The D21 Road Not Taken....

[larryfulkerson]

I forgot what your question was. I own Grigsby's WITE and it's a different treatment of the war but it's basically FITE with different looking units. The air war is it's best feature. It's fun for about the first four games or so and by then you've explored most of the what if's you can do and it becomes rather boring, being the same game again and again. With TOAW you can play just about any conflict that has ever happened and some that haven't yet. And you can build your own situation and save it as a scenario. You can mod scenarios to tweak them. Some people find it more fun building scenarios than playing them. Have you tried the Road to Moscow series of scenarios? Short scenarios from Operation Barbarosa. You may find them fun.

Hey LarryF, took your advice & am doing Road to Moscow What If scenario. A masterpiece! Having a ton of fun, thanks for the tip!! I might do an AAR later since I have a save of each turn.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T12 now and I seem to have blasted a hole in the Soviet lines in front of Moscow. There's probably some Soviet units there that I just can't see yet and it's not really a huge gap in the Soviet lines. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

[larryfulkerson]

There's an area between Moscow and Bryansk and from Bryansk to Kiev that are both kinda sparse in Soviet units and I've been taking advantage of it and I've spread out and by taking all available avenues I've converted a lot of terrain. I run into the occasional Soviet unit and then deploy the follow on forces to deal with it and drive on with the recon units. I'm starting to run into really low supply areas. The overextended value is 5 so I need to pull up and stop soon. The supply level is in the single digits already at the face of the front lines.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a spot near Smolensk where the resistance is particularly stiff and I'm fighting for the good terrain in the area because that's where all the Soviet units are and this time there's a lot more of them. And they are stronger than the units I was fighting in the early turns. The front lines in this area are fluid and dynamic and sometimes I have to fight over the same terrain for a second time before I can hold onto it. My land shock is 115 and the Soviet shock is 95 so we're more evenly matched now and the character of the game has changed. I'm seeing a lot more fruitful Soviet counterattacks. It's T14 now and my boys are tired from the constant fighting and I've moved into low supply areas and the advance has stalled in place. I have to fight over each and every individual hex now. I'm having a blast.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what the area around Leningrad looks like right now. There's a huge gap in my lines and I'm really worried about it. I need to rail two or three divisions up here to fill it up. It's things like this that would make a reserve handy. A resource to grab from as needed. I'm going to have to set asside about four or five divisions as a reserve so that I can fight the war better. As it is I have no units to follow up on the gaps in the Soviet lines. Most of the progress I'm making lately has been in the south around the Crimea so I'll see if I can't spare some of those divisions for a reserve.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the face of war north of Leningrad. The Finns are slowly pushing the Soviets south. I don't have a good estimate of how long it will take for them to reach their stop line. The Soviets were sending units north to take part in the battle with the Finns but now that the Axis forces have captured Narva the Soviets have been moving units in that direction instead.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally repaired the rails enough to get the RR arty in range of targets in Odessa and the bombardment has started using them. I've already made some progress on Odessa and there's just a few hexes left to own.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally arrived at T16 and this is what the front lines look like now. The Finns are slowly pushing the Soviet units southward. The Soviet BB group finally sortied and sank my 2 x CA's and 4 x DD's all because my Ju-87's couldn't quite sink it while it was still in Leningrad's harbor.

I'm planning on invading the small islands that the Soviets still hold north or Riga. They could be the stepping off point for Soviet invasions in the later war years so I think maybe I should take possession of them. I don't have any air cap. any longer so I think I'll use the paratroops for the task of clearing off all the smaller islands.

The region just east of Pskov needs more Axis soldiers on the ground. The Soviets could start flooding that area any turn now and I wouldn't be able to hold them back and that could be embarrassing when the entire front has to fall back. I'd best act on that situation post haste.

According to the image I have most of my troops in front of Moscow because that's where most of the Soviet units are. The fighting is tough and not much movement of the front lines is taking place in that area.

I've leaped the river north of Chernigov and I'm heading for Kursk. I recognize he need for a lot more troops near Chernigov and I have about eight divisions headed for there from the Kiev area as we speak. I'm planning on forming a front line from Kursk south to Kharkov and then moving the line to the east. Meanwhile I want about three or four divisions to move south along the east side of the river clearing out the river crossings.

