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It's now T43 round 5 and this is what's going on near Moscow right now. I ran out of warm bodies to do a proper front line everywhere and have resorted to a light screen instead at the north end of this image of my lines. I'm moving more units to the hole in the Soviet lines but it'll take a turn or two for them to arrive to be useful. This is another reason I need to form a strategic reserve. It would certainly come in really handy right now. Alas, there is no reserve. To build a useful reserve I think I'll strip off one of the Panzer divisions from the fray and park them on the rails ready to move out to put out a Soviet bushfire. Maybe more than one Panzer division if possible. I'll keep you in the loop.

It's now T44 round 1 and this is what's going on from Yaroslavl down to Moscow right now. I'm fighting to capture all the river crossings north of Moscow and just to the NW of Moscow I'm trying to reduce a bulge in my lines but the defenders have built large stacks of units and the going is difficult and Elmer has railed some Guards Divisions into the AO and they threaten my whole operation. My goal is to surround the entire city eventually.

It's still T44 round 1 and this is what's going on near Rostov right now. I've managed to surround two large stacks of Soviet units in the north and I'm probing with light attacks at first to get all the dug in units to undig themselves and I'll follow that up with a serious attack to destroy them. I've decided to attack one stack at a time to allow more attackers to take part in the takedown.

Down south I've found a hole in the Soviet lines large enough to squeeze the 620th Pionier unit across the river using an intact crossing and I captured Konstantinovsk before I ran out of MP's. If I now drive him north I may be able to cut some of the supply routes the Soviets are using to feed their defenders. Not all the Axis units in this image have moved yet so there's a possibility to give that brave engineer unit some support.

It's now T44 round 2 and I just now repaired the rail in the city of Rostov which means Berlin is now linked with Rostov although it'll take multiple turns for the complete trip. I have 22.0K HRS's assigned and 1231 HRS's on hand at this point, mid-November 1941.

It's now T45 round 3 and I just now repaired the rail in the city of Voroshilovgrad which means Berlin is now linked with Voroshilovgrad although it'll take possibly several turns for the complete trip. I have 21.7K HRS's assigned and 686 HRS's right now. You know as well as I do that the Donets River is an excellent place to stop for the winter. I'm just so greedy about killing Soviet units that I tend to chase them. Lemme finish the surround and mop up of the northern group of Soviet units and likewise for the southern group that I'm in the process of surrounding and destroying them.

It's now T45 round 4 and I this is what it looks like near Moscow right now. I made the hole on the north end of the Soviet lines a little bit bigger. The Soviets are getting boat-loads of reinforcements each turn and they are showing up at the front lines.

It's now T47 round 1 and this is what it looks like near Moscow right now. I've managed to expand that hole in the Soviet lines to get a much bigger foothold. It doesn't get much more exciting than this.

It's now T47 round 5 and this is what it looks like from Yaroslavl down to Moscow right now. I'm attempting to start a surround on the north end of the Soviet front lines just NW of Moscow. I don't know if I can pull this off because Elmer is surely seeing what's going on and he'll probably rail 37 fresh divisions to this spot. All Armour divisions with my luck. Anyway, south of this image I've got units headed east to convert the roads and rails and airfields.

It's now T48 round 1 and this is what it looks like just west of Stalingrad right now. I'm slowly approaching the city of Stalingrad and I dread trying to capture a crossing over the Don River because I expect the Soviets will defend along the river. I didn't make the deadline of 04Dec41 to capture Sevastopol to be able to release the Bulgarians from garrison mode. So I disbanded all of the Bulgarians instead. I have 20.6K HRS's assigned and 1091 HRS's on hand.

It's now T49 round 2 and this is what it looks like near Yaroslavl right now. I had planned at one point to stop at the super river that runs north and south through Kalyazin but the river froze over and no longer served as a defensive feature and there were opportunities to kill Soviet units galore and I'm more agressive than is advisable so I drove across that river and I've been pushing ever since. I'm in the process of digesting two seperate groups of Soviet units, all this just before the Soviet Winter Offensive starts. During the SWO the Soviet shock zooms up to something like 120 and my shock drops to something like 70 and there's a pestilence penalty being applied to the Axis side so given that combination of factors it's going to be a severe disadvantage for the Axis side for as long as the SWO lasts, which iirc tends to be something like 9 turns or so.

