TGW v1.8 playtest

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the Moscow area looks like now. I've been making some progress so the bulge is getting bigger and it's turning into just
another section of the front lines. I'm finding more weak spots and taking advantage of them to get more territory and threaten
the Soviets.

[Cmdr_Vessery]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: Cmdr_Vessery
Taking Leningrad and then Moscow was my primary goals. Wasn't worried about objectives in the south early on. With the Soviet war machine production at top speed, the enemy air force is being a pest now, and getting interdiction's when I move troops on behind my lines. And, so they airfields down south need to be taken.

I'm not all that keen on capturing any more objectives and that's a problem. That means any player playing this thing in the
future may feel that way too. There may need to be some kind of incentive to do so. Something like a drop ( 5%) in the Soviet
reinforcement rate or the supply level or an increase in some Axis parameter of some kind.
Can we do something like that Steve? It would help the scenario quality.

EDIT: I read you describing what your plans are for the future in the quote above and I take away the impression that you don't
have a set goal........it's more like you're playing it by ear now. Me too. We need a set of objectives that it would pay us to capture.
Minsk, Smolensk, Riga, Pskov, Leningrad of course, Kiev, Odessa, etc. Cities that are important to have.

Well, in the beginning, my goal was to get Leningrad and then Moscow. The effort to take those two locations was enough in my mind, to limit operations in the south. Now that both cities are strongly under German control, focus has been shifted to the south to push onto Rostov and then onto Stalingrad. This could definitely take a while to do. Also looking at pressing down into the Soviet oil country.

That's my game plan anyway. I'm moving at a decent pace to take Stalingrad during 1943 during the summer months. Currently with the supply level down getting to the front lines, I'm moving slower to get to Rostov by the end of 1942. And that way, I will have a good jump off point to strike to Stalingrad.

Also, currently, I am refitting Motorized divisions to PzGr divisions, and upgrading Panzer divisions. Filling these divisions up takes a little time to complete. I want to get the new equipment into the field for some rolling fun![:D]

And for the record, I am enjoying this scenario very much. Nicely done, by the way. Cheers

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Cmdr_Vessery
Well, in the beginning, my goal was to get Leningrad and then Moscow. The effort to take those two locations was enough in my mind, to limit operations in the south. Now that both cities are strongly under German control, focus has been shifted to the south to push onto Rostov and then onto Stalingrad. This could definitely take a while to do. Also looking at pressing down into the Soviet oil country.

That's my game plan anyway. I'm moving at a decent pace to take Stalingrad during 1943 during the summer months. Currently with the supply level down getting to the front lines, I'm moving slower to get to Rostov by the end of 1942. And that way, I will have a good jump off point to strike to Stalingrad.

Also, currently, I am refitting Motorized divisions to PzGr divisions, and upgrading Panzer divisions. Filling these divisions up takes a little time to complete. I want to get the new equipment into the field for some rolling fun![:D]

And for the record, I am enjoying this scenario very much. Nicely done, by the way. Cheers

That sounds like a good plan. I think I'll try something like that too. And as for the scenario being nicely done........it's all Steve's
work that made it the way it is. I'm just a cheerleader.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm in the middle of moving my units and saw I had an email and it was a notification from Matrix that something was posted
on Commander V's AAR so of course I had to go look. He documented an airfield attack by Elmer that had almost 1000
IL-4's in it. That's the most deadly bomber the Soviets have. Well, the longest ranged bomber. Anyway, I got curious about
how many IL-4's I'M facing right now and found the answer in the inventory report. It looks like I need to do some light probes
at the various Soviet airfields to find his bombers and take them out with airfield attacks. Escorted of course. If it's possible.
I don't want to get into an attrition war with him though. Maybe I ought to aim at his fighters instead. Yeah, first the fighters
THEN the bombers. If I have any air force left to do the bombers with.

EDIT: To get to the Soviet numbers I had to save my game, let the scheduled attacks resolve and stop the Soviet movement.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought that while I was looking at the numbers I'd sort them in descending order and do a screengrab.

[larryfulkerson]

Obviously I need a few more divisions to make it work but I'm going to try to pinch off a little group of Soviet stuff before I move
on the city of Moscow. Mostly because I don't want to let this opportunity pass without my at least trying something like this.
And I'm not all that keen on getting the city. I'd just have to garrison it to keep the riff raff out. I like killing Soviet units more.

[larryfulkerson]

The operations depicted in the image above probably won't work very quickly ( maybe not at all ) given the supply situation in the
north. I've already moved one RR engineer to the north and I'm planning on moving the other two to extend the rail out toward
Moscow a bit. Every little bit helps. Having the RR engineers working in the north, though, means that they aren't working any place
else and the south needs it badly. So operations in the south will have to be put on hold or run very slowly because of the supply
lack.