Odessa is falling slowly. I've captured crossings at Kherson and I'm going to steam a lot of units across there and see how close I can get to entering the Crimea. I'm planning on using the 11th Army to take down Sevastopol. I need to own Sevastopol by 4Dec to free the Bulgarians for action.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like in T17 just northeast of Kiev right now. The game has gotten exciting again. I'm in a race with the Soviets to try to trap as many Soviet units on the east side of the river before they can escape to the south. I've seen several units peel off already and they made their way to the SE. I'm feverishly trying to repair all the broken bridges so that supply will flow better. I've repaired the rails all the way up to Kiev so if I can clear a path for the supply to flow through there I think there MAY be enough supply to keep the advance headed south all the way to D-town.

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T19 and I've gotten through D-town and Z-town and I'm spreading out converting terrain and roads and rails and the supply levels are suprisingly high so I'm going to continue the advance as far as the supply levels will allow. The rails are quite a distance away so I'm wondering why the supply levels are so high. I'm not complaining. There's more Soviet units around this area than I was expecting. I guess they heard I was coming and railed some troops down here. The good news is that I'm across the river and heading east. Kharkov is the next short term goal.

[StuccoFresco]

Has Odessa fallen?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: StuccoFresco
Has Odessa fallen?

I have just this turn captured Odessa but there's still enemy units present and I'm in the process of putting together an attack to delete them. Notice all the RR arty pounding away. They have been instrumental in the takedown of Odessa and the capture of the city would have been much harder and would have taken much longer to accomplish. The railhead is the city hex itself.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T20 and this is what Leningrad looks like now. I'm getting closer to the city all the time. I'm losing a lot of Stuka's trying to sink the Soviet BB's. I'm in possession of Odessa now so I'm going to ship all the RR arty up here to help take down the city of Leningrad.

[StuccoFresco]

Are the BBs that dangerous? Shouldn't you avoid sacrificing precious aircraft for ground support or interdition?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: StuccoFresco
Are the BBs that dangerous? Shouldn't you avoid sacrificing precious aircraft for ground support or interdition?

After I lost 40 Stuka's to sink one Soviet BB I had that same thought. I'm wondering now just how effective that BB is for the ground war going on at Leningrad. Now that the BB is gone there's only one damaged CA and about 4 DD's left so it's not as critical as it once was.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm now on T22 and here's the front lines. I've developed a huge gap in my lines in the north and I need to fill that with something. Almost everybody on the front lines is already employed and there's no reserve yet so I'm going to have a hard task trying to find three or four divisions to fill this gap. It's Sept. 3, 1941 and I'm getting closer and closer to Moscow all the time. It's unknown whether or not I can surround it before Christmas. I'll try. Down closer to Kiev I've surrounded all the Soviet units on the east side of the river and I'm slowly clearing out the small groups of defenders. Meanwhile, I've been pushing east and south and have made some progress. The supply levels are dropping being now in the low teens at the front edge of the advance. I'll have to call a halt and wait for better supply. I've forced the Odessa defenders into a water hex just off the coast and I'm pounding them with arty to whittle down the unit until it disappears. I COULD attack it with an engineer unit but I don't want to lose any more engineers. I've noticed that ordinary LCU's can't attack the enemy water hex, it has to be some engineers or a ponton unit. I've gotten a good start into the Crimea.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm fortunate in that NE of Kiev the Soviet units are coming at me a few at a time and I can usually dispatch them before the next group of Soviet units arrive. So progress of a kind is being made. Supply gets down into the single digits at the leading edge of the advance so I'm going to pull up here and rest the units while the supply level gets more juice.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the supply level looks like out near Kharkov, which, as it happens, I'm about to capture. I'm sticking mostly to the roads and rails as that's where the supply tends to be highest, and I'm driving east as long as the supply holds out.

[sPzAbt653]

I've forced the Odessa defenders into a water hex just off the coast...

I'm working on removing this fluke for the next version. Also, I have acquired a bad taste for Shallow Water, Flooded Marsh and Rail Lines thru Impassable Terrain.

[Hellen_slith]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

I've forced the Odessa defenders into a water hex just off the coast...

I'm working on removing this fluke for the next version. Also, I have acquired a bad taste for Shallow Water, Flooded Marsh and Rail Lines thru Impassable Terrain.

There are also some of those similar type hexes around Pskov I think, and Lake Lagoda.

I can't remember where exactly atm, but I noticed some retreats into shallow waters thereabouts, similar to the Odessa.