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Here's the situation near Odessa ( I'm showing this first before Leningrad because I don't intend to move the Odessa garrison ). Six
divisions and two brigades are watching my lone division. That's a lot of hardware that could be threatening D-town or Z-town. I hope
it holds out for a long time.....maybe I should ship somebody else into there? Or should I evacuate them before they get killed?

Larry,

Thanks for posting this AAR. I'm currently on turn 19 (Oct 23, 1941) as the Soviets at 100% vs German AI at 110% on the 5.63 beta. This is my 2nd GC as Soviets, the first was under the 5.5X betas at 100% for each side. I won handily (Germans never got near to Lgrad, Moscow or even Kiev and only threatened Smolensk). I thought I'd try again at a harder setting. Your AAR has been fun to follow since our play styles are almost the complete opposite - I'm trying to hold at every river and forest and swamp line everywhere but in the area north and east of Lake Lagoda. You, perhaps more sensibly, give up land for time every where but the Lagoda area (interesting to see that you've managed to bottle up the Finns in that area - I learned something new - thanks). Looking forward to following your progress!

The turn 18 sit rep for my game is: Lgrad still held but with 3 German divisions adjacent to it. I expect to lose or at the very least have Lgrad isolated by blizzard. Valdai Hills over run. Could be trouble come snow. Moscow still held and defenses well prepared. May loose it by blizzard or in 1942 but who knows. Rzhev still held but will lose come snow. Kaluga, Tula, Bryansk, Orel, Kursk, Kharkov still held (Bryansk has changed hands 3 times tho). Holding along the Desna and Dnepr rivers near Kiev (Kiev lost 2 turns ago). Still hold a river-based line roughly from Cherkassy down to Odessa. It'll be interesting to see what happens come snow. Big victory this turn was destroying an isolated German motorized division and I hope to destroy another before the snows come.

I've obviously found this game much more of a fun challenge than my 100% vs 100% game under the 5.5X betas. The AI seems to be much more aggressive and has managed a number of smaller pockets and tried a number of larger pockets that have unhinged large areas of my defensive lines (my thin, natural feature, don't give up an inch defense is very suited to being unhinged and pocketed but dang it, I'm gonna make the Germans pay for every inch of Mother Russia they wish to soil). Tons of fun so far and the snow season will be rather, er, tense.

Anyway, thanks again for your AAR! [&o]

Cheers!

Hey AKCLIMER dude: you're welcome. I've found that posting my pictures in an AAR gives me the choice to browse them conviently rather than having to hold onto a rather large file on my hard disk. Plus they move in my browser and not in MSPaint. I didn't find your name on any of the recent AAR's........are you not doing one? I'd love to keep up with your progress if only to find out how bad a player I am. I'm still kinda new at this and learning a lot from what various people post and I've found that you can't please everybody with what you decide to do but at least you get SOME feedback. Which is better than just trying to figure things out on your own. Pictures, I wanna see a picture of your game situation. Thanks for posting.

Here's what's going on in the far north. All three of the divisions in the very front line were attacked this turn but they all three held. I'm
hoping they can continue to hold until I can get some more help railed up here. I'd like to be able to attack from here come winter but
the 7th Independent Army HQ might not get much help for a while yet. He's got room for 6 more divisions in his CP.....trouble is I don't have 6 spare divisions to send to him right now. I need everything I have to hold onto Moscow.

Here's what Leninigrad looks like now: I managed to evacuate via boat a lot of troops and I moved them to block the Axis from heading
NorthEast from where they are now.

I see that you order lots of support units; the bad side of that is that they are raw, and liable to die when seeing a lot of action. You might be better off with construction units, which help with digging without being shot at by the Germans.

Alternatively you can order some support units for an army HQ with no on-map units, and lock the HQ, waiting to release them for action in the blizzard.

Hey Larry,

I've not posted an AAR but if I can I'll get at it and post a saved-turn progress report. Might take a few days - kinda busy with travel - but I'll give it a go. Stay tuned...

Cheers & good luck!

