The Game is Called!!! A-Game welcome!

[Disgruntled Veteran]

The South fared the best throughout the Blizzard. While the North gave a tremendous amount of space the South held Stalino, Kursk and Kharkov. Perhaps an attack in the South is warranted?

[Peltonx]

Good game so far for sure. SHC seems to have the upper hand as OOB will be 7+ million by June.

You can turn it around for sure, but will need to pocket allot of units.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 44 - APRIL 16, 1942[/center]

So a quick update is in order. Not too much to report. A few strategies:

-I've been massing my divisions to attack in overwhelming odds from February to date. I've used as many as 9 division to attack a lone division. This is to quickly increase morale of many of my depleted units. Most of my infantry have morale in the high 60's- low 70's.

-Since late March A-game has been backing up a hex or two to avoid such battles. While it makes sense for him to avoid encirclement its still muddy as hell and he is giving me plenty of awesome terrain before my offensives start. No complaints here.

-My mech armies are appx 10 hexes behind the front sitting on rail for the duration of mud. I still haven't decided on the exact attack spots. This will be my last turn before I need to commit to an attack place and time. I'm honestly not sure where best to strike. Should I go for Moscow or commit a historical Case Blue?

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 46 - APRIL 30, 1942 - ALL MUD[/center]

The Fuhrer is pleased to announce the pinning of swords on General der Infantrie Maxmillian Von Weichs's Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. The General has recovered his great honor after being dismissed following 2. Armies thrashing in the previous blizzard. Against the Fuhrer's best judgement, Weichs was assigned command of the 11. Army for the coming Crimean Offensive. Weichs and his men delivered the Fuhrer, and the people of Germany, a much needed victory.

One of several smaller offensives had been planned to start off summer 42 in order to build morale and weaken the Red Army. For this post I will only post the Crimean campaign. (The rest is all mud anyway).

I had slowly been building up the 11. Army for this offensive: 3 Infantry Corps, XIV Panzer Corps borrowed from 1. Pz Army, and an adhoc Mtn Corps with the 1st and the newly arrived 5th Mtn divisions. Also, the Romanian 4th Army was assigned screening duty and flank protection. The attack started with the Romanians launching several preliminary assaults to breach outer defenses (or soak up the enemies ammo). After the ground lay littered with Romanians the 11. Armies spearhead, headed by the 22nd air landing division with 2 companies of Stug's blasted a hole in the line. The Soviets crumbled. Only 1 of the 11. Army's Corp was needed to open a corridor. Recon showed minimal reserves.

My first goal was to swing round and sever the bulk of the Coastal army from supply. The 14th Panzer did this with ease. My final motor division was assigned the job of grabbing as much territory near Sevastopol as possible. To my great surprise and delight, A-game had left Sevastopol completely empty. My motor troops took the city without a drop of blood loss. This was a monumental victory for the Reich. Haul includes 11 Infantry divisions and a separate tank brigade. Total axis losses around5-6k. Total German losses under a 1k.

Lets face it: This is one time where Random weather blessed the axis.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Just to clarify the above post: It was a random clear turn in April and 2 of my 3 infantry were just outside the screen to the north sitting on rails. Turns out they weren't needed.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 51 JUNE 4, 1942[/center]

So we've kicked off the 1st week of the Summer 42 campaign. Aside from the Crimean operation most of my work has been preparatory, until now.

Here's the Northern Front. Not much going on. Trying to keep the Finns up North to preserve their morale. However, 16th army did take part in opening up the Northern wing of the Vyazma Offensive.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 51 - CENTER FRONT - VYAZMA OPERATION[/center]

Here was the opening (and likely the crown) operation of Summer 42. 3 Rifle Armies and 3 over strength Panzer Groups took part in ripping a hole in the Soviet Center.

I had planned this operation for several months aiming to hit him and work on the paths with the most clear hexes to link up. My formula isn't too difficult. I'd rested the bulk of my reserves behind the lines and kept plenty of low morale (tramplers) to absorb the worst of the assault. Getting past the initial lvl 3 fort belts was the toughest as here I encountered multiple holds and A-Game had reserve activations 3/4 battles. Once you breakthrough though the 2nd and 3rd lines are never as hard to smash up. Especially with over 20 mech divisions to commit.

