HITMAN202 versus THEPRO's Sean is welcomed ... Sillyflower is allowed.

[HITMAN202]

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

The nerve of you to take advantage of me Siilyflower. How dare you ask to be paid when you accepted my challenge. Your're going to need your best courtroom cleverness to explain that one , counselor.

Simples. You called us Pros and the definition of pro is someone who is paid for what he does. If you had not called us pro's, no remuneration would have been asked for. QED

[gingerbread]

So you're not playing pro bono?

Hitman, how far from Smolensk is you AGC rail? By T11, it should be at or very near.

I assume that total losses were polished quite a bit by the T11 numbers. Very interesting game - I have not seen many with an Axis grinding strategy. Attrition should be and is a powerful auxiliary tool so get those southern minors in contact.

[HITMAN202]

AGC's FBD ended it's turn in Smolensk turn 11. It moved without problems. Should be at it's max westward progress. Gingerbread, I'm puzzled what you are saying about the German allies and attrition ???

Silllyflower, I knew you would put a spin on what I said. And demanding payment again in front of so many !!! And I bet you wouldn't share it with Blephegor !!!! Where's the moderator ???? Where's my lawyer ???





Still have the problem. I've been thinking about what to do since your advice, Pelton. I'm planning to start my pre-blizzard prep by railing all airbases and their HQ's north of the blizzard line to safety (except two HQ and 4 airbases full of fighter I'll keep spaced apart in AGC) starting turn 16 or so and at that time transfer 200 bombers and 100 fighters to mess with Odessa's port. I'll wait to see what then happens.

[smokindave34]

Hitman - I am also playing the Pro's....one thing that I have been paying dearly for is not capturing enough Reds in '41. I see you have only slightly over 1 million Bolsheviks in POW camps back in the Fatherland. I know this is easier said than done but you need to capture and destroy some more Soviet counters or you are going to face hordes and hordes of units in '42. If you think the reserve activation is bad now wait until summer '42! Good luck my axis brother!

[gingerbread]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202
Gingerbread, I'm puzzled what you are saying about the German allies and attrition ???

The parts of the front painted blue are where the Soviets are not taking any attrition losses. My suggestion is that you use the minors for that job (unless you have spare Germans). Your guys will also take attrition, but it's still another straw to break their back. Keep in contact during mud to limit the Soviets' recovery.

Why do you want to fight the snow turns with out air support?

[HITMAN202]

How do you form pockets when Soviet units retreat on top of adajacent units ?? Forget hasty attacks (unless you have a loner retreated and you bet against reserve activation.) I think I'll have 2.5 -2.7 mill Soviet casualties by blizzard but will have lost 7-800,000 troops myself.

I think there will be a rule change soon to slow down the Soviet bear. Offer any advice you see fit, my man and namesake. I want to see MT smile.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

How do you form pockets when Soviet units retreat on top of adajacent units ?? Forget hasty attacks (unless you have a loner retreated and you bet against reserve activation.) I think I'll have 2.5 -2.7 mill Soviet casualties by blizzard but will have lost 7-800,000 troops myself.

I think there will be a rule change soon to slow down the Soviet bear. Offer any advice you see fit, my man and namesake. I want to see MT smile.

Its very easy to keep loses under 2.75 million as SHC now vs anyone. A 5 + million blizzard O by SHC is normal now.

I would say your doing fine, the key will be surviving the blizzard with good over all moral. Which is impossible vs a good SHC blizzard player.

IF you can survive blizzard with high morale you can get some pockets, but mostly farm morale.

expect this game to look like this IF you can get through winter in good shape.

tm.asp?m=3146387&mpage=7

If you don't you will be toast in early 44.

[HITMAN202]

I understand your point and agree, but there's a ton of cities to garrison. He's only got 10 units or so in that expanse and they are retreating.

You got only 4 turns of snow starting roughy 10 turns from now. Since you attack less effectively in snow and THEPRO's have 10 more turns to form their own version of a Maginot line I don't see a great winter offensive coming down the pike. I haven't fully decided my plans (I'm considering something very different to what I had intended), but I do know that blizzard prep is under appreciated and ends up being a Chineses fire drill for most.

I'll digress a little. I think Pelton's view of German victory (or draw as the game definitely favors the Soviets presently... again I think big changes are coming in future patches) is correct... Army management skill is more important than fighting prowness.

Handing blizzard effectively can save tens of thousands of troops; each a body that the Soviets have to walk over to get to Berlin. Look what you have to do, (and my list will be missing stuff)

1) Plan fall-back lines (ie forts in the south)

2) Cut Toe back (I'm also messing with Hq Toe.. (a little)

3) Evacuate non essential troops, Luftwaffe, SU's

4) Evacquate key quality troops.

5) Reorganize all Army Groups.. a bigger problem than people realize

6) And plan how to get them back by late February.

A winter offense isn't high on my priority list. am I wrong ???

[smokindave34]

Be careful with withdrawing your quality troops. Keep the panzers close to the front in urban areas - that way they won't lose morale and take unnecessary losses but they will be close enough to the front to support some limited counterattacks in January/February. Parking some units in Germany/Poland is O.K. but keep a quick reaction force near key areas of the front to push back those pesky tank brigades.

[HITMAN202]

I've played only one blizzard and ran, but didn't get pressured. Dave there is so much to do to avoid problems pre-blizzard , thinking about a winter O is short-sighted. You can only attack 3 turns in winter. The last you got to run !!!

[Michael T]

I think there will be a rule change soon to slow down the Soviet bear

Do you know something we don't? I hope your right though....

