The D21 Road Not Taken....

[larryfulkerson]

Dnieper River, T5
Now it's T5 and the Axis forces are approaching Orsha and the crossings over the Dneiper River. I've captured one at Zhlobin which will help a lot. I'm going to direct several divisions in that direction to follow up and see how much further it's possible to push. The supply levels in this area fluctuate between 16 and 20 so far. Enough for a continuance of the operations. I've driven the brown-water boats long the rivers to convert the hexes. I have two of them in this sector and they have come in really handy. I'm looking forward to pushing into the area just north of Orsha where there's no river to hide behind. It's possible I can make the most headway in that area....unless the Soviets start stacking their units there.

[larryfulkerson]

Equipment Survey
Just for grins and giggles I clicked on the "Turns" column head and got a sort of the number of turns that I'm going to be making particular items and it was an eye opening experience. I learned a lot scanning the list. Some of the foreign aircraft are going to have to be held back to lessen losses and I'm down to my last six 150mm RR guns. I'll have to find out which units have that equipment and park them in a spot that I can defend without undo losses. Right now ( T5 ) there's a siege of Odessa and Kiev simultaneously and I should probably hold them back from either one to prevent losses. I may need those guns in the end-game phase. Given that maybe it would be best to park them in Berlin. I'm going to stop making 28mm AT guns in T10 and I'm not sure I'm going to miss them. I can't imagine what I would use them for. They are such an underperformer combat-wise that I'm glad they are going away. I'm going to miss the Ju-87's for sure after T32. And the PzKpfw IVD's...I'm going to miss those too. They are one of my better tanks. But I ramble.

[larryfulkerson]

150mm RR guns
Here's an example of what I'm talking about with the RR guns. This particular unit has 4 of the last 6 150mm RR guns so this unit shouldn't get into a situation where any of them will be lost. I'm considering just parking it in Berlin for use in the end-game situation.

Dialog needed
I would love to see TOAW have a dialog that shows the information below....the items of equipment in the unit along with how may are on hand, how many were lost, etc.

[Hellen_slith]

Yes, I think TOAW needs some more easily navigated dialogues.....

in particular, the ability to look at inventory / replacements,
and to be able to "go to" the formations / units that have particular units in them.

E.g., let's say the inventory menu says, 15 Crusader II tanks are assigned ....
but WHERE??? Should be able to click on that, and go to the unit that has those Crusader IIs.

Or maybe you can already, and I just don't know how?
The only way I know of, is clicking through the OOB of units, looking for "TANK" unit.

But sometimes, those assets are in other unit designations.

ANYWAY, yes, I too would like to have an easier dialogue for navigating units and formations.

[carll11]

I am on turn 301.The game is basically over in that the soviets attack willy nilly, wasting their units in non coordinated attacks against dug in inf. with anti tank support, they rarely if ever break through or unseat the inf. units.They literally attack every round until they die or are completely ineffective allowing me to shuttle units wherever I need to.
My patrol boats seem to have an effect all it of proportion, allowing me to close the volga and devastate river rail bridges etc etc...
They have these powerful assault gun units but they never have the built up unit strength to make them effective.
Their replacements cannot keep up with the their losses turn by turn, its more like tench warfare now ww1 style. Right now they only have 34560 infantry 'assigned'.....

[larryfulkerson]

Kiev, T7
This is what's going on near Kiev right now. I'm aiming for all the river crossings to see if I can't capture one or more. They will come in handy for getting troops on the east side of the Dnieper and also to help the flow of supply. The supply levels are notorious for being extreamly low on the east side of the river. A working railroad is a must for the advance to continue.

Aircraft status
I have three Finn fighter units that are yellow and resting but the rest of the fleet is in the green and I've got about 30 Ju-88's and He-111's on hand and over 100 Me-109's on hand so we're doing pretty well so far. Losses have been light so far... I count about 100 planes of all types lost. The AS meter is Axis 53 / Soviet 7 and I've lost 2 planes and the Soviets have aledgedly lost 48 so far this turn. And it's still early yet....I haven't moved all the units yet. I'm about halfway through moving units so there's a lot to do yet.

Logistics
I've got three RR engineers as a group repairing rail going northeast from Riga and they are about halfway to Nava in the bottleneck. There's three RR engineers as a group that is repairing rail from Minsk to Smolensk and they are already up to Orsha. There's a group of two RR engineers working their way east and you can see them in the image about 35 hexes WSW from Kiev. I sent one German RR engineer unit to help the two Romanian RR engineers repair rail from Ploesti to Odessa and they are about 3 hexes from Odessa already. So supply isn't a problem anywhere on the map so far.

The Who:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOGWrbI ... bM&index=7

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: carll11
I am on turn 301.[what is the calender date?] The game is basically over in that the soviets attack willy nilly, wasting their units in non coordinated attacks against dug in inf. with anti tank support, they rarely if ever break through or unseat the inf. units. They literally attack every round until they die or are completely ineffective allowing me to shuttle units wherever I need to.

