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ORIGINAL: philturco
A question to Larry but all TOAW players opinions are welcome. Do you have a preference for playing the total east front war using the older FITE ( divisions broken down as 3 regiments of line infantry or armor plus an artilary regiment ) or the newer more detailed FITE2 with a larger map and more units ?

Ummmmmm......I've tried the new FITE2 scenario and it's really first class but it's SO BIG. It's not fun for me to play it because I keep getting lost on the map. I keep having to zoom up to find out where I am and it's tedious after a while. But on the other hand the FITE map and I are old friends and I've played FITE probably five or six times against various people. I've never won a FITE game and that's why I'm obsessed with it I guess.

Here's the front lines in T7 before I have started moving people.

Some of my units are reaching Pskov and I see it's turned into a fortress and I'll have to go around it to make some progress. I'll need some engineers to leap over the river just south of Pskov and see if I can't find some way around them.

Here's what Minsk looks like now. I've got units up close and personal to the Soviet units and I'm awaiting

sufficient supply to turn everybody green and thus allowing an assault. Evidently there's not a lot of supply reaching

this spot because it's taking like, forever, for all the necessary units to turn green. I can substitute some planes for

one or two of the late units but that will only increase the losses. This is going to be a long war.


Ian's been doing a really good job stopping up my avenues. I get to a strongpoint or roadblock and try to go around

it and most of the time there's a garrison placed there to prevent that. It's slowing down my advance and prolonging the

war. He's gaining a lot of time for the reinforcements to reach the front lines, time that *I* don't have. It's

a footrace to see who can fulfill their plan first I guess.

Here's the reason I need to stop at the Berezina River....the supply levels are too low to continue on to the east. Pestulance effects kick in when the units are overextended and my threashold for

that is 0 according to the situation report but I'd rather not venture into areas where there is no supply at all. I'm comfortable with about 5 or 7 or so. Something even if only a little.

I just now repaired a bridge over the river to the immediate east of Minsk so that when all the units working on the

Minsk defenders are finished they will have an avenue to continue the advance providing there's sufficient supply to

facilitate such a thing. I'll have to send some recon into that area to see what the supply situation is on the ground.


I've scheduled some attacks at Minsk to try to soften up the defenders a little bit, maybe push a stack backwards. It

feels like maybe 3 more turns ought to do it.

I just now did a survey of the expected reinforcements and I checked out the health dots on all the units listed and

none of them is less than really green. From that I surmise that I have yet to lose a unit in combat because usually when

a unit respawns it's low on supply and readiness. And you have to rest it a couple of turns so it can refit and renew.

This is what the Stalin Line looks like right now. You can see from the number of scheduled attacks that the

fighting is fierce and sharp. The Stalin Line is starting to melt away. I've not had much trouble getting units into the

Soviet backfield and surrounding the targets. Sometimes it takes more than one turn to make it all the way into the

backfield but it's usually possible with one or more units helping.

Here's what I think I'll try to do in the south. If I can I'll break a hole in the middle and pour enough troops to

roll up the Soviet lines in both directions north and south. And as the Soviet units melt away and the gap gets

bigger and bigger I'll see if I can launch a thrust down to near Odessa to try to trap all those Soviet units on the

wrong side of their own river. Also I'd like to press the Soviet lines in the northern part of this break to the north so

as to keep them away from the crossing at Kiev. It might not work and I might lose some units for nothing but the

payoff is so great that I think it deserves a try.

From where the yellow Italian HQ unit is parked the target is within 2 hexes and all the guns in the unit can shoot

but I need something to remind me to always park it within 2 hexes to include the most part of the guns I'm going to change

the range for the unit to 2 so that I'll know without looking under the hood that I need to park it within 2 hexes of it's

target.

Here's the north end of the Stalin Line and from what I can see I'm going to need a few more troops to get into the

Soviet backfield in this area. Even just a couple would help. A lot of the units in this image are in yellow health and

can't shoot. I'm waiting for sufficient supply to get a shot off. The advance has stalled in this area because of the

heavy resistance.

Here's what's going on in Lapland. The Finns are slowly pushing the Soviets backward and killing them. They are clearing the roads and rails heading east and south.

Turn 7....13th July 1941

Overall Situation :

In Finland the Soviets are in some disarray in Lapland as my scattered forces there are pushed aside. The stronger defence line between Viipurii and Hiitola continues to hold however.

Further South the initial MLR's for Leningrad are along the River Narva to the South West and running East from Pskov though the Germans are pushing against the Pskov garrison already.

On the Central Front the roadblocks running North and South from surrounded Minsk are almost destroyed but Minsk itself continues to resist. The two main MLR 's In The centre run along the upper Dnestr centred on Smolensk with the more robust line to west of Moscow.

