This is the first turn on tthe 1.02.08 beta pach. However, cameron88 forgot to upgrade, so he was on the 1.02.06 beta patch for this and a couple of subsequent turns before we realized.
The German interdiction is just too powerful.
On land, Malinovsky learned a hard lesson - thou shalt never attack an SS unit, even if you are attacking with a ridiculous number of Guards Rifle Corps and Rifle Corps decked out with 3 attached Rifle Brigades each.
Near Novgorod, two SS divisions similarly showed their prowess by routing and shattering 3 Soviet divisions, causing nearly universal Soviet casualties:
Only one hex was succesfully attacked in the Leningrad area this turn, this one. First two Artillery divisions attacked by themselves:
Followed up with a full-on attack with 275k men, 4k guns, and 159 tanks:
These are the sort of massive, desperate attacks that occur every single turn in the nightmarish World-War-One Leningrad front.
The Velikie Luki sector was much more successful. Germany was taught a lesson - you cannot leave regiments defending any hex you want to hold, even if it is a swamp hex with a level 3 fort. You can also see the German position towards Pskov is blown open.
Germany took back Velikie Luki. However, then during my turn I surrounded Velikie Luki and took it back. Since it was surrounded and the Germans had nowhere to retreat, they automatically routed. Similarly, in the hex to the north of VL where my 4=4 division is now, a German infantry unit was surrounded before being attacked, and then routed (took 2 attacks though on that one). So by the end of the turn, Germany had lost Velikie Luki and nearby hexes, and had quite a few routed units. This is one of the downsides of strong point defense, if you get surrounded, you can be routed. Germany clearly needs more troops here, but obviously they don't want to give up on the siege of Leningrad.
Near Rzhev, I did an attack to take the swamp hex. I was hoping this would serve as an additional distraction to remind Germany not to totally neglect Rzhev in order to send more troops to Velikie Luki and Leningrad. However, the real reason for attacking it is that since I had so many Guards units in the reserve about to be deployed, I was about to need more good commanders in the Leningrad area. Since Bagramyan was headed up in that direction anyway, he might as well lead an attack along the way, since you can only go 50 MP per turn.
I take 2 light forest hexes to strengthen my flank defenses in the Kalinin salient:
I attack some Italians across the river.
Meanwhile Lelyushenko's Guards Army is also migrating towards the North/west. Lelyushenko has arrived on the outskirts of Velikie Luki. Since it is on the way, and since the Soviet troops near Voronezh have finally built up CPP (they start with 0 CPP in the scenario due to being unlocked), they are ready to attack some German regiments.
This will hopefully be another thing adding to the pressure, stopping German reinforcements from going to Leningrad and/or Velikie Luki.
In the Stalingrad area, I continue to hold a fairly defensive and cautious posture. Germany clearly has a lot of tank and motorized units still in the area, and while I do still have my tank and mech units, all my Guard infantry is gone. I am not entirely sure if Germany realizes yet at this point how many of my Guards Rifle Corps have suddenly disappeared. If they actually seriously attacked at this point, probably I would have to retreat back towards Stalingrad. However, the front line is very long for Germany, and despite their strong troops, they are overextended and need a shorter line to defend.
However, Tolbukhin is creeping to the south with his 57th Army, which consists entirely of Guard Mechanized and Tank corps. In subsequent turns, I hope to have the option to use him to pose a threat to either seize Rostov, or...
Or... alternatively perhaps Tolbukhin can pose a threat to the Germans in the Caucasus, which seem to be slow to retreat to a defensible line, and a bit overextended. That depends on how Germany handles things around Krasnodar in the subsequent turn or two:
I should also mention that by this point, basically the entire Red Army, other than troops that are in the Leningrad or Velikie Luki sectors, is on 65% TOE or so, in order to make reinforcements go primarily to those areas. That limits the strength of my troops and ability to attack in other areas, however. Also, my strong support units like rifle brigades and tank brigades are basically all migrating over towards those areas as well.
On land, advancing is very costly, and the Red Army is getting smaller:
In particular, German counterattacks are very powerful (with the artillery patch), but many attacks are also very costly, even if they are successful.
And in the air, the VVS continues to self-immolate over Lake Ladoga. For one turn, there is a relative respite. I forget the exact reason why, I think it might have been that I was cycling my planes or something so they did not have air miles to fly missions. However, I assure you that this is a temporary blip in the downward descent which will continue in subsequent turns:
Also, I have been starting to disband a lot of fighter and bomber groups, in order to not have them all end up depleted, so that at least some of them can be at full strength with reinforcements. Trained pilots are all going to fighters.
