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Here's what the Kharkov area looks like right now. I've snuck up on the city from the south and the forces that aren't in the fight at the city have zoomed on ahead to keep the advance going. The rails aren't repaired very close so supply levels are mearly adequate. Elmer has been railing troops into this area so the Soviet resistance is mounting with each turn. I need to break some bridges down here as well as everywhere else needing a busted bridge.

Here's what the Moscow area looks like right now. I'm slowly pushing the Soviets backward. But it's a hex at a time kind of affair. No more slash and dash. This is T24 round 4 and I'm almost out of rounds so I don't expect much to change for the rest of this turn. The rails are repaired all the way to the front in several places so the supply level is okie dokie. I haven't had to break down into pieces in this area so far but in other sections of the front it's becoming necessary to maintain a cohiesive front line.

It's T24 round 4 and here's what the Leningrad area looks like right now. I've pushed north until I have two adjacent hexes adjacent to the city so next turn when my units have rested a bit I'll try to do a three-dot assault and see if I can't gain the city. I would bring in the RR arty to help out but it's busy near Odessa and Sevasatopol.

Here's what types of equipment I'm not building. I'm ccurious about these guys because I don't want the unit that has that kind of equipment to disappear from the game. So for example the Do-17: I've got 134 assigned, 72 on hand, and I've lost 30. So it's not a problem yet but when I get down to 0 on hand I need to drive it to my backfield and just park it in reserve for the end game phase when I'm going to need it enough to risk it in combat. There's only 2 He-112's on hand so I'll need to watch that unit closely so that I move it before it disappears from the game. I'll have to take a look at the unit(s) that have Ju-86's in it to determine whether or not to move it to the rear. If it's got a better model of plane in it as well as the Ju-86's then I may want to consider leaving it in combat and just slowly lose the Ju-86's and no hard feelings. Oh, and I wanted to bring to my attention ( and you guys as well ) the fact that there's a serious difference between the River Patrol Boat(1), and the River Patrol Boat(2). As you can see in the image on the right side.

I found the unit that has the Ju-086's in it. It also will begin getting some late model Ju-87's in T75 and build 12 per turn until T335 when production will cease. So I need to park this bad boy in some quiet corner of the world where it won't be in harm's way until T75 or so. This way the unit won't disappear from lack of Ju-86's and as soon as the Ju-87's begin to appear I can thrust it back into combat and not worry so much about the Ju-86's so much any longer. That's the theory.

It's now T24 round 6 and here's what's going on near Kiev right now. I've squeezed the Soviet definders down to a small group and I'm slowly making it go away. The rails are repaired all the way to this spot so the supply levels are at max ( 30 ). I expect this crowd to be gone in another turn or two.

Here's a panarama of what's going on around Kharkov right now. I'm pushing everybody to the east and I'm going to let the follow on forces take care of Kharkov. I'm going to replace the fast movers with leg infantry so the fast movers can zoom off to the east. I'm railing small units down here to help with the conversion of so many hexes.

larryfulkerson wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:48 am I found the unit that has the Ju-086's in it. It also will begin getting some late model Ju-87's in T75 and build 12 per turn until T335 when production will cease. So I need to park this bad boy in some quiet corner of the world where it won't be in harm's way until T75 or so. This way the unit won't disappear from lack of Ju-86's and as soon as the Ju-87's begin to appear I can thrust it back into combat and not worry so much about the Ju-86's so much any longer. That's the theory.
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It's impressive that you get down to that level of management (I use air staff assistant in big scenarios). I had to google JU86 to see what it was...

Cpl GAC wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:47 am

larryfulkerson wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:48 am I found the unit that has the Ju-086's in it. It also will begin getting some late model Ju-87's in T75 and build 12 per turn until T335 when production will cease. So I need to park this bad boy in some quiet corner of the world where it won't be in harm's way until T75 or so. This way the unit won't disappear from lack of Ju-86's and as soon as the Ju-87's begin to appear I can thrust it back into combat and not worry so much about the Ju-86's so much any longer. That's the theory.

It's impressive that you get down to that level of management (I use air staff assistant in big scenarios). I had to google JU86 to see what it was...