Total isolated:
49 Rifle Divisions
1 Artillery formation
1 Army HQ
18 Unidentified formations.

Should be a minimum of 500k men. I'm very relieved to have pulled this off in one turn. I'd really expected this to be a multiple turn operation with much smaller results. Pocket should hold.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 51 - FAR SOUTH - ATTEMPTING TO ACTIVATE AGA[/center]

This is the only other front of note. I'm actually not too strong here. Im using the 3rd Romanian to screen the entire East flank.....for now. A total of 10 Rifle and 1 Armor division from OKH are on their way. I'm also sending the remains of 11. Army from the Crimea and possibly a panzer Group from AGC once I figure out what is going to happen with the Center Front. I initially thought Moscow was unachievable, but it may be depending on how A-game reacts to this. From here I'm just trying to take Rostov and the 3 towns needed for AGA.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Look at the Air war this turn:

[sillyflower]

Good job. A Game is paying price for a lacklustre blizzard. I thought he could have used his massed cavalry to herd you into some pockets and you did well to avoid that.
You have to try for Moscow now, and you must be in with a reasonable chance. Even if you don't succeed, this pocket should provide opportunities for other pockets.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

Good job. A Game is paying price for a lacklustre blizzard. I thought he could have used his massed cavalry to herd you into some pockets and you did well to avoid that.
You have to try for Moscow now, and you must be in with a reasonable chance. Even if you don't succeed, this pocket should provide opportunities for other pockets.

Alas, A-game pulled an upset and opened the pocket....and isolated half of 4. Panzer Group in the process.

To make matters worse mud hit in the North and stopped me from reclosing it. So I've done my best to reposition units and prepare for the next clear turn. As you can see A-game has committed 6 Tank Corps to opening the pocket so hopefully they will be isolated as well. Thats my wish. Over 10 divisions from reserve and/or other regions have been committed. The fight for Moscow is on.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Down South it seems Rostov is doomed. I smashed his Southern front and severed the rail line feeding Rostov.

[Peltonx]

WOW he really made a huge mistake in front of Moscow which is the worst possible plase to make a huge mistake.

I think you got this one in the bag now unless you make a major mistake

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]JULY 2, 1942 - TURN 55[/center]

Start turn 55. This is the overall outlook of the North half. Following the last post (where the hideous mud turn left my pocket open another week) I managed to close the pocket and seal it off. The following turn I stopped the attack Eastward and reduced the whole pocket in one turn. Total haul:

63 Rifle Divisions
1 Guards Rifle Division
1 Tank Brigade
2 Artillery Brigades
Numerous HQ's

When I loaded this turn his whole front had been rebuilt with lvl 3 Forts. Its still an intimidating picture in front of Moscow. No doubt the rest of the front is significantly weaker. This may lead to other opportunities.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Down South.

While this is a secondary theater, AGS/AGA have done quite well. Vorishlogrod and Rostov have both fallen along with a small bag of 5 divisions. A-Game is falling back everywhere. Not sure what will develop down here. I know I want to capture the Kuban to bring up 4th Romanian from the Crimea. Shouldn't be a problem.

I put both Romanian armies under Antonsescu. Freed up some COC of the Germans.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

This makes me smile.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

OOB and command changes

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]TURN 58 - JULY 23, 1942[/center]

Center Front.

From my last post it was clear to me the Soviets had stripped all other fronts and put everything behind Moscow and the immediate flanks. He has 2 levels of lvl 3 forts built from previous time and the turn used to collapse the pocket. I have since went with my initial idea. I will keep attacking targets of opportunity and try to destroy divisions and capture every manpower center possible. The attack on Moscow is called off. This is my turn before Recon.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]MIDDLE FRONT[/center]

Here we saw the Hungarians play a good part. I Corps was transferred to 6. Army and punched a hole south of Voronezh. The 2 Hungarian tank divisions swept behind the hole and cut off 9 infantry divisions and 6 tank brigades. A few units in the South were freed but will be trapped this turn. The rolling barrage continues South.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

[center]SOUTHERN FRONT[/center]

In the South we wiped out another Soviet army and brought the 4 Romanian army across the Kerch Peninsula. Not sure if our target area is Baku or Stalingrad..probably which ever is weakest.