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ORIGINAL: devoncop

Soviet Turn 25....14th September 1941

"All seemed quiet on the generally sleepy section of the Front up 20 Km West of Murmansk. Just before 6am reports came into the Soviet headquarters in Murmansk of a major German landing 50 Km to the North in the near deserted port....There is panic as the Karelian Front armies manning the front are forced to frantically redeploy and it becomes apparent the entire 6th Geb Division has landed and is trying to seize Murmansk and also cut off half a dozen Soviet Divisions........ "

Im still nagging...

Would it be possible to get a picture of this?

ORIGINAL: Dagfinn

ORIGINAL: devoncop

Soviet Turn 25....14th September 1941

"All seemed quiet on the generally sleepy section of the Front up 20 Km West of Murmansk. Just before 6am reports came into the Soviet headquarters in Murmansk of a major German landing 50 Km to the North in the near deserted port....There is panic as the Karelian Front armies manning the front are forced to frantically redeploy and it becomes apparent the entire 6th Geb Division has landed and is trying to seize Murmansk and also cut off half a dozen Soviet Divisions........ "

Im still nagging...

Would it be possible to get a picture of this?

Hi Dagfinn....

Not from me sadly....I am a technical Neanderthal so am unable to do screenshots....Larry maybe can help .....he is the techy one !

Just imagine an ugly situation ..... That is what it looks like [:)]

Here's the Murmansk situation and please notice that there's no supply point for the invasion forces. That's a problem.
I'm probably going to have to evacuate them because of the lack of supply for them.

Soviet Turn 26 (Part 1)

I open the turn and find my gallant troops have performed admirably.

Apart from the capture of Gorki the front lines are almost static and despite the Soviets continuing to take significant losses the lines are holding meaning the ceasefire at turn 32 for seven turns should see them still in control of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad and with at least a chance of still holding Kiev,Odessa and Smolensk which would be a big bonus given the chaotic start.

To give some insight into Soviet losses to date and to give Larry some encouragement (not that he needs any)....I thought I would release some replacement data:

Larry has mentioned the losses in German Heavy Rifle Squads so I thought I should start there:

On hand : 4852
Rate : 261
Assigned: 5716
Lost. : 4357

Given we are now at turn 26 this means an average of 167 HRS lost per turn and 261 being produced ready for deployment. Not too bad given the destruction of the first few turns though the inevitable collapse of the Dnepr defence line will push losses up considerably in due course.

Secondly I thought I should check out the fairly useless T37 Tanks I have been using in Tactical Reserve when I can to reinforce attacked infantry in the front line.

On hand : 289
Rate. : 24
Assigned: 1258
Lost. : 113

Again not bad but the situation is very different with the better early KV1 tanks...

Assigned : 644
Lost : 444

( None now being produced)


Finally we look at the early T34 tanks

On hand : 37
Rate. : 54
Assigned: 1886
Lost. : 989

Much less good....

So with this in mind on to Soviet Turn 26.

Soviet Turn 26 (Part 2)

The Soviet response focuses on targets of opportunity in terms of a major artillery stack now visible west of Kiev that is hit repeatedly by Soviet artillery and bombers and more strikes on German airfields to good effect. A Finnish battleship is sunk by the American Dauntlesses off Narva where it had been bombarding German lines and in Estonia Soviet Partisans spot a German railroad artillery train and call in bombing support leading to most of the guns being destroyed south of Tartu.

Elsewhere the first Soviet Guards Armies begin to arrive and are placed to assist with a possible counter attack in the winter.

Down in the south the Soviet Cavalry units and Infantry Divisions have now dug in about 70 Km west of Melitopol.

Air battles intensify as the attacks on German airfields lead to furious dogfights west of the Dnepr and by turn end about 500 German planes are reported lost and about 450 Soviet.

Ian has been busy during his turn I see. Lots of airfield strikes and there's not a lot I can do about that except move the bombers back to Germany. And lots of bombardments to boot. He's started his winter offensive early. I've got to rethink my whole tactical situation here. I'm not ready for all these counterattacks. I'll have to halt the advance and see what happens next.

Here's the T27 front lines before I have started moving everybody.

I've run into a nest of partisans up near Pskov and I need to dispatch some Hungarians to fix this.