[larryfulkerson]

I think for the rest of the game I'll try to do something like this ( depicted in the image ). We've got over a year left to fight this
thing and I think there may be enough time to do it. That way I can trap and surround most of the Soviet army. These plans
could be changed in a future turn for any reason I can think of.

EDIT: On second thought, I'm not sure I have sufficient manpower to form all the front lines that would be needed. Two probes
like fingers pointing at Stalingrad would require at least two thirds more people on my part I estimate. I think it might be a good
idea for me to get Moscow and then concentrate on the south because of the better tank terrain.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay, so um......I'm seeing that the supply level in the north is more than adequate for offensive operations but there's only a relative
few Soviet units on the very north edge. I'm thinking of maybe moving the Hungarians and Italians to replace all the German stuff so
as to use the German stuff in a spot with higher priority. Also, as soon as I have Moscow in hand I'm thinking of moving the RR
engineers and the Panzers to the south for further operations there.

[larryfulkerson]

I made the mistake of trying to attack a spot in a straight section of the front lines where I could get only two adjacent hexes to
impinge on a target hex and the resulting attack was mostly resulting in my units being weakened and with expended supply. The
Soviets weren't hurt all that much. So on THEIR turn they attacked my attackers and forced a hole. I had to scramble to find
enough units to contain the Soviets and there's a noticable bulge in the lines that I'm trying to correct now. I need to remember
to mostly attack where I can get three hexes to attack simultaneously.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Rifle Squad losses so far. Also, I noticed that we're building 4 -RR engineers/turn but none are assigned. I'm
wondering if we should shut off the production of those bad boys. Either that or maybe build a formation to contain them or
something. Is there no way to get rid of them entirely?

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Axis aircraft losses so far.

[larryfulkerson]

Have I shown you how the air war is going right now yet? I'm seeing a higher AS value for the Soviets now. They must be fielding
some of their new Mig-3's or some of the new Yak-1's. I'm just making this up.....I have no idea why it's higher now. I'll take a look
at the Soviet side and give you a full report on the situation.

[sPzAbt653]

Is there no way to get rid of them entirely?

Done.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Is there no way to get rid of them entirely?

Done.

Thanks heaps Steve. You're really speedy tonight.

Okay, here's the story on the increase in Soviet AS. Just now ( T46 ) the
Soviets took delivery of the new Yak-7 and next turn they are going to get the Yak-9. Both are bad news for the Lufftwaffe.
As you can see they are quite respectable fighter aircraft and the Soviets have 40+ in each squadron and there's a lot
of these squadrons. The air war might take a dramatic turn real soon.

EDIT: I looked up the characteristics of the ME-109 and it's got the same anti-air strength ( 9 ) and defense strength ( 11 )
as the Yak-7. So now the Soviets have an aircraft that can stand toe-to-toe with the ME-109........too bad their proficiency is
so low. The Lufftwaffe is the finest air force in the world ( at the time ) so maybe the Soviet losses will still be relatively
heavy.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a typical situation at the southern front. This is one of the weak places I'm worried about. I've got troops moving this way but
they aren't there yet. The Soviets can break through there at any time and I don't have a reserve handy. I'm going to have to work
on that.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the air war is going right now. Not much new to say. Soviet planes are not doing all that well right now.

[larryfulkerson]

During the Soviet turn I got my ass kicked. Several places were breeched and lots of units went into reorg and it's starting to
get exciting out there. I've started moving units and setting attacks and this is what the Moscow area looks like now. I've got
two probes working right now. I'd like to get at least one of them to pass north of Moscow to be one of the two pincers I'd like
to create around the city to trap a lot of Soviet stuff. If possible.

[larryfulkerson]

So I've been railing people to the north and moving them into the line and pushing and shoving and now the front looks like this.
I've stripped the front lines for all the available divisions and I think maybe I've found all the divisions just standing around doing
nothing, now I need to find those in the line that are more than is really needed for that hex. I've determined that perhaps two
divisions in one hex can almost hold back the evil horde when they attack, less than that and they blow a hole that I have to fix.
More than that is not needed in that spot. That's the theory. I'm not sure I have that many divisions to do something like that so
I'll have to fill in with the Axis minors and the engineers and whatever else I can find that will stand in the front line to a useful
purpose.

EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to say that the RR engineers have worked their magic and I'm judging that the supply level is adequate for
the northern front and so I'm moving them back to the south front where they are badly needed.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the northern front in T50. I'm making progress but it's slow because of the Soviet resistance. Some of the more powerful
Soviet units are present here. I'm amazed that there aren't enough Soviet units in the front lines here to make an unbroken
line. There's gaps in the Soviet line that I intend to take advantage of.