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Nice pocketing in the south Sillyflower 

Tx Carnage but Five broke both with multiple attacks. My generals too busy visiting the stews of Odessa to pass their morale checks.

As the server is not working, I will continue with my random musings as a change from my random movements.

My T4 is a bit of a grind. However, pretty well all the inf have caght up in to the front line, and some have been engaged in implementing my 'better dead than red' policy.

This is IMHO the flaw with the forward defence which I have met a few times. Fiva has slowed my mobile forces down a lot (except at the extremities) but no delay to my inf or railheads. He does not appear to have railed out a single factory yet apart from a single arms factory from Mogilev which must have been in T2. Railing just 1 was inefficient as it will now be very heavily damaged so many more weeks of lost production from it.

In his T4 he will have to run or be hammered. His forward defence has 'succeeded' where it has existed so hopefully he will hang on for 1 more turn. Furthermore, because he hasn't railed any factories yet he hasn't saved any. I could understand abandoning the forward factories to their fate and concentrating on saving those further back, but he hasn't done that.

As I have written earlier, I don't care about the ground at this stage if I can get at his army, and his factories of course. Am therefore using my T4 conservatively and without worrying about major territorial gains.

Her's the North. As previously advertised, a grind.



A very forward defence by Fiva - well conducted but he will have 3 armies getting medieval on his frontine if he doesn't shift. There doesn't seem to be much behind it.

AGC. Much the same story. The ants' nest was cleared as was the river line and the first line of defence on the landbridge.



He did 1 successful counter-attack last turn but don't expect any this turn. More strategy in a later post.

AGS. Fiva is an aggressive SOB ( and I mean this as a compliment) and freed both pockets. I would love to know how but will have to wait for game over to look at his AAR. NB this is not a Henry II - type request for someone to act as a spy[:-]

AGS



Fiva is an aggressive S of a B , and I say this as a compliment. He broke both pockets last turn. Not sure how he managed so many attacks but will have to wait until game over to read his AAR. NB this in not a Henry II-type invitation for a kind reader to rid me of a troublesome AAR.[:-].

I'm tempted to send my avatar to spy on him but I don't suppose she would be being able to see what he's been posting either.

2 pockets resored and 2 more tank divs were kind enough to join the smaller one ( in and adjacent to Vinnitsa)

Thr rumanians remain at the forefront of my advance. If only more of my troops were like them. He retook Nikolaev, inevitably. He's welcome to deal with a population that is hungry, jobless and won't join his army. German ingf has caught up well , apart from 1 corps which has virtually finish clearing up Lvov pocket. Allies will deal with the remainder in the next turn or 2.

T4 losses

dead units. All G are disbanded RHQs and that Hungarian (?) one that goes T4.

T4 overview:

Nothing spectacular. Grinding forward with some infantry help but not nearly as much as there will be next turn unless he runs. I tried, and to a good extent succeeded, to bash his armour as much as possible partly beacuse it's easy and fun, but also to blunt his offensive capabilities. I've also tried to avoid giving him further opportunities for successful attacks against my armour.

On the screen it looks as if Fiva had a good German T4. I hope he thinks so. However I'm very happy for 8 reasons

1 His losses in men and units are high at over 1.1M and 81 divs and a lot of dead ants.
2 There is quite a lot in secure pockets ( at least that's my belief)
3 If he stays put he will be crushed
4 I don't think he has much in the way of forts to fall back on
5 He can't run without risking his economy not least because
6 He still hasn't moved any factories.
7 I remembered to move the Finns for once.
8 I like fighting close to my railheads and these have been able to progress uninterrupted.

The price he is paying is that railing all his troops to the front line has not left him with any capacity to move factories. If he runs or dies, or both, I should therefore be in a position to punish him for that. Forward defence to buy time to get the factories out I understand but he's not doing that yet.

I'm alive to the possibility I have missed something. Fiva is no fool ( far from it) so will be doing what he's doing to a plan. I hope it's more Baldrick than Blackadder.

Turn 5

This should have been a picture of AGN but I like to live up to my name and saved AGC over it by mistake. I did not notice until I had ended my turn.



As you can see, Dear Reader, I've been pushing commie scum out of their forward lines and pushed a motorised div up and through Velike Luki.

Seems to be a big empty gap in Fiva's lines.
2nd big empty extend to north and completed by a div from AGN. As I expected it converted over when I ended my turn so the light blue army will be able to march straight up to the front line next turn. The only non-routed troops in it are in Vitebsk and something in Poltava but you will have to look at Fiva's AAR to see what that is.

I have 2 inf divs across the Dnepr 'corner' so I hope they hold. A lot more inf. divs have closed up to the front ready for next turn.

Finns do their bit. Trap 2 divs and clear fortified zones out of Hanko. No, I don't know why Fiva did not disband them after he sailed the brigade out. Note his forward defence in the far north! A new one on me.



Note no sign of defenders digging in next to Leningrad

AGS. Clearing out pockets and moving his checkerboard out of the way. Rumanians still lead the advance. Note experiment of using them to hold the river line. If it works it will become a standard tactic for the rest of the war.Also see variant immediately to the North of defending the river from 10 miles back. An even better tactic I am trying out. It avoids Rumanian attrtition losses.

Fiva has finally moved out his first factories - Kiev and Kirovograd

A satisfactoy cull of his units this turn. Crucial to kill units wherever possible if checkerboard is to be defeated, although he's only tried that in the south so far.



I'm not posting ground losses screen as it went funny with current turn losses.

Overall picture

5 ciites captured T5 - Pskov, V. Luki, Mogilev, Zhitomir and Vinnitsa. Industry losses 13 HI, 12 arms with fall of Mogilev.

AGN suffered setbacks in Commie T4 when Fiva sent 3 divs in a single hex next to pskov packing with loss of many tanks[:@] and badly-placed airfields were displaced. Infantry now closed up and started to be effective.

AGS similar grind and more inf available next turn. AGS can still swing either way - NE or SE and most of the armour got a bit of a rest in T5.

To prevent successful counter-attacks armour largely not in front line or stacked with infantry, and with a converted hex between us.

Fiva's strategy very much to stick everything in front of me, and he's really piled troops into the south. This leaves gaps which I have tried to exploit. He will no doubt fill the big empty but I think he will need to pull stuff out of the south to do so. Suits me as he's behind with his factory evacuation IMHO and it would be good to have him railing troops up and down like a latter-day Duke of York, rather than evacuating factories.

Comments, questions, bad jokes and any poster with a hottie avatar always welcome

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

Comments, questions, bad jokes and any poster with a hottie avatar always welcome

How's about this little document checker to stiffen the resistance?

Respect for Australian Rugby has been restored, we won the Tri Nations! [:D]

The other 2 nations being Tannu Tuva and Iceland?

ORIGINAL: sillyflower
Fiva's strategy very much to stick everything in front of me, and he's really piled troops into the south. This leaves gaps which I have tried to exploit. He will no doubt fill the big empty but I think he will need to pull stuff out of the south to do so. Suits me as he's behind with his factory evacuation IMHO and it would be good to have him railing troops up and down like a latter-day Duke of York, rather than evacuating factories.

Here good coordination between AGC and AGS is key. I'd advise you to launch a major push towards Smolensk and Vyazma with 2 and 3 PzGruppe, let the infantry take care of the flanks (it is already in position, good job man). This push should take place at the same time as you go straight for Cherkassy and Krivoi Rog: these two are the door to the huge armaments industry in Dnepropetrovsk, and you'll probably split apart Southwestern and Southern Front.

He'll have two big simultaneous crises going on, and resources barely adequate to counter one of them.