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Pripyat marshes with routed units

A couple of opened pockets in the south

Odessa defenses

In the air, the VVS successfully closes the Gulf of Riga but an attempted strategic raid on the Lvov railyard fails with heavy losses after being intercepted by multiple German fighter groups. As per house rules, the air force is restricted from all non-strategic ground attack missions this game (interdiction, unit attacks, airfield attacks etc.)

T03
Soviet turn.
They have done Naval interdiction around Riga to cut off supplies, have set up an AS for next turn in case they persist.
The lead three divisions around Pskov have been cut off, not unexpected.
Had an airbase overrun behind the start line, cost 110 aircraft - mostly Stukas. Careless on my part, though I thought they were displaced rather then being destroyed if the aircraft were not damaged.
Otherwise more or less all pockets have held.

The Soviets are defending pretty far forwards, gives me ample opportunity to pocket the odd unit here and there but they require a lot of screening and that is reducing combat power at the spearhead. Anyway, will persist with taking what is on offer - am not sure if this is the best strategy, might be preferable to just rout them out of the way and push on faster.

AGN. Just pocket one Tank division, while the infantry catch up.

PG4. Have pocketed a couple of divisions in Vitebsk but it may not be secure. Bring more troops for the push on Smolensk.

PG3. Pocket one division and get up to the river.

PG2. A better pocket here - 5 divisions.

AGS. Pocket 7 units that were kind of trapped from last turn. Have ZOC locked part of the defensive line and will see if I can get something pocketed next turn, or they may counter attack to try and break out.

Everything from last turns pockets cleared out except one mountain division and some of the Minsk pocket.
Really noticing the difference the nerf on Assault HQs has made, a lot of units are going to be operating with lower quality leaders than before and it means more juggling more units between commands every turn.

Yup, saw that coming. Should be interesting here with the forces committed.

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Yup, saw that coming. Should be interesting here with the forces committed.

No comment on how it gets interesting yet, but I believe the T4 screenshots somehow made their way into the T3 update [&:]

No comment on how it gets interesting yet, but I believe the T4 screenshots somehow made their way into the T3 update

I seem to have overwritten my T03 save with T04, so the correct T03 has been lost...

T04.
Soviet turn.
Still interdicting Riga, AS shot about 102 for 3 in the Soviet phase and 558 for 60 in the Axis one. Soviet Naval patrol still doing their work despite the heavy losses.

AGN. Fairly quiet, the Soviets have pulled back from Parnu - just slowly advancing.

PG4. The Vitebsk pocket was broken so reseal it. One critical attack failed so no new pocket, set up for a strong attack next turn.

PG3. Close up to the river.

PG2. Another critical attack to cross the river East of Kiev fails, just repocket 3 divisions from last turn.

PG1. The Soviets are still defending the Dnestr river line so make a loose pocket of a bunch of units, they can just walk out but hopefully seal them off properly next turn. Most of the pockets from last turn cleared.

Overall progress is slower than I would want and am perhaps making some attacks when it would be better to hold off. There seems to be not much defending in the South so will see how things open up over the next few turns.

And the maps that I uploaded by mistake last turn.

Soviet T4

In Estonia, Parnu is abandoned and Sokolovsky's 11th Army falls back towards Tallinn.

The Pskov defense is reinforced with fortified zones.

On the Land Bridge the two divisions defending Vitebsk are ordered to hold to the last. (They had an opportunity to escape last turn when the pocket was broken.) Govorov beats back Manstein's deliberate attack with two Panzer divions, buying time for the rest of the line to fall back to the Dnepr.

Govorov's defensive victory.

The Gomel area is pretty quiet, reinforcing the Dnepr line here.

The Pripyat area is starting to get a little busy. The escapees from the Minsk pocket have been reinforced with a couple of random units and have started attracting significant German attention. The objective here is to act as a diversion and hold back as many German divisions as possible from the advanced lines.

In the Kiev area the Soviets fall back to a Kiev-Cherkassy-Kirovograd line of defense. Basic entrenchments start to be prepared on the Ingul line to slow down the Axis advance across the open steppe.

Here's a picture of the Southern Front defenses at the end of T3. I think they were decently well designed, taking advantage of terrain and entrenchment opportunities. However the random factor sometimes plays a crucial role. Between no reserve activations and the 13th Panzer Division getting a few more MPs than anticipated, most of the troops of Southern Front end up isolated at the start of Soviet T4.

However the pocket is loose and the encircled troops can participate in counter-attacks at full strength. With some help from VVS ground support two regiments of 13Pz are pushed back with significant losses, one of them forced into a rout. This clears a way for most Soviet divisions to escape from the intended pocket into the relative safety of the Odessa area.

Routed Panzer regiment.

ORIGINAL: K62

However the pocket is loose and the encircled troops can participate in counter-attacks at full strength. With some help from VVS ground support two regiments of 13Pz are pushed back with significant losses, one of them forced into a rout. This clears a way for most Soviet divisions to escape from the intended pocket into the relative safety of the Odessa area.

Yup, has gotten interesting for sure