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Overall again a bloody turn. Axis also lost 12 Mortar II.
So the totals are 60k for the russians, 108k for the germans.

Soon most forces of both sides will be severly exhausted probably.

Very bloody turns. Boron did very concentrated attacks to the keypoints
or high value units like my center artillery. Looking at the fact the winter is coming
i´m worried.

Fortunately the russians had to pay at least, but on my side the suffered damage
is a bigger problem.

We did this turn some counterattacks as showed on the screen.

the losses

This turn only limited counterattacks, the russians are too exhausted. And Seille has too much luck with the research events. I got none so far while Seille probably got 3, he has already artillery II, Rifle II, Fighter III and Mortar II .

Sewastopol will likely fall, Leningrad maybe too. 2 turns till the winter.

Two events and the rest research.
In my game vs. Vic i got it two times in a row when i was already on the road to victory.
When i played JAMIaM i waited and waited with my russians and nothing.
To be honest i would like to get the R&D again since i obviously need it.....

After a quit snowy turn 9 where both armies needed a break after the very hard battles
the germans has been lucky and got a turn with clear weather.
I used this as good as possible.

I attacked mainly in front of Helsinki where Russia threatened the city. Took revenge and destroyed
several tanks/guns and a artillery group there.
The center was quit.
In front of Charkov we attacked also again (more preventive...)
And after we took Sevastopol last turn we were able to break thru the road of Kertsch.

Overall a good turn finally. But next turn the blizzard starts and looking at Borons performance so far i think
it will be a pain.

the losses:

Seilles Kharkov attack was indeed a good one. I decided to try to get his artillery with my HQ attacking, it was the only unit with enough mobility left, but this attack stalled. It's very problematic, if i don't attack a bit this turn already then Seille can run away in the next turn avoiding my winter blitz, if i attack this turn heavily though and get beaten back it is not good neither.
Did some lackluster attacks in the center too, unfortunately this time seilles troops repelled them. Overall rather little combat action though, about 2xx killed russian infantry and ~100 german infantry.

Need to severly hurt at least one of seilles armies in the winter i think, otherwise it will be very hard for russia to survive the summer 42 blitz.

Ok, turn 10.
Russian winter bonus is there. What i saw in the center coming made me really worried.
Lots of units full with infantry and mortars. Not to forget some tank support.
Moved back there to Smolensk area.

Near Leningrad, which is cutted off completely now i decided to continue my attacks.
Under heavy losses my troops took a fortress in the Leningrad line.
I´m now in a good positions there since the russian run out of troops there.

My AG south had only one target this turn. It was the HQ of the russian defenders around Charkov.
Hammered the HQ by artillery and air and then the final ground attack. Only a few officers survived.
So in the coming turns the russians there will probably have no or very small staff support when they attack.

The attached screen shows the Leningrad attack.

And the Charkov HQ attack.

Despite the winter bonus the russians suffer more casualities than the germans. Only in the center where Seille might have had trouble he evades just enough. He does this even better than i did in our former 2 games. My forward troops he can bomb with artillery now in case he decides to stay. Only about 100 german and russian troops get killed.

I think that Seille forces me to surrender in spring or summer 42.

xBx

Better not let uncle Joseph hear you thinking like that or you will simply disappear, have some faith in Mother Russia.

You can breathe, so you can still fight.[:D]


Mat

I could show some screens of Borons center army. Allowing these forces to touch me now would cause the loss
of my complete AG center within 2 turns. Would be very stupid. You don´t have to fear my artillery yet, Boron,
since i´m not willing to pay the price for two dozen killed russian infantry....
 
In this turn i attacked again near leningrad, captured the last Fortress in the Leningrad Line and defeated the last strong army there.
At AG south i did also two attacks and fought back two russian armies.
Same for AG Romania near Novorosk (must be Novorosisk).
 
About 260 russian infantry + few guns killed and 60 lost.

Seille continues to maneuver well. Only minor losses for the germans once more. Losses of the januar 8th turn. Very annoying for the poor russians.

So if Seille wins this one and it looks pretty good for the Germans so far, does that mean the scenario could favor the Germans?

To be honest my gut feeling is the German 42 summer offensive bonus seems a bit to much...

German turn 12.
Not much action, but we attacked Leningrad in 3 waves. The third finally broke the resistance
of the fanatic (100% losses) defenders. So my AG North is now free for other fights.
In the center we moved back a bit and flew some air attacks to slow down the russians.
Near Charkov it was quiet and the street of Kerch saw only smaller fights.
Overall we prepare for the coming good weather turns.
Losses:
about 60 infantry for germany
about 200 infantry for russia + a few vehicles.
 
@Iron
I think a german player who plays good will often win, but a balance is there.
I won several games playing russia and i lost several game playing Germany.
The balance is ok, but the bonus for russians in winter and germany in summer 42 might be to hard.
 
@Vic,
The 1942 Bonus is very hard for russia, but that depends a lot of the situation.
Russia can be very strong already at this time. Or its close to breakdown.
 
How about my idea (for my mod) ? No 1942 summer bonus for free.
Access via action card (not good for AI games ?) and costs of 50-100 PP.
Enemy combatpower is reduced by 30-50% then (random).
Keys are the event is not longer free and the enemy power reduction is smaller and random.
Alternative: I´ll just tune down the 1942 bonus a bit (10% less reduction)
 
Even this is more a discussion for another threat it would be nice to hear other opinions about the 1942 bonus.

Hm the russians only need a little bonus. Maybe they could get some medium tanks and have medium and heavy tanks level 1 researched from start? After all the russians had lots of t-34 and kv-1 when the war broke out and till 1942 with the panzer IV F2 and following versions the german tanks had just huge problems with t-34s and Kv-1s.

Another idea would be to let the additional sibiria industry complex join the soviets in 1942 instead of 1943. Doesn't need to buy in january, maybe rather in april or may or june.

I already thought about adding russian medium tanks earlier, but it´s up to the russians to research and use the
40 of their initial 100 PP.
I can remember on a game (Vic against Tweber?) where Vic used medium tanks and in the end he said it was a bad investment.
 
What i definitely won´t do is to move the russian siberian factory complex forward into 1942. It´s good das it is.
Moving forward would cut the german chances too much.
I still think about a good way to add mines. This would help the russians enough (when they use them....)