Matrix Games Forums

It's now T34 round 1 and here's me finally reaching Voroshilovgrad and finding a substantial Soviet force defending there. I was going to try to drive that MP unit across the shallow river into the Soviet backfield and then SE to cut the Soviet units supply source to help me do a takedown. However, if I can capture the river crossing that is currently occupied by a Soviet HQ unit that would be better. That means I'll need to use a stronger force than the MP unit can muster. I have some tired units and the problem is that there is no supply at all out this far from the railhead. So I've decided to just hold what I've got and wait for the supply levels to rise enough to sustain at least intermittant probing attacks. Also, I need to get more boots on the ground down here because of the size of the Soviet stacks visible in and near the city.

Here's detail of the Voroshilovgrad area down to Rostov. The supply level is 13 on the rails but 0 almost everywhere else in this image. Most of the units in this image are Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, and Slavs with some small German help to bolster the Axis Minor Allies. I have no choice but to curtail operations in this AO for lack of supply and besides, the mud is cutting my MP's down to 6 or so for the divisions and progress even with no Soviet resistance is slow. Although, I CAN continue my operations on or within 2 hexes from the rail.

It's now T34 round 2 and here's the Sevastopol area right now. The supply level is 13 on the rails but 2 almost everywhere else in this image. I've been attacking only one hex at a time backed up by a large stack of arty and all the RR arty I own. I've gained 2 hexes by attacking at least once each turn. As a result my attackers are down to about 1/2 strength and I need to replace them with fresh units, probably from the northern flank. I'm undecided whether or not I can capture the port by 04Dec41. I think there's about 15 turns left until that date arrives, roughly speaking. The proficiency of my attackers has decreased to 39% so I need to cease attacking with them.

Here's the Moscow area right now. The supply level is 13 on the rails but 0 almost everywhere else in this image. I've been pretty much just holding what I've got right now. The largest Soviet stacks are on the SW closest to Moscow. I've got the 29th Motorized Division facing them and my units have been holding them back for 5 consecutive turns with only minor losses during the Soviet turn(s) [ about 2-3% with each Soviet attack ]. Having said that, if I have a unit adjacent to a very weak Soviet unit I usually attack to gain the hex.

It's now T35 round 1 and I discovered something you guys might like to try in your own games. First I find a nice bridge to bomb and use the status line at the bottom of the screen to get the location of the hex and hit 'b' to open the take-me-there dialog and enter those coordinates and hit enter and you'll find yourself centered over that hex. So when I go to the next bomber I want to use to break that bridge I hit 'b' and then enter and I'm right over the bridge I want to target. It's a faster way to designate your attacking bombers.

It's now T37 round 4 and I railed the 110th Infantry Division to Berlin about 2 turns ago and it's been resting since then. I loaded the game from last turn and got a screenshot of the HRS's in the unit and if you compare it with the number of HRS's in the unit this turn you may notice that it's gained 12 HRS's in one turn. Doing the math I discovered that it'll take about another 10 turns to fill up enough to be combat ready again. There are other units that need a similar treatment, perhaps not in Berlin. Oh, and by the way, it took 2 turns of rail movement to arrive from the front lines near Moscow. I'm not sure if that is because of the mud season movement rate or not.

It's now T38 round 1 and I was using AGN to repair rail near Leningrad and I discovered a Soviet unit that had spawned in my backfield. He's sitting on a broken bridge so I assume that he broke my bridge and that's grounds for a divorce. I'm going to rail some engineers up there to repair the bridge and some Finn infantry to destroy the unit. I haven't decided yet what to do with the Soviet CD guns sitting in the bay at the entrance to the port. It's not worth losing any aircraft so bombing it is out. I think I'll rail some RR arty up here, some arty that has a longer range than the CD guns have so they can't shoot back at me and just bombard the small Soviet stack into non-existence. I can first bombard the Soviet infantry unit adjacent to AGN first and then the CD guns.

This is the area near Voroshilovgrad and I was successful in repairing a bridge over a shallow river leading to the Soviet backfield and in spite of the low movement rate I'm going to try to push some troops over that bridge and see what kind of trouble I might be able to cause. So far the Soviet defenders in this AO are sparse and I'm not having a lot of trouble making progress in this area. We've had storms for the past 7 consequtive turns and the mud is everywhere. Some places are so bad that only a single hex can be entered. I'm trying to stay mainly on the roads and rails because that's where the best supply is and the movement range is better. I'm trying to reduce the Rostov defenders by bombarding as often as possible and that's the only way to reduce them without attacking with my infantry. Every once in a while I'll use the bombers on Soviet stacks but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. The real bonus the bombers provide is CS during defensive operations ( during the Soviet turn ). And I have proof that they DO help out on my defensive situations. The Soviets have been losing at least 20 aircraft each time they use them offensively. Airfield strikes are particulerly devestating for the Soviets with losses in the 50% range. All of this happening in deplorable weather.

