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T10 still: At Kuressaare, the lower left island west of Virtsu, I've cornered, and I intend to destroy a Soviet infantry division. That will give me the entire island with it's ports. At the top center of the image is the city of Tallinn defended by some Soviet CD guns and an LCU. I have only that one paratrooper unit only to hopefully prevent the escape of the enemy LCU. I'm wondering if he can fire those CD guns at my units, and if he can, will he? I don't expect too much trouble from his AA unit at the airfield mostly because I seldom see him shoot with his AA units and even if he does, I would probably suffer very little damage. Same could be said from an attack from his land unit at the port, should he shift those forces to attack my Corps HQ. I have an engineer unit nearby to attack the airfield next turn.

This is the beginning of the second combat phase and I'm going to attempt an attack to the SE of Rakvere as part of my campaign for Leningrad. I have the 1st Inf Div ( the selected unit in the image ) racing westward to help out with the fighting near Parnu, and after that to move northward and do what's appropriate.

I've got a broken road in the south center of the image but I don't plan on ever using it, it's not a crisis, has no priority, and I can take care of it if I have nothing else to do for about four turns with any random engineer unit, if ever.

I'm debating whether or not to try to grab that island at the top left. It has only that single port, is not needed for anything I can thing of so I'm going to just bombard that Soviet unit with my boats. There's no airfield on the island so if I grabbed the port with a paratrooper I'd have to wait until I have some sea cap. ( it's 0/0 right now ) and who knows when that will happen. I could disband it and wait until it respawns sometime in the future. Sounds good.

I need to attempt to drop a paratrooper near Narva and the rail line south of there where the rail crosses the river. That will help isolate Leningrad from parts west of Narva and accelerate my advance.

I'm sneaking up on Smolensk slowly but the fight over the river crossings is over and now it's better terrain so my advance should speed up a tiny bit. At Mstivslavl I'm pushing with multiple forces mostly offmap to the south.

It's now T11 at the end of the first combat phase and shows the situation at Smolensk right now. I have repaired the rail all the way to Gorki and Gusino and supply levels are more than adequate and I've moved my aircraft closer to the action. It's 27Jul41 and in the middle of summer the weather is hot and cloudy with scattered storm clouds.

This is situation at Kiev right now. I've found some hexes that seem weak and attackable. I'm planning on an attack when it's profitable but I want to avoid huge losses.

This is what it looks like around Odessa. I'm just about to start off bombarding Odessa for a couple of turns and then start tackling the port. I'm trying to reduce Kiev with my RR arty at the same time I'm about to reduce Odessa needing some RR arty over here too. I'll keep the arty at Kiev until I get the rail repaired closer to Odessa.

This is what it looks like around south of Smolensk. Notice that I have repaired the rail lines almost to the front lines in this area so the supply levels are good. Notice also the large gap in the Soviet lines just south of Smolensk.

This is T12 at the beginning of the first combat phase. I'm planning on clearing the road through Narva this turn and I captured an intact bridge south of Narva with an engineer unit. I anticipate capturing Kingisepp next turn and being in the Leningrad surburbs within five turns or so. I've forced the crossing at Pskov and now I'm pushing north along the coastal highway on the east side of Lake Peipus. There's a battle scheduled at Tallinn for the last combat turn because it'll happen so late in the turn, contingent on the arrival of the assaulting Axis Infantry Division to the SW of the city. As you can see the Soviet CD guns are 6/3 and that's more than I'm comfortable with due to possible losses so I'm including my boats in the attack to lend their bombardments. I've been using my fighters to strike the Soviet arty near Chernevo and I managed to damage and/or destroy several tubes from that unit.

This is what it looks like south of Pskov and now have pushes going in several directions simultaneously. I've managed to surround a fairly large Soviet group of calvary and infantry and some heavy tanks and I managed to surround it before it could sneak across the Lovat River. Well, most of it. I'm sneaking up on the Soviet crossing at Kholm and I expect to push over the defenders and take it without too much trouble. And you can see the confrontation going on east of Velikiye Luki. My guys are tired and need a break.

I'm giving some thought to assaulting Smolensk and what is holding me back is that SS Infantry Division just to the south of Smolensk that is showing yellow instead of ready. I like to attack when my guys are green but will make an exception contingent on the situation. But two of my attacking stacks are standing on a river hex meaning they attack with a lessor strength than they would have attacking from level ground. That tends to lead to high losses. I think I'll wait until it heals.

Here's what it looks like from Kiev south to Odessa. I've stopped up several river crossings south of Kiev and I've got a line of troops sweeping to the SW to empty out the flat clear terrain leading to the major river to the south. I've got some RR arty at Kiev and I need them at Odessa already. I guess I'll have to send some to both leaving not enough for either. I've blockaided the groups at Kiev so nobody is getting out to the west any time soon and I expect to soon be able to block the city from the east. Soon means within 20 turns or so.