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This is my first PBEM game and I'm playing as the Axis, so it will be a real learning experience!

My overall plan of operations envisages a three year campaign to conquer Soviet Russia, as shown by the phase lines below.

Objectives for 1941:

- Leningrad
- Smolensk
- Kiev
- Odessa

Objectives for 1942:

- Moscow
- Tula
- Orel

Objectives for 1943

- Everything else and Stalin's breeches!

Operations will be conducted during the summer. The mud period will be used to refit my armour and the winters are for holding off the Soviet hordes with a mobile defence.

TURN 1

The air offensive results in over 5,200 Soviet aircraft destroyed. A good start.

TURN 1 Ground Operations

1. Riga falls.

2. My spearheads are outside Minsk.

3. A large pocket has been tightly sealed in the area Narew>Neman.

4. A breakthrough towards Tarnopol offers the prospects of a pocket in the Ukraine unless the enemy pulls back rapidly.

Hope you don't mind me sitting in on your Axis AAR [;)]

Are the blue infantry near Brest-Lit the ones with the seige guns? I always use those on the city.

Boy you just missed the large pocket at Minsk. Did you attack with the panzers? I seem to remember that it required I did not do so at all in order to seal the pocket and pin Minsk. I've played two RtoDnep and a RtoLeningrad since then and don't recall 100%.

In the south, you've again done exactly what I did (seems to be some common sense of what works down there around the AAR), although I did blast those two tank divs NW of Tarnopol with the panzers. Your way might be even better as you have penetrated much further with the Sixth Army than I did.

Will there be an effort to release the Southern forces earlier than the scheduled turn?

Not at all! Feel free.

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Are the blue infantry near Brest-Lit the ones with the seige guns? I always use those on the city.

Boy you just missed the large pocket at Minsk. Did you attack with the panzers? I seem to remember that it required I did not do so at all in order to seal the pocket and pin Minsk. I've played two RtoDnep and a RtoLeningrad since then and don't recall 100%.

In the south, you've again done exactly what I did (seems to be some common sense of what works down there around the AAR), although I did blast those two tank divs NW of Tarnopol with the panzers. Your way might be even better as you have penetrated much further with the Sixth Army than I did.

Hi. I didn't attack Minsk with my Panzers - I always hesitate to use tanks on city hexes. On the second turn I made this mistake and lost almost 40 tanks without taking the city

ORIGINAL: randallw

Will there be an effort to release the Southern forces earlier than the scheduled turn?

No. My goals in the south for '41 are quite modest, so I intend to just push the enemy back in steady stages.

TURN 2

Progress in the north is good, but I need to wait for my infantry and rail to catch up.

In the centre the Narew pocket has been eliminated and Vitebsk has fallen but Minsk is still holding out. I'm waiting for my infantry to arrive and take the city. The enemy is also trying to probe my line of supply in the centre with weak units emerging from the Pripyat. This has required me to divert some of my infantry to clean the marshes out.

In the south my advance on Tarnopol is progressing well.

Some Soviet units are fighting hard and it required deliberate attacks by 2 or more divisions to shift them.

LOSSES - END OF TURN 2

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ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Are the blue infantry near Brest-Lit the ones with the seige guns? I always use those on the city.

Boy you just missed the large pocket at Minsk. Did you attack with the panzers? I seem to remember that it required I did not do so at all in order to seal the pocket and pin Minsk. I've played two RtoDnep and a RtoLeningrad since then and don't recall 100%.

In the south, you've again done exactly what I did (seems to be some common sense of what works down there around the AAR), although I did blast those two tank divs NW of Tarnopol with the panzers. Your way might be even better as you have penetrated much further with the Sixth Army than I did.

Hi. I didn't attack Minsk with my Panzers - I always hesitate to use tanks on city hexes. On the second turn I made this mistake and lost almost 40 tanks without taking the city

Sorry...I meant the light blue panzers that didn't totally close the pocket at Minsk.

OK, my opponent has a few concerns about my AAR which I totally understand and respect. Firstly, due to his professional commitments he won't have time to write up his own AAR on this battle and is slightly concerned that the effect of this is that he'll basically be taking on the combined intellectual might of the entire community. I can see his point.

Secondly, this is Comsolut's first PBEM and he would like to learn the game without the full glare of publicity, which is fair enough.

So, I'm going to terminate this AAR but first, I have to report on the total disaster that was Turn 3:

1. Comsolut did a great job of cutting off three of my key spearheads.

2. This probably wouldn't have been an irretrievable situation as other Panzer units were within range to relieve them, but I got hit by a mud turn all across the front (it's the first week of July). I have read of this in other posts but this is my first experience of it.

Basically, my offensive has died in the mud and I expect the enemy to drive to Berlin in captured PzKw 3s by Christmas '41...

Comments anyone on this mud turn?

One of the other AARs mentioned getting a mud turn in the summer. I forget which one. Sounds like it was disastrously timed for you.

If you play with random weather, well the weather can be...random. I lost 6th Army in a 1943 campaign because mud arrived and prevented its retreat.

Let me check that with my oppo - I was assuming we had historical weather

well it is our loss at your AAR, sorry that you will not continue [:(]

Cheers.

I confirmed that random weather is on. Damn! I should have checked that out before I started.

We've agreed to keep playing, but my view is that we all know the Germans lost WW2. With huge random summer mud storms, they would have just lost it faster. I really don't understand why such a feature was allowed into the game design. Let the modders change summer to Autumn, if they wish...