FITE2 Cpt Flam Axis, Larry Soviets

[larryfulkerson]

Cpt Flam asked me for a game of FITE2 with me as the Soviets and I said yes of course. So Patrick is the Axis and here's his combat replay. There were 15K+ events in the playback. Patrick seems to know what he's doing and I think his first turn is one of the best I've seen. He reports that 2500 Soviet planes were evaporated. We're off to a good start.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been flying the aircraft that will fly to the environs near Moscow and I'm stacking aircraft with the same range to the stack that has that range. Makes it easier to find the fighters and bombers later. I expect to have to rest them about 5 turns or so before they will turn green and regain their supply levels and become combat ready again.

[larryfulkerson]

My theater recon value is so low I can't see the Axis units unless I'm almost adjacent to them. Consequently there's not a lot of Axis units on this map. But you can get a rough idea where they are from all the blue dots. They are probably aimed at Minsk. I would be.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got a lot of ships at Sevastopol and I need to park them in a port and there's only three ports near S. so I'll have to stack them and I'm not all that comfortable with that. An aircraft could hit multiple ships in one strike. But I'd like to keep them together if possible. I'm planning on making some kind of SCTF to strike out at the Axis ships. And I'd like to catch some Axis planes near enough to the beach that I can bombard them. If worse comes to worse I can park them near Odessa for their support. I need to fly some fighters in to S. for a CAP to protect the ships. Stukas are deadly against the ships.

[Teufeldk]

In FITE2 Stukas are no more deadly to planes than most other planes.

That does not mean your ships are safe - just safer.

[cpt flam]

as Larry offered me, i will post to.
my second turn saw liberation of Kaunas and Vilna.
At first glance, Stavka did not send orders to many units and we have to fight with them.
Here is a picture from AGC. I will free Bialystok from Russia next turn, after their isolation.
10th Army and a mechanized corp are there.

[cpt flam]

And now about AGS.
Same thing for Lvov which will be cut from supply.
I like to use train for reinforcement to keep their supply and effectiveness high.

I have already losses in infantry equal to about 3 division.
Vehicles and artillery are not much impacted.
Air losses are fine but few replacement.
Soviet navy did an airfield bombardment against Bulgaria, which is much more friend with them ?

[larryfulkerson]

There were 12,360 events in Patrick's combat replay and it took about 15 minutes to watch the whole thing. But it was informative and I enjoyed it. Now I have to do my turn 2 magic and bust some bridges and start building an MLR somewhere. The first turn didn't have all that many units that I could move. I'm hoping to be able to move a lot more this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

The first thing I do is hold down the period key to disembark everybody embarked on a train. Then I check out the aircraft and ground those that don't seem combat worthy. Too few airplanes will get a squadron grounded for a while. Red planes are flown to some high supply rest area to refill with planes and rest until they are green again. Konigsburg has multiple airfields in it's hex and the rail runs through there and I can park an HQ unit at a good spot to be adjacent to two airfields simultaneously to boost the two aircraft units a tiny bit. That's the theory. OKH is a good HQ to use for that.

[larryfulkerson]

The first thing I do is hold down the period key to disembark everybody embarked on a train. Then I check out the aircraft and ground those that don't seem combat worthy. Too few airplanes will get a squadron grounded for a while. Red planes are flown to some high supply rest area to refill with planes and rest until they are green again. Konigsburg has multiple airfields in it's hex and the rail runs through there and I can park an HQ unit at a good spot to be adjacent to two airfields simultaneously to boost the two aircraft units a tiny bit. That's the theory. OKH is a good HQ to use for that.

As you can see this bad boy has a proficiency of the high teens and that's not nearly high enough for combat. I need to park this guy in some back water area and use him for training. Too bad we can't disband airplanes. I wonder if there's a way to safely increase his proficiency? Making ground attacks against small enemy units? Lots of rest?

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Riga area looking south and I've been railing reinforcements to the riverbank and I'm going to get them to spread out and prevent Axis units from streaming over the river. Or at least harrass them. Patrick and his forces are advancing and will be at Riga soon and I need to be ready if possible. He's probably going to just run over my units and keep going. I've blown some bridges but not nearly enough yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoomed out view of what's going on in the north. I've been railing in units until I ran out of rail cap and now they are marching to the sound of the guns and I'm starting to get quite a mob there. I might be able to defend pretty soon. I haven't found any arty to move there yet. I'm thinking of deploying some fighters to the Riga area to CAP and I've got some IL-4's that are green already....they can CS.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south the Axis forces are surrounding and destroying a lot of Soviet units just because they couldn't get away fast enough. A lot of them were in garrison mode and couldn't be moved. I've been busy blowing bridges and I've gotten started on an MLR of sorts. Well, maybe call it a light screen. I don't think I'm going to be able to flesh it out with units before the Axis units will arrive and that the Axis units will just slip through the gaps and get into the Soviet backfield and before long my units will all be surrounded and eventually destroyed. And the Soviets know this. Well, they knew what they were getting into when they signed up. I'm thinking of flying a few good fighters down here. I have some IL-4's that can reach this area from Moscow and I'm wondering if I should lay down some CS this turn. At least I THINK they can reach this area.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a view of the Stalin Line down south and you can see how I'm going to try to defend in depth and cause the Axis units to have to slow down to take care of all the Soviet units buying some time for my reinforcements to reach the front lines.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoomed out view of the south and you can see the huge gap in the Soviet screen and that's where Patrick is headed. D'oh. I've got to move some units into that area and build a roadblock. Patrick will have units there before I get there probably.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the Riga area right now. You can see that Patrick's forces aren't very far away from my lines. He's going to arrive next turn most likely. I'm not quite ready yet, all the arty hasn't arrived yet, and there's some more units on their way that aren't here yet but I've put up a light screen at least. They are little more than roadblocks and won't hold very long. Another MLR is going to have to be built and quickly somewhere around Pskov. And more troops are needed yet arouind Narva, the bottleneck west of Leningrad. Maybe Riga will hold out longer than I expect and I can get more people here before he assaults my river defenders.

[larryfulkerson]

In a fit of bravado one of my HQ units stayed behind to blow bridges and now is the last unit to cross the bridge to safety. They are holding the bridge for him. Others of my units didn't make it all the way across the bridge and are being surrounded and killed as we speak. The Axis forces will be at the river soon and I'm not at all sure that my defenders are rested enough to hold their positions. I expect the Axis to cross this river with ease. I'm building an MLR at Orsha leading north and south from there, and I don't have but maybe 20% of the troops I need there. I really need to hold the Axis at these river crossings here to buy enough time for the reinforcements to reach Orsha and join the line.

[cpt flam]

so now my view of the front at the end of my third turn
in the north, i'm a bit late following many fights
Liepaja has not failed yet as a rifle div reinforced the garrison
for time being rail followed advance

[cpt flam]

AGC
first units are closing toward Minsk

infantry are running but not enough to follow advance
usually Motorized create pockets and infantry come to clean

[cpt flam]

AGS
same thing almost
Tarnopol is nearly reach

Stalin line become visible
some Soviets came to awake part of Rumania army