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Huge map (120? by 100) dominated by an east west valley in the center and heavily wooded mountains to the extreme north and south. Small hills and groves of trees dot the valley.

~6500 points, USSR (Tomanbeg) vs Germany (TheOverlord)
The large map and low points makes for an interesting battle as there is never enough units to cover as well as I would like...but will make for a splendid battle.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Two different styles here, methinks. the map is a 100 x 220, which to me is a medium map, Large being 100x240, small being 100x160, and anything less then 100x160 a waste of drive space. So Olord starts off with a small drop of para targets( or as they are known in the Air Force, Meat Bombs). I like the idea and would have done the same, playing germans. Soviets don't do much in the way of para-targets, so I don't either. One of the paras got lucky and found a tall tree on a hill and has a 90 meter elevation, which give LOS to almost everywhere. I took him under fire. I normally don't shoot at targets with less then a 20% hit chance, since all it does is give away my position, but I want to be able to fire on the para next turn which means shooting enough to get him on my target line with 3 or 4 units. Now he'll have to move it or lose it. Can't have Olord peeking over my shoulder watching what I'm doing. I fired a pre turn bombardment to see if I could supress som germans from the get go, but I didn't hit anything that I'm aware of. My units are all set to defend and ranged down and arty has been requested, so It's time to send the turn over.
T.

Not much to report...yet.

One unit of paratrooper crying for their mommies from being fired upon.

Soviet recon units spotted advancing.

Drop some smoke to block a bit of the long range view of the bad guys.

Back to Tomanbeg.

Duh.
Hit submit before attaching turn...

Ok, even Professor woods would be proud of the way olord has pushed his scouts up. He got there firstest down south, I don't think he has got there with the mostest though. We will see. If he sent an entire scout platoon, then I could be in trouble. But if he sent an entire scout platoon down south, then the implication is he is using his para targets as a screen up north. Since I have them running and screaming in fear, there won't be much of a screen there. I did not run the Woody on this map, so the woods are normal WaW woods and not the thick narely kind that the Woody leaves behind. So with a vis range of 51, I can see 2 hexes into the woods. That make running armor through the woods not only feasable, but desireable. Slap a leg unit on top and drop it every hex to look around, and if the german infantry aren't stationary for a turn or so and in defend mode, I'll spot them more often then not. And make him pay for his insolence. After all, the Hansel and Gretal thingy would have worked out a lot different if the witch had T-34's.
The bad news is that he did spot my Off Board arty during that pre game shoot. That means my off board tubes are in a use it and lose it condition, from turn 1. That sucks. I had wanted to pound him for a while.
T.

Soviet Motorcycles probing to the south engageing German scout units.

To the north T-60's, T-34's, and infantry are pushing towards the VH's. Germany infantry too busy looking for clean drawers to do much about them....at the moment.

Other soviet units spotted advancing. Too far away to engage.

Found another scout team in the south. Ran them off, and captured the southernmost V-flag. I now have 3 of the 4 point per turn flags. Das is goot, I can hear those points adding up. cha-chingngng. Killed a para target up north and located and routed another. They are tough to kill, but after shooting them a few times, tossing grenades into their newly cleaned shorts, and grinding them under my tracks, they expired. Spotted my first Tiger. He looks like he is making a bee line for Jani's Roadhouse and Titty bar. Can't say as to how I blame him, it's a long thirsty drive across the steppes. But this is war and I'm afraid the Panzer drivers will just have to stay thirsty. We must defend the Rodina, but most of all we must defend our Titty Dancers from the Nazi's.
T.

Olord I guess you want a file also.
T.

German forces move into central vh's (only worth points at end of battle). Soviets control 3 of 4 turn based vh's still.

Many soviet units spotted - trucks, T-34's, infantry. T-34 takes a pot shot at an armored car, Panzer takes a couple shots of its own as a greeting

German recon patrol inflicts casualties on 2 motrocycle teams forcing them to retreat.

The shootout between scouting elements continue s in the south. I have 2 motorcycle squads ganging up up on 1 4man scout team, so I ecpect to win the shootout. I'm bringing up help, just to make sure. Overlord has taken the truck stop, so I put arty down behind it, hoping to catch reinforcements coming up. If that battery stays unspotted, I will walk it up to the truck stop. In the north, I have decide to not fight for now. I will leave the woods full of SS paratroopers(?) alone. They don't have enough mobility to bother me where they are, and I don't see the point in losing units fighting them. But I will fight the troops coming to support them. 1st priority is killing tracks, in hopes of reducing Olords mobility even farther. the Luftwaffe put in an appearance. I didn't expect that, and will have to leave my AAA trap in place. I got lucky there. one more turn and I was going to start moving up the flak guns to cover my infantry assault with more direct fire. The Bf-110 attacked my T-34s fencing in the paras. so Maybe olord wants to develop his left flank. We will see.
T.

Darn, I keep forgetting to attach the game files.

South is quiet.

Germans control all vh's in the center and reinforce their grip.

In the north, several T-34's and supporting infantry are spotted moving towards the northern most vh (german controlled).
A BA-10 is destroyed by a Panzer and the tank withdraws, happy for now with one kill.


Things will be getting very dirty very quickly in the northern woods, me thinks....

Bumpin heads up north. I K-killed an Mk-IVg and put the fear of T-34's into a AC or two. Olord ran a couple of more airstrikes on my spear heads. He is a lot bolder then I am. My T-34's are shooting at 100 meters, which is inside my comfort margin for airstrikes. I caught a pair of trucks trying to get at the V-flag just south of the tank battle. Shot them up and the passengers are now fleeing. I was tempted to shoot the mmg and the rifle squd, but I think it'll pay off later to concentrate on his transport. In the south, I'm pushing forward. It looks like I was correct about Olord moving his left flank up behind his para drop. I'm inside his start line in the south, with out seeing much. caught and killed a truck and have an AC spotted and I'm starting to stalk it. Finished off his recon team, spotted and killed another. I have a strong scout force behind his left flank and am moving up a tank rider company to reinforce my recon unit. I'm gonna start another T-34 company behind the tank riders. I would start 2, but I want to see how he reacts to having half an T-34 Battalion wandering around his rear areas. I've spotted a bunch of Mk-IV's and a pair of Tigers, So I'm thinking there is a Pak front out there some where, or Olord bought all Mk-IV's for his medium tanks. I hadn't planned on committing any real strength until turn 14 or so, but if opportunity is knocking, I WILL answer the door. At the truck stop, I continue softening up troops. Got 2 batteries unspotted this turn so I fired both. I don't see any point in saving ammo, since I expect to lose my 76.2's to counter battery way before they shoot of all their rounds. So far so good. If I'm lucky and he responds the way I want him to when he reacts to having his flank turned, then I might get to use my blunt object.
T.

In the north, I have surrounded and taken out 4 T-34's, two of which were routed by the airstrikes and unable to defend themselves. An infantry squad was also destroyed.

There is a very lucky BA-10 as well that took hits from a 2cm auto cannon and a hit from a PzIV......the force is strong in that one.

In the center, the vh's are reinforced and so we wait to see what Stalin will send at us....

In the south, a Tiger takes out a T-34 at long range. That crew earned a case of beer for that shot! Just a reminder that the flank is not as soft as it may appear....

I have the center, and the northern most vh for now and the fight seems to be going my way so far for the second vh in the north.

Well, it cost me a T-34 to find out where his Tiger is. To paraphrase the Panser Bush(aka Psnzer Blitz) manual 'What is one rat more or less to the pack?' And I was right about the north. It cost me a T-34 platoon to find out what I already knew, that there is nothing there worth fighting for. Especially if it means facing Tigers at 100 meters. So he can have those two. That means we will be tied for a while on the PPT meter. I picked up about 200 points by holding 1 hex for 4 turns. I've traded 4 T-34's and a pair of Ba-10's for 2 Mk-IV's and a pair of para squads. So I should be about 150 points ahead, give or take a bit. That is a wash. He can get several more T-34's if he wants to be agressive this turn. But the real battle will be at Tommy's truck stop. I added some smoke for tommy. I didn't get any off board tubes this turn but they are zeroed in and ready for next turn. It is yime to start pounding the truck stop. 10 turns of arty and I'll be primed for my infantry to rush it. Send in 30 or 40 T-34's at the same time and there will be another greasy spot on the road to Berlin.
T.

So, it turns out that there were 3 more T-34's to the north. Not any more! Also took out a BA-10 and some infantry and claimed the last norther VH for the Fatherland.

