FITE Chambers vs Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

I've made a map study showing the positions of the Soviet Arty, Soviet Tanks, Axis Panzers, etc. and have uploaded it to a file host so you can download it to view it in it's entirety.  Needless to say it's CLASSIFIED to Curt until the information is stale, say turn 55 or so.  You can download the file using this url:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nymyij53c ... urn 51.GIF

it's about 2.83MB big.  Enjoy.

EDIT: Now that Curt has most of his units on the front line he can plug the holes almost faster than I can make them. Every once in a while I can make a hole in his front lines and / or push a unit backward one hex or so, but that's mostly the extent of the changes in these turns now. I suppose that's why most FITE games don't last much longer than T49 or T50 or so. I still hope to be able to make a hole he can't plug and thereby break his line somewhere and take off cross-country into the interior of the Soviet Union and / or the Caucaus. I'm making almost no progress at all in the advance into the Sevastapol area. It's like Odessa all over again. I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I'm going to have to suffer high losses in order to make any progress in that part of the front lines. It's not like I have Romanians to spare for ignore losses attacks or something.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the way a typical German combat regiment looks like now-a-days. Almost half the strength it had originally is what most of my regiments have now. This doesn't bode well for 1942.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the minimap moves movie from turns 49 throu 53. The action is kind of subtle and hard to see but the front lines are actually slowly moving eastward.

[larryfulkerson]

And now some closeups starting at the north sector:

[larryfulkerson]

And the next sector to the south:

[larryfulkerson]

And the next sector to the south:

[larryfulkerson]

And the next sector to the south:

[larryfulkerson]

And the next sector to the south:

[larryfulkerson]

And the next sector to the south:

[larryfulkerson]

And to the east of the last shot:

[larryfulkerson]

And in the north of Sevastapol area:

[larryfulkerson]

I believe I destroyed 9 infantry type Soviet units in turn 53. Here's the Axis losses so far:

[larryfulkerson]

In a surprise move ( well, it was a surprise to me ) Curt has attacked across the river near Rostov and has disrupted the Axis plans for the invasion of Russia. It's a disaster and it's going to get worse because the Axis has no reserves to move into the area to save the situation.

[Silvanski]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

In a surprise move ( well, it was a surprise to me ) Curt has attacked across the river near Rostov and has disrupted the Axis plans for the invasion of Russia. It's a disaster and it's going to get worse because the Axis has no reserves to move into the area to save the situation.

Ouch![X(]
You may have to pull back to the Mius river and shorten your front line
That's roughly the line Voroshilovgrad-Taganrog

[Da_Huge_D]

Indeed, very surprising.. I think he is gonna try to encircle some of your forces into pocket (west of simlanskya).
Pull back soon as you can to mius river, like Silvanski said.
Good luck!

[Telumar]

ORIGINAL: Da_Huge_D

Indeed, very surprising.. I think he is gonna try to encircle some of your forces into pocket (west of simlanskya).
Pull back soon as you can to mius river, like Silvanski said.
Good luck!

Yup - there's also a shock army ready to steam into action at Milerovo.

[larryfulkerson]

Also, in Soviet turn 54 Curt blasted some holes in the Axis lines just to the southeast of Leningrad. I'm going to have to see if there's some way I can pull some ground combat units out of the line somewhere else to rush them into this area and shore up the line again.

[sPzAbt653]

OKH warns that this is the beginning of an all out offensive from north to south, and requests permission to withdraw to a defensible winter line. Hitler proclaims that this is preposterous, the Soviets are defeated!

