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Centre



The start of the meatgrinder. Actually managed to surround a whole division

This is where I bring out my inner Pelton. Inspired by his encomium on another thread that the Russians must stop the good guys from crossing the Dnepr for 7 turns.



The 2 corps of PzG 2 race to Cherkassy, and PzG 1 creates 2 new good pockets totalling ? 15 divs/equivalents ( surely the bulk of remaining commie forces in the deep south) and plant themselves on Cherkassy and Kirovograd. Sadly, only the latter still has its factories. Both breakthroughs led by supporting infantry armies to clear the way as best they could though 6 army keeps being held up by pocket killing. Not complaining though.

Kiev area is still heavily defended, despite only facing screening forces until Lvov pocket is cleared, and I reckon B does not have enough forces down south to stop me at the moment. I expect he may have had to divert more to the centre following the failed forward defence of Minsk which cost about 10 divs and 6 brigades.

The more I play , the more I think early G success depends on the number of units killed in the early turns. Kill enough and checkerboarding won't work, and not much else with either. It also makes it much harder to counterattack, especially as I have killed most if not all of his large armour units in the south, which in turn means G can take more chances leading to more russian losses and so on........

No, I have not yet used HQ build up. Have got the army much better sorted, though.

I expect B to reduce his Kiev bridgehead as these are the nearest he has to spare troops.

for those more interested than I in the air war



B using his airforce quite aggessively for interdiction and even some bombing of ground units he's not attacking. Air to air losses 12:1 in my favour which seems reasonable. Long may it continue

I did bomb a couple of airfields once each before overunning them, hence some SB 2 recce a/c lost which actually matters now you can actually shoot down recce planes as well.

Finally the losses screen



I think my Hiwi gain is higher than my losses

T6 north



Good progress towards L with little opposition. Options of passing Novgorod and crossing river north of it, or the longer route pushing towards the Valdai Hills before turning left both look viable. Near Novgorod commies don't look well dug in and there is lot of armour there which is pretty useles in defence.

T6 AGC



Combat shows infantry smashing a path across the Dnepr, whilst strong forces push round to the north of Smolensk

German recce troops preparing to cross the Dnepr at a weak spot in Belphegor's lines

T6 AGS.



Armoured units exploit the opportunity spotted by advance recce troops. Lead forces advance a further 60 miles sweeping away Russian HQs and airbases.

B's earlier losses of so many units in the south really beginning to tell. Zhitomir, Cherkassy, Krasnograd and Odessa all fall to advancing axis troops. Little serious resitance offered as Das Reich leads the way by clearing Cherkassy with minimal losses.

T6 losses

For those interested in even more numbers

Analysis

From B's perpective he must be worried about the losses - well over 1.7M in 6 turns once the Hiwis are factored in. They are removed from the 'captured' pile thereby reducing russian loss totals artificially.

Probably my highest kill rate ever. It seems to be a vicious circle. The higher their losses, the less the russians can do to stop them rising further other than the Robinski strategy. This still won't work even though German RR repair rate has been slowed down -rightly IMHO - to what was isn the original rules.

On the positive (for him) B is getting his factories out ahead of schedule and ahead of my spearheads. He's probably happiest with the centre so that where I've done a bit of HQ buildup. Whilst his line is pretty solid, I reckon it's pretty thin and news from the other fronts esp south mean he won't be able to beef it up. I am hoping he doesn't start pulling out of the Dnepr bend even though I am across and starting to get behind it.

In metagame terms, I want to crush his best hope..............

T7 . AGN adopts missionary position - the frontal assault whilst lone inf div storms Talinn

AGC - 3 Pz Group goes all out



I wanted to cut off Smolensk pocket - or at least stop it moving back to defend Moscow. Latter achieved + 2 divs pocketed. Hoping for bigger pocket next turn.

I didn't expect to go quite so far east, but Kaluga's factories were too enticing + both it and Vyazma contained only welcoming local citizens. Moscow also looked a bit empty but just beyond reach

A pz div did wander up to Rhzev but lack of kex conversion indicated someone nasty in there already so retreated after cutting railine that also had a juicy airfield I bombed first.

I'm sure both spearheads will be cut off but it was fun to bring out the inner Pelton. I don't think they are in danger of being attacked though.

error

AGS consolidates over the Dnepr but also advances along the south bank locking D town's HI: the arms bird having flown. (Edit - this may be wrong. but have to wait to get turn back to check. Memory does fail old dogs ..... at least in my case)

17th Army closes in on Kiev

casualties



The lowest yet due to lack of pocket troops + focus on territorial gains this turn

air losses had a happier outcome thanks to overrunning several airfields

Orbat T7

Impressive driving all the way to Kaluga.

Serving them up to a PoW camp it looks like but who knows 8)

Tx

The plan is that they will be rescued next turn because the southern hook around Smolensk has cut his rail lines out of there and anything rushed into the way is likely to be tired + weak.