Adventures in Russia

[larryfulkerson]

So I've been moving units and I've come to the 45th Inf Div and I've moved them so
they are adjacent to one of my paratrooper units restoring the LOC to it and providing
some supply. Maybe it'll come out of reorg now that it has some supply.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew a squadron of Stuka's to the pocket area and happen to notice that it's native
range (21 hexes) just fits the battlefield without my having to adjust the range at
all. This is the kind of range arc I want to aim for in my bombers so that they can
be flown with three-dots without going yellow. But for those long-range bridge
busting missions that I will be flying in future turns can be accomodated by just
readjusting the range. Entering "-1" as the range will give the unit the range of
the longest-ranged piece of equipment in the unit. For an aircraft unit it would be
the range of the plane type that has the longest range. For arty it would be the
arty pieces with the longest range. Etc.

[larryfulkerson]

Now that I've killed most of the Soviet fighters I need my bombers to go after the higher
value targets and it doesn't get much better than Soviet heavy bombers. This is the IL-4's
that Elmer owns that can reach almost anything on the map and to destroy those would be a
boon worth the losses especially in the late war period when Elmer can bomb German cities,
drop German bridges, INT traffic as far as Berlin, etc. I need to kill these planes as
the next thing to do.

[larryfulkerson]

The airplanes are still in good shape for the most part and doing another airfield
strike is what they want to do....to get rid of some more fighters and start taking
down the bombers this time.

[larryfulkerson]

Meanwhile, the Finns are bombarding Hanko because it's my theory that it has something
to do with lifeing the exclusion zone. I'd like to be able to sail into the Gulf of
Finland and bombard Talinin or the airfield there, that kind of thing. Lifting the
exclusion zone would help the war effort in a significant way. And I think bombarding
the defenders there will soften them up for the land assaults to come around T7 or so.

[larryfulkerson]

I just had a wild idea....why not fly one or more Stuka's up to Finland to do some
Sea INT for a while. It's got the best anti-ship value of any of my aircraft and
might just put a hurt on one or more of the Soviet BB's stationed at Leningrad. I
might even try to bomb the ships while their at port now that we have a port attack
available ( new naval rules include this ).

If I were playing a human player he/she might feel that I'm doing somethlng "gamey"
and to defend myself I took a look through the supporting documentation for anything
that suggested that German aircraft in Finland is prohibited but I didn't find anything
so I'm assuming it can be done.

Note to Rick: You might want to say something in the scenario briefing about the no
stacking of Axis minors applies to the aircraft units as well as the land units, in
case that might be true, which I'm assuming it is.

[larryfulkerson]

The recon element of the 10th Mot Div reached another of my paratrooper dudes providing
some supply and some protection, a little, and I'm having another of my thoughts:

Why go into the marshes if you can win the war without doing that. Partisans will spawn
in there probably. I'd have to guard the whole thing around it's perimeter to keep the
partisans at bay eventually. I have to move east with the units anyway so I may as well
use the low-value units to convert what they can of it to cut down on the chance that a
partisan unit will spawn without my knowing it and let me sleep better at night.

I'm planning on using the Slovak contingent to keep a lid on the partisans for me. There's
only a couple of units in their mix and I can't see using them on the front lines for a
long period of time. Okay, I'll say it: they are pushovers and almost can't defend
themselves. They might be good for garrison, backfield security ( in case the Soviets
drop some paratroopers of their own ), or recon maybe if you don't mind losing them.

I'm not all that optimistic about the performance of the Hungarians either.

We shall see how the Rumanians do.

[larryfulkerson]

The 20th Mot Div found a hole to drive through and surrounded a small Soviet stack
toward the middle of the pocket and they intend to kill it. And then with the
remaining MP's to drive further south.

The south wing of the Soviet front lines has been largely dispatched. And with the
application of the disengagement penalty there's not a lot of Soviet stuff that will
get away I'm guessing. Those Soviet units that aren't engaged will surely try to get
away and it's those I want to stop too. I won't kill 'em I'll let 'em surrender.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the pending attacks and there's not as many airfield strikes as last
time; I'm running out of targets. And there's 43 battles planned. I'm not surprised
since I set them all. What surprises me is that they are all 4 rounds or less for
all the attacks which is a good thing for the second combat round to be executed. I
expect the battlefield to change in a remarkable manner after this set of attacks.

[700851McCall]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson



Note to Rick: You might want to say something in the scenario briefing about the no
stacking of Axis minors applies to the aircraft units as well as the land units, in
case that might be true, which I'm assuming it is.

