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Western front after Soviet turn 5. I have thinned out my center and reinforced the wings where he has his panzers. I am a little thin in the middle, but one has to take risks somewhere. I have good delaying forces in place north of Vitebsk and if he crosses near Gomel he will at least not get more than one hex across the river.

Turn 6:

COMRADES!

I don't have a ton of time or orders, so here goes:

NORTH:
I am a bit surprised we are not defending the Luga, but I think it's too late to go back on that. The only defenses are right around Leningrad. We probably need to think about defending the Volkhov Line.

WESTERN:
Good shape here so far.....They crossed the Dnepr into 1 hex. We can't bump them out, but I would put a carpet of units around that bridgehead, and hopefully we can delay a turn or two. Pretty soon we'll have to abandon that section of the Dnepr.

SOUTH:
This is our biggest problem area.

Everything north of that spearhead needs to be pulled back. You also need to pull back from around Odessa.

Please take command of all the Stavka troops along the Dnepr

Western front after Soviet turn 6. The lines are holding fine. The fascists have crossed the dnepr at one point only. We can easily hold the line of the river and the landbridge for at least another turn.

Enlargement of the crossing point with bridgehead circled. Some hotheads (among them the commisar) have rather loudly argued for throwing the fascist invaders back into the river, but timely delays made this impractical, and we keep a defensive posture.

Turn 7

COMRADES!

We need to protect our cities enough to move industry out. This turn, I moved most of the good stuff from Leningrad.

NORTH: It's too bad we pulled off the Luga, because they aren't actually trying to take Leningrad. I would have preferred we fight for the River line a bit forward but oh well...we won't lose the city.

We have to evac the industry, because it stops producing if they take Pushkin, which is only another hex or so.

They are breaching near V-L. I think it's mostly up to CENTRAL front to stop that.

CENTER: The Germans are piling on in two places:
One is north of Vitebsk. This one is more serious, though they look vulnerable at the tip of the spear. Let's cut that unit off.

Down near Gomel, that river crossing is still basically contained; good job. One more turn though is probably all we get. I would pull the unit from Mogilev, and start thinking about a general evac; you can pull off the Dnepr now.

SOUTH: More problems. I would carpet that bridgehead over the Dnepr. Not sure what all those units are around Nikolev, but they need to spread out more.

Can we have some shots of the south?

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

They are breaching near V-L. I think it's mostly up to CENTRAL front to stop that.

Aha, so now it's up to me [X(] I thought I saw mostly yellow units around there last time i looked... grumble, grumble...[;)]

But don't worry, the inspired socialist fighters of the western front can handle that as well!

From each according to his ability [yours is a LOT more than mine] and too each according to his need - as the 4th Marx brother said. [;)]

Do you think they are going for Moscow? They will be running out of fuel down south and VL / Vitebsk is the only place else they seem to have a strike force.

By popular demand - a shot of the southern fron before Soviet movement turn 7.

And here we have the western front after soviet movement turn 7. There are two danger points, circled, in the North around Velike Luki and northwest of Gomel where the fascists have crossed the Dnepr. I have rolled out the good old red carpet in front of the bridghead near Gomel, and I expect them to have to struggle for another turn to get across the river in force and be able to exploit.

At Velike Luki, the situation feels more worrying. The breakthrough is right at the boundary between the north and western fronts. I move troops north and refuse my right flank to be able to contain it. To compensate, I have to thin out my troops on the landbridge, but the enemy seems to have only infantry there, and my troops there have had time to dig to level 2 in most cases, so I think the risk is acceptable.

And to complete the picture, here is a shot of the northern sector after soviet movement turn 7.

And a closeup of the Velikie Luki area, taken from one of our few valiant low-flying recon flights. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to cut the supply of the leading black-uniformed fascist unit, but at least they will have a long and tortous supply line...

Intelligence report: It appears they are replacing their Army Group Centre commander.

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Considering their lacklustre performance there, this will in all probability be to our disadvantage.

Turn 8, STAVKA ORDERS

COMRADES!

The Fascists continue their march into our Motherland, but I see oportunities for us to counterattack. Proper revolutionary spirit will carry the day!

OVERALL:

I did very little this turn; there are not alot of available Reserves from Stavka, and at any rate, I used all our rail capacity to get the industry out of Leningrad. I left the BA armored car factory, because it shuts down in October. It would be nice if we can hold Pushkin and Kolpino and keep that factory operating, but if not, no big deal.

Otherwise, I don't think the Germans are doing particularly well.

Our units are struggline to accumulate replacements due to lack of Armaments. Nothing we can do about that until Winter.

For all fronts, please take command of any STAVKA units that are within 6-8 hexes of your front line; you should see them. Just grab them and put them into line IF they are ready. Careful, because some are really not. Use them to dig in your rear.