It's now T50 round 1 and this is the turn that sees the Soviet Winter Offensive start. I have 20.2K HRS's assigned and 269 HRS's on hand right now. That's a lot lower than I had desired for this eventuality. I'm going to spend this turn getting ready for the Soviet assault.

It's still T50 round 1 and this is what the Sevestopol area looks like right now. I've pushed my way along the southern coastal highway but then I ran into some stacks of Soviet units and their restance became insurmountable. But I gained some hexes on the north edge but I'm still 2 hexes away from the port. It's obviously going to take quite a while to clear out this nest of Soviet defenders. It's my long term plan to destroy all this Soviet equipment.

It's now T50 round 3 and this is me fighting for crossings over the Don River so I can approach the Stalingrad area. I'm having to go slower since the supply level is 2 at the tip of the spear. The repaired rail is getting closer however, so I expect the supply levels to slowly rise a bit. The rivers aren't quite frozen yet so they are still a hindrance.

It's now T51 round 1 and this is me doing a bit of mop up just north of Rostov and expanding my foothold at the crossings just east of Rostov and off-map further east are Axis units creaping up on the city of Stalingrad. As you can see the supply levels aren't the best and I'm having to slow down frequently when moving my units so they don't go below about 50% or so. I would halt all operations at the super river but the opportunities to kill Soviet units are all over the place. It's almost too good to pass up. Although the Soviet shock advantage is making things difficult.

It's still T51 round 1 and this is the area east of Orel and depicts the places the Soviets have pushed hard in their turn just past. They pushed hard enough to break holes in my lines and cause a general panic withdrawl if they can. And with their shock advantage they can. I'll have to start a general withdrawl now while I'm still clear headed before I do it out of panic. I'll keep you posted on what happens next.

It's now T51 round 2 and this is what it looks like near Moscow right now and shows the huge gap(s) in my front line along the north edge of the battle. I'm not sure how that happened but I need to fill up those gaps ASAP or else Elmer will run some units through there.

It's now T53 round 3 and this is what it looks like east of Moscow right now. My front lines has disentegrated into a series of small screens and that's probably not going to hold the Soviets back for very long. This could be a big problem.

It's now T53 round 3 and this is what it looks like east of Moscow right now. My front line has disentegrated into a series of small screens and that's probably not going to hold the Soviets back for very long. This could be a big problem.

It's now T54 round 1 and I've just opened the turn, haven't moved anyone yet, and checking the recent reinforcements I find the 126th Inf Reg that has spawned at Riga just now. I save all the old turn files so with a little effort I could find the turn when it died and where and so on but I'm so incredably lazy I'd rather wonder about it instead and I notice that it's an "untried" unit. So I need to monitor where I send it to and take care of it's first combat participation. I need for it to suceed in the first attack because it'll have a higher chance of getting a better "initial" proficiency ( besides the one it's been assigned in the process of getting spawned ). There are some items of equipment that are missing in it's initial allotment of equipment. It received no Engineer Squads because the pool is extreemly low on available engineers at this point. I suppose *this* unit will eventually receive it's engineers. A lot of the time the equipment is missing because I haven't started making any of it yet. I'm wondering if it's Special Ability "Reconnaissance" value is fungible. I mean: does the value change as the unit receives the different currently missing equipment types. Does it change when the Hetzers arrive?

It's still T54 round 1 and this is what it looks like west of Stalingrad right now. As you can see there are spots that don't have an incredible supply level. That slows down the operational tempo to a crawl. As a result I'm still fighting over the river crossings and so far haven't gotten very far. I may have to hold what I've got here and approach Stalingrad from the south. I've already got units streaming over the river flowing south of here. That will take a month of game time to get some units south of Stalingrad. I'll keep you in the loop.