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Just thought I'd check, as if you had reserve armies and divisions and that happened in '42, you'd probably never leave your fortifications as the Soviet.

The Mius river pocket eliminated.

Pocket losses:

Final 67 OOB. He dropped below 7 mill by around a quarter million. I am not sure of the impact except to look at the raw number and say it was a big win.

Final South situation. Everyone gets back to the start lines. He withdrew from a considerable amount of hexs along the front and the forts were destroyed. I was thinking of taking Rostov but it got a nasty CV and the pop is only 17 so I would rather not waste the manpower. Only first Panzer Army which was used to eliminate the pocket is not back on the rails.

He has a ton of stuff thundering down from up north. I think I hit this just right.

In the north his major corp elements have gone. The line along the river is reestablished.

Interesting air loss screenshot I took at the begin of the turn. Over 800 losses for the Soviets to 100 Axis.

Ole.

Great hit and run maneuver Ketza, I think you made the wise and right choice - harder than it sounds considering the bait of victory disease.

Once you have moved him out of forts in a big area, isn't there scope for another Thrust ? I mean the more hurt you can dish before winter offensives, the better you can prepare for 1943... He might be baiting you, but this is a mighty salient north of Gorlovka, whose south flank can't be over fortified yet...

It would be far better to let the Soviet player re-occupy those original positions & then do the same again. Ketza doesn't need to make a land grab what he wants is to destroy as much of the Soviet army as he can. the more units that he can kill the better 43 & 44 will be for him.

Manstein63

ORIGINAL: veji1

Once you have moved him out of forts in a big area, isn't there scope for another Thrust ? I mean the more hurt you can dish before winter offensives, the better you can prepare for 1943... He might be baiting you, but this is a mighty salient north of Gorlovka, whose south flank can't be over fortified yet...

ORIGINAL: Manstein63

It would be far better to let the Soviet player re-occupy those original positions & then do the same again. Ketza doesn't need to make a land grab what he wants is to destroy as much of the Soviet army as he can. the more units that he can kill the better 43 & 44 will be for him.

Agree with Manstein, withdrawing was the prudent thing. A land grab would probably just set you up for problems.

I am not talking about a land grab, I am talking about using the fact that some of the bulge should'nt be covered by massive forts to try something.. Ketza's opponent is not stupid, he will slowly go foward in the area while building up a carpet of forts, not go forward fast and find himself naked in open terrain...

I had given a lot of thought to either another pocket to the north or south around Rostov. I decided in the end it was best to just stick with the original plan of the hit and run. My last big pocket left my Panzers in the open without forts near his stomp stack infantry corps and even though our CVs were somewhat even he crushed my best troops with low odds attacks. I lost something like 300 tanks in one turn because of retreats.

The way the game mechanics work at this point in 1942 Panzers in the open defending are just too tempting a target. As an Axis player you are much better served having them in a position to attack and them scoot out of the way if you cant have them in forts.

Speaking of forts I am well on the way to building multiple lines of level 4 forts as fall back positions across the front. I have 2 infantry corps stacked with construction units and all the divisions broken down building like crazy. Between these fort lines and keeping my Panzer forces very mobile and able to strike back I should be able to drag this out for a win.

not sure, if it was mid 1943 sure, but he still has a good 70 turns to unhinge you and start steamrolling.

This past turn 76 went all out attacking several of the more Isolated Luftwaffe bases hitting them 10+ times in some cases. The bases he hit were fighter bases with a few recon present except for the Finns. Although he caused minimal damage the fighter squadrons did well for themselves dishing out much more damage then they got. In all cases their experience went up as these bases did not hold the best German fighter squadrons to begin with.

Also his raid on the Finns cost him 77 planes.

This turn I added AA to the Luftwaffe HQs and reorganized things a bit so the bases could support each other better. If he comes back again his losses should go up.

AGS 1 October 1942

I completely reorganized AGS this turn. All extra artillery and pioneers were pulled off the line and concentrated in the rear for the counter attack corps being formed in the rear. Instead of stacking the allies with the Axis I pulled them a hex behind the main line to cut down on attrition and do a little extra digging.

11th army is completely off the Mius river line now and is in reserve and in the Crimea. It had been split before and quite frankly it bothered me that this was the case [:'(]

In the South he has a huge army Just to the northeast of the Mius river/Stalino area. Mud will be along soon so I am not overly concerned with that development.

All Panzers are off the line except a few divisions in AGN helping dig in along the river line.

I did only one attack this turn in the Crimea and the Air war settled down with him losing 100 planes to my 6 during my part of the turn. His strength increased a bit from last turn.

We are heading into the rainy season so I am sure things will be quite slow for awhile as my entire front is level 3 and 4 forts in some cases 2-3 hexes deep. During the mud I will be reorganizing even more. My plan is to add an entire infantry army into my reserve of 12 infantry divisions with 10+ CVs. This along with the 4 Panzer armies should give him a good jolt as a counter attack force in 1943.

Are you more concerned about attrition to the Axis allies than to the Germans? I wonder because I try to do the other way around, let the Allies be in front to take the attrition so as to save the Germans.

In those parts of the front I am more concerned about holding the river line so I put the Germans in the front. If it were Axis allies there it would be possible for him to push them out easily with local forces.

The Italians are mainly diggers except for the Alpini Corp. The Hungarians and Rumanians had been stacked with German divisions but until he has a noticeable buildup there is not reason to have them in the line taking the attrition hit. One of the things I have sorta figured out as things progress. Well at least I think I figured something out [:D]