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Turn 4 South

Enemy has retreated past the Dniepr in force and forms a small line along the Bug and Sinyukha rivers. Turn 4 fuel is not terrific, even with Rumanian sources, so we are left to encircle Odessa and threaten pocketing the Ukrainian river lines. Furthest east panzer is at 29 hexes. We will look for a river crossing later. Infantry advance is slightly stymied by cleaning up the resistant Zhitomir pocket.

Turn 5 South

The enemy flees! The Dniepr remains intact with some outposts on our side, but the picket line retreats to the Ingulets river and Krivoi Rog as expected (even though we barely had fuel to surround them if they stayed.
Infantry advance to siege Odessa, clear pockets, and threaten Kiev and therefore keep the Soviets honest there (in retrospect not necessary, as they are far from Rumanian rail). Next few turns plan to consolidate and breakthrough the Dneipr. Any suggestions?

ORIGINAL: eskuche
I mistakenly greeded for more pocketed units along rail construction -- in retrospect a horrible decision that will slow down the southern advance.

Is it safe to post on your FBD rail routes given that the actual turn is now far ahead? I have been picking them up as best I can from spotting the FBDs in screenshots but might be interesting to see what your choices were explicitly?

FBD follows the standard accelerated path with FBD1 in Rumania and FBD 2-4 going through Riga and Vitebsk.

Also...(I don't mind but it's funny)

South looks pretty good. Assuming he fortifies Odessa, you'll probably have to spend a few turns sieging it down with 3 inf corps. Do you have 5 panzer corps in the south? And do you have a picture of what the area around kiev looks like? Most likely your best option is to find a place to cross the dnepr between kiev and cherkassy because that is probably where you have the best supply and have the most infantry within range the next few turns.

I would not be surprised if there was a crossing at the Dnepr bend somewhere. The river from Kiev downwards is now manned and being foritifed. But with a good fast advance to the Dnepr bend the Soviet side may simply not have the units to stop an unopposed crossing across the entire length of the river? If not the river might be stormed by simply walking across?

@Telemecus - Possibly. Though I think by turn 6 most Soviet players will at least have units in alternating hexes around the bend which will make the MP cost to either move between or attack then move too high for mots/panzers. But definitely worth the recon in case there is any gaps which you can just drive across.

That was funny, but you did say I could read. This was so long ago I don't remember much but since you asked for comments...at this point I thought I was doing OK in the south. Some surprises coming though in the next few turns.

From the pics, which obviously don't show all of the good guys, the south looks OK/OKish from the soviet perspective. However, too many units are being caught because they did not run early enough. Knowing when to run is perhaps the hardest part of playing R in '41. The temptation to hold a defence line for 1 more turn is as strong as it can be fatal. If the G inf XXs are close enough to bash the door down, the panzer exploit should lead to juicy pockets.

A very hard lesson to learn...as will be seen

Turn 2 Center Planning
Considerations:
• Supply is going along accelerated Baltic line, which means the southern Minsk axis will be starved and is a trap for panzers.
• The Dnepr and Mogilev will barely receive any supply, so it is decided for panzers to pursue a northeastern course parallel with their current fuel source.
• Berezina river is only lightly guarded and so not really worth spending lots of armor MP to pocket it.
• Yellow lines indicate close call with middle pocket!
• Infantry will progress as expected.
• Pocket reduction unshown.

Turn 5 Center
Little actions in the past few turns. The landbridge retreated and so infantry trudges forward with a small armored spearhead to make hexes easier to travel.

Strategic considerations: the Dnepr is pretty heavily fortified, and I spent too long clearing pockets, so infantry are quite slow at getting to the front. Thus, because I do not have a critical pass, the Dnepr will not be breachable. The decision is made to advance towards Vyazma on the landbridge and force a Dnepr retreat by threatening an armor sweep behind.

Turn 2 North

Planning: Here we execute an analysis of feasibility. Three armor over the Daugava is suboptimal. For a strong turn 2 across the Velikaya to Pskov, likely 4-6 units are needed.
Numbers indicate the MP left for the boxed armor units once reaching a certain hex, and asterisks indicate after attack. Because the swamp between the lakes is blocked, and the southern traverses are bad terrain, the only ways are to force the hex west of Pskov then cross the river (13 MP), we have no possibility of crossing. Therefore, we relegate ourselves to claiming hexes for infantry to cross in the coming turns.

As expected, MPs were not enough to penetrate the Velikaya, so armor grabs as much territory as possible and bags a small pocket along the Dvina.
Nine infantry divisions cross the Daugava and can reach the Velikaya turn 3.

Apologies, but due to large volume of games this AAR will be slightly abbreviated in detail
Questions are still welcome.

Turns 4-7: Checkboard defense and inexperience on my part lead to very inconsequential pockets and slow advancement of units. Novgorod is almost punctured, and the grind begins in earnest soon.
May have forgotten to move Finns turn 4.

Turn 5-8: troops advance and poke towards Kiev. High Soviet presence still in swamps which amplifies, leading to retreat of Axis minor allies. However, meantime a Dnepr crossing is forced and sizable pocket made. This unhinges the entire Kiev region, leading to panicked retreat colliding with forward SS elements. HQBU of rear elements prepares to exploit disorder.

Crimea swamps are penetrated turn 8, with ensuing checkboard Soviet retreat towards the peninsula proper. Breakthrough panzers rest and fuel up for a month and crush Crimean entrance defenses.