Razing the Reich

[Flaviusx]

It's true that he's mostly stopped doing it, but I can imagine situations where he'll pull out that card and play it. Especially by the Donbas, which is both manpower and factory rich.

[Michael T]

End Soviet T4

On turn 3 I confirmed the disposition of Axis mech forces as: AGN 7/6 (Pz/Mot), AGC 4/1, AGS 6/6. He is clearly going all out for Leningrad.

This turn the AGN battering ram continued its push toward the southern edge of Lake Ilmen. With the aid of some successful reserve commitments quite a few holds were achieved against his panzer spearheads bringing the advance to a temporary halt. The right hook could well be his plan. But he is still in position to go either north or south of Lake Ilmen. Some weirdness on the Finish front. I put plan Janis in to operation and Pelton's reply was to retreat a hex back in to Finland??? I don't know what he is playing at here. I withdraw to the Janis stop line.

In the centre he seems content to wait for the arrival of his infantry before making any deep advances. Not much pressure on me here yet.

In the South he moves across the Dniepr, I offered no serious resistance. He is poised to strike either towards Kharkov or D Town. I have evacuated about half the T34's and 8 Arm from Kharkov. D town is emptied of Arm, the process was started on T3. Poltava was emptied on T3.

I have thrown a lot of troops in to the Leningrad area. Most I ever have. I feel his entire 1941 strategy is revolving around the early capture of Leningrad and the destruction of my army defending it. The longer I hold out the more chance frustration or indecision will result on his part. I can only hope. It’s a tricky balance I need to maintain. Delay versus the risk of losing the forces involved in postponing his march to Leningrad/Svir.

[Michael T]

Close up of Leningrad.

[Flaviusx]

He's probably conceding the chokepoint and placing the Finns so they don't get attrition losses. Even so, that hardly requires a withdrawal, shrug.

The hardest thing about dealing with this northern push is that for the moment you have to cover both north and south of lake Ilmen, as he hasn't committed to either and can easily swing one way or the other.

Your C&C up north is a bit of a mess. I know a lot of folks like to wait a few turns to straighten things out (and get the AP dump from Reserve Front) but this area in particular may need immediate attention. Elsewhere you can get by being a rainbow warrior.

For whatever it is worth I think you're doing absolutely the right thing massively reinforcing the area. I'm even thinking you need more than what you've sent already. His panzer commitments speak for themselves.

[Walloc]

Well, if u attack right u can nearly always surround 2 of the divs before they would make it to the choke points. By attacking in right order/hexes. About the attrition. I dunno the formular, but i have made some tests. Just staying close to enemy owned hexes seems to have some sorta effect, so to avoid that attrition he would still hafta take those hexes. Plus the same is true about other side. Now the choke points have a buffer of own hexes infront. Presumably lower his attrition there.

Kind regards,

Rasmus

[hfarrish]

Are the light green units up North all Moscow defense zone? Given its distance, does it really gain anything to burn APs assigning units to that front (apologies in advance if I am missing something)...

I generally use a different strategy of leaving an advance light screen while constructing major lines to the rear and generally don't mess with trying to establish much of any C&C on the screen.

[hfarrish]

Also, what is your sense of how well Pelton recognizes your defenses around Leningrad? In my game I've found he can be a bit light to very light with recon at times, leading to some (I presume) off assumptions.

[Flaviusx]

The green are the Moscow MD. Moscow Defense Zone comes later and is magenta.

He's got some stuff from Western Front, too, along with the usual NW and Northern Front. Quite colorful.

[Michael T]

The desperate rush of troops to the Leningrad area, the desire to minimize the load on NW and N fronts, the need to minimize the expenditure of MP for reserve activation, trying to save AP, the general tide of units from south to north etc etc ultimately results in this 'pizza look'. As the game goes on I will gradually get things in order if the Army survives.

Too early for me to tell much about Pelton's strengths/weakness' but on turn 4 he suffered quite a few holds in his advance to Lake Ilmen (inc a hold result on a deliberate attack by an entire Pz Corp). I was tempted to hit some of his dudes but decided to hold back a bit yet. If I can hold out on this front for another few turns I am confident I can really throw a spanner in his works. I have his T5 in but haven't seen the result yet.

