Field Marshal von Fogger vs Comrade Marshal Fulkerson

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the planes are doing and how they are currently.

[larryfulkerson]

I just got a file from John Fogger and it's turn 34. The front line isn't moving at all and it's like WWI trench warfare. The air war is still
going strong however and this is the approx. losses:

[larryfulkerson]

I'm going through the OOB moving units and setting up attacks and it just dawned on me to look at the proficiency of one of the typical
attacking units and I was not surprised to see that it's lower than the German proficiency by a really significant margin. No wonder I get
more losses in my attacks than he does. I know that I have to attack the Germans to wear them down but it just seems like such a
tragedy in terms of the numbers of losses of real men. Glad I didn't have to take part in that.

[larryfulkerson]

I was just now mousing over some of the Axis units and I came upon this Romanian Infantry Division that's cherry red in health. That
tends to lend me the impression that makes me suspecious that maybe the Axis units are a bit tired and at the end of their supply lines.

[larryfulkerson]

I just noticed just now that the RR engineers have regular engineers in the OOB and a minor ferry capability. I'm thinking I could use
the RR engineers to help my INF pass over a frozen river just like regular engineers.

[larryfulkerson]

This particular squadron has been on-line for a couple of turns now and I notice that it's still leaf green. I'm thinking I'm not pushing this
squadron hard enough. I've put it on minimum losses because it's proficiency was less than 50% but I'm thinking I ought to either move
it closer to the action, or put it on limited losses, or both. I'm going to do both.

[larryfulkerson]

So um.....the last I heard from John was his wife was in the hospital and
that was a couple of weeks ago and I sent an email saying that if he
needed to quit the game I would understand and is that wnat's happened
and I haven't gotten a reply yet and it's been quite a while so you guys
now know as much as I do about this game.

EDIT: I got a reply from Johh:

Hi larry,
I am sending this email from work so I am unable to attach anything to it. My home internet has been down since last thursday. Hopefully Optus is coming this afternoon to fix it. I am around until turn 406. I will hopefully send the turn tonight.
cheers

[fogger]

Just a general undate. My wife is home from hospital but will have to ungo further tests next month. My son is also home from hospital (bone grafts) and my daugther is also now home from hospital. And the internet is back up. And Yes, I do think I have run over a chinaman.
and
Larry you got mail.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie......I've received John's moves and I've watched the replay and here's the northern part of the front lines in T35.
We're locked in a WWI type of grinding blood storm and I'm advancing some Guards Infantry to try to break through John's
front lines but I'm pretty sure he's hip to what's going on and he's already started moving some units to that area so it doesn't
look like it's going to be possible to break through anytime soon. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

This view of the front lines is a little bit south of the image above and includes the Smolensk area. You can see the long line of units
moving toward the west and John's units are invisible but they are moving to the same spot my units are moving to.

[larryfulkerson]

This view of the front lines is further south from the above image and includes Kiev and the battle along the river bank and the back and
forth battles going on there.

[larryfulkerson]

This view of the front lines is a little further south from the above image and includes the Crimea. John is mopping up some groupings
of Soviet units and after that then the main battle will ensue.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a closer view of the Kiev area and the river bank fighting. Mostly it's attacks from the Soviets that go nowhere but cause losses
to both sides. I can afford the losses better than John can. I've got more on-hand squads than John has and I don't mind spending
them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the air war is going:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of my losses so far:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of the Crimea. I'm moving up against the German units and I'm doing some minimize losses attacks, some probes, to see
how difficult it's going to be to move the Germans backward. It's probably not possible yet, my units aren't strong enough and the
shock level is too low. But I need to inflict some losses on John or he will be unstoppable in the spring.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd try my hand at some airfield attacks even though John is doing enough to satisfy both of us. I usually end up losing about
10 X whatever John loses but it's necessary to give John some losses. Anyway here's how the air war is going:

[larryfulkerson]

I'm probably overconfident but I've started a march westward in the Crimea area. I'm moving people up against the German line and I've
started attacking and probing and it's probably wasted effort but I'm going to try to see if I can't get the Germans to quit the Crimea.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of the riverbank fighting near Kiev. As you can see the front lines haven't changed much for about 15 turns now. I'm
guessing it's going to take a long time to bring about some change in this area. This is 26Oct41 game time.

EDIT: I'm expecting a lot of big changes when the river freezes over. I'm guessing it'll be easy for me to outflank and infiltrate the Axis
lines then.

[Wuffer]

You two were really quick!
Fastest gameplay ever, is it really '43 now?

Seriously, Larry, look at the German counters. No offence please, but I think you didn't even burnt your initial pool of rifle squads.