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My old friend Mark contacted me earlier this week and said he is ready for take 2. He has played many of the smaller scenarios and is quite boastfull about the fact he has thrashed several people in his adventures. He also likes the support Matrix has shown and is fairly confident that with the pace of our gaming being fairly slow patch 4.0 will be out before the winter hits for me. We are both long time fanatics of the Eastern front and although we are not experts on the game I am sure it will be a fun journey.

I am starting the turn this evening and will be updating the AAR as I go. Once again I am running the Axis...

Planning:

AGN will be the usual and wont change much from my last go around. There really are not a lot of major choices the German can make that are better then going for Leningrad full force. I just dont see the strategic value of Moskva being greater then securing your left flank and unleashing the Finns even if the winter rules are subdued somewhat.

AGS - Essentially the main thrust. Goals are Kiev, Kharkov and Stalino and bottling up the Crimea. Initially 24th PZ will be directed south.

Air phase -

Little Baltic port bombed to 6% damage with DO17s.

Airbases reconned to 10% detection level.

Bases bombed until 5k Soviet losses were obtained. Extra effort made at Mig bases and bomber bases. (I hate Mig 13s)

Various pictures taken from net of wrecked Soviet airfields:

Kishinev - I hammered that base.. Lotsa Migs there

Turn AGN - 16th, 18th and 4th have moved. Riga falls and naval landings are made with Security troops at the smaller ports. 3 routed units routed away outside the pocket but overall not a bad start.

Normally I dont capture Riga but like many moves that have become almost "must do" I have changed tactics to do so. If you lead with the SS Division and gobble hexes you can have the 2 Panzer divisions next to the cith with 4 mps left and 2 hasty attacks if needed. I have on occasion had the NKVD unit hold which of course screws the whole thing up when it comes to naval landing the 2 divisions near Memel.

Evidently there was some heavy fighting in Riga as I came across this picture on the web:

And another. Modern pictures of the city show its rather beautiful and I would like to visit it someday.

Sorry for the Riga overkill but I found quite a few interesting pictures on the battle. I even found a color one of German troops with a Stug preparing for the battle to follow. I am now intetrested in reading up on the battle itself.

I love it when I actually find a color picture that denotes the particular place im looking for. Is it really where they say it is? I would go with yes well because why would someone be misleading about such a thing.

game is on hold for a week.