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

So you're not playing pro bono?

Sadly we are. Probably as well, as we would have had to let him win if he was paying.[:(]

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202


Silllyflower, I knew you would put a spin on what I said. And demanding payment again in front of so many !!! And I bet you wouldn't share it with Blephegor !!!! Where's the moderator ???? Where's my lawyer ???

Seems to me I should start billing your various advisors too.
Anyway, I am driven by logic, as you know. I have to share equally with Sean as you call us both pro's. Now, if you rename the game Hitman v the Pro and the Canuck or somesuch, I would not have to share the proceeds which would halve the price.

[Belphegor]

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202


Silllyflower, I knew you would put a spin on what I said. And demanding payment again in front of so many !!! And I bet you wouldn't share it with Blephegor !!!! Where's the moderator ???? Where's my lawyer ???

Seems to me I should start billing your various advisors too.
Anyway, I am driven by logic, as you know. I have to share equally with Sean as you call us both pro's. Now, if you rename the game Hitman v the Pro and the Canuck or somesuch, I would not have to share the proceeds which would halve the price.

That's right, keep looking to the north. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

[gingerbread]

ORIGINAL: HITMAN202

I understand your point and agree, but there's a ton of cities to garrison. He's only got 10 units or so in that expanse and they are retreating.

You got only 4 turns of snow starting roughy 10 turns from now. Since you attack less effectively in snow and THEPRO's have 10 more turns to form their own version of a Maginot line I don't see a great winter offensive coming down the pike. I haven't fully decided my plans (I'm considering something very different to what I had intended), but I do know that blizzard prep is under appreciated and ends up being a Chineses fire drill for most.

I'll digress a little. I think Pelton's view of German victory (or draw as the game definitely favors the Soviets presently... again I think big changes are coming in future patches) is correct... Army management skill is more important than fighting prowness.

Handing blizzard effectively can save tens of thousands of troops; each a body that the Soviets have to walk over to get to Berlin. Look what you have to do, (and my list will be missing stuff)

1) Plan fall-back lines (ie forts in the south)

2) Cut Toe back (I'm also messing with Hq Toe.. (a little)

3) Evacuate non essential troops, Luftwaffe, SU's

4) Evacquate key quality troops.

5) Reorganize all Army Groups.. a bigger problem than people realize

6) And plan how to get them back by late February.

A winter offense isn't high on my priority list. am I wrong ???

[Super short version] Yes.

[Short version] If you give (as in gratis) the Soviets 7 turns (4 mud, 3 snow) of pre-blizzard recovery time, it will not matter what your preparations. You will get owned.

[Normal, perhaps slightly verbose version] It's a bit like pool - if you only focus on shooting the balls into the pockets, you're missing out on the safety play dimension of the game. Got to make it hard for your opponent to score. You would hand over the initiative and they could choose to go aggressive or they could choose to pick the low hanging fruit only and at the same time build a monster army that you will not get anywhere against in '42. You must keep the pressure up, that means selective attacks during mud as well (though not using Pz). Units eliminated during the snow offensive will not come back for free!
/end answer to question - rail destruction is covered in AP class, but you have not applied as of yet. [;)]

The 15 routs is an excellent indicator of the current state. Routed units will rally, but they will not get replacements while routed, so they are out for at least an extra turn. The conversion to 41b rifle division is still ongoing so the individual unit strength will get lower as well.

One thing I noticed about that AGC post-combat T11 screen shot is that there were a lot of ?-units behind their line - are you skipping on brushing your teeth/doing recon?

Don't mess with the HQ's - you are & will be short ARM, not men and Support Squads use men.
Read up on Winter Mitigation and fill those spots before you drag stuff all the way back to Poland.
Odessa's size 15 Port will need 94% damage to become unusable ( < 1 effective point), a very wasteful use of air assets. 3-4 good ID should do the trick. What are your plans for the Crimea?

Lastly, to anti-paraphrase the Sergeant in HSB: Remember to have fun!

[HITMAN202]

Your insights are great. That last advice is what it is all about !!

The recon. Belphegor (who handles THEPROS air stuff) has set something up that is killing me. When ever I fly missions with fighter support I face no fighter interdiction. But anything unescorted gets hit hard. How does he do it?? I've stop refueling mech units if I can't get fighter support. I try to stack 3 airbases a hex with at least one airbase with fighter units. I select that hex prior to hitting the air supply button to arrange for fighter support. Then I select the air units for that mission. It helps as long fighter support is available.

That's the issue with recon. Because I send no fighter support with recon (need it for ground support and resupply missions) he is killing me. So far this game he has shot down almost 400 recon planes. I'll show it when I finish the turn tonight. So I've backed off recon some.

[HITMAN202]

TURN 12 is finished with frustration in AGC.. but first the recon issue



As I mentioned Blephegor is able to interdict all Axis missions without fighter escort, including recon. He has hit it hard. But to me recon planes are such an abundance... but I am not going to needlessly waste them

[HITMAN202]

AGN....I do believe without the Volkov this front would break in 2-3 turns. I caused 20,000 or so casualties in AGN. A big contribution to the casualties (routs) were that retreated units south of the Neva where forced into a smaller retreat zone formed by the Volkov. I cleared the hexes in front of the Neva to start the direct attack on Leningrad.

[HITMAN202]

AGS is going to get interesting. THEPROS have only so much space to surrender in front of Stalino and in the open terrain my Pz reign supreme. They will stand and fight. I also got to the Crimea.