My patrol boats seem to have an effect all it of proportion, allowing me to close the Volga and devastate river rail bridges etc etc...[I've noticed this as well. I use them primarily to cut the Soviet supply lines and convert river hexes and rarely as recon.]
They have these powerful assault gun units but they never have the built up unit strength to make them effective.

Their replacements cannot keep up with the their losses turn by turn, its more like tench warfare now WW1 style. Right now they only have 34560 infantry 'assigned'.....

Wow. Thanks for the report. Note my question above. I can only dream about being that far along. Sounds like you have gotten the hang of it. Good for you. I'd like to know what happens next that you can successfully break out of the WW1 style warfare. Maybe consider dropping some supply bridges in the Soviet backfield to starve his front lines?

Rolling Stones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4irXQh ... M&index=13

[larryfulkerson]

Kiev, T7 round 7 end of turn
Okay I've moved everybody and did three combat rounds and now there's 30% of the turn left and I'm mostly digging everybody in where they are and setting them to ignore losses. That little trick seems to burn Elmer's turns faster in that his attacks sometimes go for three rounds in a single attack. Do that a couple of times and the turn is almost over for Elmer.

Thoughts on Defense
If I were in a strategic defense stance I would try to tuck some armour in with the infantry to help stiffen up the position when enemy attacks include AFV's. Break up as many of the pure tank units into pieces to ensure that every important defensive stack has some armour in it, however small.

My use of my recon units
But right now I'm going pedal to the metal to the east as fast as possile. If I could use the paratroops to accellerate the advance I would but we're out of Axis air cap. As it is most of my little recon units are out too far to support they are going so fast. The follow on troops are moving as fast as they can to try to catch up and it's hit or miss if they can end their turn within one turn's worth of movement to the recon units. The recon units WILL eventually need support because sooner or later they are going to run into another small Soviet group making a strongpoint right in the middle of the Axis path. The recon units aren't supposed to get into any firefights because that consumes supply that could be used for movement further east. So they either have to wait on the follow on forces to handle the strongpoint and continue the zoom to the east. OR sometimes, depending on what kind of Soviet units the strongpoint has, the Axis recon units may be able to just bypass it and go around it and keep going. Maybe with one recon unit to babysit the Soviets.

overall front lines game plan
I've gotten across the rivers in a couple of places so to properly follow up I need to stear the follow on forces to the successful crossing capture spots to facilitate the continued advance of the ground forces. Those places I'm having trouble reducing I'll just babysit it with tired soilders so they can serve a useful function while resting. And keep flowing to those places where more progress is being made. Even if that makes a bulge in the lines. It's been working so far.

[larryfulkerson]

July 16, 1941, Odessa
Here's what's going on near Odessa. I'm on the verge of getting Odessa surrounded and then I'll bring in the RR arty and bommbard for a couple of weeks to soften up the defenses and then start the probes to see what condition the defenders are in and then either bombard some more or continue the assaults. It's still only July so I think I have sufficient time to capture Sevastopol by 04Dec. I need to do that to release the Bulgarians and there's two whole Corps of them so it's worth a try.

Soviet aircraft at Odessa
I've already sunk all the Soviet naval units based at Sevastopol so now I'm using the Ju-87's in the CS role instead of Sea Int. Elmer has parked some aircraft at Odessa so I'm pounding the airfield like there's no tomorrow intent on killing that aircraft. I'm wondering if it's possible to disable it so it can't fly away and then just keep forcing it into reorg each turn so that I can kill the replacements that unit might get from turn to turn. Instead of just eliminating the unit outright. I might be able to kill more Soviet aircraft that way.

Axis rail repair
The rail is repaired almost all the way to Odessa so that the RR arty can move in close. Some of the RR arty has a range of only 2 hexes so I need to repair the rail almost all the way to the front lines there. Then I'll continue to repair the rail headed to the east and down into the Crimea. But the supply levels in this area are more than adequate so far. It might drop off on the east side of the river(s) though.

[larryfulkerson]

July 16, 1941, T8, Kiev
This is what's going on just north of Kiev looking south. I'm in the process of negotiating a way across the rivers and may posess two or more crossings soon. That's important to the advance to keep going east as fast as possible contingent on supply levels. In prior games I've been able to trap all the Soviet units on the east side of the river and destroy them at my leisure. I'm going to see if I can do that again now. It's not so important that I force my way into Kiev yet. The idea is to see how many I can coax into the city so I can trap them there by forces moving south above Kiev.

Aircraft status
Most of the planes are green with maybe a dozen yellow and resting. Losses are still light so far. The Air Shock is Axis 140 Soviet 50 and so my fighters are all on ignore losses to shoot down as many as possible while the shock values are so much in my favor. I'm flying the bombers at two dots because they do so much INT beyond the range of my fighters. When they go beyond the umbrella of protection they are largely on their own.

Recon units status
At least three of my little recon units were ambushed last Soviet turn and sustained heavy losses and will need an extended period of rest and refit before they will be combat worthy again. They are all red and short of men and equipment. I'm thinking about shipping them to Berlin to rest. Or at least somewhere with a boat-load of supply. And a HQ unit to encourage them. They will be offline approx. a month. Most of my units are showing wear and tear and are chronically short of some items of equipment. I think maybe I should do a survey of the equipment I have on hand to see how hard I can push the advance and when I should start preparing for the Soviet Winter Offensive.

