larry ( Soviet ) 1.04.36 vs Axis AI

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my turn 11 moves with some industry I need to move yet superimposed on the image

[larryfulkerson]

I took one of those front line pictures as above and plotted on it where the bombers ( blue balls ) and fighters ( red balls ) are. It looks
like I have some adjustments to do as there's a section of my front line where there is no air service. I had thought that I might base the
bombers a bit further away from the front lines so they could still reach the enemy bases but alas, I found that I had to move them closer
to the front lines to reach the Axis bases. It's okay to have the bombers that close as long as my losses aren't prohibitive and so far they
aren't. I mean to say it's okay to have the bombers that close if I also have an air base with fighters in the same hex. I have a bunch of bomber and fighter bases I need to get together somewhere useful.

[randallw]

I believe it's pretty much known that air attacks often result in many less planes arriving at the target compared to what the human orders.  So maybe no need to test, it's broken.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T12 front lines before any Soviet movement

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T12 OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production:

[larryfulkerson]

After railing a bunch of reinforcements I have 58K of rail cap. left and I thought I'd use 54k of it to move the Armament industry out of Moscow.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my Soviet moves.......I did some pulling back in places.

[larryfulkerson]

I did some airbase strikes and didn't accomplish much

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis moves in T13 ( this is before any Soviet movement )

[larryfulkerson]

There aren't very many planes in the National Reserve worth assigning to an air base. I'd rather they have double digit ready planes.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved the I-153BS, and the I-153bis types to night missions hoping to knock down more of Elmer's nighttime air supply missions. Plus maybe be an escort for my partisan re-supply flights. Plus get them out of the daylight furballs.....maybe save some of them.

EDIT: I also looked up the list for the most experienced pilots and found some killer I-16's that needed to be changed to Mig-3's. Two air groups had a morale less than 30 so I moved them to the NR. Plus all those groups that have 1/2 or less ready planes got moved and replaced by fresh NR planes of the same type.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved all the Soviet stuff and railed in a bunch of people and I thought this might be just the time to evacuate the Heavy Industry
out of Kirovograd, just in case.

[larryfulkerson]

And then the thought occured to me to see about Moscow, since there's so much to move out of there. I decided to move the 10 Vehicle industry out of Moscow to a spot in the far NE.

[Seminole]

Here's my Soviet moves.......I did some pulling back in places.

If I may offer a suggestion, you're giving up too much territory without a fight at this point.  You need to make him burn MPs until the rains come.

Those forests, rivers, and especially swamps need to be defended.  Force him to burn lives, equipment, supplies, and MP bouncing your units back.  To make this work best you need to be digging in earlier, but start now!  I see you making thick lines, and then willingly pulling out of these lines without a real fight.

Instead of trying to make an exceptionally thick line, use 'skirmishers' in every forest and swamp, and focus on building your lines behind rivers and in tree lines behind these skirmishers.  Free defensive modifier, and the time he spends pushing back the skirmish line lets the real line dig in.  I see lots of places that you've pulled out of woods and swamps to make a line in the clear.

You should be forming several lines behind every natural obstacle between Smolensk and Moscow, and put it in place as soon as the reserves can be shipped from the east.  Falling back on entrenched lines is much better than a three deep line with 1 or 2 CV.  The Luga river and swamps should take the German precious time to hammer through.

This is after the fact, but I would also try to conduct a fighting withdrawal to the area north of Lake Ladoga.  Create three forts there as soon as you can and then setup a defense on either side of the pond just north of the Lake so that only two hexes can source an attack on the line.  Make sure and devote some reserve divisions to this effort and you should can probably hold the Finns here at a much smaller expense than manning the Finnish no advance line.  You can also just defend the Leningrad/Finland border with fortified zones and free up men to entrench the Leningrad urban area early.  Make the Germans earn it.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Seminole
If I may offer a suggestion, you're giving up too much territory without a fight at this point.  You need to make him burn MPs until the rains come.

I'm glad you said that........it just confirms what I've been thinking the last 1/2 hour. Maybe I should do something besides just pull-back. Good idea and I wish I'd thought of it earlier or that you'd have said something earlier or something. I like that idea.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my turn 14 moves:

[larryfulkerson]

I had only enough points to move 24 of the 30 Pe-2 industry out of Moscow.

[larryfulkerson]

Moving only 24 of the 30 Pe-2 industry out of Moscow gave me 60% damage rather than the usual 50% damage I usually get. That means that I've lost about 20% of the output of the Pe-2 industry. But it's better than loosing all 30 points to an over run by the Axis.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T15 front lines before any Soviet movement

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a bunch of stuff out of Moscow and this is what's left to move yet. I don't intend on moving the Mig-3 stuff.