Part 2 of FitE 5.0

[larryfulkerson]

It's round two already and here's the north half of the front lines during Axis turn 8:
 

 
And here's the south half of the front lines:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some Axis losses so far:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis moves for turns 1 throu 8:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some Soviet losses so far:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Soviet commanders are concerned with gaining air superiority and stopping the Axis advance and the air missions reflect this:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Kiev is as ready as it'll ever be:

[larryfulkerson]

It looks like the battle of Odessa will have to be postponed until the supply situation gets a lot better:

[larryfulkerson]

Part of what hampers the Axis is the degree of cooperation the Regular Army gets from the SS units and from the Finnish Allies.  Instead of gold battle flags they have silver ones, which means that they aren't 100% cooperating and the battle will take a bit longer than if the units were Regular Army units.  A black flag is a turn burner from what I understand but even a silver flag will take about 40% of a turn for one attack is my understanding.  Somebody correct me on this:
 

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviets are expecting another partisan in turn 10 so I'd better pre-position some units now to take care of that little problemo:
 

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviets keep flying interdiction missions and the Axis keeps shooting them down:

[mark24]

Hi Larry,

Great, great AAR!

Just a quickie, if the axis puts cuts Odessa's landline, are they still supplied via the port itself?

Mark

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: mark24
Just a quickie, if the axis puts cuts Odessa's landline, are they still supplied via the port itself?
Mark

But yes, the port of Odessa is a supply source for the Russkies, so even if I cut them off on the landward side they are still in supply. So long as they hold the hex labeled Odessa. There is a slight complication for this however, if the Axis ever captures Sevastopol then the supply source called Odessa is no longer functional. I don't know anyone who had to go to that length of effort to deny supply to Odessa however. I thought about, laughed about it, and forgot about it myself.

[lojishen]

I notice that your Russian air units are based pretty close to Kiev. Can the Germans not pound those air bases?

Thanks,

lojishen

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: lojishen
I notice that your Russian air units are based pretty close to Kiev. Can the Germans not pound those air bases?
Thanks,
lojishen

But yes they can, perhaps they should. Also, the Russians have some airplanes IN Kiev, and the Germans have brought up the range 7 railroad guns and have attacked an airbase with them. The Russians are going to have to move the planes back further to avoid that kind of thing in the future.

But should the Axis decide to go after the Russian air bases perhaps one aircraft type they might want to consider leaving out of that fight is the JU-87, because of the stupendous ship killing ability. That kind of aircraft is going to be valuable in the taking of Leningrad and Sevastapol since the Russians have substantial fleets based in both those places.

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis has run their battleships up as close to Leningrad as they can get so as to bombard the aircraft at an airbase just north of Leningrad:
 

 
They plan on retreating before the turn ends so as to avoid being killed by the Russian fleet based in Leningrad itself.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Axis moves during turns 8 and 9.  Notice that not much Axis stuff moved in turn 9.  That's because the Axis units are nearing the end of their supply tether:
 

 
Here's some Soviet losses so far, and the number of Soviet units in play:
 

 

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis player got an early turn ending and his battleships were trapped near Leningrad and now the Soviet fleet is counterattacking:
 

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the loss reports of the Soviet counterattack:
 

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis has noticed that the area between Smolensk and Kiev is lightly held and pregnant with possibilities for explotation, so part of the Axis forces will head toward Leningrad to demonstrate, part of the forces will form a holding line in front of Smolensk, and the greatest majority of the Axis force will head South and SouthEast to approach Kiev from the NorthEast to trap and destroy the defenders of Kiev and the river lto the South:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some Axis losses so far: