First try

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In the centre

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the South

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losses

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OOB

[hgilmer3]

It looks like you have really whittled down the Soviet AFVs.  Couple of turns ago 6K+.  Now, they are at a level of 3.5K.  Looking good.

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The AI keeps a lot of armour near the front.I systematically try to pocket all the mobile units. The next turn they surrender with all their tanks.

I suppose I should have quite a nice stockpile of captured soviet tanks now, but I did not find where I can get the info.

Leningrad looks toast.
I'm reorganising AGC into 3 armies with 4 4 divisions corps each. that makes a nice 48 infantry divisions.
AGN and AGS will be reorganised around the lines.

Panzer groups will be made of two corps each with 2 armour and 1 motorised division.
Excess motorised division will be grouped together. I think I'l regroup the SS motorised divisions into a strong mobile force. Attaching assault guns may turn that into nice armoured force.

Rail repair is advancing regularly, at a rate of 3 thexes per turn except in the north were the line is much shorter.

I still need to have a look a support units to see how it works more in detail and air operations. So far I leave that entirely to the AI; So I don't know how well or badly it is doing.

Many details to learn yet it's fairly easy to get into the game. First German turns are long with all those pockets to make. Once you reach smolensk and get beyond the pripet marshes things start to get more organised.

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August again saw plenty of action.
Around Smolensk a large amount of troops were trapped late july and destroyed. However supply lines became problematic and the mobility of my mobile units went down significantly all over the map. I suppose the panzers also need some rest.

A small pocket was made behind smolensk trappind a few infantry divisions but nothing significant.
Without large scale encirclements soviet losses dropped drastically and soviet numbers started to grow again regularly.

From a low point at 3 700 000 men at the end of July to about 4 000 000 men now. Tank numbers keep falling as I take every opportunity to kick on whatever tank unit I see.

So it looks like untergefreiter Von Snafu won't be home for christmas.

In the North My troop are pushing at the gates of Lenigrad. Huge amount of soviet troops there. I'm progressing slowly. I've sent a few reinforcement divisions there.

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In the centre as large scale envelopments became incresasingly difficult whith much lower movement points. I tried an other approach and used both panzer groups to blow a big hole in the middle of the soviet lines.
The panzers have been driving hard towards moscow for a couple of turns now, keeping the soviet unbalanced.
Many units have been routed but very few encircled so soviet losses remain low.

The AI is withdrawing quite efficiently its troops from the threatenend positions and rebuildind its line, yet the spires of the Kremlin might soon be in view of the panzers. However I'm not sure i'll be able to get more than a glimpse at them.

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In the south the Germans are pushing towards Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk (Can spell this one )
They recieved a few infantry additionnal divisions and all the mobile units that arrived, that is one motorised division and one motorized brigade.

I'm regrouping the Rumanians together.
Those in the 11th army tended to lag behind and were of little use. Whereas grouped togethe they can make a powerful army group and take charge of a significant portion of the front. In 1941 they have some punch as the soviets don't have many good units.

Also there should not be many tanks for some time so they should be quite safe. So now is the best time to use them.

Hungarians and slovaks merely put a little a color on the map.

I use them mainly to finish off bypassed soviet units, though there have not been many of them lately.

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losses are mounting, but the soviet numbers have been increasing over the last three turns

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You have to inflict something between 200 000 and 300 000 casualties a turn to keep the soviet numbers down.
This is no easy to achieve except in the first few turns. However tanks are now getting scarce in the red army.

I suppose output must be disrupted as the factories have gone east. In a few months I can expect to see those factories online again.

[paullus99]

Wow - that's incredibly severe armored losses there. Of course the bulk of those are pretty usely T-26, T-28 or other varieties - though down to 2300 tanks, that's going to hurt.

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Humm
looks like something went wrong with my save.
Can't find the last turns I played.
Don't know how I did that.

so to sum up what happened in September and early October:

In the North AGN pushed toward leningrad in a methodical way. Front line hexes stacked with three divisions and two or three deliberarte attacks every turns. Deliberate attacks were all successul and at the end of the firs week of OCtober I had two stacks adjacent to the central hax of Leningrad ready for the final assault.

AGC and AGN panzer goups were were reorganised to two panzer corps each with two panzer and a motorised division per corp. Excess motorised units were sent south. that is two SS mot divisions GD and LehR motorised brigade and a Panzer corp HQ.

