D21 yet again. A tribute to the community as my thanks

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T38 round 1 and I have just now opened the turn and here's some of the expected reinforcements I'm due next turn and it appears to me that a lot of them are brown-water boats, which I'm not convinced that they will be a worthwhile asset. I can convert the river hexes to my control and perhaps ambush any enemy aircraft that might be in range but other than that I'm not convinced that they are all that useful. We'll see.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T39 round 1 and this is what Moscow looks like right now. You don't see it on the map but there's a deep layer of snow on the ground and a terrible storm is going on. I've largely turned off the attacking so my units can get some rest and build up their strength a bit. However the Soviets are still attacking so hard that several of their units evaporate with each combat phase. Elmer has his aircraft do several airfield strikes each combat phase as well. So I've had at least three squadrons of my fighters evaporate as a result of their airfield strikes but Elmer usually loses more than I do. The problem with that is that he can afford the losses better than I can.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now the Soviet T39 round 7 and this is an example of when Soviets have a unit evaporate during the attack. I had some arty within range of the target hex and I'm wondering if my supporting arty had anything to do with the evaporation of the Soviet unit. I suspect so.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now the Axis T40 round 1. I just now opened this turn and as is my habit the first thing I do is check the air cover I have for all my units and I found a base way north of Leningrad that had a German fighter unit parked there so I moved some of my Ju-88's, the 7./8.9/KG1 "Hindenburg" squadron up there to lend a hand and then I wondered about the weather expecting the worse, took one look and found out that it was worse than I expected. Large numbers of T-storms and rain turning into sleet all over the map. In other words nothing should fly today for any reason. I'm sure the Soviets are going to fly however so I'll be forced to keep my fighters on duty just as a precautionary measure. But the bombers I can ground for this turn.

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[larryfulkerson]

In the Sevastopol area I've set up an artillery park within range of the target hex that I can use the three adjacent hexes to assault from. Complicating my attack is the fact that I have to attack from river hexes which as you all know is detremental to the success of said attack. So I railed all the RR arty to support the attack. Well, not ALL the RR arty...I have the one RR arty unit with a range of 7 parked near Leningrad to pound that Soviet island just west of the port. The Soviet CD guns parked there are probably range 2 but to be safe I'm using some guns with a longer range than that so there's no danger of any counterartillery fire.

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[larryfulkerson]

In the Vologda area right now I've driven the 1st Panzer Division tank division into an area where Soviet supply is cut off through the two northern exits but that combined with the results of my driving my brown-water boat along the river behind enemy lines I've managed to prevent Soviet supply flow from entering this battlefield from all but one spot, at Cherepovets. I've got some units pressing in that direction so maybe I can cut off the supply to all those Soviet defenders and defeat them.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T40 round 2 and I forced my way through the Kerch Straits and the Romulins are fighting for a bigger foothold. Meanwhile I'm attacking the Soviet front line near the port of Sevastopol and the arty park is helping quite a bit. The Soviets have those CD guns to support them and the losses are heavy on both sides.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T40 round 2 and I'm slowly pushing the Soviets toward the east and I'm planning on stopping at the river to let my units rest and refit to be in better shape for when the Soviet Winter Offensive begins. I have 22.7K HRS's assigned, 707 HRS's on hand, and I've lost 35.7K HRS's so far.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T40 round 2 and this is what the Moscow area looks like right now. The Soviets are building a fortress in front of the city and it's getting harder and harder to make any progress in this AO. Most of the most severe Soviet attacks take place in this area. I'm expecting the Soviets to make a hole in my front lines any time now.

