"Kick in the barn door" - Speedy vs Gunnulf (no Gun)

[Speedysteve]

Start of Turn 5. Game may be on hold as I've been docked 15 x PP for 'violating the Finnish/Soviet Border'. I have only moved onto the 'B' hexes and have no moved or attacked over. If this keeps happening and I can't get a PP dump to rectify then we'll have to call the game.

Anyway.....The Soviet's launched 4 counter attacks: 2 near Kishinev (1 succeeded/1 failed), 1 north of Lvov (succeeded but meaningless) and 1 on 2nd PzGp SW of Minsk which failed miserably.

OOB Levels:

[Speedysteve]

AGN after moves.

Massive failure up here. The Sovs have heavily reinforced the Dvina with Forts all along, Zhukov present, a reserve army (21st) and all set to Neutral posture!

An attack on Dunaburg by 1/2 of 4th PzGp fails.

Pocket is mainly cleared.

16th Army is set to SO Posture.

18th Army begins to reach Riga (which now has a Major Garrison). Siege Artillery is 12 days away.

[Speedysteve]

AGC post moves.

Fuel is beginning to be an issue here and not all of 2/3rd PzGp could move. I have managed to tentatively surround Minsk but unless the 22nd Army receives no activations they will break out. If it can hold I'll be happy though as Gunnulf has placed all of 22nd Army in Minsk (5 fresh divisions) which will be a big loss to the Sovs.

Other than that I wiped out a couple of other Sov Divs, bringing infantry to the front and Grodno will be assaulted next turn.

[Speedysteve]

AGS post moves.

The remaining Lvov Soviet remnants were wiped out by 6th and 17th Armies. 1st PzGp mainly just cleaned up the local area as enough Soviets had retreated to prevent a large scale encirclement. Fuel i scarce. Depending on the Soviet response I'll either go for Proskurow or move the SB next turn to Lvov.

Tarnopol is encircled with a Rifle Division within.

Rovno is taken by 6th Army.

[Speedysteve]

Rom Front post moves.

Kishinev fell with a Motorised Div being crushed in the process.

Both 11th and 4th Rumanian Armies are put on SO Posture.

[Speedysteve]

Start of Turn 6.

Good news is the Soviets only made 1 attack to the NE of Minsk to break the encirclement but 3rd Pz held firm despite losing 200 halftracks weirdly (can't see how in RL you'd lose 200 halftracks, no men and 10 tanks).

Losses:

[Speedysteve]

AGN post moves.

This is officially the worst I've ever done in AGN (granted it has been against what seems like the maximum effort on my opponent - Zhukov, reinforcement army, major garrison, forts etc).

Dunaburg fell to all of 4th PzGP at last!

Fuel is dry.

FSB will begin to move up next turn.

16th Army continues to move NE and will be in SO posture next turn.

18th Army has almost cleared Courland and the rest if moving to Riga.

[Speedysteve]

AGC post moves.

Mixed views here.

The good news is I managed to cover a lot of ground as there's very little that is formed up east of Minsk. Trapping the 22nd Army in there has been a good coup as it has 8 divisions with it which are now trapped and have no hope of escape.

2nd PzGp fanned out eastwards towards Mogilev and Orsha and found the recent reinforcement armies forming up (19th Army in Mogilev and 16/29/30th in Orsha.) I have insufficient strength, time and fuel to launch attacks though.

3rd PzGp heads NNE of Minsk in to vast open territory. 7th Pz Div reaches Polotsk and the forming 28th Army but has no AP's to assault (shame as there's no attached units there. Grrr).

Grodno is stormed for little loss and Soviet 3rd army with 5 divisions are erased.

4th Army is in SO posture and reaches the Minsk area.

9th Army is reforming to SO posture now.

[Speedysteve]

AGS post moves.

I Umm'd and Ahhh'd about whether to push PzGp 1 on to try and get Proskurow but in the end decided not to as each Motorised/Panzer unit had the equivalent of 400 barrels of oil to use and recon indicates 2/3 lines of freshish enemy units. I worked out it would take me 8-12 days to get it with the extended pipeline assuming no further enemy interference.

As such FSB is movign to Lvov and 1st PzGP is put on Refit. 17th Army is now with 1st Pz Gp to provide cover and push forward to the east in the interim.

Little other action other than the securing of Tarnopol by 17th Army taking out a Rifle Div in the process.

6th Army is moving to SO posture now.

[Speedysteve]

Rom Front.

Little action due to 11th and 4th Rom Armies changing to SO posture.

3rd Rom Army walked into an abandoned Czernowitz as the Reds fled to the north.

[Speedysteve]

Start of Turn 7.

No counter attacks by the Reds. They've stayed put along the Dvina in the north, all of the reinforcement Army units in AGC have deployed (grrr) and they've pulled back c.3 hexes in the south to ensure they're out of reach from my Infantry......

Here's the OOB levels as of last turn.

[Speedysteve]

AGN post moves.

A lack of fuel and with 16th Army just reaching the front means there's only a small expansion north of Dunaburg.

Siege artillery will be at Riga next turn.

[Speedysteve]

AGC post moves.

Not much happening here as the sheer amount of Reinforcement armies that have appeared means I need my infantry to push through but they're moving to the front and are being used around Minsk.

4th Army and 3rd Pz Gp Infantry assault Minsk and fail to take it. Grrr. I need that for my FSB to relocate.

I put 2nd Pz Gp on refit as there's over 80 tanks I'll get back, they can't advance without infantry and it means I should be able to use them a little bit whilst the FSB is moving forward and 3rd Pz Gp is resting.

[Speedysteve]

AGS post moves.

Little I can do here as the Reds Sir Robin back 2-4 hexes per turn which means my infantry can just keep touch when they move forward.

1st Pz Gp still on refit and FSB moving forward.

[Speedysteve]

Rom Front.

Same here. Mainly Sir Robins means only 3 attacks are made. 1 of which failed.

No Garrison in Odessa as yet.

[Speedysteve]

Start of Turn 8.

No Soviet Counter attacks.

Losses as of Turn 7:

[Speedysteve]

AGN post moves.

I really feel Gun has played the best opening Soviet moves in AGN theatre that I've seen.

By allocating Zhukov up here, rushing one of the reinforcement armies up here and self admitting to having Divisions activate up here in turn 1/2 allowed to a strong defence of the Dvina, Forts being built and Bridges blown before I could cross.

I'm now across but well behind schedule (I know I'll never get Leningrad bar a miracle in this game but obviously will still carry on).

The blowing of the bridges was genius though as it means I can't relocate the FSB to Dunaburg until they're fixed.

The arrival of the Landsers led to a general push northwards from Dunaburg by 16th Army and 3rd Pz GP.

Siege artillery delayed en route to Riga. Grrr.

[Speedysteve]

AGC Post Moves.

Minsk finally fell to 4th Armies assault.

FSB will move up next turn.

Elements of 4th and 9th Army have reached the eastern frontline now.

Put 3rd Pz Gp into Refit now.

2nd Army is arriving in the Pripyat.....

[Speedysteve]

AGS post moves.

6th and 17th Armies reach the Soviet line and launch 3 attacks, 2 of which are successful.

1st Pz GP will be up and running again next turn. FSB is operational

[Speedysteve]

Rom front post moves.

Odessa is surrounded with 3 Rifle Divisions within.

11th and 3rd Rumanian Armies launched 4 attacks, 3 of which were successful.