be more effective if you have enough rail cap to rail them 10-15 hexes from the front then sit there and wait to gain morale and fill their TOE.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: redrum68

Just a heads up, often when units first arrive on the map they'll have very low TOE which means very low rail capacity usage. It can actually be more effective if you have enough rail cap to rail them 10-15 hexes from the front then sit there and wait to gain morale and fill their TOE.

I am aware of this. I railed a few tank brigades around to get them into range of the 54th Army. It is also what I have sorta done with rifle divisions. I say sorta, because this turn the rifle divisions I railed west I made sure to detrain at the limit of their strategic movement allowance. I didn't want that rail capacity eaten up by having them stay on the train into the next turn particularly considering how they grow in size (assuming the TOE is reset to 100) in between the turn they arrive and the next turn. I am prioritizing rail capacity for new arrivals from the Far East.

[randallw]

The smallest and longest tank parade the world has ever seen.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: randallw

The smallest and longest tank parade the world has ever seen.

[:D]

So, I decided to actually count up the number of tanks in this "parade." Excluding armored cars, there are 149 tanks stretched along 100 miles of track. That's an average of 6.2 tanks per brigade. Or 1.5 tanks per mile. If the "parade" is traveling at 20 mph (and my calculations are correct) this would mean that the spectators would get to see a tank passing by once every two minutes.

[CapAndGown]

The Wehrmacht paused their forward advance this turn. Instead, they focused on cleaning up the pockets they had created in the previous turn. In this regard it is was one of their most productive weeks since the beginning of the war: 15 rifle, 2 armor, 1 mountain infantry, and 1 cavalry divsions for a total of 19 divisions.

Another reason for the pause, at least in the center, may have been because the Smolensk rail line has not been fully repaired yet from the partisan attack on turn 13, making supply difficult for the furthest advanced forces.

We got our second guards division this turn, the same turn our first guards division was destroyed in the pocket southeast of Vyazma.

I took out all the armament factories from Tula this turn, which was the heaviest lift we needed to make still remaining. With that out of the way I decided to bump the reserved rail percentage back up to 5%. I may take it higher as the Siberians arrive in greater numbers and as the winter offensive is prepared. The 9 heavy industry factories in Moscow is still another heavy lift, requiring 72k rail points, but nowhere near as big as the Tula armament factories. Still lots more to evac. [:(]

Indeed, I am worried about Kalinin. The Rzhev salient seems very vulnerable, but the enemy's focus seems to be towards Moscow, and Moscow only. Plus, similar to the situation on the Dnepr, a pull back now would leave us in worse defensive positions than we currently hold. Of course, I did pull back from the Dnepr, and that may happen here as well (hopefully not too late), but the Wehrmacht is running out of time and the Soviets have more and more troops arriving all the time.

Based on our successes with partisans, we are ramping up our partisan airlift operations even more. All the bombers in the long range command are transferring to VVS and OSNAZ bases and the air bases themselves are being transferred to other commands.

Not only did the Heeres take a break this turn, the Luftwaffe did as well. There were no interdictions. I did move fewer units than usual, but I suspect that after the beating the Luftwaffe has been taking, they decided to stand down a turn to reduce fatigue. It was getting to the point where I was considering moving units just so they would be interdicted and our fighters could shoot down more Nazi planes.

As far as AP is concerned, I spent most of them last turn changing unit attachments to better balance the load on various armies. This turn saw some of that as well, but was mostly focused on right-sizing the support units in the armies: 3 artillery regiments, 3-4 sapper battalions, 0-1 BM artillery, 0-1 motorcycle regiments, 3 AA battalions or 1 AA regiment and 1 AA battalion, and 0 heavy mortar regiments. Any excess in the armies was sent to Stavka where it will be reallocated next turn, or sit in reserve until new armies show up. I also converted a few air regiments here and there. I have not spent any AP in a while on leadership changes, even though I have some pretty crappy commanders.