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In the centre, it is a tense wait for the enemy to show up, apart from at Gomel, where an entire panzer korp has appeared. Eek.

In the south, a third encirclement has taken place: the troops rushed in to man the Southern Sluch have been pocketed. This is getting ridiculous.

Soviet responses: in the north it's simply a case of rushing troops into blocking positions. The defence is inconvenienced by the fact that 27th Army HQ has been cut off, but no doubt that will sort itself out.

In the centre, Stavka releases two divisions from reserve to defend the Gomel axis.

In the south, it's a simple matter to open the entire pocket and carry out one of those counter-encirclements that never seem to have much effect (although this is the second turn that some of these mech divisions have been cut off ...). All the same, this is a dangerous game I'm playing, and it could end badly for the Ukraine.

Turn 4

The German's keep their momentum in the North with a dangerous breakthrough south of Pskov. The whole of Vatutin's 11th Army is trapped in Pskov, and a lunge puts a mechanised division in the rear of the southern wing of North Western Front... but has it gone too far?

In the centre we have an operational pause while the panzers, very sensibly, wait for the Landser to arrive.

In the south the pockets are closed for good and all.

So, in the north it's a question of trying to open the Pskov pocket and trapping the adventurous Panzer division.

I can't really bring a lot of force to bear, but can the German's rescue it?

In the centre, Western Front braces itself for the oncoming storm

As do the southern fronts.

We're still at the sparring stage, but my impression is that the Axis are up with their timetable; the Soviets are off balance in the north and have lost the early battle in the south, so the indications are that it's going to be a close game. In fact, its pretty similar to the opening moves in my game with Bomazz, except that Bomazz pulled off the Michael T opening, so got off to an even better start in the south. He used those gains to divert panzers to the drive on Moscow. I'm very curious to find out what Blubel has planned [X(][X(]

Turn 5

In the north, it proved disappointingly easy for Blubel to rescue his questing panzer division. The Pskov pocket was sealed, of course, but I don't think the German's are quite ready for another big offensive, so we have a little time to regroup.

In the centre, we are still waiting for the Germans to turn up. For some reason the front looks a bit thinner than usual here. Hmmmm

Same situation in the south.

The Soviet response is to reorganise and dig in where we are.

Centre

South

OOB