HITMAN202 versus THEPRO's Sean is welcomed ... Sillyflower is allowed.

[Michael T]

Everyone needs to run sometimes on some part of the front, its common sense. But only the truely unskilled or lazy player needs to run along the whole front.

[Michael T]

Sorry Hitman, I will refrain from commenting on your AAR. I don't want to turn it in to another Pelton V MT saga.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Sorry Hitman, I will refrain from commenting on your AAR. I don't want to turn it in to another Pelton V MT saga.

This would be a shame as you are not doing the turning.

Anyway , I want your advice where I can see it[:)]

This game should be renamed the Pro's vs the WiTE Forum Not that we mind - makes it more entertaining

[sillyflower]

quote]ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

Sillyflower, it'll be a few more days to do my turn because I want to get stuff figured out well. I'm having to figure stuff out,[/quote]


Take your time. We don't want you and the rest of the forum to have any excuses for a collective loss.

Anyway, the intelligence (in both senses) and preparation you are putting into your winter defence is commendable; it deserves a name

Fall Weiss - unoriginal

Plan Hitman - hardly inspiring or memorable

Preparation H - perfect

[HITMAN202]

I'm sorry for my delay, my friends. I do want to give y'all a good challenge and I am having to digest so much info from so many (and willing) advisors. It's important that you and Sean realize that you are not playing against the forum, but against an inexperienced opponent who is not afraid to ask for help. Sapper222 and Bomazz would have been wise to follow Proverbs 11:14 and 15:22.

Code/Operation names are the privilege of the planner. Preparation H only goes to where the sun doesn't shine and I wish to illuminate not only my objective, but also my intent.

However in this case I am open to guidance from the forum.

[Seminole]

Sapper222 and Bomazz would have been wise to follow Proverbs 11:14 and 15:22.

And what of Timothy 2:11-12?

I prefer Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One, ftw.

[gingerbread]

I kind of like it better when the quotes are from the book that says count to three.

I mean, soon you will be singing about the chick that went swimming.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

I'm sorry for my delay, my friends. I do want to give y'all a good challenge and I am having to digest so much info from so many (and willing) advisors. It's important that you and Sean realize that you are not playing against the forum, but against an inexperienced opponent who is not afraid to ask for help.

Seriously for once - it really is good for this game and WiTE generally that you approach it the way you have.it really is no fun to go thru' the pain of the 1st summer and to have the game end shortly after.

Keep taking the advice from MT and the cr#p from ME[8D].

Enough of that. On the other hand, you could do it the other way round as I doubt there is an Aussie in the world who can't do trashtalk especially with a Pom on the other side. Unlike those gentle Canucks who can't even beg to differ when I say none of them can.

This cultural difference would be interesting to study. My theory is that Aussies have better defensive skills because of natural selection. After all, almost all their wildlife is out to kill them.

[HITMAN202]

I finished my last turn 8 days ago and was planning to takeup Sillyflower's challenge and complete my turn in record time, but I ran into a small problem .... I figured out I didn't know whay I was doing.

It's one thing to tell someone what and how to do something; it's another thing to actually do it.

The first big problem was what to do with my offensives, particularly the one in AGN which was starting to show possibilities.

AGS was a no brainer. Belphegor (he's the "southern" commander and "yes man" to Sillyflower ...what else am I to think... he adds nothing to Sillyflower's outrageous comments ... not to say anyone really could) took more steps back and I took as many forward (east.) A huge number of cav and mech units are concentrating there.

[HITMAN202]

You can see Belphegor's build up of a Cav army (big red star), ton's of armour/mech (little stars), and a Stalingrad army (two big red stars.)

[HITMAN202]

I've been hammering AGC since the 5th-6th turn and it's really hard emotionally to stop the bloodlust (even on paper), but I began to strighten out the lines there and fan units out north/south.

[HITMAN202]

And AGN





And this was the problem I had .... turning off (more approprialtely slowing down) the German attack there. In M60/mehring AAR you see the potential a concentrated mass of Pz can do against even the most formidable Soviet fort line. I was excited by his success in AGN (however MT, as I offered to you the opportunity to switch games ..your's for mine against Bobo, I will not to mehring as on turn 19 his a** is gra** and M60 is drooling thinking about blizzard.)

