FITE2 Cantonia Allies larry Axis

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Minsk looks like now. I'm still in the process of moving units around the Minsk defenders. I want to surround the entire complex before I start killing Soviets. It might prolong the game but it will eliminate a lot of Soviet equipment. I'm not really going for the objectives, I want to kill Soviet units. The more I kill the less I have to fight them in the future. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

This image is down south, at the northern end of the Stalin Line and shows what seems to be a huge hole in the Soviet lines. I defeated a defender and all of a sudden I'm making progress again. I don't have an overage of troops so I'm going to make a bulge as big as it will go and see if I can't turn this into a left hook and roll up the Soviet lines going south.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on just north of Leningrad and you can see how the Finns are pushing the Soviet units backward. Only about 2/3 of the Finns are active but already progress is being made.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Jonathan and this is the T10 front lines and you can see that I'm falling way behind schedule. The front line isn't moving as quickly as I would like. But the supply levels are great so I guess I shouldn't complain that much. My theater recon value is so low that the Soviet units aren't showing up on my map. Sometimes I don't see the Soviet unit until I have moved adjacent to it. My recon units are invaluable because of that. I've started using the combat units to clear terrain too because there's so few Soviet units from turn to turn and not every unit is needed on the front line. The follow on forces have almost caught up to the front because of the lack of Soviet units. It seems that the front units don't always bypass their obstacle but steamroll it and destroy it and there's nothing for the follow on forces to do. It all depends on the size of the defending force, whether it's a division or not. If it's small enough for the front forces, the recon units, to RBC the enemy unit then it has permission to do so. But no combats where assets will be lost. Instead bypass that bad boy and keep going.

[larryfulkerson]

I've decided that I don't want to wait for the surround to be complete before I sieze the city of Minsk so I'm pushing toward the city to see if I can capture it by doing a "hey diddle diddle right up the middle" kind of thing and at the same time keep moving units around the city. The Soviets are slowly backing up so this may work.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Odessa area right now. I'm crossing the river and going around a Soviet defender and getting into the Soviet backfield. Soon I'll have dispatched the Soviet defender and repaired the bridge and will have a clear path to Odessa. It'll take a couple of turns but it's a matter of time really.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Minsk looks like now. I got tired of waiting for the surround to be completed and I'm going for the gold. There's been several combat phases and this is round 4 and I have 50% of the turn left. Everybody has moved for this turn and the only thing happening now is the assignment of units to attacks and pulling the trigger. Minor adjustments of position are sometimes necessary due to enemy units moving after having been pushed out of the hex by the attack. I should have this all cleaned up in about 5 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Jonathan and this is the front lines before I have started moving anybody. The clump in the middle is Minsk and the battle rages as we speak. Units in the south will be running out of good supply areas soon and the advance will have to slow down. It's late July and I'm way way behind schedule.

[larryfulkerson]

The railhead for the middle route has finally reached Minsk and the RR engineers can go elsewhere and start working on something else. Because the rail is so close the supply levels are great. I've moved some RR arty into the AO to help the takedown.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Jonathan and this is after I've been moving a lot of units. This is after I've been moving units for about 4 hours. This is Minsk now. I've gotten the city defenders surrounded and isolated ready for the final blow. Now I need to try to squeeze all these Soviet defenders into a single hex ready for bombardments before the assaults. One-dot attacks with lots of arty backing it up ought to kill the Soviets rather quickly. I'm told that taking Minsk will result in some detrament to Soviet supply or reinforcements or both. Something like 5% or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Axis forces are starting to emerge the marshes in the middle and are running into Soviet forces finally. The railhead for this route is close to the front and I've got units clearing out the terrain in the marshes because that's where most of the partisans spawn. Although we're skipping the partisans in this game. There was a TO to cancel them and I have a vague memory of clicking on it. I remember seeing the button as green, as having been clicked on. Which is a good thing because I hate having to chase down partisans. There are very few airfields in the marshes which is a tiny handicap.

