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July 6, 1941

Not a good turn for the Motherland. The Germans capture Pskov, Smolensk and Vinnitsa. I was hoping to hold all three for one more turn. At least I cut off the northern and southern spearheads.

I spent some time trying to rationalize the Red Army this turn. For instance, we have Gun, Cannon, Howitzer, and BM regiments. The nomenclature is stupid; it just confuses things, especially since they are all using more or less the same guns. I disbanded the Cannon and Howitzer regiments. I also disbanded all the heavy and BM regiments that did not have 203 mm guns or larger. I decided to keep the tank battalions since I don't need to pay the AP cost for them later, but I won't commit them to action either. All the naval battalions were disbanded. Soon I will need to start working on the Red airforce to get that into order. There is only so much I want to do in any one turn.

I suspect the Germans will drive south from Smolensk next turn trying to encircle my units on the Dnepr. Rather than pull back, however, I wanted to hold this line to slow them down. So I substituted in weak formations while the stronger divisions were pulled back east. I can afford to lose a bunch of crappy units (doesn't mean I want to) to slow the Germans down.

I don't think I have the balls to hold the Dnepr line another turn when the Germans outflank me to the North. You defiantly do!!!! It could pay off Im rooting for you [&o][&o][&o]

ORIGINAL: CapAndGown

... I decided to keep the tank battalions since I don't need to pay the AP cost for them later, but I won't commit them to action either. ...

actually I find the tank battalions are prime candidates for early disbands.

they don't seem to offer much value as SU, by the time you have Cav Corps you can use tank brigades in this role. Looking forward (a long way), they grab t34/85 before your tank/mech corps.

the regimenents are decent enough and add more when they are committed to combat

July 13, 1941

As expected, the Germans drove south from Smolensk to encircle my units along the Dnepr. Zhukov claimed in his memoirs that losing a million men in the Bryansk and Vyazma pockets was not in vain since it bought time and slowed the Germans down until they were well and truly stuck in the mud. Lets hope these soldiers' sacrifice also buys us the time we need to set up defense lines. At least I am not going into this as delusional as Comrade Stalin proved to be (at least I hope not! [:D]).

The Germans were determined to form a tight encirclement ring. They obviously do not appreciate our shenanigans with breaking pockets. I looked for a way to get an attack or two off against the panzer regiments, but I did not find any likely candidates.

In the south we did find a couple of opportunities to launch counter attacks. Unfortunately, they were not sufficient to save a mountain division that had become ZOC locked by some motorized regiments. We at least made one of them pay by routing it, while isolating the other.

Our troops in the Lvov pocket are still active!. Yay!

Last turn, apparently, one of our pocketed divisions overran an Axis airbase causing the loss of 128 German fighter bombers. (Likely 109s, though I didn't remember to check.) That has got to hurt. They didn't lose the pilots, still that is a large number of airframes.

In the north, beyond capturing Talinn (which I had hoped to hold for another turn) the Germans made what I consider relatively little progress. They did not move north from Pskov at all, meaning our screen there is still in place. They may be trying to come at Leningrad via the Narva, but right now their mobile divisions are scattered around Lake Pskov with no concentration.

I should add: I made two leader changes this turn: Vasilevsky takes over the Luga Operational Group while Rokosovsky takes over the 20th Army which is responsible for our defense of the Narva. I was very interested in high Admin scores even more than skill scores since our troops are starving for supplies due to failed admin rolls.

July 27, 1941

I am skipping over turn 5 and moving right on to turn 6 since I got this turn back before I could write up a report on the last turn. And since last turn was rather boring, I figured I would just skip it.

This turn was anything but boring. My opponent's email indicated he was dubbing this "Operation Little Ardennes." Indeed, I was quite demoralized when I saw what he had done. I can only hope that this turns out like the second Ardennes offensive and not the first!

I took everything I could lay my hands on and that had enough movement points and threw it in front of the panzer thrust while pulling back from the Velikiye Luki area before he can either cut the double track rail line leading there or worse, encircle everyone there. This thust threatens both Moscow and the Moscow-Leningrad rail line. Everyone I had in the reserves was therefore set to arrive around Vishne Volochek or Kalinin next turn. Hopefully, his panzers will not have enough movement points or combat power to get to those cities during his turn. I looked around for opportunities to cut off his spearhead but didn't find much that was promising. I did open up a small pocket, though the troops there are goners anyway. And I cut off the lead panzer division. On the whole, though, all I could do is throw units in front of the thrust and pray for the best.

Not much change around Leningrad. The one panzer corps next to the Narva is no longer visible. Maybe it was withdrawn south? One corps from PzG 4 is at Velikiye Luki. To me this seems to indicate that the main German thrust is going to be aimed at Vyshny Volochek/Kalinin. At any rate, there seems little need to send anything more to the Luga front yet.

And now for a look at the southern sector.

ORIGINAL: CapAndGown

I should add: I made two leader changes this turn: Vasilevsky takes over the Luga Operational Group while Rokosovsky takes over the 20th Army which is responsible for our defense of the Narva. I was very interested in high Admin scores even more than skill scores since our troops are starving for supplies due to failed admin rolls.

Two things. First, you may be failing admin rolls not just from weak leaders, but also HQ TOEs, many of which are low in the early turns. Second, make sure to make full use of air resupply where you can. Novogorod would be one location to fly supplies into from Leningrad when you put units there.

Your opponent moves twice as quick as the AI.

Aug. 10, 1941

I am afraid I have failed the motherland. I have resigned this game. Moscow will probably fall by September and I have no desire to drag this out.

No supply problems for Germany?

ORIGINAL: Beethoven1

No supply problems for Germany?

Soft factors show supply. Basically, the Soviets have many, many more problems with supply than the Germans.