You made me curious about just what a Ju-86 looked like and like you I had to google it as well. Ever since learning how to play WITP-AE I've been keen to get under the hood and micromanage things. I've also been known to adjust the range of specific aircraft in order to dedicate it to a specific area or a specific battle. For example I would park a bomber relatively near a stack of Soviet troops and adjust the range so that it just covers the enemy stack and put it on a three-dot setting so that it serves just that enemy hex only. Strange seeing a long range bomber with a range of 5 but it does serve the purpose. How am I doing on the AAR so far?

Cpl GAC wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:47 am

larryfulkerson wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:48 am I found the unit that has the Ju-086's in it. It also will begin getting some late model Ju-87's in T75 and build 12 per turn until T335 when production will cease. So I need to park this bad boy in some quiet corner of the world where it won't be in harm's way until T75 or so. This way the unit won't disappear from lack of Ju-86's and as soon as the Ju-87's begin to appear I can thrust it back into combat and not worry so much about the Ju-86's so much any longer. That's the theory.
temp.jpg

It's impressive that you get down to that level of management (I use air staff assistant in big scenarios). I had to google JU86 to see what it was...

Air Staff assistant will kill your squadrons in this scenario.

Graymane wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 7:00 pm

Cpl GAC wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:47 am

larryfulkerson wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:48 am I found the unit that has the Ju-086's in it. It also will begin getting some late model Ju-87's in T75 and build 12 per turn until T335 when production will cease. So I need to park this bad boy in some quiet corner of the world where it won't be in harm's way until T75 or so. This way the unit won't disappear from lack of Ju-86's and as soon as the Ju-87's begin to appear I can thrust it back into combat and not worry so much about the Ju-86's so much any longer. That's the theory.

It's impressive that you get down to that level of management (I use air staff assistant in big scenarios). I had to google JU86 to see what it was...

Air Staff assistant will kill your squadrons in this scenario.

Yes, I agree. I hardly ever use the Air Staff Assistant because it flies missions that sometimes don't make sense. Like Ju-86's on Sea Int ( it doesn't have a very impressive anti-ship value ). Also, Elmer loves to do airfield strikes. He does airfield strikes like they're going out of style. Things like that will make your aircraft disappear faster than a Russian journalist.

It's now T25 round 4 and I finally captured Leningrad so the Finns are released from the stop line. I need now to capture the Life Road to trap all the Soviet defenders in the pocket. I'm not real sure what to do with the CD guns on that little island just off the west coast. It's got some CD guns and a security unit garrisoned there. I guess I'll just park my naval units to the west of the island so the security unit can't do some amphibous kinds of things in my backfield.

I finally captured Kharkov. I don't know if I'm on schedule or not. It's 14Sep41 so there's plenty of time to make it all the way to Stalingrad. The main problem will be getting supply to my people all the way out at Stalingrad. I may have to dedicate several of my RR engineers to that task.

Here's what it looks like near Odessa right now. I've captured 1 hex so far for all my attacking these past 10 turns or so. I railed all the RR arty I own down here to help the takedown and what's making it hard to take down is the fact that these guys are still in supply and they've been getting reinforcements each turn and I just happened to kill more than he received for a few turns to gain the 1 hex that I did manage to capture. I need to establish an arty park on the east side to pound that large stack of Soviet units on the east side. So in the next few turns I'm going to see if I can't spare some more Romanian arty to ship over here.

I've managed to get one regiment of the 6th Panzer Divison into Novaya Ladoga so the Life Road is cut and the remnants of the Leningrad defenders are doomed. Now my task is to eliminate all the Soviet remnants as soon as I can and head off toward Moscow.

It's now T26 round 1 and this is what the front lines are doing in the south. Stalingrad is just offmap to the east. So far so good.

I'm still in the movement phase just before the first combat phase and this is what it looks like to the west of Rostov. There's a big knot of Soviet units at Stalino and I'm going house to house trying to gain the entire city. Meanwhile, to the south, closer to the coast the Italians ( yellow units ) have the mission to clear the coast of the Soviet units there. Clear the way for a garrison unit to exist there. The Slavs ( white units ) are helping them. I don't know what else to do with the Slavs. I guess I'll break them down into pieces and garrison all the south coast ports with them. They aren't much good for anything else.

