Operation Shiny Chevy

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening at Pskov in early T9. I've found some gaps in the Soviet lines and thought I'd take advantage of them. And during the Soviet turn they moved some units into the AO and have started to plug the gaps. I sank another 7 Soviet DD's but it cost me 32 Stuka's. So, again, I don't think it was worth it. There are two Soviet naval units near Leningrad and I still need to strike the other one to see how much damage I can cause. As soon as they have been brought down in strength enough to be useless to the Soviets I plan on moving down to the Sevastopol area to take care of the Soviet ships down there so there won't be any naval interference with the take down of that citie's port.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what's going on down south in late T9. I'm still pushing SE and my next immediate goal is to get to Odessa and Sevastopol as soon as I can get there. Soviet units seem spread out in this AO and so rapid progress is being made here. Supply levels are dropping the further south I go but the rails are being repaired by my Corps HQ's and three RR repair units, two Romanian and one German so it will soon increase enough to continue the advance.

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T10 and I'm sneaking up on Kiev. I'm in the process of surrounding a large group of Soviet units between me and Kiev and I will dispatch them shortly. All my aircraft are green and the supply level is 11 at the tip of the spear. The weather is good still, partly cloudy with a few scattered showers.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Kiev right now. It's obvious that I need a lot more troops in the area north of Kiev. My aim is to push south on the east side of the river so I can trap those Soviet units on the east side of the river down near Kiev itself. I want to do this because of the expensive losses I would incur if I tried to use brute force to barge my way through Kiev, like the hay diddle diddle right up the middle way of doing things. Like they used to do in WWI. I've been pounding the Kiev defenders with my bombers but that's not having the effect I was hoping for. I also, have no idea where I'm going to find more troops for this push across the river north of Kiev. Maybe I can shift some from the troops pushing to capture D-town or Z-town down south.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T10:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's my losses so far. I deleted those items that didn't have any losses at all.

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T11 and this is what's going on near Kiev. I'm mopping up the remnants of Soviet units and I have Kiev surrounded except on the east side. But I have units north of here on the east side of the river headed this way. In about 10 turns or so I'm hoping to have Axis units on the east side of Kiev and finish the surround on the city. The supply levels are increasing slowly and it's up to about 20 now. All my aircraft are green except one bomber. I'm still moving units and setting up all my round 1 attacks and I've got about 1/3 of the force still to move.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Odessa right now. My plan is to repair the rail down to Odessa so I can use my RR arty on the Soviet stacks to make the takedown easier and faster. And then when I get the rail repaired down to Sevastopol I'm going to do the same thing. The supply situation in this AO is great so far. I'll be entering the Crimea in a few turns.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Smolensk right now in T12. The rail is repaired all the way up to the front lines in this AO so the supply level is great. About half of my bombers are resting. As you can see from the air losses panel the air war is heating up.

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T13 and this is the situation near Bryansk. All my aircraft are green except for the lone Finn bomber which needs rest and refit. The Soviets have started to counterattack and there have been several instances where my recon units have been ambushed and lost equipment severely.

And Elmer has been bombarding my troops with his arty and I've lost a handful of stuff from each unit that gets hit, infrequently for the most part.

The air war is going full speed....the air losses panel shows the losses in the early part of the turn. The numbers will increase as the combat rounds happen.

I usually average about 100 attacks of all types per turn for the past several turns and usually my losses are light. My losses are higher than I'm comfortable with when I do an airstrike so I've quit doing that. I have my Me-110's on AS right now but I'm thinking about putting them on INT instead. Because usually my bombers are so tired after all the bombing I make them do (direct attacks manually scheduled) that they aren't in any shape to do INT attacks. So I need more aircraft on INT missions and the Me-110's can do that with spades. They have an anti-personnel strength of 3, an anti-tank strength of 3 and a defensive value of 8. So they seem able to fill in for that purpose.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I have my Me-110's on AS right now but I'm thinking about putting them on INT instead.

In general I agree that Me-110s are sort of wasted on AS missions, however in this scenario the VVS can get quite aggressive against Finland so I found myself moving these units up as far north as possible to provide extra air cover over southern Karelia. Better than Brewster Buffaloes anyway.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I have my Me-110's on AS right now but I'm thinking about putting them on INT instead.

In general I agree that Me-110s are sort of wasted on AS missions, however in this scenario the VVS can get quite aggressive against Finland so I found myself moving these units up as far north as possible to provide extra air cover over southern Karelia. Better than Brewster Buffaloes anyway.

Wow. That's an excellent idea. I like that idea a lot. Consider it implemented.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the situation near Kiev right now. I've started my fight for crossings over the river so get on the east side of the river to start to push SE and south along the river. I hope to be able to trap a lot of the Soviet defenders of Kiev and the other Soviet units on the east side of the river before they can escape to the east. The supply level is 13 on the east side of the river but I expect it to rise slowly so the advance can continue. About half of my aircraft are resting because I used them a LOT in the first combat round. This is the second combat round and I expect to make some more progress before the turn is over.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Odessa looks like right now. It's going to be a multiple-turn process of taking down the port because of all the arty the Soviets have. But at least I have the rail repaired all the way up to the front lines and I can use my RR arty on the Soviet stacks. And I'm involving my aircraft as another way to project force.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally captured Smolensk after much effort. The rails are repaired all the way up to the front lines so the supply level is great in this AO.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T14 now and here's what it looks like around Kiev right now. I'm still fighting over crossings and the Soviets keep moving people into this area so I'm not making a huge amount of progress over the past few turns. This is the second round of the turn and about 1/3 of my planes are resting. The supply situation isn't the best I've ever seen but I'm going to continue with the advance anyway. I feel like I'm falling behind schedule now.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been the victim of several CTD's over the past few days ( real time ) and so in self defense I've started saving my game after I have done several moves, say every four full minutes max. I just now did another saved game and I thought I'd post it here below just in case there might be somebody inclined to poke around under the hood and look at the information screens and maybe even move a few units around, etc. You're welcome.

Also, please feel free to ask questions, provide some timely advice, or whatever else might cause you to post something. I love cute pictures, gifs that cause a grin, etc.

Hey let's try an experiment. I just moved an MP4 movie, about an infant kitten trying to jump up onto the countertop in the kitchen and failing by about 1/2 a light year, to my OneDrive and I'd like to see if you guys have access to it now. Try this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/36gzqr71rqhqe ... p.mp4?dl=0

Please report your success or failure so I can fix it, etc.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like around Odessa right now. I'm still fighting over crossings and the Soviets keep moving people into this area so I'm not making a huge amount of progress over the past few turns. The supply situation here is the best I've ever seen. The Soviets keep moving people into this area but only a single one at a time or maybe a couple of units will show up together. In other words they aren't much of a problem just yet. I've got the RR arty working over the stacks of Soviet units at Odessa one at a time coordinated with the one-dot probes I am making each turn. Elmer has a pontoon unit just offshore that I'm trying to kill. It has disembarked but hasn't yet moved ashore so it's not quite as vulnerable as if it were still embarked.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like around Leningrad right now. The Finns are pushing to the south to the stop line and my forces are pushing north and east to try to grab the city and contain the Leningrad defenders to this area while at the same time trying to do the left hook drive to isolate the entire area and all it's defenders from the rest of Russia. And then destroy all of them. This will obviously take quite a few turns yet but that's the plan.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the Leningrad area right now. Not much to say about it.