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I am waiting for the mud ! Am I the soviet player ?? no...the axis one ! [8|]
Little by little, the soviets are nibbling my front. There are some gaps between my units (but not far, a panzer corps waiting for his prey and it seems to work, the soviets are very cautious.
Here is a cool result, the best I have had when defending so far

Here is what I can expect in a few places...being attacked by 9 soviet corps

Three soviet corps did not withdraw. Here is the result of my counter attack. It is very costly.

T70 ! Mud everywhere ! really cool. Order of battle : 3060 afv !! Time to launch a major offensive ! No...I am kidding.
T71 ! Mud !
The past two months, some fortified lines have been made (Thanks to the Italian army).

Turn 72 Mud again ! except in the north soviet zone but there are no german units there...
My opponent seems to have moved some guards armies...my recon did not reveal where he may strike during the coming snow turns. My weakest place is in the north. The 18th army is so weak...I put Gotthard Heinrici in charge and I promess him a reserve corps near Riga in two weeks and refit for all of his units now ! 5I had put TOE max to 60 during all the summer 42)

Gen Heinrici is happy ! Some strong forts have been built behind his front line and the 16th army just in his south will help him to slowly move back. His order is to keep the Daugava river and Riga until Spring 43. He will get a medal if he succeeds ![:)]

I was suppose to take back the Dnepr in the south during my 42 spring offensive. Something that I did not achieve. I decided to build two lines of defense (I have red a lot that when it comes to the soviet offensive, the south is crucial).

I have built a lot of forts...70...is that too much ? SHould I disband them when I suspect a hex to be the next target of the soviets attacks ? (To avoid a thousand of men to be POW)
Regarding those forts, The changes in the 1.5 version are promising.

Turn 73. 5 November 1942
Snow in the south, mud elsewhere. My opponent will for sure attack here. There are a lot of guards units there. I decide to move a little south my first panzer army.

Turn 74
I has concentrated a lot of power in the south ! My level 4 forts did not help to resist 5 deliberate attacks from the 40th and 31th soviet armies. I see for the first time 2 mechanized and one tank corps !
Let's try a counter attack in the south against them...Should I evacuate the saliant (red circle), I will see if I can move enough reserves in this area.

The LI panzer corps counter attack with success [:D]

but I have to withdraw my exposed units from the soviet pincer. The 2nd panzer is moved a little south too. Let the soviet advance in the open field.

Turn 75 Snow everywhere but soviet attacks only in the south??? Has traemyn put all his best units here or is the soviet army abble to launch another major offensive in another spot ? [X(]
Anyway, Krivoirog is threaten...should I again withdraw ?
[:-], no. I will instead launch two offensives, from the north (panzer army two) and the south (the 4th army and the panzer army 1)

We evacuate Krivoirog... It was fun to plan a counter attack but I realized that it was to dangerous...some more recon revealed that down south there are at least two more soviet armies waiting to counterattack if necessary and my second panzer army was not in place...I need to wait the good time.

Here is the map of the all front and the line that I would like to hold until June 43. Am I to ambitious or naive ?

Turn 76. November 26 1942
Snow in the south, mud in the center. The last turn have seen three major attacks in the south, the germans did hold on one of them.
North of Poltava, two attacks on the 17th army but the soviets don't seem as powerful there than they are in the south.
Army group north suffered no attacks...[8D], that's good because my troops there are not in a good shape.
Heinrici who was told that there was a fear to see the front collapse there is bored

Turn 76. Snow in the south, mud in the center !
Three soviet attacks in the south, one did hold.
Norht of Poltava, the 17th army report two attacks. The infantry did withdraw in good order. They are not facing hordes of soviet like in the south...

Order is given to withdraw on the fortified line. I disband ten forts (the defense CV decrease from 2 only !). All my line of defense as around 90 in CV ![:'(] I don't know how the soviets will do to penetrate that defense. (Maybe with a lot of arty ?!). We will see.

A defense cv of 9O in a level 3 fort is not enough to hold against those hordes...

Most of the attacks occured in the south...here are the losses