The primary strategic objective is to keep them away from our industry. I think we are in good shape there, I should finish evacuating Z-Town next turn, and after that Poltava. I am concerned about Kursk/Bryansk, but I think we can stay ahead of them.

One problem is the "Boundary" between North/Central fronts. The V-L situation is really Tarhunnas's problem, as I think those guys are headed for Moscow (if they are hooking north to the Finns, they won't get there).

NORTH:
In the NORTH, there is no push on Leningrad for god knows what reason. Keep a landbridge open to Leningrad if you can, but if you can't, please make sure you garrison the Neva line with 9 of the best Rifle units you can muster, and have a couple more in reserve inside the Leningrad "pocket". Then, defend the Volkhov line. We shouldn't have abandoned the swamps south of Leningrad so easily, but it is what it is.

There is a chance the V-L guys turn north toward the Finns. A linkup would be a massive problem, but I am dubious that they will have the fuel to make it that far. Still, be wary.

In the meantime, I am asking Tarhunnas to take command of all forces around the Panzer breakthrough around V-L, including Northwest Front. This is temporary, but we need unity of command up there.

CENTER:
Probably time to pull-off the Dnepr line, but not sure where Pz Gp 2 is going. Keep a carpet on them, and let's see.

I took the liberty of trying a couple things on that Panzer breakthrough; I didn't save these moves, I was really seeing what's possible, and offering some tactical advice. I don't see how most of those units can be isolated, but a couple can, and they can ALL be put in a difficult fuel situation. This concentration appears to be Pz Gps 3 AND 4.

The Germans are going to run out of gas on this trajectory; the area they are entering is a real supply-problem area, particularly on turn 8.

SOUTH:

Kiev is lost; get out while you can. That is obvious, but you also have a real opportunity available.

See below; this is a tactical hint. I didn't save my moves, but played around a bit with the turn. You can very easily isolate the Axis Allied "Spearheads"! In fact, you can put 6-8 hexes between them and the nearest Germans. This is important!

They will be forced to bring their Panzer back over the Dnepr to rescue the Hungarians/Slovaks. Infantry won't make it, too many hexes. Killing the Hungarian units is no huge deal, but getting that Slovak Mobile Division would be huge. Axis Allies CANNOT rebuild, unlike German units, and most Axis players will tell you that Slovak Unit is valuable; easily the most important Axis Allied unit in the game. It's not that strong, but very importantly it draws it's manpower from the Slovak pool, which has plenty in it, so it's a unit that is usually in the thick of it. Let's get them!!!!!

They need to be punished for so recklessly sticking their nose out. Chop it off.

As a bonus, the LAH SS unit has a CV of 2. Please counterattack that! It should be an easy pushover.

Will do (or whatever they say in the RKKA)! Amazing, they have hardly moved forward much at all in the VL area if you compare the two screenshots, not by German 1941 standards!

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

Will do (or whatever they say in the RKKA)! Amazing, they have hardly moved forward much at all in the VL area if you compare the two screenshots, not by German 1941 standards!

Almost certainly because they start the turn with 20-ish MPs in all their mobile units. The supply line is long, and narrow, and they aren't using HQ buildup.

What soft factor is on (the Velikie Luki screenshot)? If it's fuel, they have in theory plenty of it: green colour [:)]

Q-Ball, as the Stavka commander, make sure you rail minimum a dozen of cavalry units to Moscow and Leningrad approaches (most of them if not all are in the south). They are very useful -or should I say indispensable- to cut enemy units off aka slow them down. Maybe you did: I see one cavalry unit in the area [:)]

EDITED: oops, sorry, there are at least five in the Velikie Luki area. But apparently none up north.

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

What soft factor is on (the Velikie Luki screenshot)? If it's fuel, they have in theory plenty of it: green colour [:)]

I think it is supply, I usually have that selected when defending.

Edit: That goes for the first screenshot, the one I posted, but maybe it was the second you meant?

Edit2: Cool, I just discovered that if you are fast enough, you can edit the post without getting an "Edit" stamp!

Tarhunnas, why are you leaving the swamp hexes south of Leningrad? [:)] That's an excellent place to hold. You are inviting the fascist hordes to advance past Leningrad if they want [X(] He should be fighting, and really hard, to have this important place.

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

What soft factor is on (the Velikie Luki screenshot)? If it's fuel, they have in theory plenty of it: green colour [:)]

I think it is supply, I usually have that selected when defending.

Edit: That goes for the first screenshot, the one I posted, but maybe it was the second you meant?

Edit2: Cool, I just discovered that if you are fast enough, you can edit the post without getting an "Edit" stamp!

The thing I fear the most is panzers. I always have the fuel soft factor on. Guess what, I learned that just a few weeks ago: I didn't know the soft factor things could be a precious intel (I thought they only showed info about MY units [:D]). Encircled told me so