FITE2.......Fogger(A)......Fulkerson(S)

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Josh
.... hmmm everything alright Larry? MIA? Doesn't happen much you let a day go by without an AAR post. Last post a week ago I'm worried.

It turns out that John had to go out of town ( or something like that ) and I'm just waiting for some moves from John and that won't
happen until John comes back. Thanks for caring though.

[Josh]

Glad to hear Stavka spared you. This time. [;)]

[larryfulkerson]

I finally got some moves from John and here's the front lines in T12:

[larryfulkerson]

John is blasting his way through the Stalin Line down south. I'm running out of roadblockers and bottleneckers. I don't have enough
units to just run them into his path. I'm hoping to delay John just long enough for me to get the reinforcements in place but it's looking
like John is winning the foot race.

[larryfulkerson]

Moscow is to the NE of here and this is one section of the front lines where I've had sufficient time to build a rudimentary front line. John
is approaching from the west and there's going to be fighting going on here pretty soon. About 4 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

I've placed some bottleneckers and roadblockers along the Berezina River and that's the last such place before you move east to the
front lines I'm building. And reinforcements are still flowing this direction. I'm not going to have enough time before John's units get
there first I'm thinking.

[larryfulkerson]

Umm...........there's terrific pressure on the front lines down in BessArabia from the Romulans, uh, Romanians. My lines are backing
up and giving way and there's no back-stop line of units to prevent their breakthrough. It's not looking good.

[larryfulkerson]

You would have thought that the Marshes would hold up the Axis units from getting to the river on the east side of the Marshes. But I'm
seeing Axis units already nosing around my roadblocks. These are the recon units and the main body probably isn't far behind. And
some of my river defenders are only just now getting into position. This time I won the foot race again. I've got my fingers crossed for
the future.

[fogger]

This just before the end of my turn. A couple of turns ago I was able to take two river crossings before Larry destroyed the bridges with the result I was able to get a couple of divisions across. I took a gamble that I could capture another crossing and dropped a para regt onto the next river crossing. It was defended but I was lucky and Larry's units retreated. I did not have enough air lift to do another assault with another regt so I split the regt into 2 Bns and was again lucky in that I was able to capture another crossing just north of the first. Next turn I should be able to break out of my bridgehead and cross southern bug river. I donot think Larry has anything in the area to stop me from then racing to the Dnper river.

[larryfulkerson]

OK I've gotten some new moves from John and it's now T13 and John is leaping across the river where I thought I might be able to hold
up John's units for a turn or two. Not this time it turns out. Axis units have leapt across the river and are now racing for the next river
crossings. I don't have many units between the rivers so John has made another breakthrough here.

[larryfulkerson]

About two turns ago John's units got across the westmost river and I've been attempting to put the stopper back in the bottle and it's
not working. John is breaking through and has started making pockets and moving to the next river to the east, my next line of defense.
This has been the pattern followed so far in this game. The map is so big and this kind of event happens so often that it's difficult to
know which breakthrough to rush toward every time. And the position of units that you've just moved tends to blend into the position
of units you haven't moved yet and having a mental picture of the "battlefield situation" is really hard to keep clear and accurate.Lots of
little things are falling through the cracks and are becoming big things. I'm losing control of the general fall-back going on. Units are
being rounded up and destroyed all over the map. We're descending into chaos here.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm wondering what the yellow diamonds are supposed to signify to the north of Leningrad. I'm guessing they are a national border
symbol.

[larryfulkerson]

John has Panzers up to Pskov already. My defenders might not last very long if he gets serious with them. And there's no backup in
the AO either. A breakthrough here would open the path to Leningrad.

[fogger]

Larry, all is not that bad. You did stop me from taking 2 of the 3 objectives that I HAD to take by the end of turn 12. And the way things are going at present I do not think I will be able to take the next lot by turn 18.

A lot of my units are now starting to run on "red". I have kept 1 tank 1 mech inf and 7 inf divs in reserve which I am now starting to feed into the battle. One of the principles of war is to maintain a reserve at all times and when you commit the reserve to form another one ASAP. My big problem will be the state of the reserve and how long it will take to get back to strength and thus be suitable to use.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: fogger
Larry, all is not that bad. You did stop me from taking 2 of the 3 objectives that I HAD to take by the end of turn 12. And the way things are going at present I do not think I will be able to take the next lot by turn 18.

A lot of my units are now starting to run on "red". I have kept 1 tank 1 mech inf and 7 inf divs in reserve which I am now starting to feed into the battle. One of the principles of war is to maintain a reserve at all times and when you commit the reserve to form another one ASAP. My big problem will be the state of the reserve and how long it will take to get back to strength and thus be suitable to use.

And you are moving into recently conquered areas where the supply is lower than nominal and your RR engineers won't be able to
keep up with the front, probably, so maybe my front lines might eventually start to hold their own. I've got reinforcements resting behind
the lines and they will be ready to move in a turn or three and then fresh men will start to show up at the front and then toward the middle
of the winter I might be able to make limited counterattacks. And one thing will lead to another and eventually I'll own Berlin.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet view of the area where John dropped some Axis paratroopers. He's captured crossings over the river which are one of
the things keeping my front lines from collapsing so it's important that I take 'em back before the Axis main body reaches that position so
it's really fortunate that I have two divisions and some arty within movement range to try to put the stopper back in the bottle.

[fogger]

"I have two divisions and some arty within movement range" Pluck a duck. How I am going to have to mount a relief operation before I lose them. I was hoping that they would hold until the main body got to them. It is a good thing I did not drop them on the east side of the river. Starting singing that tune larry as I am off to work now.

[larryfulkerson]

John is starting to run into my front lines to the west of Smolensk. I've gotten a rudimentary front line set up but I don't think I should hold
my breath to think that it might hold more than a turn or two. I've got units headed to a spot to the east of here to form another line.

[larryfulkerson]

I've found another FITE2 bug. There's a unit that must travel on rails only and it's respawning on a hex that hex that has no rail.

[fogger]

Rybnitsa bridgehead.
I was not too sure if I should have reinforced my paratroopers or try and keep Larry off balanced. I decided to try and take another bridge just to the south. My thinking is that even if Larry could mount a strong counter attack it is unlikely that he would take all 3 bridgeheads. Mean while back at the Rybnitsa bridgehead I am in the process of breaking out. It is only 42kms to the paratroopers and I should be able to make it them next turn.