To press my point about the deplorable weather I thought I'd put together a movie about the weather and the mud it's causing and where my troops are right now.

This is an area just east of Kharkov right now. The supply level is 13 on rail hexes and 0 everywhere else. This is another section of the front lines where the Soviets are relatively sparse. I'm still trying to make progress without attacking with my HRS's because I need more of those things in my infantry units and quickly. Like Dr. Terrance McKinna says: "stat". Also mud is a great hindrence. There are at least 40 Soviet attacks during the Soviet turn and most of the arty bombardments cause me less than 3% losses most of the time. My arty strikes on his stacks cause the same on his side most of the time. I've got my R&D department workiing on particle beam weapons. They say they will have a working prototype in "2 weeks". I think it'll take them at least 2 years if they can do it at all.

It's now T40 round 2 and this is the Tula area right now. I'm in the process of surrounding a small group of Sovieit units just before I destroy them. This is in spite of my moritoriam on attacking but I figure that if I get a chance to destroy a small group of Soviet units I might ought to take it. The supply level is 8 at the very front and 20 on the rails. So the supply level is slowly getting a tiny bit better. The weather is still deplorable and it's getting really cold. The mud is a serious hindrance to moving my units very far. They seem to get where they are going but taking way too long. I'm keeping my planes at the front for all the good they might do. Mostly for defense. The Soviets are using their planes on CS missions now. I've busted 5 bridges so far this turn. I'm trying to prevent any supply from getting to my opponents in order to stiffle their attacks and make my attacks a tiny bit better because they would be facing troops that aren't as strong as they might be.

It's still T40 round 2 and this is the area east of Kharkov right now. I was going to stop at the blue line and dig in but there were these opportunities to get an easy kill about 5 turns ago but just in the last 5 turns there was a huge shipment of Soviet troops to this AO and now I'm having to use almost every unit to stand at the front line(s). We're in the post-mud period when the Axis supply grows slowly and the ground shock of both the Axis and the Soviets is 90. It was 75 during the mud turns so at least it's an improvement of sorts. I have 21.7K HRS's assigned, I've lost 36.7K HRS's so far, and I have 844 HRS's on hand just now. Which is a tiny improvement over the time when it went below 20.0K not so long ago. I've discovered to my horror that most of my units are now about 1/2 the strength they were at game start. The number of my attacks went down from 104 to 40 per turn which represents me stopping from attacking except for around Moscow for the most part and the number of HRS's assigned only increased by about 500 HRS's as a result. I guess I need to turn off ALL the attacking and give all the units some badly needed rest.

This is the area east of Leningrad right now. I used about 2/3 of the Finns to clear out the peninsula to the east of Leningrad and the rest are helping the Germans to clear a path to the road leading north to Archangel. A little bit SE of the coast of the bay begins the section of the front lines that really needs to stick to the roads and rails because of the mixed types of rough terrain in this AO. But I feel like I need to drive to the SE to help surround Moscow if possible. And most of the roads in this AO terminate at Moscow.

I did this one just to get a better idea where all the broken bridges are right now. This is T40 round 5.

I finally forced my way into Rostov with the help of some arty. Now to repair the rail going south to feed my valient attackers. And the Romanians.

I thought I'd do a cut and paste of a Soviet attack using CS and what the results are. This is typical of a Soviet strike.

I discovered a problem with an aircraft unit in the Finn air force. I'm no longer making Blenheim's and there's only 5 on hand. Leaving it in combat will whittle it down to nothing at all and the unit will disappear from the game. I think I read in the documentation for the scenario that the Finn units don't regenerate and I'd hate to lose it for good when it might come in handy in the future. So I need to park it out of harm's way until it's really needed.

It's now T41 round 3 and here's what's going on round Leningrad right now. The last thorn in my scalp is that small CD gun instillation to the west of Leningrad's port. The current occupants are a Soviet CD gun unit and a small Soviet security unit. And if the Soviets have any sea cap. at all he can sail that security unit into blue water and possibly make a play for Helsinki or worse. I've got my nearby ports garrisoned and I've stationed the Finn navy to the west of the island to intercept any floating movement he might attempt. I'm pretty sure my ships will shoot at enemy units floating nearby. I'll test that in a sandbox and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

larryfulkerson wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 12:42 am I thought I'd do a cut and paste of a Soviet attack using CS and what the results are. This is typical of a Soviet strike.
temp.jpg

Unescorted CAS against a LOT of fighters, no surprise they got butchered.

I saved my game and then ended the turn to give me access to the Soviet side. I went up to the little island just off the west coast of Leningrad and was startled to find out that the little security unit has a yellow band on it which means it can't move until it gets attacked, I think. So I'll rail some RR arty up there [ R3 or higher ] and bombard that bad boy and see what happens.