T00 Events

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T12 round 2 and I think you'll be glad to know that the 290th Infantry Division was successfully extracted from the front lines. Now I need to move it to Pskov for it to rest for a month or so. Game time.
[ some people need you to specify ]

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[larryfulkerson]

Just as a sandbox test right in the middle of my game I saved my game and ran an infantry division through the same hex, with an HQ ( same formation ), with an HQ of a different formation, and no HQ unit at all in the hex and I found the movement points paid for that hex was '2' in all events. And the special abilities of each HQ unit was 'traffic control 83%' and I was expecting to see a reduction in MP's for the movement but no joy. Perhaps it's because of the terrain type; that it doesn't have a huge terrain cost to traverse the hex, perhaps it's at the minimum already. ???

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T12 round 2 and this is what's going on in the Pskov area right now. I'm attempting to completely surround a small group of Soviet units without disreguarding my eastern flank at the same time. I'll have to break some units down into pieces to have enough boots on the ground to form a screen to the east to be able to hold long enough for me to dispatch that said small group. I think it's probably possible. Probably. It's either that or expedite a couple of divisions up here real quick.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T13 round 1 and this is what's going on in the Lenigrad area looking south right now. I've pushed my way up to the bottleneck near Narva and I've repaired the bridge and repaired the rail up close to the tip of the spear so progress is being made. East of Pskov I'm still in the process of mopping up Soviet remnants of the defenders of Pskov and some troops that Elmer railed in last turn and I'm able to surround them and destroy them a few at a time because they join the front lines only a few at a time. If that keeps up I may be able to make some real progress in this AO. Part of the problems with this AO is that the rails aren't repaired close to parts of my front line yet and supply dips to about 3 to the area east of Pskov. Now that the rail is repaired okie dokie up north I'll move those RR engineers down to a line that will feed the area east of Pskov. This particular image skimps on the action near Smolensk looking south so I'll do another image for that area.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what's going on in the Smolensk area right now. I'm not at all sure that I can completely surround this large group of Soviet units. So I'm trying to take them out one at a time by infiltrating between the Soviet units and surrounding just one Soviet unit and killing it. Rinse and repeat. Besides Elmer frequently moves one of the Soviet units visible to the east into the front lines somewhere and I have to extend the line to accomodate it. So the advance in this AO has slowed to a crawl but the good news is that the supply rails have been repaired all the way up to the front lines so all is good in that department. More good news is that the weather here is only about 2/10 cloudy with no rain.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what's going on in the Bryansk area right now. I'm in the process of surrounding a small group of Soviet units so I can destroy them easier. My goal in this AO is Bryansk of course and I think I can be there shortly. I haven't moved everybody in this area so there's a chance that I can complete the surround and get started on the mop up operation. All my aircraft are green except two fighters and two bombers. I've been busting bridges each turn and now there's about a dozen busted bridges in the Soviet backfield. I'm not sure it's making a major difference anywhere.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T13 round 3 and this is what's going on near Odessa right now. I've got Odessa surrounded and the arty is pounding the one hex SW of the city in order to whittle down the strength of the stack and I've killed 10% so far in previous rounds. I'm attacking that hex because I have three hexes adjacent to it that I can attack from. Gives me almost as much strength as the Soviet stack so my losses will be lower ( even I use a single-dot stance during the attack ). The Soviets have a ton of arty backing up their stacks and that's holding up my take down. I've got one of my brown-water boats offshore for all the good he may do.

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[larryfulkerson]

Dr. Brian Doctor ( WITP-AE expert ) has designed a scenario for WITP-AE and he needs me to help him test it. The next version of WITP-AE is allegedly going to be coming out in late June or early August and Dr. Doctor wants to have his scenario included in the release and he wants me to help him work out all the bugs before then. And as you know a game of WITP-AE can take an extraordinary amount of time to play and he wants me to play the Allied side for about 4 months of game time and then take on the Jap side and play it to then end as if my life depended on it. That may take a month of real time, maybe more. So.....I'll save the files for this game and pick it up sometime in the future. Sorry about that, TOAW dudes. Stay tuned.

EDIT: I've started an AAR for the WITP-AE game:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... eb6625191b

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[StuccoFresco]

WITP is one of those wargames I can only look at in awe because I will never have the patience needed to play it properly.

[larryfulkerson]

I got up to 15Dec41 in my WITP-AE game and heard TOAW calling to me telepathically so I'm doing a little catching up just to see what happens next. This is T14 round 4 looking at the area between Bryansk and Kiev as it is right now. I'm on the verge of getting on the east side of the major river that flows through Kiev, the Dneper river I believe. I've got forces surrounding Kiev itself and other forces are in the process of clearing out the west bank of the river south of Kiev and every once in a while Elmer will push some units across the crossings and I try to trap them before they can escape and I'm able to destroy small groups at a time. The repaired rail is pretty much up to the front lines so I'm branching out into different directions to help everybody have some supply. The mud season will effectively kill all the supply going out into the field and the more repaired rail I have the better.

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[larryfulkerson]

WITP is one of those wargames I can only look at in awe because I will never have the patience needed to play it properly.

I know what you mean. After I ordered it ( CD form with manual ) it sat on my desk for at least 6 months because I was still reading the AAR's of the game and realized that it was going to be over my head by a considerable margin. Then Dr. Brian Doctor volunteered to teach me and we were playing it for over two years and I learned A LOT and I learned what a good guy Brian is and I have nothing at all bad to say about him. He's a master at WITP-AE also which means a lot in the wargamming world. And yes, it does demand patience from the player. We play it with a turn cycle of "1 day" and if you're playing a 4-year long war one day at a time the game could possibly take a LONG time to play to the end. Not a lot happens sometimes with one-day turns. But that's representative of the real life war. It's realistic. It also means you have to develop some plans to what you're currently doing and what you want to have happen in the future, etc. I've grown to like WITP-AE very much. Second only to TOAW, as it happens. I'm not sure what a person can do to develop enough patience to play it besides playing it. I'm just saying.........

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T15 round 1 and I just opened the turn and haven't moved anybody yet. I finally captured Smolensk in the last combat round of the last turn. And it took a long drawn out battle to get it to happen. The Soviets have started counterattacking seriously and I've seen more than one Soviet unit evaporate. Also, the Soviet air shock is now 75% and my aircraft losses have increased. In fact the Finn aircraft units Air Rgt 1-12th S and Air Rgt 3-24th S both evaporated due to several Soviet airfield strikes in their turn. The Soviets lost a lot of aircraft to make that happen but they have aircraft and pilots galore and can well afford it. And I can't.

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[golden delicious]

I know what you mean. After I ordered it ( CD form with manual ) it sat on my desk for at least 6 months because I was still reading the AAR's of the game and realized that it was going to be over my head by a considerable margin.

You beat me here. I ordered it probably over a decade ago and never played. I think I opened one game and just felt sufficiently overwhelmed that I never took a second look.

[larryfulkerson]

This is T15 round 2 down south as it is right now. I've surrounded Odessa last turn and this turn I'm starting the probes on the hex SW of Odessa, where I'm able to get three attacking hexes to converge on just one hex in an effort to concentrate all my arty and land forces and two bombers on that one enemy hex to maximize the Soviet losses and minimize mine. Last probe I ran had 16% Soviet losses and 6% of mine. I took a look under the hood and found out that both sides lost approx. the same amount of losses considered by type of equipment. I'm considering running the Romanian tank unit down there to attack by itself and let my arty soften up the hex for a few turns.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T16 round 2 and I'm approaching the confluence of the rivers near D-town and Z-town. I'm not sure but I think I may be slightly ahead of schedule. I'm going to use my pontoon guys and engineers to leap across the river(s) and get into the Soviet backfield. The supply rails are close so the supply level is good.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T16 round 2 and I'm on the verge of capturing Bryansk. As you can see Elmer has provided the defenders with some arty support and a supply unit for all the good it might do. I may have to bring in the big guns to reduce the defense a bit because I haven't got enough juice present to take the hex down without some needless losses. Since there's no Soviet AA unit in the stack it's safe to pound them with my bombers as well as any arty within range.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T17 round 2 and this is what it looks like to the west of Moscow right now. You may notice the various gaps in the front line and that's because the front lines are fluid in this AO just now. I've been mopping up in the rear and moving the unemployed units further to the east as the opportunity presents itself. Progress is being made and the supply levels are great because the repaired rails are up to the front lines in several places. The weather is 1/10 cloudy with only two rain squawls on the entire map. 8 bomber squadrons and 2 fighter squadrons are resting but the rest of the air fleet is in the green. I've lost 16.6K HRS's, 30.0K HRS's are assigned and there's 897 HRS's are on hand. The Soviets have been counterattacking seriously for the last several turns and I have to be careful how far forward I push my recon units.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T17 round 4 and this is what the Leningrad area looks like right now. The Finns are sneaking up on their stop line and I'm going to try to trap as many Soviet units where they are right now so I can destroy them before they escape to the south. Supply is good for the Finns but not so good south of the city. I don't yet have any repaired rails near Novgorod and the supply level gets down to 12 there. But I'm going to redeploy the RR engineers, all of them, to this problem to get it fixed as soon as possible. The advance in the north depends on it. I finally sank the last Soviet naval unit so now I'm going to redeploy all my Stukas to the area where most of the Soviet armoured units live, maybe around Moscow, where ever they are. I'll have to look around, Elmer may be hording them somewhere. I busted some more bridges this turn but now most of my bombers are tired so I've given a lot of them the rest of the day off. I have about 8 bomber units on INT missions to help stiffle the movement of Soviet reinforcements to the front line areas.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T18 round 4 and this is what it looks like right now. I've eliminated a lot of Soviet units and have surrounded some more and I'm sneaking up on Kalinin which isn't all that far from Moscow and I hope to get there before the mud turns start because that will slow things down to a crawl. Plus the supply levels collapse and only slowly rise again so it's important that I get a network of repaired rails to feed all parts of the front lines in place before the collapse. I've been including at least one bomber in each attack to make sure that they get some CAS for sure for each attack because the difference between our land shock levels isn't all that big. Mine is 115 and the Soviet land shock is 98. The Soviet attacks only infrequently include their aircraft so my including at least one bomber for each of my attacks gives my boys at least a little bit of help. Also, I can use that one bomber as bait to get the Soviet fighters in the air so I can get at them easier. My air fleet is really earning their pay lately.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like down south right now. I've destroyed the Soviet roadblocks at two crossings and I'm working on a third one right now. I've got forces approachig the bottleneck into the Sevastopol isthmus and will soon begin my siege of the port city. I had good luck last game letting the Romanians handle the Kertch Straits so I plan on doing that again. And the 11th Army will tackle Sevastopol. As soon as the RR engineers are finished with their work in the far north I'm going to have to move them down here to get the repaired rails to be able to feed this group.

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