Stalin's in the gulag, I'm in charge! II - vs 2ndACR (Axis)

[TulliusDetritus]

Alright, turn 99,87% done in the Northern, Northwest and Kalinin Fronts. Alea Iacta Est! I unleash the bears! [8D]

Encircled, that's the spirit!

[TulliusDetritus]

Ok, so I have sort of weakened the Western and Bryansk Fronts. I have unleashed the bears here as well, just in case... I launched 5 [pure] counter-attacks: 4 worked [8D]

In theory the danger might come from the south... the panzers you see at the bottom of the screenshot.

The case is I have a BIG objective here: holding Smolensk until turn 13 (12 would be ok). I don't think these panzers alone are going to 100% stop me from achieving this objective. But of course I might be utterly wrong.

[alfonso]

You can move the units you have in forts 4 around Leningrad to dig in another hex (although I really doubt this digging is going to be necessary...but just in case).

[TulliusDetritus]

In the Southwest Front I have [finally!] some different news. On this turn I have sent like 7 rifle divisions (STAVKA Reserves) to this area. I am starting to think about containing my estimated e-enemy here as well [8D] I should be bringing divisions now that the situation in the northern fronts is more or less stabilized.

[TulliusDetritus]

The Southern Front

ORIGINAL: alfonso
You can move the units you have in forts 4 around Leningrad to dig in another hex (although I really doubt this digging is going to be necessary...but just in case).

Hey, excellent advice! Thanks [&o] Yes, I hope this operation saves Leningrad (if it more or less works I will have to think about a name and bring my old pics aka the two bears running after the little girl, etc. [:D]). I really don't know. 2ndACR has to move and maybe he has a cunning plan, like when he annihilated my Southwest Front [8D]

[TulliusDetritus]

And finally Crimea. The Coastal Army HQ is in charge.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: Odessa fell on the FIRST ASSAULT (this turn)! 2ndACR didn't make the mistake my other opponent made (I resisted 3 attacks/turns on my other game) [&o]

[randallw]

I took a quick glance at your opponent's AAR and could tell you what he is up to, but that would be unfair.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: randallw

I took a quick glance at your opponent's AAR and could tell you what he is up to, but that would be unfair.

LOL

If his plan is not about me trapping some panzers in the Kalinin Front, then I don't want to know

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: alfonso

Had this battle been against another opponent, maybe we could read another utter madness thread [:)]

This is madness!!!! Utter madness!!!! This game is broken!!!!

Someone had to say it.

[DTurtle]

Wow, (fake) history repeating itself. Ok, he is getting cut off 5 hexes further south in comparison to your last enemy [;)]

One thing: You are leaving your backdoor to Leningrad open - the hex across the Neva to the east of the city (you have an airfield in it).

[TulliusDetritus]

Now that you mention it, yessssss, fairly similar situation [X(] .............

I will try to garrison and build forts there, thank you [:)]

[TulliusDetritus]

So the first time it was a tragedy, now it should be a farce? [:D]

[Klydon]

For command issues, you should be able to put 3 full armies under each front. For Leningrad/Northern Front, I would put anything facing the Finns attached to Stavka to free up space. You are not going to fight with them (hopefully). This should allow you to get a third fairly big army under the front.

Using the MD HQs to command armies sort of sucks. They can only handle 1 full strength army and 1 crappy army (in size) or 2 medium sized armies. The other thing with that is if those armies are going to fight, etc then you will be obligated to give the MD a good commander to make it worthwhile.

I also know that while you are low on troops in the south, I would send some more into the Crimea and get them digging there. You need double lines at the entrances and also some more down by Sevastopol. Any place he can only attack from two hexes from, I would have guys digging.  Ideally, you want to either have him stop 11th Army from marching east and get bogged down in dealing with the entrance area of the Crimea. If he wants to continue, so much the better. Many AAR's have featured the Crimea being screened off and then the Russians coming out to play in the winter and it generally isn't a pretty sight because the Axis overestimate what the Rumanians can do on defense there (nothing in blizzard) or they underestimate the threat the Russians pose there.

[TulliusDetritus]

Klydon, thanks for this info [:)] Yes, I will be doing what you say: 7th Army east of Lake Ladoga (along with other armies) attached to STAVKA and I don't think I will be using the Moscow HQ (too far).

As for Crimea, I don't think I can send more troops there. Now my top priority is Leningrad: I will possibly send even more troops and still... we'll see if I manage to stop him at the gates of the city and stop him from flooding the Volkhov and therefore isolate the city: the right hook panzers near the Valdai Hills were stopped this turn so I bought one turn but they should resume their course [8D]

And there are still the panzers in the south (priority number two now). I want to sort of contain them. I can't have everything [:)]

[TulliusDetritus]

[center]Turn 10[/center]
[center]21 august 1941[/center]

Well, no pictures of pic-a-nic baskets, bears running after the little girl etc. [:(]

Leningrad area.

The forces are pulling back to the Luga River line. Some units are left behind checkerboarding. The area will be covered by 3 Northern Front armies: 55 (has to be reorganized), 48 (Rokossovski) and 28.

I can see the enemy's AGN panzers fuel soft factors are in green, that's what convinced me to retreat.

IF I see that this is the main enemy thrust and the right hook (if that is his plan) is more or less contained, I will assign Vatutin and Tolbukhin to the 55 and 28 armies (the Western Front now only faces infantry).

[TulliusDetritus]

Lake Ilmen area aka right hook. BUT maybe he plans to send his panzers elsewhere... towards the east perhaps... we never know. So the 30th Army -covering the right flank of this theoric advance towards Leningrad- has been reinforced and is defending in depth. Just in case [8D]

Cavalry has been generously spreaded along the whole right flank

Oh, as you can see I have left the marshes. Only 2 units stay there, the poor things... BUT I am staying south of Lake Ilmen. I want him to lose another turn kicking me out of this place [:D]

EDIT: oops, the 54 Army, attached to STAVKA is here as well: white units between the 31st and 11st armies.

[TulliusDetritus]

In the Western Front he is advancing at snail's pace. Good! [8D] Three counter-attacks launched. All of them successful = 3 enemy divisions forced to retreat. That's a good thing if I want to earn Guards status, I suspect [&o]

What I don't know, and I will ask my opponent this later because I would like to know, is if the center was his objective but the deep defence he faced made him attack elsewhere. Maybe he never planned to attack in the center. But I want to know this [:)]

And yes, I still hold Vitebsk! [8D]

[TulliusDetritus]

In the Southwest, I think my opponent made a mistake. He CAN see the industry I have in x hex. Well, had he wanted (a little push of his panzers, he just has to know I am very weak down here) he could have trapped a lot of industry. Now it's too late. He just might trap vehicles industry in Kharkov (and only the 50% of it)...

[TulliusDetritus]

The losses. I haven't screenshoted them since the Frontier District Massacres, I think [8D]

Well, I am rather happy. And YES, the soviet player can be "happy" even if the losses are by the millions [:D]

The case is, he hasn't captured a lot of my hordes. Don't forget the first turns massacres provided him 700.000 captured soldiers (not a lot you can do to prevent that). So he hasn't captured a lot of my soldiers since the first turns. Overall I am rather optimist here [:)] And of course, he is NOT trapping enough hordes.

[TulliusDetritus]

I still don't have a 5 million men army though. And I want it! [8D]