FITE2 Soren(S) and Fogger(A)

[Cfant]

The time frame is still the same, true? 3,5 days a turn? I just wonder, with the map so much bigger, can the axis even reach Moscow before December, 1967?

[fogger]

Movement allowances have been increased

[fogger]

This game has been on hold for a week or so as Soren found a major bug and he and the team have been working on fixing it. Good news is that we have started the game again and I have just posted my EOT file for the new turn 1 to Larry

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie..........here's the restarted T1 from the Axis point of view, northern section of the front lines. It's pretty much the same as
last time. Not very many of the Soviet units are showing on the map yet so as John advances more of them will appear. John and
Soren have more experience w/ the scenario now and some of John's moves may change from the first try to this one. I'm guessing
he's using the same game plan as last time since progress was truncated and the underlaying theme of the plan wasn't exposed to
Soren's view yet, pretty much, and the goals are the same as last time. In other words, this should be a tiny bit better game than the
last effort(s).

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the next section down from the first image above. John has units sneaking into the marshes again and this image is pretty much
like the last image. I'm guessing John is hoping to construct a really big pocket by spreading out on the east side of the marshes and
preventing the escape of the Soviet defenders to the east side of the major river(s). Soren is hoping to prevent that by blowing bridges
and leaving roadblocks at the major intersections and so on.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the next section looking south. John has some recon units way out front of the front lines. He's pressing hard on this
advance and even though the Soviet defenders aren't visible to a large extent they are out there and he's moving to find them all.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of the tip of the spear up north. Notice how spread out the Soviet units appear, making it easier to infiltrate and make
a surround on the defenders. Most of the Axis units are mechanized and are more mobile than the Soviet units so it's looking like not
very many Soviets are going to get away. Soren is using the terrain to his best advantage I'm sure but you can't see it in this image
because Soren hasn't moved very many units yet. If any.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a section of the front lines up north that is closer to Minsk and Smolensk and illustrates how John is pushing his recon units out
in front clearing the path, clearing the roads, finding the defenders so the main body can plan ahead when one is found.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at the area around the mouth of the marshes. Defenders are few and recon is out and the advance is progressing. It's too
early to say who's winning yet.

[larryfulkerson]

John has formed a sort of airdrome area w/ the assemblage of all the light blue aircraft units. I see some of them are showing red already
because of all the airfield strikes being conducted. John informs me that he's destroyed several thousand Soviet aircraft already.
If we had the END_TURN file from Soren we could get the numbers in the air war.

[larryfulkerson]

So um.......here's the middle number on three tries to get a ballpark figure on how many Soviet losses there were so far. So it should be
fairly accurate, is my understanding. The smallest number was 4.6K and the highest number was about 8.2K so this number probably
fairly accurate.

[larryfulkerson]

Soren sent me his EOT file and now we have definate numbers on the air war.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a sample of Soren's losses in Rifle Squad type units. Almost 11K losses already.

[fogger]

I have forwarded my EOT file to Larry but before I start on my real world work I will give a quick update on my game plan. Under the rules of FITE2 the German player has to take Riga (184,266) Vilnyus (194,309) and Lvov (174,397) by the end of turn 6. Then he has to take Pskov (228,253) Mogilev (248,325) and Zhitomir (229,392) by the end of turn 12. Then he has to take Tallinn (194,221) Smolensk (267,308) and Kherson (278,457) by turn 18. Then he has to take Luga (343,236) Roslav (277,323) and Keiv (252,388) by turn 24.

If I can take the cities by the end of the turn count then I get a 140% Air and Land shock. This so the Axis player keeps advancing on a 3 front attack. It also encourages the Russian player to defend forward. Thinking aloud we may have to give some thought to making 2 out of 3 so that the German player can manoeuvre and move the weight of his attack back and forward while keeping the Russian player guessing and while having him defending all 3 objectives. Not sure yet but it will for Soren and team to make the call.

For the first 3 turns I get 100% rail conversion so my game plan for the first 3 turns is to capture as much rail as I can. Then I have to turn my attention to the first set of cities. In the current game I have just taken Lvov at the end of turn 2. Not sure how many aircraft I destroyed this turn but I think it will about 200-300. I will it for Larry to fill in the rest of the blanks

[larryfulkerson]

I'm glad John Fogger explained his goals to us. It explains a lot about why he moved the way he did when I was playing him and now that
Soren is his opponent. Also, I thought maybe we would get more information from a slightly zoomed out view so here is the northern
end of the front lines. You can see how John has his recon units way out in front of the main body. Some of them he has driven to out of
supply positions in an effort to get more hex coverage. Also, you can see how the faster units are zooming around the stacks to get
in a position to isolate and destroy the Soviet units. I'm hoping this image is more informative than the regular red and blue dots.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the next section of the front lines looking south. Minsk is just off-map in the lower right corner of the image. John has done such
a through job of cleaning up the battlefield of enemy units that it looks like it's mostly empty terrain going forward. But the Soviet units
are out there... they just aren't visible yet. Mostly. John is doing a good job moving up to the rivers. Soren is using the terrain to his
best advantage for those units that are able to move......I'm guessing a lot of them are in garrison mode still. This is the situation that is
really frustrating to the Soviet player in that there are so many units that can't move in the early turns.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the next section looking south and you can see how John is attempting to form a giant pocket w/ surrounded Soviet units in the
middle. I've drawn some arrows to illustrate the action. Those Soviet units don't move very fast, if they can move at all and they are as
good as surrounded already.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the next section going south and this is the area just south of the mouth of the marshes. This is the area that has the better tank
terrain. John's fast movers can move faster in this area and Soren's units are attempting to fall back and try to get into the path of the
advance. If they can move at all.

[larryfulkerson]

This area is way down south in Bessarabia and it appears that Soren is blowing the bridges and escaping to the east. The Romanians
are still in garrison mode and can't move so Soren can put some distance between them and the next river to the east.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the air war is going. Still lopsided losses. I'm not sure but I think there is a level for the Soviet aircraft that is depressed
right now and the readiness of the Soviet aircraft is probably in the mid-20's and a lot of them are in reorg now being victums of Axis
air strikes. I usually move all the aircraft to the Moscow area to rest up so I assume that Soren is going to try to rest his aircraft before
he thrusts them into combat. We'll have to interrogate him to see what his plans are.