Workshop for the new guys - Directive 21 (D21)

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: sanderz
Thanks Larry
Really waiting to see how this plays out when the Soviet defensive lines start to get a bit better

When the Soviet front lines are fully formed they have adjacent hexes manned and ready, there's
arty behind the front lines and they have armor interspersed with the infantry so they know about
combined arms. Aircraft are supporting with INT attacks and there's lots of Soviet fighters
about. German defenders have to have two units in each hex to stand up to the Soviet attacks
and German arty is necessary, definately necessary, to be able to stand up to the Soviet attacks.

ORIGINAL: sanderz
2) I see from this screenshot that whilst most railway lines are broken there are some unbroken lines dotted about in the middle of all the broken ones. Were these the result of them not being damaged in the first place or have they been "repaired" by RR engineers?

They weren't broken in the first place. See explaination below.

ORIGINAL: sanderz
i take it the Railway Engineer units will only repair rails that form a contiguous supply line i.e. that they won't repair broken rails (free of enemy units) behind say an enemy unit that occupies a rail hex?

In D21 the RR engineers are embarked onto trains and they only move via rail so there's no way to get
at the isolated sections of rail that are broken further away. They have to repair in a contigous
fashion.

[larryfulkerson]

I believe I have isolated Odessa and the siege has begun. Too bad Odessa has a supply point; that's going to make the
take down all that much harder. But I've got a good start on some arty to pound Odessa with and I've decided that the
longer ranged arty can target their arty to knock it out of the war and the shorter-ranged arty can pound the front
line troops to make the assault easier.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T13 round 3 and I've been moving units and this is Pskov right now. I'm facing tough Soviet units in tough
terrain and it's slow going. I'm seriously undermanned and outgunned but even though I'm down to using the
engineers on the front lines with the recon units progress is still being made. Losses are starging to hurt and
the units are getting worn down a bit. I'll have to monitor them closely.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Orsha area looking north toward location code named Veli Luki. I'm battling to stay put as the Soviets
are counterattacking in strength. My supply situation is poor so I'm doing the best I can just to stay put.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the front lines in T14 before I have moved anybody and as you can see there's a couple of areas where the front
line is broken and wide open and I'm aware of it, I just don't have anybody to drive into that area. I've got a
severe shortage of units and I'm going to have to start breaking down the divisions into regements pretty soon.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the NW corner of the front: I've got a recon unit or MP or something, I need a nap, driving
around in the Soviet backfield in the west and there's pending battles at the two other main places on the roads, and
there's major battles going on around Pskov right now and I've got people on the road headed north to the bottleneck
to see what the chances are of stopping up the escape route for all that Soviet stuff on the west side of the
bottleneck. I don't have a lot of troops to manage here so I'd have to do it on a shoestring, carefully, and
deliberately take risks but I think I can pull it off.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Pskov area right now. I've got an armor unit in trouble north of my lines and I need to get him back into
the nearest supplied area number one and number two I may need to break him down into three pieces to get enough units
to head in the directions I need to cover just right about now.

[larryfulkerson]

I got to checking out the units just now and came across this HQ unit that is scheduled to receive some pretty hefty
organic SP arty in the future. I'm looking forward to that. I'll have to see what turn it happens and give you
guys a full report.

[larryfulkerson]

It seems that the Hummel doesn't start arriving until something like T150 or T160 somewhere around in there and the
Wespe looks like it arrives by T100 and then lasts another 130 turns and then production stops. D'oh. Why stop a
good thing? Hitler must have needed one more battleship or something. Which reminds me, I need to check out if
there are any theater Options waiting for me.

EDIT: There were no TO's waiting for me.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a splash screen that I liked better. I'll post the file that does this
on the next post below. Because you can only post one attachment at a time.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the file that you need for the splash screen above.
Just unzip it and put it in your graphics override folder
overwriting any existing. You might want to back up your
old file before overwriting the old one. Why in the
world would I tell you that AFTER I told you to overwrite
it. I'm senile I guess.

[DanNeely]

What are you using for a railroad damage mod?

[larryfulkerson]

It's a product of Telumar and it's wonderful in that I can actually
find my damaged railroads now. You can find it here:
tm.asp?m=4388365

[DanNeely]

Unless I'm missing something that thread's just got the red bridge hex mod, not the shelled railroad one.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay. "Shelled one" you say? Like arty shell craters in the image? I'm using Silvanski's mod
with the red hex damaged RR bridge mod as well. I think it's working out pretty well.

[larryfulkerson]

In the fighting in the middle of the map near Orsha I have so many units out of supply that I've established a rest camp
at Orsha so the tired units can drive in pick a spot next to an HQ unit and rest and refit. The supply level is
marginally better at Orsha than at the front lines and they will recover faster away from the front lines. I need
another rest camp at other places as well. One near Gomel would be good.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the area down south, just south of Kiev and I'm racing the Soviets to D-town and Z-town and destroying all the
Soviet units inbetween.

[larryfulkerson]

I need to get my arty closer to the Soviet arty so I can have gun duels with them. Also, I'm getting impatient with the
seige, I need some action now. So I'm attacking to see what happens. I'm in a sort of a hurry to take down Odessa but
not at the cost of a lot of troops.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T15 and you can see that most of the progress is being made in the south.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the NW corner of the front lines looks like now. I've got a division up near the bottleneck and if that
doesn't bring out the Soviet units then they don't have any up there. Which would be a good thing.