And Again Again - vicberg (axis) vs. Viktor (Soviets)

[vicberg]

AGC (south)

He's pulled from the Denpr. I'm moving forward.

[vicberg]

AGS

Again, pulled back from Denpr. Moving forward. PZG1 pushed towards Stalino. Unfortunately, it's pretty depleted. Rail lines are one turn away from crossing the river.

[vicberg]

Turn 11

AGN

Push for Leningrad

[vicberg]

AGC

[vicberg]

AGS

[vicberg]

Turn 12

AGN

[vicberg]

AGC

Pushing through. Moscow is 60 miles away. Didn't quite capture it in screen shot but PZG3 is pushing east south of PZG2.

[vicberg]

AGS (middle)

Mosly minor defense to slow me down.

[vicberg]

AGS (South)

Prepped to encircle Stalino area. I would bet he'll pull out this turn. He probably has already railed out the production.

[sillyflower]

Not looking too shabby and all without muleing[;)]

What are the casualty figures?

[vicberg]

Yep.  It's not 41 I'm worried about, it's 42.  I think the 8 mil man army I faced was because we upgrade to 1.6 mid-flight, so it was hopefully an abberation.  
 
2 mil in casualties for the Soviets.  I still have a few turns of good weather.  i just isolated 7 move divisions and I have snow turns.  So I'm feeling ok about things right now. 

[vicberg]

Turn 14

AGN

Leningrad is isolated now. I want to push his troops past the river and the hole up for the winter.

[vicberg]

AGC

Pulled two corps from PZG4 down and rushed them into the fight. I elected to smash some of his big stacks rather than try to push down a single road. It will be interesting to see what he'll do here. PZG2, PZG3 and PZG4 can push from here with infantry support. I'm wondering if he'll do a few hex pull back from here.

[vicberg]

AGS (south)

I could have gone around, but I decided to go through.

[vicberg]

Turn 15 (I think I got my turns misnumbered)

Leningrad is cleared and the finns are moving south. I'm hoping to clear to the river line and pull 18th for refit and winter.

[vicberg]

AGC

Viktor is an aggressive player. He's not afraid to attack in 41 as evidenced and reopened the pocket.

[vicberg]

AGS

More attacks from Viktor. I'm pushing to straighten the lines a bit for winter.

[vicberg]

AGS (South)

Pushing on Rostov for the Group A/B split.

[vicberg]

AGS (broad front)

This, I'm not happy about. The lines are too stretched.

[vicberg]

Sitrep

I'm in an ok position.  I'm not quite comfortable though.

I can still push accross multiple hexes towards Moscow.  I straightened lines there and have 3 PZGs there with infantry support.  At a minimum, I'm hopefully doing enough damage to prevent a soviet counter attack in winter.  I doubt that based on his current attacking without winter, so I'm worried about the blizzard.

In the south, the lines are too stretched. 

Brings me to another lesson learned.  Go where they aren't.  Viktor likes strong stacks every two to three hexes and others in reserve mode. If solid defenses are facing AGC past Smolensk, then shift the panzers south.  That could have straightened my lines at lot easier than pounding through his strength in the north. 

The hedgehog is quite effective.  This goes back to BigAnorak's idea of a war of attrition.  Go slower in the north in 41, unless encircle opportunities show themselves or there are light defenses, attack for moral and favorable loss ratio's, set up for 41 winter and 42 campaign.  In the south, I could have exploited his light defenses from south of Smolensk down to Kursk with Panzers and set up for a better winter defense and 42 campaign.  The goal being Rostov, Kursk, Orel, etc..  In essence, I played right into his strength and also got PZG2/PZG3 bogged in the woods east of Vitibesk.  Against someone like Viktor, I'm not going to get many encircle opporunties, so this should have been the time to set up for the war of attrition in 42. 

Lesson learned there. 

All this assumes no muling. That would have made all the difference in the world.