ORIGINAL: randallw
I see that you order lots of support units; the bad side of that is that they are raw, and liable to die when seeing a lot of action. You might be better off with construction units, which help with digging without being shot at by the Germans.

Alternatively you can order some support units for an army HQ with no on-map units, and lock the HQ, waiting to release them for action in the blizzard.

Good idea. I've been buying some SU's for those HQ's that don't have any CU's yet and I'm parking them just north of Moscow ready for
assignment somewhere. I'm starting to get a lot of reinforcements and I'm going to need those HQ's pretty soon.

Here's the movements of the Soviets in T12:

Still too many units under the command of Moscow M.D......Western Front has lots of capacity right now.

This is the losses, etc. from the Axis half of T13:

ORIGINAL: randallw
Still too many units under the command of Moscow M.D......Western Front has lots of capacity right now.

I'll get right on it. Thanks for noticing and saying something. I had no idea.

I think I mentioned it yesterday?

ORIGINAL: randallw
I think I mentioned it yesterday?

I think I may have missed your post about it. Anyway, I do thank you.

This should be the Axis moves from 13 and the Soviet moves as well. Leningrad fell but the Axis didn't occupy it. I moved back into
the city of Leningrad but I guess it's too late to say it didn't fall. Maybe I should start pulling back and save as many people as possible.

I see that some divisions from the Transcaucasus activated early; I had that happen too. It's been reported to tech support.

Here's the losses, etc. from the Axis half of T14:

It seems that when you give up ground you straighten out the line, giving up chunks of ground where you aren't being pushed hard.

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Leningrad fell but the Axis didn't occupy it. I moved back into
the city of Leningrad but I guess it's too late to say it didn't fall. Maybe I should start pulling back and save as many people as possible.

Thanks Larry!

IMHO this is interesting game... with your withdrawing and straightening the line the AI is doing much better in the north and center than in my various AI vs. AI tests... I rarely saw Leningrad falling in autumn of 1941...

Overall I am satisfied with how AI is doing and I hope that AI will notice the "Kiev bulge" in the south at some point... [:D]

BTW, how do you feel playing it?

Is it challenging and interesting?

Do you think AI is doing decent job so far?


Leo "Apollo11"

ORIGINAL: randallw
It seems that when you give up ground you straighten out the line, giving up chunks of ground where you aren't being pushed hard.

Yeah I know. Isn't it great. Good game so far. I don't want to give Elmer any chance of making a pocket of my troops and that Kiev bulge is worrysome. One of these days now Elmer is going to go for it.

ORIGINAL: Apollo11
IMHO this is interesting game... with your withdrawing and straightening the line the AI is doing much better in the north and center than in my various AI vs. AI tests... I rarely saw Leningrad falling in autumn of 1941...

Yeah, I know........I'm not doing such a good job defending. Hopefully winter will come early. Oh.......I'm playing with non-random
weather, never mind.

ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Overall I am satisfied with how AI is doing and I hope that AI will notice the "Kiev bulge" in the south at some point.

Yeah, that Kiev bulge is somewhat worrysome. I've debated giving up all that ground but there have been no attacks across-river yet
and I'd really rather use that good defensive terrain. If I see a pocket getting started I'll pull back.

ORIGINAL: Apollo11
BTW, how do you feel playing it?

I feel like I'm getting pummeled severly about the head and shoulders. I keep thinking how easy it would be to start over using 100%
settings instead. It's like playing Pelton without all the pockets and city raiding. I've been pulling back most of the game and now that
Moscow is so near I feel like I can't give up much ground anymore and my troops are being punished. Lots of shattered and routed
Axis attack results. I feel like Moscow is going to fall too.

ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Is it challenging and interesting?

Yes it is. No argument there. I feel like it's just a matter of time until Elmer makes a clean breakthrough and rolls up my defenders.

ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Do you think AI is doing decent job so far?

I don't have much of a clear idea how Elmer is handling the aircraft he has but the ground war is really peachy. I don't mind playing
Elmer for a good game although my first love is PBEM still.

This should be the Axis moves in T14: