Workshop for the new guys - Barbarossa 41

[larryfulkerson]

I think it was Lobster who suggested that we do workshops for the new guys and I think that's a good idea so I
thought I'd get busy and put something together. I wish I had something like this when I was learning.

At any rate, here we are at the start of Barbarosa '41 modded by me to give RR engineers to all the engineering
units. This scenario is my favorite small one because it has few units and only 40 some turns.

My strategic plan: to just sweep to the east and kill all the Soviet units and capture some objectives. But
mostly kill Soviet units.

So I'm going to see about maybe skipping Leningrad and south of Kiev and just grab Moscow the first thing.

[larryfulkerson]

Before I move any of the LCU's ( Land Combat Units ) I like to adjust their working environment which means I check the
deployment of the supporting aircraft and arty. I like to give my guys a break if I can. A safer environment is just
what they have been asking for lately.

I like to use CS missions during the movement phase of the turn and then just before the turn ends I like to switch
some of the CS to INT so that the enemy might get stiffled a bit.

[larryfulkerson]

The OOB says there's 400+ units in play. I hadn't realized that there that many. I like to use the OOB order to move
the units so that I don't miss anybody. The next thing I would do is go through the force and make sure all the arty
in the force is deployed so it will support including that arty in the HQ units. It might take a while. And THEN move
your units.

[larryfulkerson]

I took a college class in ROTC about small unit tactics and it was mostly shoot, move, and communicate stuff and
didn't cover a lot but I've studied the situation we have here and I've looked ahead and determined Riga is a
suitable next immediate goal and I've scopped out the bridges and the path to get there and I've determined that
the follow on forces would travel fastest on the road so my task to get to the goal faster is to clear the road to
Riga. I've got to preserve the places where a bridge can be dropped and I'd like to avoid placing a LOT of BTS
timestamps all over the place so that means I need to surround my targets before I kill them and do it in the
fewest number of rounds.

EDIT: The Bold Yellow line leading to Riga is covering the road beneath and I probably shouldn't have covered
up the road........now, the way it is you're probably thinking it's the yellow-brick road to OZ.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay....I've had a look at the resources at hand and I've come up with a plan to use the SF dudes to surround the two
Soviet border guard dudes and then we'll use the INF to destroy them leaving just one BTS in each hex. Not a line of
them as I chase the unit.

[larryfulkerson]

The SF guys have such a high recon value that they can move adjacent to the enemy units to get around them into the rear
easily. So I've moved everbody and I'm ready to see if they will evaporate and disappear or if they are going to be
stubborn and make me attack them. If I hadn't blocked them they would probably RBC upon attack.

[larryfulkerson]

One Soviet unit evaporated and one needs an attack. Now, I can move the rest of the column around behind the defenders
and use the road to move toward Riga. I'll do that next.

[larryfulkerson]

So I moved some uncomitted units and the situation changed. So doing a recon and blocking the Soviet units
as best as I can I built a corridor of sorts and I think an attack in the south will clear the road up to the
next base/city. I want to kill the little one in the middle first so as to trap the one southernmost.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's me killing the little one making the attack to the south be a blocked one.

EDIT: Yeah, I noticed the air losses numbers changing too and I have no idea why.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's me killing the guy on the south. That opens the road to the next base to the north so we go there next.
Also, I'm going to try to surround the Soviets to the west so I can destroy them sometime later this turn or next.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay I've moved a few units and I can't seem to get anybody on the north end of the Soviets so there's nothing to do
but move them hopefully off the road. I manipulated the enemy stack by clicking on it to move the arty unit to the top
so as to maximize the chance of an RBC from that stack.

[larryfulkerson]

I've decided that the thing to do is move the unit on the left until I occupy the top two hexes thereby blocking
the small stack before I destroy it.

[larryfulkerson]

Check. Okay, the next step is to annilalate the small stack.

[larryfulkerson]

And the Combat Planner suggests that the success chances are good. So now we move on to other things. Move those units
that haven't moved yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a point I found newsworthy. I was moving units and came to a completely new formation and the current
unit was the first in that formation: the HQ unit and I expected it to have some arty in it like they sometimes
do in other scenarios but this HQ unit, I got to looking at the equipment, doesn't have any organic arty so there's
no real good reason to have the HQ unit on the front lines. My rule of thumb is not unless they have arty to share.

[larryfulkerson]

So I moved the Panzers through the corridor looking for a left hook into the Riga environs.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay the north is all set for a while, the OOB is moving to units further south so the attention goes there.

[larryfulkerson]

So we're moving units and now it's time to clear a road to allow the follow on units free passage.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's me clearing the road leaving just one BTS time stamp spot and now I'm thinking I should try to block those Soviet
units from getting away. Next logical thing after that would be to move some people SE to get into the path of the
Soviets down south.

[larryfulkerson]

So I move a few units and the situation changes. There's a heumongous stack of Soviet stuff in an Urban hex, including
armor in the stack. I'm going to need the Panzers to handle this one I think. Now to move the rest of the units.