The D21 Road Not Taken....

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Minsk area right now. I've got a Panzer unit poised to push the Soviet defender out of Minsk and capture it. There's lots of surrounded Soviet units that are going to disappear soon. The Axis forces are pushing east as fast as they can go.

[John B.]

Hi Larry, I like the addition of following the 6th panzer division. Your AARs are always great and this adds another level of interest. Thanks!

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the south end of the Stalin Line down south and you can see how the Soviets are trying to escape to the EastNorthEast and I'm trying to get there before they do so I can trap them before they can get away. I'd like to kill as many of them as I can. The Soviets are blowing the bridges over the river and I've got my engineers busy trying to repair them all. I'll need those crossings for the good flow of supply. So far the supply levels are adequate for operations. But just.

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I have decreased the chance for Axis railroad destruction from 100% to 70% . . .

Larry

Since you lowered the rail destruct level, have you noticed any difference in game play? Good or bad.

Regards

[larryfulkerson]

I'm now on T5 and it's really too early to detect any discernable differences yet. I'm still seeing railroad hexes leaving broken rails when I traverse them but maybe not so often. I'm not sure. So far the difference I've been looking for hasn't shown it's presence. It may not make all that much difference in the long run. I'll keep you posted if anything changes.

[rhinobones]

Like everything associated with TOAW you’ll probably need to do some testing before you get the desired level of damage. For my own purposes I did some testing at 50% and 70%. Force 1 traveled over 30 enemy rail hexes leaving a trail of broken rails; looks like TOAW rounds the results to the upside. If you want to do a little testing, I’ve attached the SEC files and some pictures of my results.

Best Regards

[larryfulkerson]

I downloaded everything and I'll put it to good use. Thanks very much.

[larryfulkerson]

The 6th Panzer Division helped take down Riga and now they have moved to the east to start the project to reduce Pskov. The idea is to outflank the Soviet defenders to render the natural defensive terrain features irellevant. This will require a good way to get across the river and we've already grabbed one bridge over the river. Now the trick is to pour some troops across that bridge.

[rhinobones]

Larry

Attached is a small mod for your D21 Override Graphics. It replaces the squad/section (· ·) designator with the conventional battalion designator. No more having battalions running around disguised as squads and sections. Use as you like.

Good to see the 6th Pz Division’s progress.

Regards

[larryfulkerson]

Thanks Steve. I'm going to use it of course. I've come to really like watching the 6th Panzer folks. I'm rooting for them.

[larryfulkerson]

I've run up against the last Soviet MLR before Kiev and I'm trying to surround it, cut it off from supply and destroy it. I have enough troops to do that so far but I'm starting to run into larger and larger groups of Soviet troops. Those units that I killed in earlier turns are starting to show up at the front lines again. So it's like the Soviet side has received a large contingent of troops and they are better able to build front lines that can be tough to break through. I'd like to keep the fluid, mobile mode going in the south where the Soviets are sparse but the supply levels are starting to drop off.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T9 and I've successfully trapped several Soviet units west of the bottleneck at Narva. I've got a lot of the minor units out converting hexes as fast as they can and several of the HQ's have repaired a lot of rail to get the railhead closer to the action and allow the RR arty access to the Leningrad area. I've been moving the fighters up here and several Stuka squadrons are within range of the Soviet ships near Leningrad and I've sunk the 2 BB's already. The Finns are providing a CAP over the sea strikes and they are proving their worth. Speaking of the Finns...they are down to the stop line just above Leningrad and are awaiting a release upon the capture of Leningrad. I plan on using them to drive to the NE from the Leningrad area. The supply levels here are outstanding so far. I have no idea how much longer it will take to take Leningrad down. Perhaps 10 more turns yet.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the T9 view of the Odessa area right now. I have received some Italian reinforcements and have railed them into this AO and I have repaired the rails close enough to Odessa so that the RR arty is within range...that will help the takedown a lot. I'm hammering at the entrance to the Crimea and will prevail soon. I've got Odessa surrounded and I'm bombarding selected Soviet stacks to soften up the defenders so that my ground assaults might have a lot less losses. I haven't started attacking with my LCU's yet prefering to soften up the targets for a couple of turns or so. If I had any naval assets I would use them. I moved a squadron of Stuka's down here and sank the Soviet BB at Sevastopol with it. I need to takedown Sevastopol by 4Dec to get the release of the Bulgarians. I'm optimistic that I can make that target date.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

I have always enjoyed your reports. Have fun!

[larryfulkerson]

Thanks for your kind words. I think your AAR's are better than mine though.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

The level of detail in your AARs is great. I know that I learn when I read them.

All the best,

[larryfulkerson]

That may be true but you go to greater lengths to make your presentation pretty. You care what it looks like and it shows. I feel more like a typical beat reporter in Chicago in the mid-30's taking notes on those small pads that fit in your shirt pocket. I like to post to the AAR while I'm playing my game. That way the important points get covered and published almost as soon as it happens. I'm going to start putting colors in the text to signal important things. And for my longer posts I need to start using headers. Makes the whole thing more professional looking. Easier on the eyes.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

I'm using my posts to help me process the information and make decisions. They are part of my planning process each turn. Sometimes, I have a lot of fun putting them together, but even more going through the thought process. I have found that by taking the time to develop them, I think of things that I would have missed. That being said, it would be really hard to this level of planning on the bigger battles/campaigns.

As I said above, I love the things I learn about the game in reading your posts. You think of things that I would never catch.

The pictures you have added above make me smile!

All the best!

[larryfulkerson]

It's T9 and here's what the Kiev area looks like now. I've effectively got Kiev surrounded and I'm just going to contain all those units for now. I need to bring in some RR arty to help take down the odds against me. Unfortunately, all my RR arty is busy in Odessa right now so it will be a turn or two before they will be available. I hesitate to use the aircraft to take down Kiev because of the presence of AA units on several of the Soviet stacks. I'd really like to get some of my units on the east side of Kiev to trap all those Soviet defenders. I need several turns yet to get the rails repaired all the way to Kiev. I'm attempting to contain all the crossings across the river from Kiev down to D-town. I've got lots of little units converting hexes as fast as they can go south of Kiev. Elmer has pulled his units back to the east and a lot of the terrain south of Kiev is empty of enemy units and progress is predictably a lot faster. But I'm trying to stay on the roads and rails leaving a lot of unconverted hexes that need to be converted to prevent Soviet units spawning behind my front lines. Also, supply seems to flow better when there's no enemy hexes nearby. I'm moving all my bombers as far east as they can go so as to facilitate the reach of my bombers as far to the east as possible to do their INT missions. Things seem to be going rather well so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I've just now arrived at T10 and the first thing I did was make sure all the aircraft had a mission and then went to the head unit on the OOB which is OKH and now I'm ready to start moving units. So then I did a "save game" and zipped it up and attached it here below in case one of you guys wants to check out my situation in detail. Or play the rest of it. Or just look around. Or whatever you'd like.