[larryfulkerson]

East of Minsk are a couple of rivers that I will havee to fight for and I'm across the first river already although there's a lot of crossings to capture yet and the supply levels are not great on the other side of the first river so I may have to wait for the rail to catch up before proceeding. Although there's a great priority to keep the advance going when it's a possibility. I hope to have Minsk wrapped up soon, maybe another 7 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south the Axis forces are flowing like water in the path of least resistance and the engineers are busy trying to repair all the busted bridges in the path of the advance. There are very few Soviet units and they don't tend to support each other but rather are a singleton and by themselves usually a Soviet fort in a road hex or a bridge hex. The image shows a lot of units that are red. What's happening is that at the start of the turn the unit is yellow which is okay for a move and by the time it arrives at it's destination it has turned red. Supply is rather low down south.

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis forces are approaching Pskov and there's no sign of any Soviet units. I expect to run into them as we arrive at Pskov however because there's an outstanding natural terrain feature that's good for defense. I would expect Jonathan would want to take advantage of that. I'm trying to keep the arty near the front and the aircraft also near the front. The follow on forces have caught up with the recon units for the most part and there's beginning to be a traffic problem developing. I'm going to have to get better organized and drive them down the road in order of the OOB to keep from having to walk over the top of another stack of my units. Also, I need to spread them out better to get more terrain coverage.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been moving units and assigning attacks and this is what Minsk looks like now. I'm hoping to have this area all cleared up in another 5 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening just north of Leningrad. The Finns are pushing to the city and making slow progress.

[larryfulkerson]

You can't see it at this zoom out level but there's a rail leading up to Murmansk from the south of this image. Axis forces are fighting to clear it of enemy units and start the repairs of it so that supply can flow up to the port from the south. The supply levels near Murmansk are poor to none. No battles can be attempted. Defense is a question mark. It's going to take a while to get the supply up there and hopefully Jonathan is having supply problems too and he won't attack me. I'm talking about another six months at least.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a section of the front lines where progress is being made. I've run into some Soviet units, more Soviet units than I've run into in a while. I can't leave them operational in my rear I guess so I'll dispatch them. My engineers are working time and a half on the bridges that the Soviets broke as they were racing to the rear. Jonathan tells me that I should be running into his troops soon, the main MLR I mean. The character of the game will change when that happens.

[Dreamslayer]

From the house rules for this scenario:

The Finns may only move to the yellow dotted line, representing their historical advance.. If Leningrad falls, the restriction on the Finns are lifted. They may however only be in Finland or Russia.
Only certain other axis units may enter Finland/Norway.
Units with a special colour: – namely: grey edge, white center and blue icons. See examples below:

2 SS divisions are also allowed to be in Finland/Norway. These are: Kampgruppe Nord and 6th SS Geb Div.
German naval units are allowed to be in Finland/Norway
Any other german units are allowed to sail THROUGH Hangø (but they may not debark there). If they are caught in Hangø the german player must disband the units as soon as possible.

If any of the units that are in Finland/Norway are destroyed these units will reconstitue in Germany, but the german player are allowed to send them back to Finland/Norway.

Units starting in Norway (Marine Art, HKKA etc) are of course allowed to be in Norway. If they are activated they can leave Norway, but may not enter Finland (because they are the wrong color)

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Dreamslayer

From the house rules for this scenario:

The Finns may only move to the yellow dotted line, representing their historical advance.. If Leningrad falls, the restriction on the Finns are lifted. They may however only be in Finland or Russia.
Only certain other axis units may enter Finland/Norway.
Units with a special colour: – namely: grey edge, white center and blue icons. See examples below:

2 SS divisions are also allowed to be in Finland/Norway. These are: Kampgruppe Nord and 6th SS Geb Div.
German naval units are allowed to be in Finland/Norway
Any other german units are allowed to sail THROUGH Hangø (but they may not debark there). If they are caught in Hangø the german player must disband the units as soon as possible.

If any of the units that are in Finland/Norway are destroyed these units will reconstitue in Germany, but the german player are allowed to send them back to Finland/Norway.

Units starting in Norway (Marine Art, HKKA etc) are of course allowed to be in Norway. If they are activated they can leave Norway, but may not enter Finland (because they are the wrong color)

Thank you for that. I had forgotten or had never known that. I especially liked to find out that German units killed up north respawn in Germany. That means that I can disband them and use them down south instead. Is that gamey?