[Zorchi]

Since larry didn't manage to capture any of the major objectives by the 48h turn things were bound to change in favour of curt. Now his reinf are in full swing and larrys fighting force is getting smaller by the turn. Well on the second note, if i were curt id probably wait for around 10 turns on the southern front, even slowly retreating forces eastwards towards stalingrad and southwards towards caucasus, massively overextending larrys front, while pilling all reinf i can spare north of voroshilograd, and then strike out (if larry took the bait of overextending towards east and south) towards southwest in the direction of  melitopol or even more westward and take the whole german south army wing into a massive kessel...(southwestern strike...something manstein thought soviet generals should have done...). And the major bonus would have been having all of your striking force near the central front where they could have been easily dispatched to northwest towards kursk, north to moscow or southeast towards stalingrad if the necessity arised.
But nonetheless the situation is still very bleak for larry in the south.
Central front bulge looks just as brittle for soviets as it was 20 turns ago, but now with the diminishing axis fighting force and ever greater soviet one, even if there is a collapse, it wont matter much as curt will have the time and units to set up a new front. Moscow is out of reach, and now probably crawling with reinf.
In the north larry was the closest to the objective, almost cutting the raillroad connection. But that didnt happen and curt is starting to push back there to.

To bad no major objectives fell. It would be more interesting now, particularyl if moscow or stalingrad were taken. Now the only thing left is straightening lines in hopes of prolonged agonising fight, leapfroging fronts back to berlin... Or perhaps some magic axis offensive that would caught soviets with their pants down. But i don't see such an opportunity...

[Raindem]

Soviet Winter Offensive, Dec 1941

You guys have already pretty well deciphered my strategy just based on the changes in the map.  But I'll go ahead and lay out what I had in mind.

My goals for this first offensive are mild.  In the north near Leningrad I’d like to reestablish the rail link by slicing off the protrusion in the line there.  Larry came to within a couple of hexes of cutting Leningrad off completely.  But now that he didn’t succeed, I need to be able to train units in and out of the pocket.  My plan is simple.  The 23rd Army will cross the river into the German rear (upper left yellow arrow).  Intel says that this area is only lightly screened.  At the same time I’ll put heavy pressure on the German lines to the east (upper right arrow). I have very strong reserves just sitting around in Leningrad doing nothing so I'll probably put 1 or 2 of those armies into action as well.  If I can recapture Kirishi and Budoghosh I’ll consider this part of the operation a success.

In the south my plans are a little more ambitious.  I would like to eliminate the huge bulge that is between Voroshilovgrad and Rostov.  I will attack south at Millerovo and north at Rostov (bottom 2 arrows).  The two groups will meet somewhere along the rail line that runs through Shakty.  If I can create a pocket that would be glorious, but I'll be satisfied just forcing Larry to abandon the bend.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r147 ... ensive.jpg

Opening of the Offensive –

The initial attacks in the north did not go so well.  I did not succeed in crossing the Volkhov river at any point.  Intel was correct, there was only light screening troops, but my Soviet divisions didn’t have enough punch to force a bridgehead.  In the south things went a little better.  Very heavy attacks south of Millerovo made some ever so slight foward progress.  Small but measurable.  On the southern flank is where I made the most progress. I sliced through the Rumanian units rather easily.  Rostov was re-captured and the Don was breached in several places.  Larry is going to have to reinforce this sector because there is no way the Axis minors can hold the line on their own.

D+1 –

The follow up turn was like the first.  South of Leningrad my Armies turned into battering rams as I tried to force out the dug-in Germans.  In the south the upper pincer stalled but the lower one continued with good progress.  I committed the 1st Shock Army to take advantage of the breach.

D+2 –

My battering ram tactics in the north are starting to pay off.  Larry's defending units are getting worn down to nothing and then finally giving way.  I'm still not having much luck crossing the Volkhov river so I doubt I'll be able to pinch this one off.  If the Germans vacate this area it will have to be voluntarily.

In the south my right pincer remains stalled, so I decided to commit the 2nd Shock Army early to try and force an opening.  At Rostov the 1st Shock Army made it as far north as Shakty.  I still have 6 tank corps in reserve.  I'm waiting for the right time to toss them into the fray.

Larry has started to thin down some other sections of the line to reinforce the situation at Rostov.  This has given me a few extra opportunities for local attacks this turn.  But this isn't going to morph into a general offensive.  I just don't have enough units to attack everywhere at once, while at the same time keeping a reasonable emergency reserve.