1.04.10 Fulkerson vs Pelton

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: morvael
Interesting AAR, subscribing to it right now. I'm really interested in seeing how the "production" power of USSR finally overwhelms "combat" power of Germany. Please, continue playing!

Yeah , me too. Although it wouldn't take much for Pelton to just drive north and create another pocket, and then another, etc. and destroy the entire Soviet army before I could build enough Rifle divisions to rebuild the front line again. I've been evacuating industries to the far northeast corner of the map but Pelton could eventually drive up there and destroy them and then there'd be no hope of a come-back for Stalin.

[randallw]

Your opponent has managed get strongly across the river in two spots, with only one drive having significant forces in the front, and there's still a lot of the river unguarded.  I think you should get a lot of stuff over there as fast as you can, otherwise the fox will be loose in the henhouse.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T52 front lines before any Soviet movement. Pelton is on his way to create another mega-pocket 'cause he turned north and did a panzer thrust.

[wmcalpine]

Larry,

I salute you for your amazing perserverence. I am in turn seven of my game and my entire front line is in tatters. I fear Moscow, Leningrad, the Don basin, will be captured by turn 12. I hope to be still in the game by blizzard, but an Axis auto victory is starting to look like a real possibility. It is hard to keep my head in the game.

Keep up the good fight

Bill

[morvael]

Don't worry, the Vologda - Kostroma - Arzamas - Saratov - Chkalov line (with entire Caucasus occupied) is still far away - and this is needed for auto victory.

[jjdenver]

My god it's painful to look @ these screenshots. Good luck Larry!

[arras]

I see you railing some units, are those fresh unfilled units or some fighting force? If they can fight, do some good reckon of his position, especially place of his last breakthrough and pocket. His position seems to be quit week there but it may be lack of reckon.

In any case reinforce spots in front of his spearhead where he might try to connect pocket. If he will fail to do so, his advance might be very vulnerable. Cut him off. This is chance for some revenge.

As I sad, he seems to be weak at the place of last pocket, drive in your forces (well if you have some).

[M60A3TTS]

Larry, I'd urge you to stop reinforcing Stalingrad and the gap to the north, that isn't where he's threatening to annihilate you. Instead take those units on the rail at Saransk and Saratov and with any infantry nearby that can get there- get them on the northwest bank of the Voronezh and Tsna Rivers. You are just about down to your last line of defensible terrain before he threatens to encircle two of your fronts. Pull every tank south of Moscow out of the line and every plane you can move and head straight for his spearheads. If you can establish a line on those two rivers, Pelton will almost certainly try to shoot the gap between them on hexes X121-123/Y63 so your strongest defenders will need to be placed there to make a stand. Yes, it may appear he can outflank you, but the rivers runs northeast, meaning he would have to keep extending his flank and he simply doesn't have the units to do that, if your armor can threaten the tail of his spearhead. For that same reason he just can't keep going east, provided you have a credible threat. If he gets over the river, counterattack immediately with all the tanks that are available.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: arras
I see you railing some units, are those fresh unfilled units or some fighting force?

Those dudes are some of the Rifle Divisions I just got through buying last turn so they are still just shells and not combat-ready. But they're all I have left to rail into the fight.

Here's the T53 front lines before any Soviet movement:

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
Larry, I'd urge you to stop reinforcing Stalingrad and the gap to the north, that isn't where he's threatening to annihilate you. Instead take those units on the rail at Saransk and Saratov and with any infantry nearby that can get there- get them on the northwest bank of the Voronezh and Tsna Rivers....

I would do what you advise of course, you know more about this game than I do, but I can't find the words Voronezh and / or Tsna anywhere on my game map. Is that north or south of Stalingrad?

EDIT: Okie dokie I found Voronezh the city but still no sign of Tsna. Here's the best I could do to contain Pelton's pushing:

[M60A3TTS]

You're on the Tsna now, if you want to see the name, your HQ unit @ X125/Y54 is sitting on top of it. Likewise, the name of the Voronezh River is on hex X118/Y64. The river actually loops around the city. If you use the "T" hotkey to toggle units on the map it's easier to get an appreciation of how to best utilize the terrain to your advantage.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a close up of the pocket in T54 before any Soviet movement:

[larryfulkerson]

I did a bunch of moving and railed in some not-quite-ready rifle divisions to help out. Here's the after-the-Soviets-moved shot of the pocket:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the picture in T55 where Pelton has sliced off some more of my troops to try to make another pocket. I'm going to have to move those guys pretty fast to save them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the pocket(s) looked like after I moved:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the pocket looks like in T56 before any Soviet movement:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the pocket looked like after I did the Soviet moves. There's just nobody left to rail into the trouble spots.
I'm going to have to leave a huge gap in my lines. The way to the deep south is wide open now.

[randallw]

You may get a break for a few turns if he's outrun the supply railhead.

[DTurtle]

Why don't you launch any counterattacks? That Panzerdivision north of Tamboy stopped in the clear next to 10 of your units. It should be easy to force to retreat - maybe even multiple times.

I would also look at further weakening your other fronts. He is focusing everything in the south, while you are defending pretty much everywhere. For example, everything west of Cherepovets in the north is empty ground. You could defend it (by falling back if needed) with purely the forces currently facing the Finns in the far north and move the entire rest of Northern/Leningrad Front to the south. As a defender you have to move your strength to face his strength. Instead you are constantly leaving your forces wherever they are, and mostly reacting to his moves with new forces. This works pretty well up to the first winter, where you constantly get new units and almost all your units are extremely weak anyways. By now however, the units that have been on the map for some time should be a lot stronger than your new units. What this means, is that you are facing his strongest forces with your weakest forces.

You are playing extremely passively, only reacting to his moves. You have to start being aggressive, in order to force him to more careful with his forces. You might lose a lot of manpower with counterattacks - not just on his spearpoints, but maybe on his weaker parts of the front - but it will be worth it if he makes less pockets because of being more careful with his forces.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: DTurtle
Why don't you launch any counterattacks? That Panzerdivision north of Tamboy stopped in the clear next to 10 of your units. It should be easy to force to retreat - maybe even multiple times.

My dudes are CV=1 and CV=2 and his are stronger than mine so I would be making suicide attacks if I attacked.

Good advice on the rest of your verbage.