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[larryfulkerson]

Here's a picture of the front lines as they are right now.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T42 round 3 and I finally got a unit close enough to Cherepovets to cut off the supply flow to five Soviet units which will help me cut them down. I notice that Elmer is using the worse terrain available to defend in. The bad terrain is bad for me because it slows me down ( less MP's to spend and detramental terrain costs ) and generally makes things difficult. I'll need to remember that for the latter parts of the game when I'm defending. The rails are repaired all the way to the front lines except for all my terrain north of Cherepovets. That's another reason I need to capture *that* particular city.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T43 round 1 and here's the current weather in mid-November, 1941. The rain has been replaced by snow flurries all over the map. The rivers aren't quite frozen yet but they will be soon. The 4th, 12th, 8th, and 5th Finn Corps were frozen in place and now serve garrison duty ( yellow band ). I've been sending all the available active Finn units to this spot because this is the jump off staging area for the fight heading north to Archangel. I'd like to see if I can't disrupt Lend Lease by capturing the two far-north ports ( including Murmansk ). I usually run the first combat phase with no "rounds expended" bulbs extinguished but clearly in this image there are three bulbs extinguished which means that if I ran all the attacks now I'll most likely burn all the rounds down to three extinguished bulbs ( 70% of the turn remaining ). However, just before pulling the trigger I pull up the scheduled combats panel and scope out how many long-turn combats there are and if, as is typical, there's only one, then I'll cancel that combat until I'm satisfied that there's no more I can do to save potential future rounds.

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[pkpowers]

I really enjoy this map ; what terrain mod are you using and please post a link sir ; thanks again for the great aar

[larryfulkerson]

I really enjoy this map ; what terrain mod are you using and please post a link sir ; thanks again for the great aar

Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you are enjoying what's going on.
See if you can download the terrain MOD that I'm using from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jDYgv2 ... sp=sharing

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T43 round 1 and here's what's going on near Yaroslavl right now. I need to capture the crossings to prevent the Soviets from getting on the west side of the river. I plan to stop at the river to sit out the Soviet Winter Offensive which will probably happen around T49 or so.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T43 round 1 and I seem to have blown a hole in the Soviet front lines just NE of Moscow and I'm beginning to role up the Soviet line just to the east of Moscow although I'm pretty sure Elmer is going to plug that hole with something substantial; but I happen to have the 7th Panzer Division as my point of the spear and my guys are worn down a bit but still have a bite. I have 23.2K HRS's assigned and 485 HRS's on hand. The supply level is 13 at the tip of the spear which is just enough to sustain continued operations. About half of my force is yellow or worse and need rest and refit but most of the Axis units in this image are in fairly good shape, relatively speaking. About 1/3 of my front lines have reached good places to stop for the winter and the fighting in those areas have largely stopped.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T43 round 1 and I'm getting closer to owning all the crossings over the Donets River, my winter stop line. I'm trying to grab all the crossings to trap what Soviet units I can on the west side of the river. I'd like to destroy all of them if possible. This far down south it's still "warm" enough to rain instead of snow so there's lots of muddy terrain down here. The rivers are "cold", not yet frozen. Another good thing is that I've managed to stop up the Rostov crossing. That was a major traffic route for newly arriving Soviet reinforcements. Now they will have to use routes further to the east. I need to use my bombers to see if I can drop some of those bridges so the Soviets will be hampered even further.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T43 round 1 and I'm still in the process of moving units and I've come upon the 294th Inf Div to move next and inspecting the units of the division before moving anything I discovered that the INF contingent is only 1/2 strength and needs refit desperately. Meanwhile, I need more warm bodies to leap the river in front of Stalingrad in about 6 weeks or so and I'm thinking that if I move the division along a known supply path that maybe it'll refit, albiet more slowly than if it stood still, while being moved toward Stalingrad. That's the theory anyway.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T43 round 2 and I've pushed the Soviets out of the Kerch Straits and have pushed further southeast repairing the rail as I go. I have no idea how long it'll take me to arrive at Krasnodar. The Romulins are making good progress.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T43 round 4 and I've just now captured Tula, finally. I've got 22.4K HRS's assigned and 809 HRS's on hand. Which means I need to cut back on the operational tempo to hold the losses down better. Also, here's an example of the terrible weather this AO has right now. Snow flurries turning into sleet, strong wind out of the north, and colder than Pluto's north pole. Almost. You can't dig a hole to hide in because the ground is as hard as granite. Almost. And as you all know, bad weather favors the defender.

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