In the centre. Infantry armies were deployed in the front on division per hex. Stedy advance was made at the joint with AGN making deliberate attacks the front line was graduallt pushed. Howeve If combats were usually won and many soviet units were routed very were encircled. Infantry brigades started to appear massively in the front line. A few guard units also started to pop up.

Early septamber I tried some encirclement in the centre but results were dissapointind. A lot a movement points xere spent trying to catch soviet unnits but only a few were actually caught, while my armies ended up completely
intermingled and messed up.
so I Took a tur to dress the lines and reorganise things properly. with the Panzer corps stacked in one hew making a powerful striking force.

Meanwhile railheads were reaching the front meaning the armoured units were regaining much mobility. So I unleashed a powerful frontal assault toward moscow.First of all the frontline infantry launched deliberate attacks clearing the soviet frontline.
The the panzer corps adavanced and started a series of hasty attacks cleraing the line. The the infantry then used its remaining movement point to ocuppt the terrain cleared by the tanks.

The next turn, early october this methodical push of panzrs drove forward an other two hexes with the infantry watching, the coming forward to occupy the hexes cheared. By that time rail head was at Viazma and movement point were up again to between 20 and 36 allowing again a powerful addvance. From mid August to mid septempber movement points had been down to between 10 and 20.

In the south the advance continued mainly at an infantry speed. 1st panser group wasted a lot o effort to encircle some soviet units but again this was largely unsuccessgul. a few stacks were trpped but nothing significant. Still the advance continued. Kharkow end Zaparozye(something like it anyway ) fell early october.
and 6th army was reachincg Kursk.

The rumanians were slowly crossing the Lower Dnepr.

Motorisez reinforcements were arriving in the area. with a reinforcement panzer corp directed there plus some units from AGN and AGC on their way. However the front is very extended there and unit density is low.

Soviet losses were still heavy but their numbers kept slowly growing, reacching about 4 150 000 men at the end of september. Yet tank numbers remained very low, some tak brigades apeeared here and there but they were all brushed aside. tank losses would certainly hurt for a winter counter offensive. Soviet losses had just reached the 3 000 000 mark with a huge number of prisoners, more than 2 000 000. My own losses being a little over 300 000, with a good bunch of rumanians. So that's not bad. However with less pocket and a frontal advance, and soviet units recovering from the initial surprise turns are getting bloodier. Last turn not finished was 30 000 Axis losses to about 100 000 soviet, including some prisonners. Assaults against heavy fortifications in the Lenigrad area and µRumanian assaults across the Dnepr explain a good part of these losses. aloso Infantry is now at work.

so German advance had stalled from a wild rush to a steady push. railheads were catching up everywhere. and troops were now organised more to my liking. However with the season getting late It was time to start thinking about reaching a coherent winter line;

Leningrad should probably fall in 1941. In the centre I can bring my lines nearer to mosconw so as to have a good jumping line.

In the south a line

The AI has proved to be a worthy opponent. Nothing brilliant, but nothing disastrous. In the first few turns it was a bit trampled but the settings were set on easy, so that did not help.

Tank losses will hurt. I think it should be tweaked to be more conservative with tanks in the first few turns.

So Now I'm going to see if I can find that save or if I have to replay the whole of september

But it looks like Oberst von Fubar was in charge of the save, unless there's been an attack by red gremlins.

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Well lookks like I'll have to replay september.
so i'll start againt fron aygust 28.
There must be an autosave function somewhere.

I've been so used to autosave in games that I do not think about saving at the end of each turn
well i'll see if I can do things better.

Just recieved my copy today.
there's my my name and the key on the CD
so no more more lookint for the key retriever utility each time there's a patch coming

[karonagames]

here must be an autosave function somewhere.

yes, on preferences screen top right hand corner.

edit: not available for PBEM

also "Q" will quicksave the game with file name "quicksave.sav"

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So let's say that makes it four or five turns to learn where the auto save is .
Now talk about a learning curve [:D]

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So I'm playing september again.
Basically lack of supply in August slowed down my advance .
Now my railheads are much nearer an my units especially the motorised ones have regained much of their punch. So my units in the North are resuming their advance, this time in a slow and methodical way. Massive frontal attacks. Brute force, if not enough use more

This time the defenses of Leningrad are much weaker with many hexes having only one unit, so I have a good possibility of taking the city before the weather turns to bad.

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In the centre the Panzers started regrouping and a couple of corps that had movement points left advanced two hexes.

Now there are four panzer corps ready.

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Regular progress in the south.
1st panzer corps is getting some supplies again but the font is wide. I'm not catching many soviet units and they are usually small and depleted.

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losses are still manageable