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ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Ok, so while we're waiting...[;)]

How many sapper regiments do you have?
How many RR construction Bdes?
Planning to build any motorized brigades?

I've got 15 sappers currently at Stavka in anticipation of Guard Rifle Corps which I can build in 2 turns. [&o]
Perhaps I have too many RR brigades, but they were damned handy to repair all those broken RR lines during and after blizzard. If I wouldn't have had them, I would have been seriously streched supply wise. Perhaps I would have had an adverse effect on digin in AND receiving replacements in the frontline units.

RE mot brigs, that's a good thing you bring up, I was thinking about whether or not they are useful. They can be used to form Mech Corps BUT are they as good as the Mech Brigs you can build later?
An upside would be they can train for several months, but perhaps there is adownside too? Any advice?

I would disband half of those RR brigades and replace them with sapper regiments. That would put you at about 180 regiments which of course you can attach to your corps whereas you can't with RR Bdes. And I'd start planning now to equip those future 90 rifle, cav, mech and tank corps with all of them @ 2 per corps. If you want more for the armies you can do that too, but you don't want to be short sapper SUs when it comes time to go on the offensive and dig him out of his forts.

Plus, you'll pocket close to 2k in manpower for each one that you swap out for roughly the same construction values. So that's 130k of men you can hand rifles to- about 10-12 rifle division equivalents.

I built mech brigades in my last game, but looking back I wish I had done motorized bdes for the reason you mention. They can get trained up so when you turn them into corps they'll take the exp hit, but still be higher than 3 green mech brigades that will combine into a corps with an experience level in the high teens.

Later on you'll get those RR repair corps to help rebuild the railnet as you go forward.

Sound advice. I did raise an eyebrow when I saw that they take close to 400k out of the pool [X(]
Thing is, it's damn expensive to disband them and form Sappers, and assign them, and then off course building all those Corps.
I was a little to "liberal" with AP's during Blizzard. Merged practically all mu rifle brigs to keep the offensive going and that also costs 1 AP, although strangely enough, if you're out of AP's you can merge for free...

I'll have to sit on them for a while longer until I find the AP's, but you're right, they'll have to go at some point.

On another matter, I'm running out of Mig3's and now I'll have to upgrade/change planes for several of my top regiments. I'll put a SS of my top scorers, pretty good stuff actually [8D]

RE mot brigs, isn't there a downside? Perhaps something with the armoured component? I mean, it seems so logical to just build mot brgs I feel like I must be missing something [:)]

These guys are giving the LW a serious challenge, no easy pickings with these guys around!

The RR Bde conversion- sure you don't have to do it all at once but I'd still try to do as much as you can over time. Failed attacks against Level3 forts can run you 12k in manpower losses when you're committing rifle corps and even with high engineer values, it's no guarantee of success. In one test I had an engineer value of 19 against such a fort and failed. So that die roll wherever it is in the battle sequence can still come up short and kill you.

No easy answer on the MiGs or any plane for that matter. I found the game terrible at auto-upgrades so you'll also deal with the same issues with 3 versions of IL-2s and other aircraft types that are also competing for precious APs.

The downside on the motor brigades is as brigades they are of little use so they just sit back out of harms way gaining exp. until merge time. And so the manpower in the meantime is of little use as well. But the payoff is having better mech corps if you go that route in the winter of 42-43 and beyond.

I don't think there is a choice BUT to go for Mech Corps with Tank Corps being so brittle in the defense. I think I'll need this guys to hold terrain once I get a breakthrough but we'll see as this is just theoretical thinking for the moment. Let's first survive summer of 1942!

TURN 28
We're going into turn 52 now, so high time to update the AAR.
South, overview before Sov moves:

South, closeup:

Tula-Kaluga Axis:

Center - overview:

Rzhev zoom:

North Overview:

finally, close up North:

Soviet moves, South:
3rd Shock Army is being assembled (attached to Southern Front) from Stavka reserves (mainly the bunch of divisions arriving in the Caucassus) which are promptly brought up to strength (and increased morale) by merging brigades into them. I'd prefer to attach the army to the Crimea Front but don't have CP available.
I have reached his main definsive line on high extreme right and I don't have the movement to launch deliberate attacks so I content myself with moving up for the attack next turn.
Further North, I ZOC lock in the hope of forcing him to abandon these divisions or counterattack and stay close to my units next turn.
The Zoc locked division of last turn (which he broke down into regiments) is isolated. However, because of a general lack of mobility, this certainly delays my advance West so it does serve Sebastians purpose of delaying me.

South of Tula I try an evellopment maneuvre which, if it would have worked, would have probably cost him several divisions and regiments. Unfortunately, 2 essential attacks fail and I run out of movement to put them in Zoc, so he'll get away most of them without to much trouble. Rats!

West Front closes up to his next line, but can't get in deliberates, and I forgo hasties.

What looked like being on the verge of breakthrough before recon and movement turns out to be his main line of resistance. The most direct route towards the rear of Moscow is blocked by 30+CV stacks. The only weakspot is a hex I can attack from 3 directions and to do so I must put almost all of the available offensive strength of Volkhov and Kalinin Fronts into it.
4th Shock is railed in as planned and from the looks of it just in time!

Farther West, I score 4 retreats and one held against his left flank, but if he can hold me at his Rzhev line, this won't matter that much. It will simply take to long to get the results I want from that direction. I must punch through at Rzhev or East of it to force him to give up Moscow. There is good news though, Kalinin is back on the rail net and I'm already taking of depleted divisions for some refit. On the down side, he is really close to his supply lines (green arrow), giving him all the advantages that that entails.

South of Moscow I score some good results with the Bryansk Front, now mostly refitted and ready to cause trouble, with some Western Front divisions helping out.

Overall, a slow turn.