T00 Events

[larryfulkerson]

I can't stand it. I've just got to try it again. Knowing now what I know now. I'll try to do a better job this time. Your suggestions and gripes are welcomed. I'm going to try to do a better job of reporting the war this time. More detail for instance. The first thing I did was move OKH from Berlin to Konigsberg to use those airfields to rest the tired planes. And there's going to be a lot of tired planes because in the first couple of turns I'm going to try to wipe out the entire Soviet air force. At least those planes I can reach.

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[larryfulkerson]

The first thing to move after OKH is the paratroopers and I decided to try to prevent the Soviet units from escaping the death trap. I'm going to try to drive from the north and south to the middle where the paratroops are and then drive all the Soviet units into smaller groups and kill them off as fast as I can, then head off to Minsk.

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[larryfulkerson]

I'm going all out on airfield strikes in an effort to rid myself of any airborne competition in any near-future turns. I have only a single aircraft unit in reorg but there are quite a few aircraft units in a rest state. There were some aircraft that weren't in range to strike an enemy airfield and I had to move them to strike in a future turn. Note there are 82 aircraft in theater. The proficiency of all my German fighters is in the 90's and my air shock is 140 and the Soviet air shock is 5 so I've set all my German fighters on a three-dot setting to get the most hits as possible. There are 33 attacks scheduled in the first combat phase.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the view just before the first combat phase and shows how far I was able to get without any combat. Most of the battle flags on the map show where I was able to get an RBC to move the Soviet unit out of my way and most of the time they evaporated after a few RBC's. I ran my brown-water boats along the rivers in the Soviet backfield to attempt to cut off the Soviets from their supply source. I attempted to get as many surrounds on the Soviet units as possible to make them disappear from the map during the first combat phase.

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[larryfulkerson]

A little further south I was able to completely surround a small group of Soviet units and I anticipate that they will be gone in a few rounds from now.

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[larryfulkerson]

A little further south shows what I was able to accomplish during the first movement phase. The Axis rail damage setting is 0% so I was able to drive onto a rail hex and convert it to a repaired rail immediately. That's a good thing and I need to convert all the rail hexes I can during the first couple of turns.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the south right now. I have started a drive to the SE on the road going through Radekhov in order to split the Soviets into major groups unable to help each other.

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[Cpl GAC]

I can't stand it. I've just got to try it again...
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HA! You're the best!

[larryfulkerson]

I can't stand it. I've just got to try it again...
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HA! You're the best!

If you think like you're OCD and talk like your OCD and act like you're OCD, you're probably OCD. I've been this way for as long as I've owned WITP-AE and it's spreading to my other games. I can't help it nor do I want to. Iit's too much fun to give it up now. I CAN recommend it, however you do spend an inordinate amount of time thinking of nothing else but your game. Dreaming about your game(s) is(are) common. I was up unitil 03:25 this am and quit to take a short nap and it's 07:24 now. I'm 72 years old and my blood pressure is 126 over 76, not that I'm worried about it. It's going to shoot up toi over 100 degrees F today here in Tucson, but I don't plan on going outside today. The snow birds have already started their exit back to Wisconsin, Minnesoda, Ontario, etc. and the trailer park I live in is starting to turn about 35% empty. I used to see multiple golf carts going to and from the built-in golf course but not so much any more. I'm not planning on taking part in the free swimming pool or the shuffleboard court, etc. since I have so much wargamming to do. If I don't see another human being the rest of the week I'll not miss them. I don't remember ever having so much fun playing a game of TOAW.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now round 5 and here's what's going on in the middle right now. I'm mildly disappointed that I haven't gotten very far in building my pincers toward the middle to stiffle the escape of the Soviets. Which is just another way of saying that the Soviets still have an escape route that I haven't done anything about yet. And there's not enough time left in this turn to do much about it. None of my units have the MP's left to move far enough to make a difference. But I clobbered a lot of Soviet aircraft.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what happened during turn one.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what happened to the airfield strikes in the first combat round.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the view early in T2 in the area just north of the marshes. I'm in the process of destroying the Soviet remnants and zooming on to the east with everybody else. I've uncovered a lot of airfields that I can park my aircraft at and I need to move them now before I do anything else. I'm trying to stick to the roads and rails because that's where the highest supply is.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T2 round 2 and here's what's going on in the north right now. The Soviet units are unusually sparse so progress is rapid. I've been moving my aircraft to the front lines as the lines move more out of habit than giving my moving units some CAP. The Soviet INT is going to be concentrating on my units that move and I need to provide them with some top cover to prevent unneccessary losses so I may as well get into that habit right now. I'm frequently able to surround my targets but sometimes they evaporate after being RBC'd a couple of times. I'm going to use my pontoon guys and engineers to leap across the river so I can approach Riga from the east side simultaneously with a thrust from the south. The Soviets haven't broken any bridges near Riga yet and I hope to capture them in that condition. The supply level is 24 on the rails and 18 at the railhead. It's about 4/10 cloudy and there's no rain and no mud yet.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the area just north of the marshes right now. Note how the Soviet units are jamed up against my paratroopers. The paratroopers did their job and prevented several Soviet units from escaping to the east. Now I have a chance to kill the Soviets before they can get away. I've been running my brown-water boats through the rivers and creeks in the marshes to help convert the hexes so no Soviet units will spawn in the marshes. But I still need some boots on the ground to convert the hexes the boats can't reach.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the area just south of the marshes right now. I'm pushing hard to the SE toward Kiev and I'm running into a lot of Soviet resistance. I'm running several Panzer divisions in this push to take advantage of the better terrain for my tanks and to take on the harder Soviet roadblocks. The Soviets have several large tank divisions in this area that are capable of holding up my advance if they aren't dealt with, with the proper weapons systems. I'm trying to keep some AA units at my airfields just in case Elmer tries an airfield strike for whatever reason. The supply level is 48 on the rails and 23 at the front lines.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the far south right now. I'm pushing hard to the SE toward D-town and Z-town and I'm trying to stick to to the roads and rails so I've split my forces into three prongs to take care of the Soviet roadblocks I'm running into. It's still early in the turn so there's a chance that I can dispatch these groups that I'm trying to surround. There's three seperate Stalin Lines where the Soviets are trying to construct a screen. They don't have enough boots on the ground to form a proper front line yet. That tends to happen around turn 10 or so.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the front lines in T3 just before the first combat phaase.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 round 2 and this is what's happening down south right now. I'm still pushing SE toward D-town and Z-town and making some slow progress. Elmer has been railing troops to this AO and that makes the front lines dynamic and fluid.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 round 4 and this is me sneaking up on Minsk. There doesn't appear to be anything between me and the city but there's probably some invisible Soviet units in there somewhere. I should arrive at the city sometime in T4.

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