Workshop for the new guys - Directive 21 (D21)

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of the Sterlitamak area right now. This is the entrance to a pass through the mountains and is therefore of significance. The plus is that the rail passes through there also meaning ample supply for the trek. There's also a rail leading south which is of even more importance in this context.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the front lines look like around Khasabyurt right now. I've run into several divisions, some armour, and I suspect there's Soviet arty present. Some serious action after such a long drought. It occurs to me that the more of Russia I convert the less airfields there are to roost their birds. It's 12:54 on 21Oct26 as I write this in case you're keeping track. It also occurs to me that I can safely disband a lot of the CD guns protecting my coast, Murmansk, and wherever they are. And for those Axis minors that suffer damage that can't be repaired because they aren't being made any longer or never were being made, or for whatever reason, I'm thinking it might be best to disband those units so that their contents might be used by some other unit.

Anyway, I'm railing all my RR arty to this position to help subdue these bad boys. Fortunately, the rail is repaired all the way to the front in this case. I'm optimistic.

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[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd give you a tour now that T112 has started and nobody has moved yet. This is the area around what I like to call Archangel. The only current Soviet defender is that one infantry unit that is only dug in to a depth of "D" and I have lots of arty and one infantry unit and one CAV unit and I'm wondering what would happen if I attack that Soviet unit. Especially with the help of that one German division in addition to that one small stack all at the same time. The only long range arty is that which is organic to the 163rd Div HQ unit. It's range is 2 which is depicted by the thin black hexagon around the unit. I can bring in more arty to help out but it'll take a month of game time to get them here.

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[larryfulkerson]

First of all I thought it was time for a little closer look at the front lines. It's going wherever Russian roads lead. Or the rails. I'm trying to cover it all. I probably need to break down into thirds to cover it more efficiently. I'm running into serious Soviet groups in only a couple of places and I'm in danger of getting out flanked in several spots. I'm feeling dangerous. They best not get in my way.

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[larryfulkerson]

I'm publishing this tip so that all of us can be better players. Also, I thought you might like to see how fast my troops can move. It appears that the Soviets didn't even have time to move their squadrons ( 3 of them ) before my forces arrived. Anyway, when your current unit is an arty type and you press the "P" key you don't get the combat planner. You get a list of the scheduled battles. Thanks for that. The idea is to get the arty unit to attack aircraft without making the aircraft pull chocks and flee. You gotta enlist the help of an LCU. In this case I used the infantry unit just south of my rocket arty. I made the infantry unit the current unit, hovered over the enemy aircraft and pressed "P" and I succeeded in getting the combat planner. Whereupon I made the arty unit do a balls to the wall attack and let it go at that without having also enlisting the assistance of any LCU's at all. You don't want the birds to leave the nest. The idea is to leave them a route some supply so that they can successfully receive reinforcements each turn and each turn you can pound the reorg-ing aircraft units but you need to make sure you don't hurt them so bad that the entire unit evaporates.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the T113 view of Archangel right now. The Finns gained a hex last turn and now are going to attempt to push the Soviets one more hex. All the Soviet units are over 100% in supply, have never been damaged in combat, and are in excellent health. Except for one. There's one enemy infantry unit that was assaulted in the last turn and still hasn't fully recovered yet. So there's lots to do and I'm running out of fresh units.

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[larryfulkerson]

I don't know exactly what the nearby towns are so from all I can tell we're out in the sticks and I'm confronted by these two pitiful Soviet armour units which I intend to push aside and continue my push. I've been attacking these Soviet units with "Ignore losses" and a lot of times the Soviet unit will evaporate. An easy way to get rid of them.

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[larryfulkerson]

Now we're out close to a place I like to call the sticks and I've run into a Soviet airfield with some actual aircraft there. Why didn't Elmer move them last turn? I'm glad he didn't because I'm going to try to kill some of them with arty like the last time I ran into something like this. Unfortunately my last attempt to kill some aircraft resulted in me evaporating all three Soviet squadrons. D'oh. I was too bou cou when I should have been more nit noy.

Also, the next time you meet somebody from Thailand in order to properly say hello your supposed to press your hands together, palms together and bring them up near your nose, some people touch the nose, and you say in a gentle tone "Saw Waugh Dee cup". You may want to practice that.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what the area around Izhevsk right now. I'm so convinced it's safe to bring up some aircraft and I'm saving an airfield for more. I'm going in several directions here hunting for any units that shouldn't exist.

Come to think of it I'm doing this the hard way. What I ought to do is pull back, way back, breaking bridges as I go and wait for him to come to me. And do little raids as he advances to pick off the vulnerable units. I figure I can break all the bridges behind me all the way back to Moscow and just wait him out. That way I can set my bombers to INT and pick off his units as they move. What could go wrong?

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[larryfulkerson]

I may have some trouble getting disengaged from the Soviet units and may have to kill them to get away. But to kill them sometimes I have to surround them and that's time consuming and I don't want to go to that much trouble. I'll try using my recon units to provide some cover for moving units.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what is going on near the city of Chkalov and as you can see it's getting messy. Another reason to pull back.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what is going on near the city of Guryev and as you can see it's not meeting the need so I need to find someway to get enough troops out this far to deal with this. OR I could just walk away and let him try to keep up.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what's going on down south. I'm having a sort of a problem trying to fight these guys in the mountains. I'm going to pull back and give up this fight. In order for Elmer to win he's got to capture Berlin and we both know that's never going to happen. So...

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