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Turn 34

Here's a big panoramic image including the end turn casualty report. The high number of Axis tanks this turn is due to the two PzKorps in the south surrendering.

Thanks ShadowPanzer for the big image idea!:)

PS: Try zooming in if you don't see much of the picture.

Here's the map as it looks in the first turn of good weather in '44. The Germans are almost exactly on their starting lines for Barbarossa. The Mother Country breathes relieved

I've had a couple of bridgeheads over his river positions, but he fought them back during the mud period. The main fight lately has been in the air over Romania with his FW190s engaging my Yak9ts.

Josan used the Luftwaffe very skillfully and won the fight. He had almost all his air groups in the area. He first would bomb around troops so that my fighters would intercept and he would kill them. Then, when there were not so many Soviet fighters in the air, he would send his elite He177 groups to plough my airfields, destroying hundreds of planes on the ground.

Last turn he got through 700+ Yak9t fighter bombers this way I've taken such heavy losses that I've had to disperse my aviation away. Most of it is back to Siberia for refitting. The only consolation is that he left Germany undefended to pull this and got bombed somewhat. His oil is down to 85 right now.

A curious incident was that a Tank Army made it to Constanta where it was isolated but in naval supply. He allowed me to evacuate it this turn by sea. I wouldn't have sent it there anyway without thinking that I can evacuate it :rolleyes:

Do I have enough time and forces to take Berlin or will we end up in a stalemate in Central Europe?

The Bagration summer offensive begins with the surrender of 3 German infantry korps south of Bialystok. Pincer movements isolate several strong PzKorps in the Lwov area. Also in the news: it appears the West Front has broken with 9000+ Axis strength in it. In the north and south the attacks for bridgeheads are repulsed again.

I'm playing the 43' scenario against a human for the first time, and am finding it very interesting.

I'm the Axis, and have been able to maintain mastery of the air to turn 13. In the West, I've been able to beat off most USAAF attacks except for a few early turns and a turn where I had to bring my veteran Zerstorer units east to take on his Guard air units which had been lingering out of range of all my single engined aircraft. Those units had had a couple successful runs bombing my air units.

I started the game by reorganizing the Army. It starts with Pz divs in infantry corps, and vice versa...very annoying. Needless to say, Zitadelle didn't occur, but after losing a Pz Corps near Smolensk, I gave up offensive action. There's just too few infantry to do the job.

I've made a few retreats to shorten the line and form reserves (how small they are!). My opponent is very cagey, and isn't giving me opportunities to make big moves. I've only been able to capture one corps. The front runs diagonally from Leningrad (which I haven't taken) to just west of Stalino.

It's gonna be very tough once he starts to thunder forward.

Yes Forward March the '43 campaign is a very interesting and challenging one. Personally I like it better than '41. Why? Because '41 depends too much on special rules and on luck. The German blitzkrieg supply, the Russian plotting difficulties, the special shattering rules in the summer for the Soviets and in the winter for the Axis - they all just make the game too difficult to predict and control. Also it matters a lot that you are lucky: spotting or not some Russian unit behind lines and getting or not a good attack from your leader can make the entire difference between a large-scale, game-deciding encirclement and successful Soviet retreat. Not to mention Soviet units trying to obey orders to cut off PzKorps - a lot depends on this too :rolleyes: In '43 both opponents play by the same rules; much less depends on luck and a lot more on good planning.

And now to return to the game report... Most of the Lwov pocket got away because of some Slovak motorized division reinforcing a weak korps at the wrong time (for me, not for Josan ). West of Byalistok two PzKorps got isolated and two German HQs with lots and lots of a/c in them forced to retreat (they wouldn't shatter, d@mmit ) I'm almost on the outskirts of Warszaw, where he has his second line of defence following the Vistula. I got bridgeheads in both the exteme north and south, in the south encircling a PzKorps in the process. In the air I'm doing fine so far (and so is the USAAF:D) but I expect with dread the coming of the Me262

A good turn for the glorious Red Army, several German korps surrender making Axis losses 3300 squads, 2000 tanks and 2000 arty for this turn alone. The Vistula line has collapsed south of Warszaw and I also got what seems an open road to Budapest.

In the south I'm assaulting without success his last river line defending Romania. In the north I'm making contact with his Konigsberg-Warszaw defence line.

In the air he's managed to bomb a couple of poorly defended airfields, however my huge and experienced Yak-9t groups kill without much difficulty whatever they can find. So does the USAAF. The new La-7 and Spitfire IX fighters are about to join the fight - hopefully they'll compensate by quantity the quality of the Me262 :rolleyes:

Image file attached. Red arrows represent successful Soviet cutoff operations. One PzKorps shattered.

Why is your map green? What version are you using?

Forward_March wrote:Why is your map green? What version are you using?

