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Turn 6 - start

In the north Mehring stood his ground, and kept digging stronger and stronger trenches.

AGC didn't face any hostile actions. After keeping me at bay for 2 turns enemy units were withdrawn east, where strong, river-protected positions awaited them.

There wasn't any fighting in the south either. Ring around souther pocket finally hold, northern semi-encircled group just drifted a bit north east.


All in all prospects of any significant breakthrough in that turn were bleak.

centre 6 (start)

south 6 (start)

Turn 6 - my actions

According to pre-game plan, I didn't commit many troops to attack on Leningrad. Much weakened forces og AGN were focused on providing support to attack on Moscow. Close coordination became possible after Mehring left Witebsk practically without protection. I decided to rest my pz corps and mounted diversionary attack towards Vielkie Luki. Not for the first time I was unpleasantly surprised. I got stopped on first line of defence. In one place 2 airborne brigades fought off 5 of my attacks.

In the centre my priority was minimizing consumption of fuel. Most of mobile units were rested, 2 corps built up their supplies levels.

Apart from move to north-east I made some probing attack towards south-east. Strong defence there discouraged me from committing more troops. In the mean time let my self be distracted by intrusion from Prypet marshes. Two divisions were surrounded. Small gain, but loosing one turns' move of 2 divisions wasn't really important in face of his strong defence of central Dnepr.

In the south I made strong link around northern pocket and destroyed 9 out of 12 divisions in souther. Lvov cauldron was finally reduced.

Half of my fast units were send east while infantry slowly approached towards Kiev.

Campaign started to enter decisive phase.

centre 6 (move)

south 6 (move)

Turn 7 - start

Mehring hasn't made any offensive action, just withdrawn his forces to next even stronger position. It looks there won't be any breakthroughs that turn.

Small pocket in northern Ukraine wasn't broken so I will start to reduce it that turn.

centre 7 (start)

south 7 (start)

Turn 7 - my actions

From perspective of 3 months of fighting, I think it's most important turn in that game.

Actions in the north were, as always limited. I finally stop pretending I will undertake any offensive against Leningrad and pushed east towards Vielkie Luki. Using connection with AGC through Witebsk I used pz corps to move east and then north thus focusing equivalent of 2 pz armies on Moscow axis.

Upper Dnepr was very lightly held, so gaining bridgehead was surprisingly easy. I established strong bridgehead, and let myself withheld two strongest corpses for decisive push in next turn.

South from Smolensk, where his defences were the strongest I slowly pressed east with infantry.

In souther part of Centre Group I made distracting marches towards south east. In the mean time his 2 surrounded division in Belarus were destroyed.

Having several units released from fighting in Lvov region I moved forces from northern Ukrainian pocket towards Dnepr and replaced them with forces approaching from south west. Btw, it was turn of liquidation of Lvov cauldron - 4th AT Brigade disgraced itself by surrendering without fight.

Souther encirclement was reduced as well - 4 divisions (I previously thought there were 3) were added to my account.

Rest of my forces in the south was moving east towards mighty river Dnepr.

centre 7 (end)

south 7 (end)

Turn 7 In the north, I'm generally happy to pull back to better defensive terrain. My screen in Estonia remains unchallenged and my recce planes reveal only 2 enemy combat units. This strongly suggests that there's nothing coming this way and Kamil is concentrating his forces elsewhere. I don't want to allow this and determine to scrape around for reserves and take the fight to AGN next week.

On the left of Northwestern Front, east of Velikie Luki, I'm concerned that the entire front might be outflanked, along with all those useful swamps and hills. I'm going to try to close off that avenue of advance.

Around Smolensk, again, I'm happy to withdraw to river lines further east but that doesn't preclude some spoiling attacks to keep Kamil off balance, regain terrain which will subsequently cost him movement points to reoccupy- river lines particularly- and to notch up victories for my commanders and troops.

At Cherkassy I launch limited counterattacks but foolishly advance one of my strongest divisions forward to displace an airfield. It gets caught with insufficient MP for the return trip, and I'll be sorry to lose the unit.

I'm unable to re-establish a line of communications with my forces in the Pripyat this week, which is a shame. They continue to occupy a disproportionate number of enemy units.

Kiev has a fairly solid defence now, but I'll be happy to collapse it and retreat over the river if an outflanking manoeuvre threatens.

The Dnepr region is grossly uneven in its preparedness for the defence. With the marshes sparsely defended, a cavalry forey into Kamil's air bases might upset his plans, but might bring down retribution on my thin screen. I play this one bold and bag 50 odd He 111s.

Off map, the entrances to the Crimea are garrisoned and fairly well fortified.

Odessa is solidly defended. I can't see how he'll take it without major investment and I begin to hatch plans for the future.

Between Cherkassy and Zoporozhye the Dnepr line looks solid and with a few reserves too.

In my view, ground losses to date offer no conclusive evidence as to how the campaign is going. Losses are light for both sides, in my limited experience.

The air war is different. This is my 4th PBEM, with 2 games played on each side. In every case, I see a lack of attention paid to the russian air force. My Russian opponents fail to do anything useful with their air power, often standing by as the Luftwaffe rips it to pieces. German players on the other hand, after a 1st turn bash of varied intensity, tend to leave the Russian airfields alone. This is fatal!

Kamil has so far destroyed as many of my planes as I would expect to detroy in turn 1 alone. My losses are ridiculously low and as morale, experience and better planes improve my capabilities, Kamil is going to regret not doing a more thorough and persistent job on them. Sooner rather than later, I'm afraid.

Before I start posting facts about my next turn I want to point out crucial event - Mehring's counter-attack near Smolensk. My two stacks with defence CV 8 and 15 were beaten any pushed back behind river. It was major setback, considerably limiting my chances of capturing Moscow