Well here is my take/advice from the armchair general You have the mud and winter coming up, so stronger Soviets and much smaller movement and supply radius. I'd seriously think about consolidating along a defensible line. I'm not sure how many turns you have left, but maybe something like the following (North to South):

• AGN -- This line has close rail connections, keeps the better airfields and requires minimal troops to hold allowing you to rest or shift troops to AGC.
  1. Behind the regular rivers beyond the stop line and Svir from Syvarinniska to Volkhov.
  2. Volkhov river line to Lake Ilmen.
  3. Lovat river line from Lake Ilmen to Kholm. You may have to adjust this line forward depending on how far along AGC is.
• AGC -- I'm not sure where your forward line is.
• AGS -- The area covered is vast, so this line consolidates it best as possible.
  1. Hold the Donets river line from Rostov to Kharkov.
  2. 1941winter line from Kharkov to Orel (vis.) the line of fortifications between those locations adjusting to keep the rails and rivers in the best spots.

These lines for AGN and AGS give you the most flexibility for using the least amount of troops to cover the most area. Then you can decide on the next COA. Personally, I think the AGS area should be the focus for this scenario because of how the objectives (factories and production) work. There are far more in the AGS sector.

For the next offensive season, I would seriously think about shifting AGN armor toward AGC and some AGC armor south toward AGS for the next offensive phase. That would be to cutoff the USSR to Stalingrad so you can at least clear the Crimea and take Krasnodar and Maykop. Maybe up to the Kuban river line between Cherkessy and Kropotkin to cut most rail service in the area.

Then after Stalingrad falls, clear the Don line up to Voronezh. That would take care of most of AGS production/factories. Meanwhile, you move the AGN forward to the Belozersk to Rybinsk Resevoir behind the super rivers and you'll have a vast pincer North and South with Moscow between so you can take Yaroslav and Kalinin in the North and Tula and Ryazan in the South.

This is what the Sevastopol area looks like right now. I've started the bombardment but I dare not start the assaults yet. I need to soften up the targets first.

Graymane wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 2:53 pm Well here is my take/advice from the armchair general. You have the mud and winter coming up, so stronger Soviets and much smaller movement and supply radius. I'd seriously think about consolidating along a defensible line. I'm not sure how many turns you have left, but maybe something like the following (North to South):

• AGN -- This line has close rail connections, keeps the better airfields and requires minimal troops to hold allowing you to rest or shift troops to AGC.
  1. Behind the regular rivers beyond the stop line and Svir from Syvarinniska to Volkhov.
  2. Volkhov river line to Lake Ilmen.
  3. Lovat river line from Lake Ilmen to Kholm. You may have to adjust this line forward depending on how far along AGC is.
• AGC -- I'm not sure where your forward line is.
• AGS -- The area covered is vast, so this line consolidates it best as possible.
  1. Hold the Donets river line from Rostov to Kharkov.
  2. 1941winter line from Kharkov to Orel (vis.) the line of fortifications between those locations adjusting to keep the rails and rivers in the best spots.

These lines for AGN and AGS give you the most flexibility for using the least amount of troops to cover the most area. Then you can decide on the next COA. Personally, I think the AGS area should be the focus for this scenario because of how the objectives (factories and production) work. There are far more in the AGS sector.

For the next offensive season, I would seriously think about shifting AGN armor toward AGC and some AGC armor south toward AGS for the next offensive phase. That would be to cutoff the USSR to Stalingrad so you can at least clear the Crimea and take Krasnodar and Maykop. Maybe up to the Kuban river line between Cherkessy and Kropotkin to cut most rail service in the area.

Then after Stalingrad falls, clear the Don line up to Voronezh. That would take care of most of AGS production/factories. Meanwhile, you move the AGN forward to the Belozersk to Rybinsk Resevoir behind the super rivers and you'll have a vast pincer North and South with Moscow between so you can take Yaroslav and Kalinin in the North and Tula and Ryazan in the South.

I'll have to look up where these places are and make it happen. Thanks a lot for this analysis. I'll see what I can do to make it happen. You're worth your weight in gold. By the way, what is a COA?