So I decided to call it quits to the summer of '41 (reminds me of the puerile interests I had toward Jennifer O'Neil in "The Summer of '42") and became reminiscent of my first 17 turns. That caused me further delays in posting this turn.

I became discouraged. On the plus side 1) I took Leningrad 2) loss no important leaders 3) did nothing overtly stupid and 4) held my own (possibly even one upped) with Sillyflower in the trash talk (Pretty Polly was memorable.. even Sillyflower remarked as much ..privately.. to me). But the downside 1) really never threatened Moscow and Rostov 2) my casualties are already 500,000 3) his (THEPROS I mean, sorry Sean) will not reach 2.5 mil by blizzard (depends on my winter O) and 4) (most distressingly) my strategy was pretty infantile in retrospect.

As most have already pointed out, 1) I wasn't flexible. 2) went too directly at the 3 AG targets and 3) concentrated my forces in each AG's too much

[HITMAN202]

The army stats

[HITMAN202]

And casualties

[HITMAN202]

Now back to the not knowing what to do.

If I had merely laughed at that thought and ignored it I would have been in good company. The list is endless, but Flaviusx, MT, Ketza, Pelton and THEPROS could name solid Axis players with blizzard tombstones. In fact I doubt there's not a skilled Axis player who in the very least have found themselves in major distress facing the paradox of blizzard.

And that's the point. Playing the blizzard is a paradox for the German player. To be successful in the blizzard the German player needs to do things that don't seem to make sense at the time, (stress at the time) they need to be done.

In fact the real humour of blizzard is that the Germans need to critically do the very things that the Soviets did to survive the German summer '41 attack. And those things are 1) build forts, 2) marshal troops to key sectors and 3) selectively run.

So how do you accomplish these things in a sensible way ????

Let's go forward to March 1942 glvaca/Tarhunnas AAR and look

[HITMAN202]

The Soviets had their blizzard heyday and facing their weakened, beaten German foe were devastated on the first turn of March by this huge isolation.

Tarhunnas soon resigned.

My point here is that come March '42 the German military might is back and the Soviets need to beware. In fact come February, the Axis can inflict punishment on an unsuspecting opponent. So as a novice (not a NOOBE but close to it) I want to focus protecting myself during the 10 turns of blizzard

[HITMAN202]

My game plan is to be ultra-conservative to avoid major isoations. So in general I'm going to follow Pelton's advice in keeping out of harms way. But because of the close proximity of my planned blizzard defensive lines in AGN to the present front lines. I'm going to have to take MT's leadership there. Ultimately I think MT's aggressive mindset is the best Axis approach, but Pelton's advice is more sensible. MT needs to realize few can play like him. [:-][:-][:-][:-]

My fallback lines





AGS is a no brainer. Since I want to avoid encirclements, I set my fall back line about 18 hexesback from the present front line. By retreating 2 hexes a turn with a continuous line in Jan/Feb, the Soviet infantry will not be able to make deliberate attacks and that will take a major worry away. Against the Cav I will concentrate Pz's and the Allied Mt to inhibit. A AGS fall back line is being formed by a continuos line of fortifications (just south of Poltava extending to the Black Sea) that will be a 3 strength fort network come early January. I think this could be constructed much closer to the present front line, but remeber, I'm being ultra conservative.

North of Poltava I plan a simple screen that will retreat as far back as needed.

[HITMAN202]

AGN is going to be tougher, but none-the-less well planned.





AGC I will form a less tight fall back line (compared to AGS)

But the focus is noth and south of Lake Ilmen. Already in this turn's AGN screen shot you see many units at work forming a desense fort network.

[HITMAN202]

Noth of Ilmen I'll have a dense three hex wide fortress





South of the lake I'll start with a three hex wide network, narrowing as the line stretches south. Each hex withh have 2 studs (ger Mt and SS) with reserve support both in the terms of activation and replcements. I bet troops in Leningrad (in safehaven) can also be triggered in activation.

Now in regards to specific units and their placement, that will be easy. I think this is a workable plan.

[Michael T]

Hitman, run if you must but please don't give up the Valdai!