Adventures in Russia

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Axis losses so far. Light I must say.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Kiev right now. I've got it contained on the west now to contain it on the
east as well. I'm getting units across the river on the east side but they are out
of supply and can't move. The rails aren't all that close yet. This is going to
be a long war. Maybe the units on the west side of Kiev can collapse their footprint
or something. Without a lot of losses somehow. I need to move the RR arty to the
Kiev area to pound them some.

[larryfulkerson]

The advance in the south has reached Odessa and the Rumanians have started the blocking
of the city. With the no stacking rule I'm going to need a lot of arty to make any
progress at all. Maybe I should try to ship some RR arty down here to help out with
the bombardment. I guess really that won't be possible until the rails reach here.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Gomel area just NE of Kiev and I've got units getting across the river
making a new front for the Soviets to contest. Supply is low and progress is slow.
I'm hoping to be able to find some more troops for this AO as it's got promise to
push back the Soviets to Orel and Kharkov.

[larryfulkerson]

The Finns are busy pushing and shoving and slowly making progress. The Finns are
only marginally better proficiency than the Soviets and they are almost evenly
matched.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T13 before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Smolensk area right now. It's a terrible struggle going on and Soviet
units are attacking so hard that some of them evaporate. They don't want to lose
and it shows. The advance has ground to a halt in this area and gains are measured
in inches. If the supply level were higher I could do more.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Odessa area right now. The Rumanians have started the seige of the city
and i've gathered up some arty tubes ready to do some bombardment just as soon as
they are over 100% in ammo. I need the best performance from these tubes that they
can give me and fully supplied units seem to do better. I have no idea how long it
will take to take down the city and the no-stacking rules are going to effect how
long it'll take but I'm optimistic.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the Pskov area looks like right now. All the German units in this image
are pressing to the NE and I'm trying to capture the roads and rails for the supply
I'll need to continue pressing. So far I've been able to find holes to exploit and
it's been working pretty well. I'm optimistic about this one.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been moving units and the look about Smolensk has changed and now I'm trying to
make the best of a sort of hole I made in the Soviet lines and maybe do some tiny
exploit. I'd like to find a supply point and activate it. Supply levels tend to be
low and that slows down the processing of enemy units.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's Bryansk right now. I don't have enough people to do what I want to do so I'll
just form a front line and struggle to overcome the odds. I'm meeting little groups of
Soviets and dealing with them and so far it's working.

[larryfulkerson]

Down near Odessa the fighting goes on and, the strangest thing happened: one of my
engineer regiments volunteered to dash thro open ground to get to the next river to
the east and he did, he captured an intact bridge and I need to drive some people
that way to get across the river soon.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at the Gomel area right now. All I need are the people and I can really
make some progress here. The Soviets are sparse and infrequent and what I have here
already is busy holding back the hordes and are fully engaged. I'm wondering how hard
it would be to transfer some divisions from the south to tbis area instead. I guess I'll
find out.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in the north right now. I've got a weak spot that I need to
take care of this turn and I just happened to have a spare division nearby. I'll
light a fire under them to get them to move to the troubled spot to see if they
can't stem the flow of Soviet units. This situation came up all of a sudden when
it was the Soviet turn to move these guys came at us from the east. I needed to
have somebody there anyway to cover the roads and rails leading north.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a spot SE of Pskov where there may be another weak spot developing. I've got
but a single division guarding the road and so far all that opposes me is a light Soviet
screen, a single recon unit, but knowing the Soviets like I do that could change any turn
now. There's a formation already on it's way, maybe. Long story short, I think I might
need to send somebody to help out down there.

[larryfulkerson]

That one trouble spot in the north front lines where I needed to fix a hole...I took
care of that by moving the SS Division Totenkoph down there to confront the Soviet
unit that was the threat. I'm not sure it's 100% contained however and more people
might be indicated here. That's the one thing I'm short of right now. Too many
enemy units to watch with too few babysitters.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Smolensk area right now. And the supply situation seems adequate for
operations for the moment. This image was taken at the same lattitude as Moscow
so straight east is the advance path, along the roads and rails. Resistance is
fairly heavy and there are Soviet units in this image that aren't visible yet,
believe me. I don't expect much progress from this area for a long time yet. There's
a rhumor that there's a supply point at Smolensk, and I need one of those things
so there's an incentive to press on still.

[larryfulkerson]

This is Kiev right now. I've squeezed them down into just a couple of hexes but their
stacks are magnanamous and I'm not sure just one attack will do the trick. I may need
a lot of CS to defeat this bad boy. And the planes aren't in the best of shape right
now either. About 1/4 of them are resting at any one moment. Of the rest of them
about 1/4 will turn yellow during the turn and then be ready for missions again the
next turn. The rest of them stay green somehow. I'm direct targeting the worst of
the attacks with strikes that may or may not help out a lot. Sometimes, most of the
time the planes help out a lot. Sometimes there's not enough escorts to get through
the Soviet interception and the strike is a bust. But I gotta try.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south near Odessa I'm going to take a gamble with an AA unit. It's not quite the
only available unit left but close and I'm thinking there's no more Soviet units between
where he is now and where I propose to send him. His mission is to cut the supply to the
existing Soviet defenders by driving across the roads and rails that feed their position.
On the other hand, try not to lose any people. Just remember that your effort will shorten
the war significantly. By at least a week.

[larryfulkerson]

I got ashore on that small island north of Riga. I was going to use the Brendenbergers
at first but a probing attack by the 1st of the 5 of them proved that there were something
like 86+ squads there plus assorted supporting equipment of varying descriptions and so
I had to bring in a division and he pushed and shoved and for only 4% losses he did a
three-dot attack on the port and pushed his way ashore. He's yellow now and can't shoot
but with the help of that supply point he'll be green again and I'll use him to make
more room for more troops. Maybe some arty.