Vanilla FITE Kevin VS Larry

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Jdub
Love your aars Larry. The Germans look like they might be in trouble if the soviet defenses stay semi solid as they're looking right now.

Thanks for your kind words. I'm thinking about including an annotated map showing what in the world I was thinking when I was operating in *this* area or *that* area, etc.

ORIGINAL: Jdub
I hope you guys take this one far.

I'm game. As long as Kevin is having fun we're golden.

Oh, and by the way, I'm though with my turn 12 moves and you can find the AAR here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/117y0b9wx ... n%2012.zip

[larryfulkerson]

I've put together one of those annotated maps of the current positions and stuff.  You can find it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/78a ... 25dd6g.jpg

I've done some calculations and have decided that I will start to loose ground combat power ( faster ) when about 11 more turns have elapsed. Here's a picture to show my calculations:

[larryfulkerson]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I dropped most of the bridges linking Leningrad toward the east of Russia. Now I just have to make sure they stay dropped. May not be as easy as it sounds.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I have in the way of aircraft as of the end of turn 12:

[larryfulkerson]

According to the order of battle I've got 1196 units now. I'd be curious to know how many the Soviets have and what the Soviet losses are. Hint, hint. It's okay if you'd rather not disclose those numbers Kevin. Really.

[larryfulkerson]

Well I'm through with my Axis turn 13 and have posted the AAR here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/14u22qh1a ... n%2013.zip

Kevin did some major pulling back and as a consequence I covered a lot of ground this turn.

This picture is a smaller version of part of the AAR showing the moves in the southern part of the map:

[larryfulkerson]

I've finished my turn 14 moves and you can find the AAR for that turn here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/clvwb9424 ... n%2014.zip

Here's the mini-map movie for turns 11 throu 14:

[larryfulkerson]

I'm putting together a TODO document to get organized.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys......I just discovered something interesting. One of the Finnish coastal forts wasn't entrenched and therefore can't use it's indirect fire. Not even for those combats within range. It's not in "T", "E", "D", or "L" so therefore I assume that it won't lend it's support to friendly troops in trouble. It can only be used in direct fire. So I assume that Kevin's forts are similar and those BIG naval guns parked near Leningrad can be bombed to unentrench them. And since they don't have any movement points at all they can't entrench again. That would mean that they could only be used in direct fire and my assult of Leningrad might just have a chance.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys.........I put together another one of those main massive movies.  This one is for turns 10 throu 14 and it's just over 10MBytes big.
You can find it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/m1r7huqfl ... %20-14.zip

I'm attaching a picture that shows a lost opportunity for the Axis. I think I may have dropped the FJ division too early on their targets. They are holding some key river crossings and may have to do so for the next 4 or 5 turns. Too bad I don't have a couple of fresh Panzer divisions ready to take advantage of this turn of events.

[Andriko]

Great AAR. I love seeing the Soviet player actually defend on these big Eastern monsters.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Andriko
Great AAR.

Well, thanks very much. What did you like most? I'll do more of that in the future. And what did you want to see that you didn't. I'll add that.

ORIGINAL: Andriko
I love seeing the Soviet player actually defend on these big Eastern monsters.

Me too !!! It makes the game more exciting. I'm having a ball with this and not just because it appears that I'm winning. It's actually too early to tell who is winning. Kevin is pulling back to save his units and pretty soon will amass a sizable mass of troops and will be able to build a respectable front line and then all this advancing stuff will come to a screeching halt. He will have enough troops to have reserves all over the place and I won't be able to gain but maybe a hex or two per turn. And then the mud season will come and he'll gain all kinds of strength and my dudes will make do on poor supply throu the winter and then there's the Soviet winter offensive to contend with etc. So it's not really a terribly dire situation yet. Just mearly dire.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys:  Somebody sent me an email wanting to ask some questions about TOAW ( being new to the game and everything ) and I said yeah fire away.  He asked a bunch of questions and I answered best I could and he said something about other people wanting to know this stuff too and suggested I publish it and I thought that might be a good idea so here it is below:

Q. One really stupid and basic question; what does the green, orange or red button mean when it is to the left of the icon but just outside the icon box?


A. It's the target density indicator.  Red is bad ( 2 X losses ).  The little red circle is indicating that you have stuffed so much equipment into one hex that you have created a "target rich environment" for your opponent.  He will get 2 X the results in any assault ( you will lose 2 X as much stuff ) . The yellow circle means it's packed so densly that your opponent will get 1.5 X the combat results. The game just leaves off the Green indicator..........I guess it's understood that when there's no indicator at all it's a good thing.

Q. [so]....I only use air from within the plan attack menu and not by directly sending planes to destinations.

A. Um.....once you have selected an aircraft you move your cursor over a potiential target and then left click and choose what kind of attack you want to use on the
target.  If it's an airfield "attack airfield" will be available on the pop-up menu.  So Yes, you can send an aircraft to a designated location.

Q. ...How do I target artillery that has a range seven spots away but no units that can reach to plan the attack?

A. Um.......Are you attacking something else with the arty unit?  If so selecting an arty unit and them moving the cursor to a potential target will change the cursor to "targeting" instead of the usual cursor and you will know that the arty unit can reach that target.  Otherwise the cursor doesn't indicate a possible target.    Are you trying to attack the arty unit?    I'm not sure I understand your question.

Q. Whoa. Huge misunderstanding on my part from what I thought I read. I thought it said to only use aircraft as support from in the plan attack menu. I thought it discouraged direct attacks because of losses. Is there some way to mix fighters with bombers in an attack group or is this simulated by simply having the air superiority set with fighters when you direct attack with a bomber?


A. Yes losses ARE higher with a direct attack with your aircraft.  So are the supply expenditures.  But direct aircraft attack is the only way to do bridge attacks and airfield attacks and sometimes you just really NEED the higher attacking strength ( direct attacks are 1 X your aircraft attack strength and just regular "combat support" ( indirect ) attacks are rendered at 0.5 X listed strength).

Q. So there are situations where the engineers are critical to fixing the bridges so you can move traffic?

A. Yep.  In the Autumn Fog scenario most of the blue lines are super rivers and NOTHING crosses those exept at bridges and with the aid of Engineers.  There's a scenario called "Overlord 44" with super rivers passing next to and through the city of Caen ( is that how you spell it ?) and so the British are persuaded to drop some airborne at both ends of the bridge at the start of the game, which is behind, far behind, enemy lines.  So they are in a big hurry to get inland and off the beaches just to save the airborne if for no other reason.

Q. Do I have to put the bomber on CS to make direct attacks?

A. The "combat support" setting of your aircraft is irrelevant when you're using it in direct attack.  If it WAS in "combat support" status when you assign it to an attack the status changes to "attacking .hex.XYZ" or something like that.  And Yes the losses setting DOES matter when the bomber is attacking.  Minimise losses means it just gives the minimal effort to do whatever mission you have it assigned to.  I've heard of players setting their bridge attack bombers on ignore losses before assigning the attack in the hope that it'll increase the effect but it really doesn't make a difference in that case.

And as for protecting the bombers with your fighters.......what you do is assign the fighter to attack the same hex ( or target ) that the bomber is sent to.  TOAW, this is my understanding, realizes that the fighter is going to the same hex and uses them as escort fighters instead of hitting the ground target whatever it was.  This is what I do and it seems to work okie dokie.

Q. Is my strategy [as the Allied player in Mortain 44 ] assumption right based on the facts so far; defense, dig in, prepare for reinforcements to save my very weak forces; direct attack searching for enemy tanks? I'm also aiming my artillery at [ enemy units ] but not going on offense.

A. Yeah that's what I'd do.  Except maybe direct attacking tanks with the apropriate aircraft.  Some planes are better at tank-busters than others.  Like your heavy bombers......they would be almost useless against tanks.  While your fighter/bombers ( P-47 ) have a higher AT strength and if they aren't on AS duty then yeah, use 'em to bust specific tank units.  And by "aiming my artillery at enemy units"  I assume you mean you're bringing your arty units into range to direct attack enemy units with them.  That's cool but target the right target.  Arty is almost useless in direct attacks against tanks.  They have a much higher AP strength and could raise havoc against my foot-mobile units.  Or you know, those units that are mostly "soft" targets.  Against tanks you need a unit with a high AT strength.  Like your hunter-killer anti-tank units and other tanks etc.  Some of the infantry units have organic AT guns and might be used against tanks also.

Also, during the first Gulf War the Marines used to run their SP guns into range of an enemy arty unit and pound the hell out of it for about a full minute and then move back south to safety before the enemy counter-arty fire would arrive at their firing position.  They called it an "arty raid".  I'm thinking the same thing, sortof might be done in TOAW also.  But the thing is that you have to have way more arty targeting the enemy than the enemy has.  In other words, you wouldn't want to target an enemy arty park with say, 200 tubes, with one lone arty unit has only a dozen tubes.  You'd get slaughtered on the counter-fire that way.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey You Guys:

I'm throu with my turn 15 moves and you can find the AAR for it here: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/r3a55c9z1 ... n%2015.zip

Kevin has been helping me drop his bridges in the rivers. Here's a shot near "Veli Luki"

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the link location for the turn 16 AAR:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cepah5z6y ... n%2016.zip

Stay tuned .......I'm going to edit this post to include some kind of picture real soon now.  Say about an hour.  I gotta go.

EDIT: I put together a picture showing the details of the Odessa battle. It's kind of confusing since we're not used to seeing this kind of thing.

[larryfulkerson]

At least you can get my front lines and Moscow in the same picture now. It looks like Smolensk is ready for picking off the low hanging branches for some reason. I guess Kevin didn't feel it was worth defending because of all the losses that would result. ??

[JKLilly]

For the first time in the game I have a coherent front. For me, the biggest limiting factor has been rail capacity. Moving widely separated units into their correct formations. But by now I have built up some reserves. The question is whether it's too late.

Larry has some decision to make now. Which directions and objectives? Does he go south to attack east of Kiev, as Guderian was ordered to do? Will probably bag units, but will it be worth the time? How about the South?

stay tuned.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm through with my Axis turn 17 moves.  You can find the AAR here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/e94sl8c1a ... n%2017.zip

I'm going to edit this post to include some really cool picture of something.  Oh, and I captured Smolensk.

EDIT: included the mini-movie showing turns 14 throu 17

[1_Lzard]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Hey you guys:  Somebody sent me an email wanting to ask some questions about TOAW ( being new to the game and everything ) and I said yeah fire away.  He asked a bunch of questions and I answered best I could and he said something about other people wanting to know this stuff too and suggested I publish it and I thought that might be a good idea so here it is below:

Larry,

I'd suggest that this be 'published' by itself, perferably out in the open with it's own title. You'd probably get more people interested in it that way, eh?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: 1_Lzard
Larry,
I'd suggest that this be 'published' by itself, perferably out in the open with it's own title. You'd probably get more people interested in it that way, eh?

You mean start a new thread somewhere else like in the main "lobby" of the forum? Hey what a good idea. I'll do it asap.