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ORIGINAL: STEF78

Summer 1944 is a killing for the germans. I played it twice and I just cannot imagine the result with such a long frontline.

Stefan, I think you were Sir Robin's minstrel in an earlier life

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

ORIGINAL: STEF78

Summer 1944 is a killing for the germans. I played it twice and I just cannot imagine the result with such a long frontline.

Stefan, I think you were Sir Robin's minstrel in an earlier life

My dear invader.

My british culture begins with Hastings and ends with Fleurus [;)].

I think you wrote about this guy => "Brave Sir Robin ran away. Bravely ran away away.... When Danger reared its ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled Yes brave Sir Robin turned about"

As said one of my friend: "ce ne sont pas ceux qui ont débarqué les premiers en Normandie qui on baisé les putes à Paris." or in approximative (an much correct) English "the Gi's who landed the first ones in Normandy weren't those who kissed the prostitutes in Paris"

Sometimes we have to retreat ...

ORIGINAL: STEF78


My british culture begins with Hastings and ends with Fleurus [;)].

Oh dear. I didn't think that any self-respecting Frenchman in the C.11th or later (and I have yet to meet a Frenchman who isn't self-respecting) thought that there was anything french about the barbarian/Viking Normans of that time. As for Fleurus, we didn't take part in either 1622, 1690 or 1794; though it was obviously a popular choice of battleground for continentals[:D].

You might prefer the Combat of the Thirty (1351) and Grand Port 1810 at which the french navy scored a 4-0 win, which are the earliest and latest french victories vs the English that I know of.

How do we define a french?

From an actual point of view, Guillaume is born in Falaise and died in Rouen. It's more than enough to be french.

Concerning Fleurus, I admit my mistake, the british were part of the coalition against us but as often, let the others fight ... and die [;)]

Henry II of England was born in Le Mans and died at Chinon castle. His son Richard the Lionheart (or Coeur de lion if you prefer) was born in England but probably spent only 6 months in England after becoming king), died in France and only spoke French and Occitan (for those unfamiliar with french history the people of Aquitaine and other parts of south France were genetically and culturally very different from the rest of France and I think only really gave up their language Occitan after WWII. His most famous lover became Philip II of France. Does this make them French? You can have Richard as he was probably our 2nd worst king after his younger brother John, but John was born and died in England and I don't suppose you want him.

BTW anyone who comes to France should visit Chinon castle which overlooks the Loire river, has been amazingly well restored and still looks impregnable today. The Chinon area is also very famous for its wine which may be useful to know if you have family members who don't like castles as much as they should.

ORIGINAL: STEF78

Concerning Fleurus, I admit my mistake, the british were part of the coalition against us but as often, let the others fight ... and die [;)]

Just trying to give you a chance to win - we call it fair play [:D]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: chaos45

The key to latewar Soviet play is to breakthrough and encircle....with all this head to head fighting Brian G is done. Losing that many tanks a week he cannot afford of the long haul. Eventually it will weaken his tank forces.

Silly's German army is still very strong and so each time Brian makes progress he is facing massive counterattacks that are effectively smashing his own armored forces down.

I think also Sillyflower is playing the defense the German's should have executed .. a mobile blocking action rather than "stand and die!" which allowed the historical encirclements ...
The game allows for a couple of hexes to retreat followed by a mobile counterattack that brings the front back to an original position as you stated.

The weakness of the Germans is Infantry. Wear the German Infantry down every turn with repeated attacks to cause casualties and the rest will follow in due time. Not to mention it builds your experience and Morale which you don't get when losing battles on defense. I practice what I preach as the Soviets right from around turn 5/6 on. Leave me a German infantry division in the Open and it is Deer season. Break your German Division down into regiments even better because I will get a combat bonus on them. Many suggest against it but I see it as a necessity. But at this point in this game the Germans have far too many replacements to do much about and this slugfest will pretty much go on for a very long time.

As Hardluck insists on dragging the AAR back to the game ([;)]) :

T133



I stick to the routine of trying to rescue isolated units (there were quite a few) and to eliminate any penetrations. I do enough to make it safe to hold onto Saratov for another turn,though Engels is doomed which will earn the Brianites their 1st VP regain [:@].

I try to keep a friendly hex between me and his nasty inf. xxx. This makes it much harder for them to advance and do a full attack. Scant consolation for the loss of all my river defence bonuses though.

Moscow area



Fortunately my rushed-in reinforcements stop any further penetration. I also start to try to improve defences S of Moscow.

losses



Gave the Bolshevik armour another good smack as 1 mech and 7 tk xxx rout in my turn. Losses on both sides increased this turn.

In the last 5 turns, armour losses have been 1000G to 5.3K R (of which 3.5 K lost in the last 2 weeks) inc 3K T34s + 6K R trucks captured [8D]. Air this turn 18 to 300.

German armour details as promised. The current tank fights are good for morale and experience.



I always find the TOE% figures a bit strange. I had 1 division stated to be at 30/32% strength when it had 70% of its manpower. Anyone know why?

OOBs (obviously but Matrix won't let me post screenshot by itself)



Brian clearly doesn't have any difficulty in replacing his tank losses

Brians army is extremely weak for 1944.....he is short over 12k artillery pieces and about a million men to be able to really fully regain the initiative.

A key metric I have noticed is Soviet Artillery over 100k+ guns. Once the Soviets over double the Germans in artillery the slide starts full tilt.

I reckon so

T134

It appears that I forgot to take any pictures [:'(]. I obviously thought I had because the only note I made of the turn was 'air 3 v 110'. Sorry. You will have to hope that Brian is more forthcoming.

T135

the calm before the disaster



not much action in the south - a bit of rinsing and repeating

T135 losses



G losses higher than normal as 2 inf xx surrendered in Brian's turn according to my notes

The mildly mannered capitalist are still very far from Berlin at the beginning of 1944 ... A lot of space to trade for blood and most of all time ..

You do not have to hold the "A-A line" to win (as you know) just keep the Brianites from Berlin ...

Did this game die?

I have tried very hard to summon up the enthusiasm to continue after Brian returned from his holiday, but sadly I have failed. He made an excellent offensive in the south for which I'm still kicking myself as I originally decided to run but changed my mind in favour of hanging on for 1 more turn.........

All I could do now is to run, and there aren't enough non-mud turns for Brian to get to Berlin, so I would get a 'second' win though Brian deserves some sort of moral win for his perseverance which I cannot match. I'm having too much time catching up on other games to see myself returning to wite, though I'm sure I won't be able to resist wite 2.I have also resigned from other game which I was winning easily.

Thanks also to all readers and especially the contributors to this AAR without whom I probably would have stopped when I got the VC260 win.