Adventures in Russia

[larryfulkerson]

Okay, I've put together a cut and paste thing with the unit display's of the bombers
on the tops of the stacks...we can watch now, from turn to turn, how fast they heal.

[larryfulkerson]

One of the recon assets from Korps HQ has zoomed out to the extent of his MP's and he's
getting close to Orsha and the heavy fighting that usually takes place there. Probably
no zooming through there any time soon.

EDIT: Wait a minute, that's not a recon asset...it's an engineer unit. I'm using him
for recon, why? I'm not sure how that worked out. He was available most probably.

[larryfulkerson]

I've leaped across one river just to have to try to capture the crossing on the next
river to the east. I want to trap all the Soviet units I can before they get away
to safety. Plus, I feel like I'm behind schedule here.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the situation in the north right now. I have an armor unit adjacent to Pskov
and he can probably defend himself until I can get some folks to drive themselves to
his aid. Probably at least a whole turn. He'll last that long.

I've gotten into a situation where too many people went east instead of some of them
going NE and I need to reposition about a dozen divisions pretty quickly because there
is an area to their north a bit that seems wide open and needs warm bodies.

The Minsk area has been cleared out; now those folks can make their way toward Smolensk.
I expect a hard fight at Smolensk. It's been my experience in the past that Elmer rails
in a bunch of troops to stand in the line and some of them are stout. We'll see.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the south right now. I've blown a hole in the Soviet lines and I'm going to
release the Panzers to fill it. Exploit is the name of the game.

EDIT: This image was made at the end of turn 6 and everybody has already moved.

[larryfulkerson]

There were 80 separate battles sometime during turn 6 and a lot of progress was made.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T7 before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

I grabbed Orsha right under the noses of the Soviets. It was empty so I took
occupancy easily. Now to hold onto it. I'm sure there are to be Soviet
counterattacks. But Axis units are coming up to the river and I'm starting to
fight over the river crossings again.

[larryfulkerson]

Of the original Stalin Line I blew a hole in the middle and I'm driving units into
their backfield to surround them and isolate them and kill them. I'm trying to get
all of them in an out-of-supply situation to make the take-down easier. Kiev is just
five or six hexes to the right of this image.

[larryfulkerson]

The Pskov originally had just that one armor unit up here and now follow on forces
are starting to arrive and the area is much stronger now. I'm going to try to outflank
the defenders in the city rather than the high losses straight forward approach. I'm
wondering what would happen to the game if I neglected Leningrad this time. Just drive
straight for Moscow instead. I'm thinking of trying that this game. Maybe try to
isolate Leningrad from the rest of Russia.

[larryfulkerson]

Some of the Finns became active this turn so I've got them busy pushing and shoving.

[larryfulkerson]

This is Orsha right now. It seems that we're fignting over the river crossings again
and I'm slowly getting the upper hand. The supply situation has fallen and I may
have to call a halt temporarily to give it time to rise again. Plus, the boys are
getting tired. And worn down slightly, over the past several turns. All the constant
moving and fighting. Even moving can cause a small loss.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I'm trying to do down south right now. I'm moving a large group of
formations from the NW to the SE trying to get between the river and the Soviets
so that they can't get away. I want a chance to kill them. So I'm wondering what
if I moved everybody another 20 hexes to the east and then drive SE because that
would include another river besides and I need those crossings too anyway.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Kiev right now. I'm trying to surround and kill some Stalin Line remnants and
then I'll surround Kiev and see if I can't force a crossing somewhere to get on the
other side of the river.

[larryfulkerson]

Pskov is getting crowded right about now. I've decided to go for the city and the rail
line leading east from there. If I can continue to capture the rail line east for
quite a while, I might be able to get some decent supply out there to those folks.
Fighting is going on a bit south of here and the advance continues.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm getting across the river at the spots where the crossings are pointed out and
the idea now is to roll up his lines both north and south and kill all those defending
units. And then I'll concentrate on Smolensk and possible supply points.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in the north in T10. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

Here' the Pskov area right now. I'm aiming to get the railroad away from the Soviets
so that I can supply troops this far north this far east for an advance to the east
from here. The object is to isolate Leningrad from the rest of Russia if possible.
There's no real hurry I guess, I can't do anything without the rail so it's a goal
for these formations.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the south right now. It's a tidal wave moving from NW to
SE and everybody is aimed at Odessa and the Crimea. Too early to predict how long
it'll take to clean everything up. This mess will take another 10 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Smolensk right now. All of a sudden all these Soviet
units have come at me, some of them armour and I wasn't planning on having so much
traffic in this spot but I see it's popular and Elmer has plans to hang onto Smolensk
it seems. I'm not sure yet what plan I'm going to hatch to defeat this situation.