[larryfulkerson]

Items on hand
This is a partial list of the stuff I have on hand so far in order of increasing numbers of items on hand. I seem to be hard on "Truck 20mm SPAAG" items.

[larryfulkerson]

T9, Narva
It's T9 and this is a view of the northern front lines. I'm almost finished clearing out the peninsula and will be assaulting Leningrad in a few turns. I've sunk all the Soviet BB's near Leningrad and I'm using my ships to bombard his airfields. I'm wondering if I should park some small unit on the open ports or will Elmer not do any sea invasions at all. I'm doubting that I'll have to worry about that.

[larryfulkerson]

T11, Smolensk
It's T11 and I've captured Smolensk. There's supposed to be a supply source near here that I need to capture yet. I don't remember where it is exactly but I'll find it.

[larryfulkerson]

T12, Leningrad
I'm sneaking up on Leningrad. The Finns have been at their stop line for about 5 turns now and they are pounding the defending Soviets with their arty. I'm attacking in multiple avenues to make Elmer defend at more than one point. So far I outnumber the Soviet units, gauging by the number of units I can see on the map, and I want to take advantage of that while I can. Elmer is shipping troops by rail each turn and so far only a few have arrived up here. They are mostly going to the Kiev area and the deep south where most of the progress is being made. The railhead was repaired all the way to the front line here in the north by being assisted in RR repair by the HQ's that have RR engineers in them. They are coming in real handy.

[larryfulkerson]

T12, D-Town
Here's what's going on down south. I'm approaching the area where the river bends and forms a good defense for the Soviets and I'm breaking into the Crimea and the supply levels are adequate so far so the advance can continue. I need to get on the east side of the Dnieper so I can drive on Kharkov and shut down it's industry. I'm not real familiar with this section of the map so I'm pretty sure there's more than one important city down south here but I don't remember where they all are. I'll find 'em.

[larryfulkerson]

T12, Gomel
I'm fighting over the river crossings just north of Kiev and I've captured at least three so far. The idea is to move south and kill all the Soviet units at the riverbank on the east side of the river. Once they are all gone the advance will pivot to move to the east. It's worked before and I hope it'll work this time too.

[larryfulkerson]

T13, Bryansk
Here's me sneaking up on Bryansk. I want to eliminate some Soviet units first and then occupy the city and destroy the industry there. The supply level is in the high teens and so the advance continues. It just occurs to me that I need to repair a rail line up to the front line here so I can move troops strategically. I feel the need to get better organized. Some units that are supposed to be in the south are up here and I need to move them back to their formations. Notice that I'm parking my bombers right behind the front lines. They can reach further when they INT that way. And so far Elmer hasn't attacked any of my airfields. I'm wondering if I should break down some of the AAA units so they can cover all the airfields I have planes at. About 30% of my airfields are naked of AAA and I'm substituting a unit that has some AAA equipment in it: HQ's, RR arty, engineers, etc.

[larryfulkerson]

T14, Kiev
I'm finally getting across the Dneiper river and into the Soviet backfield. Elmer is shipping a lot of troops this way and the density of Soviet troops is increasing. I'm killing them as fast as I can but their number still increases. I foresee a tiny problem....I'm soon going to be outnumbered and the character of the game will change and the advance will largely stop where it is when that condition obtains.

short term goal / plans
All the units in this image are going to head south as fast as possible killing Soviet units as they go. The Soviets have a habit of crowding along the riverbank and those are my target. I'd like to trap them all where they are before they can escape to the east or south. I see the need to ship more troops into this area to expand the front lines to the east as the bulge headed south makes progress. To protect their left flank, their eastmost path as they push south. Otherwise there will appear a huge gap and surely Soviet units will fill that gap as soon as they discover it. I'm already into round 5 of this turn and about 30% of my planes are yellow and resting and this attack will drive a lot more of them into the yellow and I'll take them offline and I'd like to have about a dozen planes on INT when the turn ends so it's about time to put a bow on this package.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought there may be someone who wants to take a detailed look around now that it's T15. I haven't moved anybody yet so feel free to experiment etc. I've attached the save game file ( zipped up ) here below. I'd be open to suggestions and hey, we could start a discussion about something or other. Feel free to post stuff here.

[larryfulkerson]

T15, Leningrad
This is what the Leningrad area looks like right now. I'm going to try to insert some troops into the backfield of the group of Soviets most south to surround them and destroy them. I'm still pushing hard to the NE closer to the city and the Soviets have found some more units to block my progress with even though I've been picking them off and killing them slowly one by one. It would be difficult to gauge how many more turns it will take to capture Leningrad but it's 10Aug41 and I'd like to have this whole thing wrapped up by the end of September or so. The Finns have been using their arty to harrass the Soviets but there's been no probes on the ground by either side. Elmer has been shipping more and more troops up here and the front line is getting longer and longer. I may need to ship more troops up here to finish the job. I've been setting all the bombers on CS at the start of the turn and then just before the turn ends I like to set my INT force up as the last thing I do. I like lots of INT.