[mmarquo]

If you get the C/C in order then there is a better chance of defensive activations...

Mark

[hfarrish]

Yeah, I meant Moscow MD - I guess my question is does it really help you to have troops attached to an HQ 400 miles away (other than STAVKA)?

Regardless of the activation benefits, I much prefer to horde APs and commanders for the HQs building up forces in the main rear line...just a play style choice though. I find that if I try to organize things early war I just keep spending APs reogranizing them every time I am forced to retreat.

[Seminole]

Yeah, I meant Moscow MD - I guess my question is does it really help you to have troops attached to an HQ 400 miles away (other than STAVKA)?
Regardless of the activation benefits, I much prefer to horde APs and commanders for the HQs building up forces in the main rear line..

No AP cost for assigning units from Stavka to an MD (and no cost assigning units from an MD to another HQ).
It doesn't appear to make any difference if they're beyond supply range of the HQ for their supply, but one advantage I imagine would be at least two leadership checks instead of one for all purposes.
I assign all units I'm bringing up from the Urals to Moscow or Volga MD before finding them a home HQ.

[Fishbed]

not building up forts in Pavlovo...?

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: Marquo

If you get the C/C in order then there is a better chance of defensive activations...

Mark

More importantly, it would cut down on combat penalties. This for me is the main reason to maintain at least front integrity. I also don't bother trying to keep Fronts below command capacity at this stage. You almost have to blow past that if you plan on holding any significant stretch of real estate with armies commanded by a single Front.

3 armies/Front just doesn't cut it. Front commanders at this point are also mostly crap (Popov in Northern is pretty good, though.) I cheerfully will load up a Front with up to 5 armies and pretend the Front commander doesn't exist and focus on getting good army leaders and having them backstopped by Zhukov.

It's almost impossible to avoid this sort of thing until 1943. Front capacity is just not there until then. You either overload, go rainbow warrior, or use lots of STAVKA armies. I think overloading is the least worst option.

By 1943 Fronts will be sufficiently numerous and their capacity sufficiently high to accomodate 4-5 armies; those armies themselves are smaller in cap but also more efficient as they switch over to corps.

[Michael T]

not building up forts in Pavlovo...?

Its happening now.

No disasters in T5. He pushed (at grerat cost to us both) a few more hexes to the north and south of Lake Ilmen. I am still not sure of his main direction yet. Not much of a change in the center. Pushing ahead in the south. More screenies on T6.

[randallw]

'Rainbow warrior'? Isn't this something like not wearing underwear?

[Flaviusx]

Nah, that would be going commando.

[Michael T]

End Soviet T6

The AGN Panzer/Infantry blob continues to bludgeon its way forward. The Mech group have been reinforced with the 60th Mot xx and this brings the Mech forces arrayed against the Leningrad sector to 7 Panzer and 7 Mot divisions. This turn the spearhead deflected to the south east from Lake Ilmen. The Leningrad defenders have done well so far but with the plethora of Mech units committed by Pelton to the Leningrad area any kind of breakthrough will mean serious trouble for them. I throw more troops at the head of the beast.

Nothing really to report in AGC. The enemy continues his methodical advance towards Smolensk and crosses the Dneipr.

In AGS the German Mech forces split in to 2 groups. One comprising of 2 Panzer and 2 Mot divisions cut in behind Kiev and head north east. This forces me to retreat from Gomel and to put in place a defence of my lower centre. The second group has 4 Panzer and 4 Mot divisions. They push on up to Poltava and D Town. I begin the process to evacuate Stalino of its ARM factories.

So far so good.

[Michael T]

A close up of Lake Ilmen and surrounds.

[hfarrish]

Can I be the first to say I hope you lose? That isn't out of animosity towards you - as I think you would appreciate the defense you are offering is completely ridiculous (which I think you have pointed out from the opposing side before). If we Soviet players have to play 80 mile checkerboard games as the best defense I am going to be profoundly depressed.

...so, in conclusion, I hope your defense fails even if I respect the effort that goes into it.