I was assuming it doesn't. The rational for not stacking land units makes sense but not with the aircraft. I can understand why you can't stack planes of different Axis minors though. They would all get drunk at the airbase and start fighting each other.

[larryfulkerson]

Eureka....I've found a large Soviet airbase with lots of planes there. It's near Minsk
right where I need to be soon. I'll have to get a large concentration of attackers
together for at least one more airfield strike.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: 700851McCall

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Note to Rick: You might want to say something in the scenario briefing about the no
stacking of Axis minors applies to the aircraft units as well as the land units, in
case that might be true, which I'm assuming it is.

I was assuming it doesn't. The rational for not stacking land units makes sense but not with the aircraft. I can understand why you can't stack planes of different Axis minors though. They would all get drunk at the airbase and start fighting each other.

Reminds me of the enlisted men's club at Bien Hoa in 1970 when I was there. There were race wars
going on at the E'club where the blacks and crackers were fighting over dominance at the club itself.
Who "owned" the club. There were fights and injuries and the MP's had to be called almost every night
for the year I was there. I stayed away from the E'clubs and was in one only once and that was at
Tan Sanh Nhut ( Saigon ) in 1972. But I went in the daytime and was with about 4 other guys on my
crew so I wasn't alone and had support so it wasn't too scarey. I hope the race wars aren't going
on still but I wouldn't be surprised if it is.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like after just two combat events, Rounds, or rounds, or what
do you want to call 'em. Two times combat was resolved. And you can see from the
BTS stamps where most of the shooting was going on. So now to set up another combat
round.

[larryfulkerson]

That last combat round opened a lot more paths to get into the pocket and deal with
the groups in the "middle". I've moved a lot of units and the pocket is no longer
recognizable as the pocket it was.

I've got my fingers crossed that Elmer won't blow too many bridges during his trying
to get away. I hate when the bridge I need is down for whatever reason. I'm trying
to keep the engineers toward the front for those instances where I need an engineer
and I mean now. It's good to have one nearby. I like to keep the HQ's and engrs
together if possible. I mean the Corps HQ's.

[larryfulkerson]

After cleaning out that stack of Soviet stuff in Brest Litovsk and all the supporting
units behind it the way is clear for the armor to zoom off to other adventures and
that's what they've been doing. They are speading out and branching off and covering
terrain. I'm especially concerned about the roads and rails, to convert them.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing. It is such a big scenario...

Have a good day

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,

Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing. It is such a big scenario...

Have a good day

Hey there Mike my friend. Thanks for posting and thanks for your kind words. That
kind of thing is all that keeps me going I guess. It's 07:11 local time and I've got
a warm cup of coffee and I can see the sun coming up through my kitchen window and
yeah, I'm having a really good day. TOAW just CTD'd again just now, well, a minute
and a half ago now, and it doesn't bother me all that much because I've been saving
my work more often. Be a playtester for a short while and you start doing that.

My medicine is pretty well tweeked just right and I'm feeling better than I have in
a long time. It's not easy being a paranoid schizophrenic but my medicine has made
my life doable again and yeah, I'm having a really good day.

Today is Sunday and I have no appointments so I guess I'll do a little more wargamming
all day again. Taking breaks for food, and naps PRN. ( PRN is a medical term that is
"pro rota normala" if I recall correctly, and it means do what makes it normal.

[larryfulkerson]

Dear Reader:
TOAW ( version 4.0.1.23 ) CTD'd again just now so I'm going to load up my
latest save the see if I can't reproduce the last
45 minutes. Stay tuned for news.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm just about to do the 4th combat round and I'm through moving the units and now
just before I pull the trigger I want to set up a lot of airfield strikes and put
the fighters on INT instead of AS and rest the yellow ones at Koningsberg or
Berlin. As soon as I have the airfields at Minsk I'll use those next. I'll even
move OKH to Minsk to supervise the refit.

[larryfulkerson]

I've run out of Soviet aircraft units that I can reach so now I'm looking around for
a good bridge to drop to try to hinder Soviet rail traffic and I'm not finding a lot
of places with good odds. Some bridges I get 35% or so and some, like this one, are
very low and probably not worth the effort as the first bridge to knock down. If I
find a good one I'm going to write it down or something so I can gang up on it with
multiple planes until the percentage is around 75% or so. Maybe higher if you want
to be sure. 100% will do the job reliably. I've destroyed over 3K planes so far and
lost less than 20 myself. Not the best job I've ever done. Well, I donno, maybe it
is.