Aditia vs. Darbymcd

[Aditia]

Thank you Eric, nice to hear.

Turn 13:

In the North I have left quite some strength, a bit too much tbh (should railed a full Corps south), and I am going to use it to roll up his northern line that is facing south west, opposing the Northern flank of my Moscow drive:

[Aditia]

At Moscow, I am now ready for the final assault on the city, with significant Red Army units about to be taken out of commission.

I HBQU up the northern Pz Corps. It is obviously situated ideally to attack the city, but Darby seems so strapped for strength that there is almost zero flank security on the north edge of the city. If this remains next turn, I may just go around the city.

[Aditia]

As you may remember, last turn I HQBU'ed 2 Pz Corps at Orel. The Northern Corps cuts all the rail lines running south from Moscow. We are now firmly in the void, but I believe

[Aditia]

The southern Corps is committed to trapping his forces at Kursk. Here I make an unforced error and withdraw the lead division a few hexes, before I move the Southern pincer (the southern pincer was very low on MPs); so I messed up the sequencing and I should have left the decision whether or not to try and close the pocket until after the southern pincer made its moves.

I think there was about a 50% chance I close the pocket if I committed.

Still I am confident that I will get about 70% of those forces trapped.

[Aditia]

In front of Stalino I make another unforced error and start moving stuff before really thinking about what to do (big nono).

Let's just say I had tough day at the office and that influenced my play this turn [>:]

I convert some hexes instead of doing HQBU, which I think would have been the correct move here. I end up doing an HQBU with only 1 eligible combat unit, as I am desperate to dislodge him here.

[Aditia]

South of Z-town I cross the Dnepr with weak forces, to at least put some extra pressure.

The 2 German divisions at Nikolaev are moving to Odessa to shore up the Rumanian Army that is about to be ready to assault the city. Some siege artillery is made available for them. (I spend a lot of AP to make sure that important missions have the needed firepower. For example, the assault Corps in front of Moscow have most StuGs on the Eastern Front to clear the approaches to the city)

[Aditia]

Manpower is hovering around 60k

[Aditia]

Soviet losses have eclipsed 2.5M with a lot of stuff about to be destroyed at Moscow.
Almost 50% of my AFV losses this week are Pz IIs...

[Aditia]

I actually receive a report that most of the Pz II losses are because a young Leutnant of a pioneer unit used the pitiful machines to quickly bridge a small river: He had the Pz IIs driven into the river and then had logs put on top of them for the real vehicles to drive across!

I find this excellent use of the Pz II and award him the Ritterkreuz. He clearly cannot believe his good fortune:

[Aditia]

OOB

I am clearly outproducing the Soviet Union with regards to AFV! Wait...

[Aditia]

Finally the Supply situation south of Moscow:

The Pz Corps North East of Kursk is fine due to HQBU, and because I captured a lot of fuel from overrun airbases.
Some extra fuel is flown in for good measure (on the HQ) as the pocket needs to sealed next turn and I expect to have to fight for it.

[Icier]

Only 2nd game?....you are going to gamer to be feared.
What map is that..it doesnt look like a Jison?

[Peltonx]

[8D] WitW he will do fine 2.0

Kinda of weird how Chaos is better then most at Russia and yet sucks as Germany?

S

[chaos45]

Germany is all about sticking the opening- the first 3-4 turns as Germany are the most critical IMO...the way this game works you know if you still have a chance or not as Germany very early.

If the Soviet player can buy just a couple turns extra in the early game they can just about seal a win in the opening of 1941 IMO.

In all honesty in this game ive been very confused by what the Soviet player is doing/his grand strategy.

[Aditia]

ORIGINAL: Ice

Only 2nd game?....you are going to gamer to be feared.
What map is that..it doesnt look like a Jison?

It's the Redmarkus place name map mod. Even though I recognize the skill of Jison's work, I dislike his maps and the counters even more. Was the same for John Tiller games.

[Aditia]

ORIGINAL: chaos45

Germany is all about sticking the opening- the first 3-4 turns as Germany are the most critical IMO...the way this game works you know if you still have a chance or not as Germany very early.

If the Soviet player can buy just a couple turns extra in the early game they can just about seal a win in the opening of 1941 IMO.

In all honesty in this game ive been very confused by what the Soviet player is doing/his grand strategy.

I don't play Soviets so I cannot really comment, but Darbymcd has basically evacced all his industry successfully (apart from Leningrad and a small number of HI/Arms points). He wanted to try this strategy and I think it has merit as he as very few industry losses.

You saw how much I am delayed in the South...

But, and the but is big, he underestimated how fast I could make his central sector crumble, and from very early on he was way behind the curve in front of Moscow. Also, not putting some sort of cheap speedbump at Leningrad was a mistake. Instead of defending the Luga with what he had, it would have been better to abandon that and put more stuff inside the city and to protect Janis/Sviritsa to at least delay me.

With some tweaking and more prudent play, I think delaying the Axis player in the South like Darbymcd is focusing, can make for a very acceptable 1941 for Soviets?

[chaos45]

Aditia- The Problem is if he loses Moscow he prolly loses the game....not to mention losing leningrad that fast is a massive hit to his army strength in the early game....leningrad is like 1 Soviet division per turn in manpower in the early game...so the longer you hold it the better.

Also the South is an axis playground in 1942...so its more key to hold the bad ground in north/center where the terrain+ your crappy Soviet units can actually stop the Axis in 1942...in the south the clear ground will be taken by the axis period. So even if you hold the south in 1941 you will lose it in 1942....and in all honesty if you lose moscow in 1941 then the south in 1942 you lose the game.

[Aditia]

Noted Chaos. For my next game I would like to try Soviets really, I have always liked defending more than attacking.

1 turn before I go drinking:

Turn 14. Very eventful..

In the North I easily start rolling up his line. I over committed here, but the upside is that it looks like I will have very short lines when that is done.

[Aditia]

The big event is at Moscow.
The HQBU'ed PzCorps that must have looked as to start a direct assault, finds the Northern flank held by only 1 flimsy hex and can go all the way around to link up with Manstein's short southern thrust. In the process I cruise through the 10,000 square mile aerodrome east of Moscow, finding fuel all over:

[Aditia]

The captured fuel: