Stock FitE Karri vs Larry

[larryfulkerson]

I blasted some holes in the Finnish front lines north of Leningrad:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the moves to the south of Leningrad. I blasted about 4 holes in the German lines.
Karri will undoubtedly fix it before I get to move again though.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some German moves to the South of Leningrad ( further south than the previous shot )

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet minimap moves movie from turns 88 thru 92:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses so far:

[Karri]

While the northern and southern part of the forntline are racing to get into contact with the enemy, the main offensive(or is it ) was launched in the central front. Before the mud I had quite a force gathered to strike the 'Stalingrad front' and encircle it, but since Larry withdrew there I was given a choice. Either I continue per the plan and hit the southernmost part of Soviet line....wait actually, easternmost.... or move the forces to another location and attack. Well, since Larry didn't withdraw in the Orel area(south of Moscow) I decided to move there. Several things why:
1. Rivers, major rivers and swamps. None of these were 'against' my advance. Should I not meet the final objective of Moscow I should still have pretty good defensive lines here.
2. In such a situation Larry would be forced to launch his winter counter-offensive against the bulge...
3. Moscow is close, it will fall.
4. And if not, at least I can keep Larry's strenght down. Considering how long it would have taken to get to the new line in east, Larry would have gained substantial replacements...
5. Possibility of rolling up his line both east and west while advancing north.
And most importantly: rail lines. Supply is perhaps the most important thing for a succesful offensive, and in places where Larry withdrew it would have taken too many turns to build back the rail network.

So, on turn 92 I made some attacks, but only got 2 combat rounds. On turn 93 case blau was initiated and I got quite a few attacks going on. Some breakthroughs. The main advance is east of Orel, but I also did some attacks in Orel. These were originally to only keep Larry's forces there occupied, but I had more succees there than I had hope for...capturing Orel for example(at last).
At the end of turn 92:



At the end of turn 93:

[Karri]

One thing worth mentioning is that my air force is pretty much gone. At the end of turn I think 9 out of every 10 squadrons were in re-org...due to my bridge bombing campaign, but still.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a movie to show the differences in the front lines that Karri was talking about:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet counterattacks to try to contain the breakthroughs. Moscow may fall yet.

[freeboy]

I seriously doubt Moscow will fall, You should still be pulling good numbers of reinforcements, keep Lenn and Moscow at all costs, remember this is your low point.. then mud in the fall, your 42/43 winter bomnusses, even the Citidel 43 summer is a german bummer due to the built in counterattack.. which is actually better than the germans due to its length.. I alwas try to counteratack with one unit the strongest attacking units or stack, a "sacrific" while digging in, to do nothing but lower the German  supply and short term CE. good luck

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: freeboy
I always try to counteratack with one unit, the strongest attacking units or stack, a "sacrific" while digging in, to do nothing but lower the German  supply and short term CE. good luck

What's a CE? And btw here's the Soviet view of the minimap moves movie from turns 89 thru 93:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses so far:

[freeboy]

good to see your attacking the "rifle only: units.. remember there are rifle and heavy rifle units, and he will/should get low on replacemetn for hte weaker rifle units... I wanted to mention again how important, unless you are house ruling against this, Pre-paring the areas you will fall back to by putting some WEAK troops there, around moscow and lenn and prepingthe ground by building permanent fortified lines. Both sides of the hard forts in these cities should, imo get special build ups so you can move in, hitthe dig in order and already be entrenched and next turn fortified.. makes the attacking units pay that much more ..
Also not to late to think about the 43 goals? Rostov? Knock out Finnland.. get the Oil in the South? I am encouraged to hear the Luftwaffe is suffering, remember that he gets a shock bonus in 42, you get on in winter! and you get one all 43!
 
Keep up the aar guys very interesting!

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: freeboy
...not to late to think about the 43 goals? Rostov? Knock out Finnland.. get the Oil in the South?

So um......'43 goals? I'm wondering if I should just strike out for Berlin or try to envelope part of the Axis army first. I'm thinking maybe just play it by ear in early '43 and for sure strike out for Berlin in '44.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys....here's another reason Karri usually wins the games he and I play. He's got two regiments in flooded marsh hexes ( left over from the winter ) and I can't attack them. The game engine recognizes that I can't move into that hex and won't allow me to attack that hex either. But winter will be here in about 6 months, the hex will freeze again, and THEN I can attack those hexes.

[SMK-at-work]

He's tricksy he is precioussssss...........

But then IIRC flooded marshes don't have any supply do they, so they'll wither away if left there.......

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet view of the minimap moves movie from turns 90 thru 94:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses so far:

[Karri]

I moved those two infantry regiments of the swamps, didn't even know they were there...

Anyways, turn 94 was really bad for me, I only got two combat rounds, which made me want to slit my wrists. However turn 95 proved to be quite good with 6 or 7 combat rounds. The attack has now reached a point where I must destroy or route more units than Larry can throw in as reinforcements to make a breakthrough. The casualties are thus heavy. At the start of turn the loss penalties were about 380 sov to 80 axis, at the end of turn they were about 400 to 100. This is still a huge favor for me, since Larry is 'only' producing twice what I am.
This is the situation at the end of turn:


As you can see, both sides have pretty tired units in the fighting, but I like to think that I hold the upper hand(and with Soviet rifle divisions being at 2-3 strenght it seems likely).

Now another thing that is already working for my favor are replacements. Larry has gone down from 55 000 rilfe squads to just 50 000, at the same time I am now down to 40 000 Heavy Rifle Squads, meaning he has no huge advantage in manpower. As I am destroying several enemy divisions each turn, I am hoing that most of Larry's replacements are used to reconstitute these units, which will hopefully tip the balance to favor me.

On other fronts it's pretty quiet. In Leningrad area Larry is taking back the ground I took from him before mud season, a little south of that I have a few panzer divisions attempting a breakthrough, which has not materialised yet, but should draw some Soviet reinforcements there.

In the far north Larry has withdrawn to about pre-war lines with the exception of Petsamo. Originally I was going to attack there, but realising my lack of troops I withdrew to a line I hope to hold for the summer and maybe even winter. Had he only declared war to Sweden I could have brought in plenty of troops...oh well.

In rest of Finland I am slowly moving back. Last turn Larry encircled one my the finnish regiments, but I managed to save it.

In the south...or east, well the former Stalingrad front I am slowly moving forwards. Supply situation is bad there as I don't have many RR units repairing the rail. However since Larry shortened his lines this also means I can shorten my lines, and the entire front can now be held with just Axis minor units, which is excellent news...it frees ups 2-3 panzer divisions and 10 or so infantry divisions.

[larryfulkerson]

A lot of bitter hand-to-hand fighting going on in the SouthWest part of the front lines: