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I think you're doing the right thing here, for whatever that's worth. No need to wait for blizzard, he's vulnerable right now. Bryansk Front in particular has a very promising avenue of attack. You've got him well and truly stalemated by Moscow, he might take take one hex of it, but I don't see him doing more than that. He's shot his bolt, and the panzers in particular are hurting. His lack of winter preparations is astonishing.

Turn 23 - November 20th, 1941.

Rostov falls, thanks to a tripling of Axis CVs and no reserves, despite 9 formations on reserve within the immediate two hex radius. The panzers level the pocket and then proceed to attack Caucassus Front, massing for its own offensive. This suits me just fine and I expect to put a world of a hurt on them this turn. With the fall of Rostov in the South the plan for Southern Front changes considerably, as I must attempt to press the attack quickly before the Axis can establish proper defenses.

In the center exploiting brigades are counterattacked but a regimental screen is once again deployed. I can't understand this, especially with more airbases within 30 miles of our lead units. Near Moscow frontal assaults on the city, which to me is insane. 821 only has one more turn before the first winter rules come to effect, and he's launching frontal assaults against Moscow.

The plan is for at least 20 attacks this turn, I'll try to keep you posted.

Where is STAVKA located? It may be too far away to influence command checks at the extremities of the front. If so, redeploy it in a central location of the map. I assume reserve activations are working fine by Moscow.

which to me is insane

Robert is doing a good job as an *in character* Hitler

Speaking of insanity, look at this. AGS panzers with green fuel! On turn 23! North of Rostov! This means there's a great chance that Southern or Caucasian Front is going to be encircled next turn, which is quite a few steps beyond insanity. These panzers were on the far side of a pocket last turn!

A smaterring of combat reports in cities showing no Reserves. For some reason its like we're back to the days of June and July, with single divisions effortlessly brushing aside stacks and having their CV multiplied manifold, this considering not a single Soviet general is below 5 in inf rating. Axis combat performance has increased by leaps and bounds, which would indicate a better supply situation, or at least that's the only reason I can think of. Maybe the no mud in October let him push the railheads much closer than they should have been, I don't know. Its quite aggravating. Maybe the blizzards and snow increase mps, which mean little reserve activations, which leads to much better Axis performance.

He probably did a build up in AGS. Those panzers are still very weak and likely very fatigued, gas or no gas. At some point build ups just aren't good enough, the units need to be pulled off the line and given time to recover.

He's not withdrawing anything for recovery during the winter, near as I can tell. This is a good thing.

What annoys me more, is how little the Axis loses in 1941 in holds. You'd think the butcher's bill would be higher, particularly in failed urban assaults. In 1942 and on they get more expensive, though.

Forgot to take an end of turn screenshot. Much less bloody week than I had hoped. In Bryansk Front he attacked the brigade screen then pulled back. Due to poor infantry morale (really poor infantry overall) Bryansk couldn't muster the strength to attack the new lines. Near Moscow I decided to not attack and let him come to me. What I don't get is why do a build up. There's only one more turn before December, so anything he encircles I will be able to relieve during the 'real' blizzard. That's what doesn't make sense to me, that and the repeated frontal assaults on Moscow. As long as I hold for one more turn (and if this CV b******t continues and I don't hold I'm going to be very pissed). I have entire armies in reserve near Moscow that aren't getting activated. Every stack has a greater CV value than the combined attacking stacks so it should in theory hold. Not to mention level 2 and 3 forts. And the fact that I conduct air bombardments on the besieging Axis stacks. In other news I've begun stacking all the cavalry (to create corps) and had actually reached 500 APs saved up, so I decided to purge the Red Airforce. A major problem right now is that the Western Front Army Commanders (the best commanders of the red army) aren't getting promoted, which leaves me with crap Front Commanders (as I am loathe to promote Major Generals to Front command due to rating reductions.

He took Moscow, all of it. Not a single hold. Not a single reserve activation despit 40+ divisions with resrve. I might rage quit, this is complete bullshit. For the Axis to simply be able to waltz into Moscow is infuriating. Level three forts reduced in a single attack to zero.

The Axis launched 100 attacks and I scored 5 holds. The turn before the Blizzard. Is there soemthing I'm missing here? Most of these in blizzard conditions. Please tell me about the Soviet bias in this game, I'd love to here about it.

41 is very rough now, as I've been saying for quite some time. You definitely had some bad luck with the weather, too.

Still, the complete lack of reserve action here is a concern. Not sure what's causing that.

/Hugs Notenome,

Hehe, 680 CV modified to 2541, almost 4 times.
I know that every one and not without merit is frustrated with the supply system, but if u really wana know where attacking vs defending biased in this game. Causing it to be either we go one way or we go the other. Just looked at CV modifying in attacking vs defending.
Not only can u attack from several hexes making it by the nature of it a concentration of force, u also gets multiplied just for attacking, assuming u know how the leader roll system works.

Oh well...

Rasmus

A little calmer now. Here are some conclusions:

1- Logistics don't matter. At all. Not a bit. The combination of air supply and hq build up with the rate of rail repair ensures the Axis can attack to their hearts content.

2- Bad weather in 41 favours the Axis. Bad weather increases mp costs, which decreases the chances of reserves activating. Despite having the Zukhov at STAVKA, and the best generals at Front and Army command (Tobulkhin and Malinovksy) not a single division activated. This makes it easier for the Axis to attack a strong Soviet line in snow and blizzard then clear.

