Workshop for the new guys - Directive 21 (D21)

[larryfulkerson]

So I clicked on the OOB button and sorted the list on Icon type and scrolled down to the bottom where the "tanks" were.
There's a fairly loose definition used for "tank" and sometimes it's hair raising what is considered a tank. Some of
the vehicles are little more than motor cars with a machine gun. I'm trying to think of a specific example and my mind
went blank. Lemme do some research and get back to you. Meanwhile, I can remove from consideration those tanks that
are red health-wise. They need lots of rest and I need a combat ready vehicle right now. So I'll not even consider
those. Next is the yellow ones, all candidates for my task but I'd really rather have a green one so I'll start looking
through the collection to see if there's an unemployed one somewhere. I can even use the tank unit without it's
formation along with it. Best if the whole formation moves if possible.

[larryfulkerson]

Bingo ! I think we've found out tank unit. It was employed on the corner of the Kiev perimeter but I replaced the
heavy weapons unit with another LCU and now it's ready to travel. All the other components of the Division are 0 MP's
and can't take part but they need rest anyway. I'll leave them parked where they are, obviously, and the HQ and the
regiment can start off for the nearest railhead. I think the rail lines are somewhere to the NW about 20 hexes. So
they should show up in the north about three or four turns from now. This is going to be a long war.

[larryfulkerson]

I found a better candidate, because he's closer and he's a pure tank unit instead of just heavy weapons. Now the
problem is to find the quickest route up to the north so it would really be handy to have a hot-key that shows
the roads and / or rails but there's no such key I guess, so I'll have to do it the old fashioned way and start at
the source and follow the rail to where it ends and the tank unit can drive for that location. The closest one I mean.
I've got three rail lines a-repairing and I'm guessing the middle one is closest.

[larryfulkerson]

I just had a thought. Instead of tracing from the source just find the positions of the RR engineers and that's the
railhead. They are repairing the rail, they are at the extreme end of it, that's the defination of a railhead.

[larryfulkerson]

Sometimes it helps to draw myself a picture to figure these things out.

EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to say something about the new contract that
Spear's dynasty has let: there's a fleet of lowboy trailers contracted
to move the tanks from here to there and they are dispatched from
Krononburg and drive to the tank, load it on the trailer, and two days
later you have a tank in a different spot. This contract is worth a lot
of money and not a llittle of it goes into Spear's pocket I'll bet.

EDIT2: Surely you've heard of Albert Spear the industrial giant.

[larryfulkerson]

I did a save game and then zipped up the file and then attached it here to this post in case you wanted to take an
in-depth look-around, check out the reports, review the battles, that kind of thing.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a section of the front lines west of Moscow, way west, and it's looking like everything is going in slow motion
because of the lack of supply. The advance is halted and only local probes are happening. I might gain a hex here or
there but the advance itself is halted.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm thinking I'll need to move all the RR engineers to the middle route and let them all build in one place for a while
to make the rails catch up with the front lines a little better.

[sanderz]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I did a save game and then zipped up the file and then attached it here to this post in case you wanted to take an
in-depth look-around, check out the reports, review the battles, that kind of thing.

thanks for posting the save

the road ahead looks tough - though the soviets still seem quite brittle at the moment

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: sanderz

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I did a save game and then zipped up the file and then attached it here to this
post in case you wanted to take an in-depth look-around, check out the reports,
review the battles, that kind of thing.

thanks for posting the save

I don't know why people don't do that. It's easily the best way to get an idea
about what's going on in the game. I think AAR's need to do that periodically
so that the readers can feel part of the process too.

ORIGINAL: sanderz
the road ahead looks tough - though the soviets still seem quite brittle at the moment

It's not like I'm trying to throw the game for publicity, and the Soviets have only
just started to counterattack visiously so my losses are low so far; I've got some
units down south that I can rail up north to help take up the slack; I'll get
organized and see if I can't put the Panzers in reserve somehow, and it's going to
work out just fine. For a while.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines around Pskov and there's this one place that I'm worried about because there's only two engr's
holding the line and it's almost wide open and there's nothing stopping the Soviets from driving through there. I
need more people. There's a division on it's way up here but it's going to take several turns to arrive. It's a
fingernail bite-er.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Kiev right now. The people I need to be on the east side of the river at Kiev are stuck
a little further north still fighting over the river crossings and they are going to be a while getting the advance
going again. They are to push down to near Kiev and complete the surround on Kiev enough for me to starve them
enough to make the take down easier.

[larryfulkerson]

So this is the face of war above Leningrad. The Finns are pushing the Soviets south slowly. The Finns and Soviets are
almost evenly matched so the losses are heavy on both sides.

[larryfulkerson]

I forced the river crossing at Kherson and got a unit into the Crimea. The Soviets weren't all that serious about a
roadblock.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie, I'm on T16 round 3 and I've just discovered to my horror that I've got a unit down to 5% supply, he's cherry
red, and just about to give way I'm afraid. The Soviets have been attacking these last three turns or so and this one
Axis unit is just about to quit. I've been looking around for someone to replace him with very little luck so far.
I'm going to have an enemy bulge start right here soon.

EDIT: I found some Panzer engineers within range so they went to the rescue. Will they hold in the face of determined
attacks? We're about to find out.

[larryfulkerson]

I just now discovered to my horror that I have a hole in my lines. I have a light screen in place but they won't hold
long at all. And alas, I've nobody to hold the line in that hole. I need more people. I'm outnumbered constantly.

[benpark]

This is really helpful, Larry. Thank you. I've played the previous iterations of the game on and off since the CoW version, and missed a lot of what you are covering.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: benpark
This is really helpful, Larry. Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words. You're quite welcome.

ORIGINAL: benpark
I've played the previous iterations of the game on and off since the CoW version, and missed a lot of what you are covering.

First of all congratulations on WITE. Swell game. Um....I'm glad you're finding it interesting. I'm trying to write this
thing as if you guys were watching over my shoulder, and I'm trying to let you in on my decision process and so on. What
would be really helpful is YOU guys telling me what your questions are and what you want to see especially. That would be
a very good thing.

[larryfulkerson]

My attack at the bottleneck succeeded and now the Soviet units to the west are cut off from replacemants and supply and
they should soon be rotting on the vine. The supply level has improved remarkably and this might actually be doable now.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a shot of the west of Smolensk and please notice that most of my units are tired. And I've noticed, because I
have to move these things, that so few formations are unemployed and that so few of the formations that don't have
everybody on the front lines. There's exceptions of course, but as a rule of thumb I think that's accurate. This is
a battle against the largest army in the world and I believe they are, I've got evidence. I'm going to have to start
breaking the units down into their pieces, that's the only way to make up the shortage in manpower. All along the front.