FITE2 Cantonia Allies larry Axis

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a division way the heck out on the northwestern coast of Norway or Sweden or somewhere and I don't need it there. And I don't need it in T147, I need it now. So what I think I'll do is disband the entire division and hope it respawns at Berlin four or five turns later. Does that seem gamey to you guys? I'm simulating strategically moving them somehow, I'm thinking by aircraft because the British fleet dominates the seas around the island of England and trying to move them by boat would need the TF to go way around England by first sailing to Iceland and THEN turning south. Adds weeks to the transit time. Whereas you could fly them to Germany, refueling where appropriate, trading crews where needed, probably in 24 hours or less.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a couple of divisions near Petsamo that I thought I'd use to recon along the border to see what's out there and ran into an outpost that one division is taking care of and the other division continued east to the second river and ran into a substantial Soviet force. I've moved some arty in closer to support everybody. I don't have any ships up here but if I had one or more I'd see if I couldn't employ it too. I see a red dot NE of Petsamo which means that there's one or more Soviet units up there. I could sure use another division or two up here.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's an overview of the northern front lines and my goal for this turn is to get a river crossing somewhere and I have labeled two such places that I'd like to get this turn if possible. I think the Panzers can reach that far. I've lost track where the Panzers are right now but I'd like the majority of them down south to take advantage of the relatively clear terrain. There just seems to be something wrong about tanks plowing through a forest. And I'd like to keep my halftracks on a road instead of going cross crountry and there's those little scout cars that can go almost anywhere. Most of my recon units are a mix of equipment types. Lots of them have motorcycles, and at least one has fast horses. I'm optimistic about this AO.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a lot of arty into a position to support the attack scheduled. The Soviets have arty too so I'm thinking of bombing it from the air to try to get it to unentrench so that it won't fire this turn. MP's and security forces and at least one division are to the upper left of Riga clearing the peninsula and putting a garrison on the ports. I can't get my engineers to enter the river hex for some reason so it'll have to be a river crossing to get to the east side of the river. I've been moving units for about an hour now and I've got an engineer unit adjacent to the Soviet unit guarding Daugavpils. It's not much of a guard so I think one of my divisions can eventually defeat it and we'll be across the river soon thereafter.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a view of the advance just south of the marshes down south. I'm starting to run into the Soviet forts of the Stalin Line and means I'm running into the start of the Soviet defense from here on and that the advance may have to slow down to accomodate the battles the formations are going to get into shortly. Supply is in the 20's and I'm expecting the width of the front line to compress into a thinner front line as the follow on forces catch up with the spearhead. I'm trying to have the aircraft always moving forward to support. The terrain is more forgiving down south and good progress is being made.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got the Hungarians helping the Rumanians clear out the mountainous terrain just north of Bessarabia. The Soviet units are rare and invisible until you're adjacent to them. They have uncovered a lot but there's a lot still to go. They are working their way from upper left to lower right and I have hopes to repair the rail passing through there eventually. There are only a few airfields in this AO that are in a useful spot. Clearing the terrain in this area is tedius and slow but it has to be done. The Hungarians are especially good for this job.

[larryfulkerson]

Some of the Finns became active this turn so now I have a new front to manage. I've already started the probes by the Finns to try to get started on a push to the south toward Leningrad. I don't expect the Soviets to be pushovers but rather I expect to have a hard fight to make any progress at all. The Finns don't have quite the moxie that German units have. I've flown all the Finn aircraft to this area and I've already made some sorties at the Soviet BB group, lost a handful of Ju-87B's and caused 8% damage on the BB. It's going to be a long war.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T7 and I'm embarrassed to say that I'm still working on Riga. I'm astonished that it's still in Soviet hands. I've railed some RR arty up here to help out and maybe with a little help from the arty we can capture the port this turn. If it weren't for the fact that it's a river crossing and has important rails passing through there I wouldn't even mess with it. I received the 73rd Infantry Division as reinforcements this turn and I haven't decided where to move them. I'm leaning toward the north or maybe near Minsk to help out on the takedown of Minsk. Yeah, that's a better idea.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally capatured a river crossing at Jekabpils and got it repaired and now it's ready for units to stream across and spread out. It's about time.

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis forces are sneaking up on Minsk finally. I'm thinking about surrounding the city before I start any serious attacks so that the Soviet equipment doesn't go back to their pools. Every little bit helps. That means that another five or six turns will have to be spent before I'll have everybody in position. On the other hand if I can grab the city without too much trouble that would be the thing to do.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a bird's eye view of the mountains in the southwest front lines showing the extent of the effort to clear out the Soviet units in some of the worst terrain on the map. There's a lot to do yet but there's a lot of searchers so maybe it'll be done this turn or the next. When they get done searching the mountains I'm going to send them toward the Crimea.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T7 and this is the position of the front lines in the north. I'm still working on Riga but I did capture at least one river crossing and my troops are crossing and spreading out. I have no idea where the Soviet units are and my theater recon value is so low that I can't see them unless I'm adjacent to them. There were a couple of Soviet units in the peninsula but it's almost totally cleared out already. I'm probably going to need more people up here so I'd best start looking for a division that I can use as a reserve. I've tried going without a reserve and invariably I get into a situation where I need a reserve stat.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T8 front lines before I have started moving anything. This represents a new set of moves from Jonathan. I'm STILL working on Riga but at least I've captured more than one river crossing and my units have started to cross the river and fan out to look for the Soviet units that I'm expecting to find. I've cleared out the peninsula except for one port. I'm repairing rail from just south of Riga toward the east to hopefully provide some supply to those folks that have already crossed the river. I'm still making my way through the marshes having to repair a lot of bridges as we go east. Down south a lot of progress is being made because of the better terrain and the use of Panzers. The supply levels are more than adequate and I checked out the use of Soviet aircraft during combat and they seem to be hit and miss. Mine are present every turn. I received some fresh divisions and I promise to employ all of them.

[larryfulkerson]

It's getting crowded around Minsk lately. I'm moving units around the sides, top and bottom, so that I can get a good surround established before the serious attacks start. The rails aren't as close as I would like but the supply levels are almost enough for operations. I'm trying to keep the arty near the front to support the units moving through territory known to be recently occupied by Soviet units. I need to check out the aircraft each turn to move the fighters to the front and the bombers behind them a comfortable distance. I'm wondering what the chance is of a Soviet airfield strike. I tried one last turn and it wasn't worth the effort, we both lost the same number of planes. The problem is that mine are a lot more expensive than his. And mine are few at best. The soviet factories are pumping out about 120 planes per day of all types. That's just a wild guess. I'm not all that familiar with the Soviet OOB any longer. I've been playing the Axis side too long.

[larryfulkerson]

I've moved enough units forward to discern that Jonathan has constructed an MLR presumably all the way around Minsk. Maybe it doesn't go all the way around Minsk and maybe there's a weak spot. I may have to fly some extra fighters and bombers into this area for the brutal battle that's going to occur. I think I'll need another four or five turns to get the surround in place. Depending on resistance and terrain and supply levels and broken bridges, etc. I've noticed that in this scenario it seems like all the action is happening in slow motion...it takes so many more turns to get somewhere on the map. The rails aren't quite keeping up with the front except in the north. I'll have to transfer some RR engineers to where the need is. Another thing I want to do is separate the Panzers from the other combat groups so I can use them as the local reserve here and there up and down the front lines. I think I've got enough Panzer formations to do that.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm just about to emerge from the marshes toward the middle and I'm wondering if I should abandon other attempts to penetrate the marshes and maximize the effect of coming out of the marshes in this AO, forcing a crossing on the next river to the east for instance. Then spread out and roll up the Soviet lines north and south of this spot. I'll need a lot more troops to do that. This calls for Panzers anyway.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what's going on just north of Leningrad right now. The Finns are pushing the Soviet units backward and pretty soon will be able to isolate Leningrad from the northern Finland area. I'm hoping to be at the Finn Stop Line in another five turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

More of the Finns became active so there's a battle going on just north of Leningrad and so far the Finns have dominated. They, the Finns, are pushing the Soviet units slowly south and have the goal of making it to the stop line just north of Leningrad.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T9 and more of the Finns became active so there's a battle going on just north of Leningrad and so far the Finns have dominated. They, the Finns, are pushing the Soviet units slowly south and have the goal of making it to the stop line just north of Leningrad.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally captured and cleared out the port of Riga. Now to zoom to the NE as fast as the units can go. I need to redeploy some of the RR enginneers to repair the rail going north from Riga. AGN is parked in Riga for now.