Moscow or Bust - vicberg vs. jaimain (no jaimain)

[vicberg]

MJ40 4th Impulse - The Russians Attack!

It's getting interesting. Looks like he's making a push for Ploseti. I played into his hands coming out of my defensive positions. It will be a race now to see it Ploseti be taken before his supply is cut. He doesn't have enough units to push and defend his supply sources defend everything. Next turn, I'll be transferring a HQ from the center down to south. In a couple of impulses, GE should be able to break out. With only 1 HQ there now, how far that the armor push inland while cutting off the Russian Armor. RU Armor is the priority. If they are OOS, that's pretty much it for the Russian defense

[vicberg]

MJ41 5th Impulse - Germans drive toward Smolensk

The weather is fine again. The offensive continues.

I'm really regretting that risky attack last impulse. If Leebs units were not disrupted, things would be worse for the Russians in the center. There's one attack. if this is successful, I'll overrun the artillery and force the FTR to rebase. There's only a MECH, HQ and a couple of div remaining that are not disrupted.

[vicberg]

In the south, I'm not going to do risky attacks on the forest hexes. I'm going to continue to push through into the clear terrain.

[vicberg]

Stalled in the Center

The attack on Vilna in the center succeeded, but disorganized the entire force with a +12 but a roll of a 6. So the center is now stalled until next turn. That's very unfortunate as there was major opportunities to push in this area and remove virtually all defenses of Moscow.

Bock was used to reorganize the ARM and MECH corps and MECH Division. If I play this scenario again, if faced with this type of defense, I'd be opportunistic on attacks, but do a maneuver war. Keep moving in a hex at a time rather than lower odds attacks.

[vicberg]

MJ41 7th Impulse

The weather turns sour. Rain in the Artic and fair in the Temperate. This weather helps him even more as most of Russia is in the Arctic zone, but Romania is not.

The center is mostly disorganized. I moved the Arm/Mech stack forward a bit.

[vicberg]

Army Group South inches along. Next impulse, if there is one, I should have something to do with them.

[vicberg]

Romania is getting dire. He attacked again last impulse and is poised to take Ploseti. If this happens, I have 1 turn to take it back or it's pretty much game over. Germany can't run it's machine on 2 oil. I made a huge mistake coming out of my defensive positions and attacking. My hopes were to scare him back to the Denpr, but I ended up disorganizing my troops in clear terrain and enabling him to have easy attacks.

[Orm]

I would say that you can continue this war even with Ploesti lost but you must then focus on higher odds attacks. With much of the Soviet army in Romania then there is a chance that the German army can break free and run havoc in the Soviet rear areas. Focus next turn should be on getting past the Pripet Marshes.

Do not forget that USSR has a offensive chit. But if he uses his chit to capture Ploesti then I should consider using the German offensive to cut off the forces he has in Romania and bypassing them in a run for the interior of USSR. It is a short campaign so the lost oil might not hurt as much as you think. His armour, and HQ, trapped in Romania might hurt more.

[vicberg]

With only a single HQ in the south, it's going to be at least an initial choice which direction to go. I'd love to start pushing to the factory line, but first priority will be cutting off the Russian ARM, With good positioning of the HQ, I might be able to do both, but there's the back units pushing through the marshes I also have to keep in g supply. Definately, Leeb will be transferring to the south next turn. Bock will continue the push towards Smolensk and Moscow. Mannenheim will be pushing down from Leningrad. So all isn't lost, but it's not good. My opponent plays much more aggressive than I expected and I played into his hands.

[vicberg]

MJ41 9th Impulse

The weather is clear again. Most of the center is disorganized. I pushed a Mech and Mech Div forward a hex. The GE MIL is moving up to claim Estonia and destroy the Soviet Navy based there.

[vicberg]

In the south, things are getting very interesting. I could have pushed armor into the interior. I elected to wait one impulse on that as Rundstedt is being held back by Russian ZOCs. I kept my armor close and am poised for a breakout next impulse.

Timoshenko is still in the swamps underneath that Russian 5 FTR at the very top of this screen shot. He's basically trapped. The forest hex being attacked is OOS. I did a ground strike with a Ju88d and Stuka. He flew a 5 FTR and I reacted wiht a 6 FTR. My Ju88d was shot down and I shot down his fighter. The lone Stuka was able to flip both corp.

However that AT div could save the day by itself. The two OOS corps are worth 1 each on defense. But the AT div is doubled for the attacking mech and worth an ARM corp in terms of determining chart, so he can call assault. Total defense is 8. I'm at +16.

[vicberg]

Here's end of impulse.

The attack succeeded with a roll of an 8. The rail line is cleared of ZOC. The armor ready to go whatever direction I wish. On his 8th impulse, he used a rocket arty to try to flip my GE corps and MTN div in Romania (16 defense in the forest in Romania). He was unable to flip anything and didn't attack. So the Romanian defenses are holding, barely. My guess is that NOW he'll pull back towards the Denpr. If I get another fair weather impulse, his situation in the south isn't going to be good.