What a keen eye We started the game before v3.3 was available, so we're using v3.2. The map is a darker shade of green because I'm using an upgraded icon set for v3.2, it's the icon set that they put later in v3.3. I guess the only difference is in the color of the big map



BTW, if you look at the picture on Dave's site you'll notice the same thing. And the test for a perfect score: what else is weird with Dave's picture?

Beginning of October '44...

brings snow instead of rain. The remaining armies of the 'Thousand Years Reich' are desperately fighting on trying to delay the Red flood. The last weeks have brought it from the Vistula to beyond the Oder.

While the Romanian front was being held on the Pruth, the rapid advance in the Hungarian plains on its rear flank was brought to an unexpected halt. Lots of German reserves poured in and cut off the only available railroad behind the forces advancing towards Belgrade. After sending in 2 fresh Tank Armies, the Red Army restored the situation and got most of the forces out of the pocket, but some fell prisoner; so did more than half of their captors. The Danube has been finally crossed near Budapest.

In the meanwhile, 2 carelessly handled Tank Armies were forced to surrender by the Baltic while attempting to cut off forces in East Prussia. The Germans did however have to retreat from the region and Konigsberg just fell last turn.

A bit to the south, after cutting off each other's supply in consecutive turns, the German pocket west of Warszaw proved weaker and surrendered en masse, yielding 250,000 prisoners in a single week. This left the push over the Oder virtually unopposed. Breslau fell, the river line is all but cleared of German troops and Berlin and Stettin are under assault.

In the extreme south, the Romanian front finally just gave way and Soviet forces are right near Ploesti. German oil is in the 50s and going down. The Luftwaffe is quite inactive except for sporadic (but devastating) attacks on Soviet airfields every once in a while and some small-scale bombing near Budapest. I've only seen Me262s in small groups so far and they seem quite poorly experienced.

Seems only a question of time now... and of a direct assault on Berlin

Josaaan.... Let's start a '41 game. I'm bored :sleep: , all my heavy-duty opponents have computer problems, panzer fright etc. :rolleyes: You play German, I know you like it (also it will feel better if you take Moscow after losing Berlin :p ) And what I would really love from you is a minimum of 4 turns a week - you know, like real grognards do :rolleyes: :p Or else... :sleep:

K62 wrote:Josaaan.... Let's start a '41 game. I'm bored :sleep: , all my heavy-duty opponents have computer problems, panzer fright etc. :rolleyes: You play German, I know you like it (also it will feel better if you take Moscow after losing Berlin :p ) And what I would really love from you is a minimum of 4 turns a week - you know, like real grognards do :rolleyes: :p Or else... :sleep:

:p Yes, you are right. I must concede the victory to you.Very well played, congratulations!!!

Ok, lets start a 41 game. Its time for you to feel the pain :p
I will play with germans first. Version 3.2 or 3.3.? Standard house rules+naval movement allowed ?

I know this campaign better so expect the minimum turns required :p

See you in Gorki

I didn't mean you should surrender the '43 game, although this is a nice surprise . My password was yak9t (fitting, isn't it )

All right then. Time for me to feel the pain Or maybe not Lorenzo (10 included) + naval sounds fine to me. How about using alfonso's version for rule 1: " a corps must fight under the command of the HQ that gave it special supply"? This is just to eliminate mules completely.

I know there's a rather small chance that the game will go into '42 but just in case we should somehow limit the use of heavy tanks so we don't get hordes of Tigers against hordes of KVs. I like Flanker Leader's idea about limiting production to 4 factories for Germans and 7 for Soviets. What do you think about this?

I'll be waiting for your reply - and, if everything is OK, for your first turn

K62 wrote:I didn't mean you should surrender the '43 game, although this is a nice surprise . My password was yak9t (fitting, isn't it )

Ah, no? :p

K62 wrote:All right then. Time for me to feel the pain Or maybe not Lorenzo (10 included) + naval sounds fine to me. How about using alfonso's version for rule 1: " a corps must fight under the command of the HQ that gave it special supply"? This is just to eliminate mules completely.

I did that in our last game. We can include limit the airstrikes to 3 per hex.

K62 wrote:I know there's a rather small chance that the game will go into '42 but just in case we should somehow limit the use of heavy tanks so we don't get hordes of Tigers against hordes of KVs. I like Flanker Leader's idea about limiting production to 4 factories for Germans and 7 for Soviets. What do you think about this?

Ok, I never did this strategy.

K62 wrote:I'll be waiting for your reply - and, if everything is OK, for your first turn

Just know the version you want to play and I will send you my first turn.

Let's finally switch to 3.3, shall we? And since you potentially have an advantage in blizzard (as if I'll get there :p) we should limit airstrikes so you have a better chance of using it 3 max then airfields and cities included :p Waiting for yer turn, herr Generalfeldmarschall Josan, and by the way - you also played very well - only you've been way too aggressive for '43. How about you cool down a bit for '41 as well

I don't know if you noticed but I also refrained from more than 3 airstrikes.