In the South the lower Dnestr has been forded by the German 11th Army near Tiraspol but the defenders of most bridges fight on. Odessa has minimal defences and is likely to fall before too long

Going forward:

After a few turns of being instantly massacred the Soviet Air capability is gradually building up in Siberia and I have a decision to make when it can be committed.

Likewise no less than 9 full conscript armies are gathering units and strength in the East and again the defence lines described above need to ideally delay the Germans long enough that all are at full strength before being sent west. Whether this is remotely possible remains to be seen. My biggest concern continues to be Leningrad.

Here's the T7 front lines before I have started moving anybody.

This is what Minsk looks like now. I've gotten it surrounded and now I'm slowly liquidating the Soviet units, and

it's going slowly because the units are fairly stout. Plus my units have to wait for the supply to turn them green so they

can shoot.


I've been finding the crossings over the Berezina River unoccupied when I get there. No fighting over them is

needed. I'm guessing Ian has pulled all his troops back to the east. I need to send out the recon to see if I can

find their MLR(s). The supply level on the east side of the river is about 4 per hex. Too low for operations.

Turn 8 ...16th July 1941

The overview shows things little changed thanks to Larry failing a proficiency check early in his turn so the heroic 13th Army at Minsk continues to hold inflicting another 200+ Infantry and Engineering Squad losses on the Wehrmacht and I suspect this is affecting the German supply net in AGC as he mentions supply is very poor to the East of the city. Whilst the Germans are a month behind the historical capture of Minsk (it fell on 26th June 1941) they are well ahead in the deep south where forward elements of the 11th Army and 4th Rumanian Army have reached the outer defences of Odessa. As the historical siege of Odessa didn't start until 8th August and it held out until 16th October this is not a good sign on the Southern Front.

Pskov also holds despite an assault on the bridge there but efforts to reinforce the defenders to the East of the city are hampered by quite ferocious interdiction.

The isolated German garrison in Henko on the Finnish southern peninsular was overwhelmed last turn and once again Soviet forces in Finland are under pressure along the length of the front.

I have again delayed the despatch of the armies forming in the East which are still at low levels of strength and proficiency in the hope they will improve but once the doomed defenders of the Stalin Line and the Sluch River are overwhelmed and Minsk falls the road to Smolensk and Moscow is open so they will have to be released to the Front.

Here's the T9 front lines before I have started moving units. You can see the ring around Minsk and the solid line of Germans assaulting head-on into the Stalin Line. I've almost reached Narva up north where the bottleneck occurs. The Soviets are ready for us.

Here's the details about the southern end of the Stalin Line and you can see that I've gotten started on a surround

on a small group of Soviet units and the attacks are scheduled and I've got high hopes that they will succeed and the

Soviets will be squished into a smaller footprint and the gap will be wider. Elmer would start pulling his units back and

I'm wondering what Ian is going to do. Will he leave them where they are to stall for more time or will he start pulling

them out of the line to run for dear life.

Here's what it looks like around Odessa right now. I've got Odessa surrounded although they can still leave by

sailing away from the port. I see some ships parked at Odessa and that means I'll have to break out the Stukas

again. It's probably going to mean some losses because he's probably got some AA on each of them, maybe. Hold on I'll

check, according to my recent survey I've determined that there's no more AA worse than an HQ unit on any one of the

stacks. So instead of intense flak we'll just have medium flak. I wish there was a night mission I could use for

this. The siege of Odessa has started with this turn and I'm capturing lots of crossings unmanned and unoccupied

when I get there. Everybody else must have fled to the east. Or south.

Soviet Turn 9

With the situation in Finland deteriorating the 23rd Army retreats towards the fortified line North of Leningrad though the 14th Army falls into reorganisation and is probably doomed further north.

Pskov continues to hold with the bridge held by armour and with at least another tank brigade in reserve but pressure is mounting.

In Estonia Tallinn also continues to hold out for now despite being assaulted by land and being shelled by the German Baltic Fleet.

Most gratifying of all the 13th Army still hangs on in Minsk with its exhausted gunners taking out another 70 Infantry and Engineering squads from the besieging Germans....this resistance is hugely important as the lines around Moscow and Smolensk are reinforced.

In another couple of turns the air shock improves from 75 to 100 for the Soviets and there is at least a possibility of contesting the air war...(German air shock will still be 115). Interdiction by the Luftwaffe remains a big issue.
Air losses this turn, when my turn ended were around 80 to each side.

Further South the Stalin line...always a ramshackle cobbled together defence structure pretty much disintegrates and those mobile units that are able to escape code towards Kiev.

The siege of Odessa is well underway and hopes are not high but the city remains under Soviet control for now.