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Turn 24

The final snow turn.
The end is approaching for Leningrad, but nobody is saying anything about surrendering.

Moscow: the Germans retreat from their positions in the south and north

South and centre: more morale boosting attacks

Not the most dramatic of turns. But next turn, it's the blizzard[:D]

This may have already been said but I'd throw EVERY available reserve you have south of D and Z-town. Those axis minor allies will fold fast and you'll unhinge all of AGS. This could get ugly fast.

I think Mr Bo is about to get the biggest thrashing of his WITE career.

I go all out Hoooper during blizzard.

Blizzards can be a major game changer and hes attacking until the last snow turn! I think he thks your a newbie.

Lol if you can hold that Leningrad hex for one more turn you could releive it before Fin release. That would be huge up there.

Yes I agree Mt a major ass kicking just might happen

Hoooper IF you can pocket just 1 or 2 units the first few blizzard turns that will cause the snowball effect to take hold.

zip for reserves getting to front and January turns into a 2nd December because of falling CV. The hole center could come appart.

The south is a disaster waiting to happen heheh minor allies all alone.

ORIGINAL: Michael T
I think Mr Bo is about to get the biggest thrashing of his WITE career.

Look at the situation just to the south of Moscow -- that could become dangerous. All depends on how Hooper prepared...

Once Bobo will realize that holding is hard and cannot be relied on in December, he'll get his next lesson as well: some Axis units will not be able to retract their steps as fast as the Soviets can overtake them, especially if Cavalry is ready to exploit, and also in bad, high-MP terrain like Volkov-Valdai region. Bobo will probably face a few dreadful turns...

In some sense this game makes for a good test case for the Blizzard rules, though: Bobo did exactly what the Germans did, attack until the last moment (or Wehrmacht exhaustion). Their lines are winding and overextended. I can't see his rail heads, but they are likely close, meaning the supply situation is perhaps not as strained as the one faced by the Germans. The Red Army seems to be about the size it had early December 41, and makes a decent impression. Wehrmacht is a bit stronger, having perhaps 500k more men/less casualties as in almost every AAR. So from that I would expect that the blizzard offensive should be at large less successful than the historical one, or at best on par. I hope Bobo does the desperate clinging and holding to every yard so one can see what the blizzard rules would lead to.

You are right about that game with Big Baba, Hooooper, but imagine your game, but with half the Russians you have, and the Germans about 15-20 hexes further east everywhereat this point in time.

I am very interested in what will happen here, but I do concur with MT and Pelton on this. However....he is very aware of the capabilities of the Russian army. I would think however, that you are in very good shape to put my long time friend in a predicament. Think I will go have some fun, and call him up, and casually get around to how his WitE game(s) are going, lol. This is really good entertainment for me.

Turn 25

Well here it is, payback time at last. Thank you for your encouraging comments, Michael T, Gerald P, Scook, Smokindave and janh, but I'm not quite as optimistic as you are. For one thing, the Red Army has lost a lot of blood, and some armies have only two or three effective divisions. For another, I managed to lose a lot of cavalry, at least seven divisions of which I threw away behind enemy lines (one still survives in the Leningrad oblast). My excuse was that I was desperately trying for some counterplay, but the consequence is that I will only be able to form about eight corps, and new cavalry divisions are still 20AP, or 40% of my weekly allocation.

That said, I've don't recall a previous game where the Germans made so little preparation for the blizzard. So I do agree with janh's points: without fortifications the attritional losses are going to be severe, the front is a very long one (especially as the Finns are still confined)and he will pretty much be forced into a long retreat from Moscow. I also agree with Smokindave that the minor Axis allies look vulnerable, but I'm sure they'll be stiffened before the Dneiper freezes in two or three turns. They can't be attacked before then.

Anyhow, here's Leningrad. The front on the Novgorod axis looks weak, so that will be a target. However the Volkhov Front is feeble, and is badly in need of replacement and reinforcement. Second Shock will go there once it is concentrated.

Elsewhere the German's are pulling back ...

Moscow. The pincers are gone now [:)]

Tula might be regained more quickly than I'd thought

Centre ... they're not withdrawing so much as running away ..

In the south, everybody stays in.

Turn 26

Leningrad: surprisingly, at least to me, the city holds out another turn. The Germans break through the belt of fortified zones and allow the Finns to make their first foray onto Russian soil

On the Moscow front, there are further withdrawals on the wings. I have no objections to this tactic on B's part: I would much rather take the ground without fighting, and let contact attrition wear down the enemy.

In Tula and the centre, the Axis once more retreat faster than I can pursue.

And in the south, an eerie peace continues for another turn. The Dneiper will freeze next go, and the southern offensive will open. The Romanians south of Dnepropetrovsk retreat to a safe distance, but no sign of any German showing up the buttress the line ...

The attacks are, once again, fairly subdued. Volkhov Front pushes a little further towards Novgorod and Leningrad Front closes with the perfidious Finn, but neither have the weight to really get moving. The Leningrad forces on the Baltic coast are a little too weak to push towards the city on the shortest axis. I have to decide whether to move 2nd Shock onto the line, and decide that it's still too weak to make a difference, so another week is spent in intensive training.