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Here we have the southern conundrum: 821 has placed all the mountain units in the South, with the two Axis mountain divisions counterattacking everything in sight north of the Donetz Basin and the three Rumanian brigades in reserve mode stalling my attacks. So instead of going through with the old plan for Operation Nicholas (Which was what every Soviet player tries to do: Crush the Axis on the sea of Azov), I'm going to try to shoot through the gap between the mountain concentrations and drive harder on Kharkov, which seems to be fairly undefended.

Old plan in Orange, New in Red.

End of turn report:

Axis losses have picked up sharply, in large part due to the rout of the Romanians and the dubious distinction of 292nd division being the first Axis division to surrender. More could have been encircled or locked down this turn but the Axis got holds at the worse possible places. TOEs for artillery and brigades have been reduced, hopefully this will lead to an increase in the Red Army's readiness (most of our divisions are unready at the moment). Overall strength increased from last turn, so it seems we're finally getting those rifle squads in. Also no brigades were harmed during the making of this latest AAR. Glancing and W/L record, we should get 3-4 more guards next turn. (There are divisions with 9-0, 10-0 records that haven't been promoted for some reason). Axis losses combined with the retaking of Rostov and Tula make this a fairly reasonable turn, and the situation in Moscow looks to be completely untenable for the Axis.

Those Finnish units will be trashed morale wise by the spring. I would put a plan in place to start beating on them around that time.

Why is that? I've always been curious, why do finnish units get thrashed in 42? I'm planning on transfering Volkhov Front there in the mud once the Moscow situation is sorted out.

Gah, a second after I clicked the send turn button I remember I forgot to set my high CV/morale frontline units on refit, I hate it when I remember something right after I send the turn. Pretty much guarantees unready divisions will get all our reinforcements, and nothing for the guards.

Unless those guards are in the rear, it won't matter much. Front line refits are extremely chancy.

Another 'it's been a while' question: is there anyway to transfer empty armies without breaking the AP piggy bank? Both Western and Leningrad Fronts have empty armies atm.

Not that I know. The alternate minimum is 1 (disband) + 25 (new) + cost to assign leader.

Overloading fronts is inevitable, so you might as well pick one to burn already and allow some more units to fight without the STAVKA penalty.

The CP cap will change in 4/42 (F: 81, A: 18), so 4 A/F is minimum.

December 25th, 1941

Ding ding ding! The Wehrmacht gives us a Christmas present by reaching the one million casualty mark. And a third of those are permanent losses, which is a better rate than normal. Meanwhile rifle division production continues to ramp up, with a total of 7400 new squads built. A month ago we were building a tenth of this. As a result, readiness has improves somewhat (approximately 40 more divisions are ready now, most divisions are no longer unready). STAVKA overloads so Shaposhikov takes the helm and Zukhov gets to ply his wares on Bryansk Front.

Oddly enough the Germans seem to have stopped running in the center. Suits me just fine.

A special commemorative Christmas carol to celebrate the occasion:

Open clear hexes and zero fort nazis,
low armor values and unready divisions,
emerging pockets tied by brig ZOCs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

Low morale refits and red supply indicators,
want to drop paras and but can't find instructions,
Arty eats arms but contributes 0 CVs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

When a mountain div bites, or the Finn stings,
When I'm a-ragequittin',
I simply remember my favorite things,
and wait for the end of turn processin'

Stavka cannot overload anymore. This was changed a few patches ago.

Yeah, no more overloads at the high command level anymore, thank God.

That said, putting Shaposhnikov there for the time being isn't a bad idea. You need the admin more than the initiative rating right now. But switch them back after the blizzard is over and you need defensive reserves again.

oh
dammit

It's all good, you did the right thing for the wrong reason. [:D]

ORIGINAL: notenome

Why is that? I've always been curious, why do finnish units get thrashed in 42? I'm planning on transfering Volkhov Front there in the mud once the Moscow situation is sorted out.

Finnish units past the halt line have their morale slowly degrade. I have seen Finnish divisions CV fall as low as 2 or 3 with no combat when manning the front in the way shown here.

ORIGINAL: notenome

Why is that? I've always been curious, why do finnish units get thrashed in 42? I'm planning on transfering Volkhov Front there in the mud once the Moscow situation is sorted out.

They take a morale hit below the no attack line IIRC. I hit them hard during the first blizzard in my current game. IIRC, their replacement rate isn't all that great either.

This is the scene at Moscow, (midturn but I don't have anything that occupy those vacated hexes). I really don't understand what 821 is doing here. There's a panzerarmee's worth of assets that are coming very perilously close to encirclement. Considering my divisions interfere with supplies in the hexes around them, I don't know how much these units are getting. Either he pulls them out immediately or he runs the risk of suffering a catastrophic loss. Is there something I'm missing here?

He needs to pull them out. He already made the decision to run everywhere else and that by itself dictates the need for the Moscow garrison to run as well in order to maintain the integrity of his line.

These guys in Mscow would be far more dangerous out in the open, split into regiments and placed in reserve mode, backstopping the infantry. Moscow is just a deathtrap. He did the right thing in Rostov, for example (also a deathtrap), and should do the exact same here.

As I said uptopic, if he was serious about taking the place for real, he should have double enveloped it and taken a good deal of real estate east of it to give himself room for maneuver; this would have have likely killed a major chunk of the Red Army in the process.

What he instead did was a raid; and what's worse, he doesn't seem to realize that it was a raid. The position was and remains untenable in the fashion he took it.

I don't think his Moscow grab right before the blizzard made a lick of sense even as a raid; the factories were already gone. Now he appears to be tempted to hold on to the place.

ORIGINAL: notenome
Is there something I'm missing here?

Yes.

Either

a) he's drank Optimist Absynth and is waiting for a snow turn to encircle part of your forces [?]

or

b) he's drank good old Absynth

Little does he know both absynths are one and the same sinister drink...

Tullius, January is guaranteed blizzard. (In North Soviet anyways.)

Alrite, good old absynth then...


Make no prisoners, Notenome...