Here's a picture of the 60 odd divisions in reserve in the Moscow area.

Bombined with the no mud, 821 had 22 offensive turns in this game, and he achieved all of Barbarossas goals. That unfortunately is the state of WitE right now, its basically command and conquer for the Axis in 41 and for the Soviets from 43 onwards. As the Soviets there's pretty much nothing you can do to stop the Axis, and as the Axis there's nothing you can do stop the Soviets once things get rolling.

I'm at the point now where I would advise all Soviet PBEM'ers to be prepared to lose Moscow.  The nerfing of the forts in a prvious patch may have solved the Soviet Maginot Line issue but it created a new one in making the Soviet capital in many cases indefensible. 
 
Also, WiTE simply doesn't simulate urban combat well.  If an attacker fails on the first go, they'll often win the next and in any case, casualties are far too light.  When I lost Gorky to farfarer in our game, he lost a relative handful of tanks.  In a real situation, tanks can take a lot of losses due to close quarters combat. 

You lost Moscow. Big deal. Now in the blizzard you take it back plus more. You will still win this game handsomely. BTW you already won this game once and let him off. Sure things get bad in 1941. But what does it matter in the long run? Nothing.

And to top it off I got an anticheating message from Slitherine after I rage quit when I saw Moscow had been taken saying my account was being locked for me downloading a turn multiple times. Great day.

I know it hurts your pride when cities like Leningrad, Moscow etc fall but really as long as you got out the industry and still have an Army it doesn't mean much at all. Actually losing Moscow at this late stage might be a boon for you. As it means he will stand his ground to hold it. Whereas if you still had it he may well have run. For me, in WITE, people associate too much with Moscow. Its not justified by the consequences of its loss or gain. I have played guys who have lost entire fronts with Moscow, and then concede. Whereas if they had just run east of it, all they would have lost was a few irrelavent urban hexes that they could have regained in the blizzard.

Notenome, you should continue, imo. You are well set up for the blizzard, and the Axis has really pushed things to the limit, to the point where he has way overextended himself. He has done nothing at all to prepare for winter, and the morale of his army is going to get trashed, he's got all his panzers out there, nothing in winter quarters so far as I can tell. He got a couple of lucky snow turns, and that is the only reason he took Moscow, and only barely so. It's a pyrhic victory for him. He took it in the most uncreative and expensive way possible, frankly I am not that impressed with what he's been doing the last two months of the game. It all looks like a bad case of victory disease to me on his part.

You'll get Moscow back. If you got the factories out, a temporary loss of the place need not be fatal. You do want the manpower back, though, not gonna lie, you're facing a manpower crunch in the coming year.

Calmer now, pre blizzard post special. We try to make the Axis pay for the capture of Moscow with around a dozen attacks. 9k dead ain't bad, I suppose. First reason to do so is that it feels good, second is that it prevents forts from being built. In several places 821 is going to have to retreat or face encirclement. Or he can counterattack, though I hope the age of the 100 attack turns has passed. Lion's share of AP points went into merges and disbands. We're dreadfully short on rifle squads so a lot of heavy mortars and artillery got disbanded, hopefully this will see armament points go into rifle squads. A lot of brigade canabilization also, for the first time in the game. Which brings us to question one:

If naval brigades can't become divisions, is there any reason not to swallow them?

All cavalry divisions are in three stack clusters, we will have some eight to ten cavalry corps next turn, and I hope to put them in immediate action. Sapper regiments were raised to embed with these corps. I played around with the typhoon scenario, I found the tank batallions gave the cavalry a nice CV boost, so question 2-

Should I build tank batallions to embed them with cavalry corps?

Lastly I also included a shot of the reserve support units attached to STAVKA. I hope to dispense them to reinforce success wherever we reach a breakthrough.

Any and all blizzard advice is welcome. We have a 250 AP piggy bank and near perfect C & C.

Time to take back our country.

My advice: seek his flanks around Moscow. Bryansk Front in particular is in good position to strike towards Kaluga. His position there is untenable.

Don't just batter away at whatever is in front of you. In the first few weeks of the blizzard, you're better off dislocating and forcing him out of whatever forts he's built and into the open (in this case, he may not have that many forts.) Mount attacks designed to create ZOC locks, and if you don't have mobile units available to march into and take a hex, hold back a rifle division and use that to march into the hex. It's these zoc locks that ultimately kill the German and create pocketing opportunities.

Concentrate your cavalry, and put it where it will do you the most good, open terrain. Don't spread it out all over the place. A couple of shock cavalry armies in the Bryansk Front region, for example, could rupture his whole front there and create a crisis for him. (I keep talking about this place because based on the screens it is by far his most vulnerable spot on the front.)

Also: don't forget your airborne. Use them in conjunction with the cav to get into his rear. Note that any hexes seized by airborne troops are considered friendly for purposes of movement during the same movement phase they are dropped. You can really go to town with this if placed behind an enemy that you intend to attack. Not only does this deny them a retreat path and force them to retreat north or south rather than west, it gives you a corridor to exploit your cav through, with them paying the reduced movement costs. If you can swing the lift for multiple drops in an area, you can expand the breach and race the cavalry through it.