Soviet Turn 27

I open my turn to see little change which is all good. Despite being assaulted along the line Soviet defenders largely held their positions and the few units on the East side of the Dnepr that were forced to retreat have been replaced by reserve units.

The worrying landings by 6th Geb Division North of Murmansk appear to have been contained with no further reinforcements having arrived and Soviet units have been railed in to the city. It now appears that the 6th Geb is struggling for supply and losing strength.

The area of most concern continues to be in The Central sector around Gomel and German troops are now only 10km from the city.

Bombers again co-ordinate with partisans to try and cut supply to Army Group Centre by blocking rails and bombing bridges around Minsk.

A number of airfield strikes were done on German airstrips and the ME109's again suffered losses.

I moved my engineer unit up to a broken bridge to repair it and I find a partisan there. No wonder the bridge is broken. These partisans are beginning to be a problem, a real problem. I'm having to leave the Hungarians behind to field problems like this one. I'm going to have to start using the Italians for partisan duty also.

Larry and Ian,

Very interesting stuff. I have never had to deal with partisan units, so it is cool seeing how you use and counter them.

Thanks for sharing,

Ian's partisans are showing up all over the map and there's no pattern about where they will appear next. And they are blowing my supply flow. I'm having to develop multiple paths for the flow of supply so that it doesn't get cut off quite so often. I've dedicated a Combat Division to chasing down partisans and it's helping a little bit.

I sent Ian an email just now and then thought you guys might like to know too.

Here's what I'm dealing with in the north. Supply was magnificant for a while there and then the partisans dropped a bridge and then walked along the track converting all those hexes and breaking the rail and all of a sudden the supply at the front is really really poor. And it's going to be that way for several turns yet 'cause I've got to go fix the rail to get the supply flow flowing again. These partisans are winning the war for Ian. Now all I need is a Soviet Winter Offensive. That might make this game a little bit more interesting. Might make for a good AAR. Entertaining.

I've got the battle sound effects going in the background....I've found that doing that helps the turn go faster. Or it makes the immersion less difficult and I can maintain a better battlefield awareness level. It makes a tiny difference to my game and I need all the help I can get for this game. Ian is doing a magnificant job and I'm finding this opponent like none I have played before. I'm going slower lately, thinking twice about what I do and why. That makes the moves about 12 hours long and is best done in multiple sessions. I sent Ian a picture of me as a sort of psycological effect, probably won't work. And he sent me several back so I could see some of his world. Thanks Ian dude.

I'm really having a good time with this game and I thought you guys ought to know.

Here's my desktop. That's Ian.

Larry,

Cool photo of Ian. I love the country view!

Here's what I sent to Ian

[quote]ORIGINAL: MikeJ19

Larry,

Cool photo of Ian. I love the country view!






Cheers Mike !

If I achieve nothing else in life I have made it to a screensaver ....my life is complete[:D]

It's a view from Coldstream in Scotland , about 10 miles from where I live in the very North of Northumberland in England. Lovely part of the world.

This game with Larry is my best TOAW IV experience so far....I totally recommend the scenario ( and the opponent of course.....but you all knew that bit anyway !)

ORIGINAL: devoncop
This game with Larry is my best TOAW IV experience so far....I totally recommend the scenario ( and the opponent of course.....but you all knew that bit anyway !)

Ian my friend, I hate to break it to you but there are other players who beat me regularly. I can't remember ever beating Thomas Harvey the scenario designer who wrote PAW. And I have yet to win a FITE game and it looks like my current FITE game isn't going to break the mold. What you need to do is save your awe for the better experience you might have with somebody who really knows TOAW IV and the rules and the tricks and the work arounds and can really make the game engine sing. The kind of games that border on "what if" coming true. The games that aren't any longer just games but turn into a simulation of what really could have happened, more or less. I'm really glad you recognized the greatness of the FITE scenario and why it's my theater my period and nothing much is missing...it's even semi-strategic in scope. The largest, longest battle the earth has ever seen. Like you I reccomend it. I think you ought to play Steve Sill or Thomas Harvey or Bob Cross or any number of experts out there. And I'd love to see the AAR. But thank you very much for your kind words.