The center is quiet. T dropped smoke and few shells, no damage.

To the south, more T-34's and infantry spotted prowling about.

30 to 40 T-34s are still to come!!??:eek:

I expected to be outnumbered.......but that is a big potential ouch.....
We shall see how it goes...there is lots of open space the T-34's will need to cross and the waiting guns of the Panzers are more accurate so we shall see if the Reich can hold off the Red Horde...or as T put it, the Red Rats?;)

I have never played against an opponent that counted points so closely. Interesting.......I had to adjust my own planning slightly to accomodate this new (at least to me...) perspective.

Lets see if I adjusted correctly......

Col Pugovkin isn't happy about losing most of a Tank Company in a fight for something he didn't want anyway. But he remembers last year about this time when he was a tank gunner in a BT-5 and the only survivor of his battalion. So it could be worse. And it looks like the maskirovka is working so far. The Nazi beasts are almost where he wants them and they are getting softened up nicely. Pugovkin needs the nazi's to be soft. A smashing defeat of the spearhead and he can put on a star. That means he won't get shot at so much and much better food and a lot more vodka.
T.

Nice story - you missed your calling!:)

Yeh, I should have been a warlord for the great Kahn. And as far as the point counting goes, the points determine who wins or loses. And by games theory definitions, I'm a "C" personality. That means I'm not really motivated by winning, but I fooking hate losing. Which is why my record is nearly always ties. So I track the points to make sure I won't lose. In this game I'm not sure it matters since it is just about impossible for either of us to get a 3 to 1 or better margin. It would require that one side destroy the other without any loses. That won't happen with humans. And you have figured out my plan. T-34's cost about 65 points each during this time period. So that was 100 T-34's. I couldn't do that because I needed some supporting troops, Arty, and scouts. But I got as close as I could. That is very historical. The Soviets were big believers in mass, and It was unusal for them to commit armor in less then groups of 50-60. And the point behind all the small caliber arty is to spread suppression and kick up dust. I want to fight at less then 10 hexes with about a 5 to 1 ratio. Getting my T-34's into that range will be a challenge. The trick for Tigers is to put a scout or sniper with each Tank, and to buy no more Tigers then you have scouts or Snipers for. I didn't see you doing that in or little brush up north, but I don't know if thats because you don't know that trick or if you were dropping your riders before engaging. We will see.
T.

The Soviets philosphy has allways been "if we cant build a better weapon, we'll just make a sh*t load of what we do have." The sad thing (for me) is it works. At about 3 or 4 to one, the superiority of even the Tigers can be negated. And you seem to have plenty of tanks to spare.

Given what little I do have to work with, I will have to hope for accurate shots and fall back. I figured there would be alot of Soviet armor (granted, you bought more than I thought you would - the joys of playing a new opponent!) and that my best shot at the middle vh's would be to take them early, dig in and wait foryou to come. Other wise if there were 30 or 40 T-34s parked outside Tommies ordering burgers then I would probably not be able to take it.

Its obvious now, I also chose to only focus on the north and let you take the southern half of the map simply because ther arent enough Germans to go around at the moment. The game would be over just that much quicker if I tried.

Yeah, I know about the trick with scouts / snipers. Throwing an infantry squad / mg on a tank (meat armor!) is handy as well, but the **** German infantry squads dont fit on a tank, and I just hate having to give up a man or two to get the squad on there.

I usually either get riders or send armor out behind an infantry screen (which is what I did in the north due to the woods) which helps in spotting for the big guns as well. Given the wide open spaces of most of the map, it has been sufficient to have a few well placed lookouts and hlftracks / armored cars for spotting, so far anyways.

My comment about the points was just that they are worth alot on this map. Makes them a lot more important. I always felt the true measure of who wins is who commands the battle field the longest / best or controls the pace of the battle, or draws the most blood without getting too beat up themselves. Unfortunately it is not always clear who the real "winner" is based on those ideals (as in a real battle I suppose) so points and big flags painted on the ground (or roof as it may be) are the guage we are stuck with.

So, that battle for Tommy's (and his 9 flags!) continues!

Scratch three more T-34's....so now there must only be something like 40 or 50 to go? :rolleyes: )

Yeah, no problem.....