Operation Shiny Chevy

[larryfulkerson]

so um........Hey you guys:
I've made some changes to my D21 mod and I'm going to do an AAR about my playtesting session(s). Here below I have
attached my new scenario game save file where it's all set up ready to go and I haven't moved anybody yet. You will
probably need to change the missions given to the aircraft to suit your taste.

I myself like to do a lot of airfield attacks during the early turns because of the difference between the air shock values
for the two sides. I feel like I need to rid myself of the Soviet air force while it's relatively easy to do so. I'll never
have air losses lower than during these early turns.

[larryfulkerson]

It's still before the first combat phase, early in T1 and here's what's going on in the
south. I'm using my Panzer divisions to punch a hole that I can move my troops through to curl
around the Soviet lines to trap them and eventually liquidate them. It's important for me to
move my forces as fast as I can to arrive where the Soviets are going before they get there so I
can kill as many as possible before they can escape to the east across the Dneper river.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the view of the southern part of the advance right after the first combat round and you
can see how much progress has been made by comparing this image with the one above. I expect
this image to change more and more as the rounds pass in this turn. I've lost 511 HRS's so far.
Half my aircraft are resting due to the airfield strikes I made in the first combat round. I
seem to have destroyed 4165 Soviet aircraft and lost 10 Ju-88's, 9 He-111's, and 1 Buffalo.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T3 now and this is what's going on around Minsk right now. Notice how sparse
the Soviet units are. My shock level is 115 and the Soviet shock is 80 so I'm not
having too much trouble killing the Soviet units quickly and moving on. All my aircraft are green
except for three bombers and one fighter. The Axis rail damage level is 25% so there's a good
chance that my stepping on a rail hex will yield another good rail hex for me and the railhead is
keeping up with the advance. I had the opertunity to use my paratroopers a second time and placed
them where I thought the Soviet units might try to escape to the east. The Axis air cap will cease
in T4.

[larryfulkerson]

This is early in T3 and shows how I'm nearing Riga and I'm going to attempt to put a
pontoon unit on the river so my units can stream further northeast toward Leningrad. I'll
use the follow on forces to clear out the peninsula north of here and I'm going to move the Stukas
as far northeast as they can go to be able to reach the Bay of Leningrad and the Soviet ships parked
there. My goal now is to get my Panzers across the river and headed NE. At least the recon units.

[larryfulkerson]

This is mid-T3 and shows what's going on in the south. I seem to have punched a hole in the
Soviet lines and now my forces have a chance to run as fast and as far as they can to take advantage
of the hole. I have a large group of follow on forces that have just now finished mopping up and
need a new task. I'm going to move them toward the gap and hopefully I can get there before the
Soviets do.

I've got my engineers out front to repair the bridges just before the rest of the troops
arrive to use the bridge. The "Just-in-time" repair program I've got going on all over the map. The
chance to damage a rail by stepping on it is now 25% so I need to keep up with what's damaged yet and
fix it. The rails are just about the only reliable supply source worth capturing right now since the
rail damage chance is so low. I've got my recon units running along rails for the most part to convert
all the rail they can reach.

Half my aircraft are resting. I've got a squadron of Ju-86's ( Romanian )
down south and they struck one of the Soviet naval units down there ( 1 BB & 1 DD ) and lost three planes
but didn't even scratch the paint on the boats. Kind of frustrating.

[larryfulkerson]

Down south I broke a hole in the Soviet lines in a previous turn and now I'm pouring troops through
the hole. I seem to have run into a second Soviet line and I'll need to continue pushing SE and
see how much further I can go. The Hungarians and Romanians are both activated now and they are
coming in handy to help contain the Soviets. About half of my aircraft are resting. I've lost
1885 HRS's so far but there are still 31K+ assigned and 3612 on hand. I'm
pushing mainly on the roads and rails.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Minsk right now. I'm trying to surround the city before I start
destroying most of the Soviet defenders. I can't tell if I'm still on schedule or not. So far so
good. It's now 04Jul41 and the weather is cooperating. Supply levels are good and offers no
impediment to the advance. I'm still attempting to push as fast as possible to the east to trap all
the Soviet units before they can escape to the east side of the river Dneper.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Riga right now. I've gotten on the east side of the river and
I'm starting to zoom north along the coast and I'm fighting for more crossings. I'm thinking of
crossing at Riga with a lot of troops and moving SE along the river to trap the Soviet various
defenders at the crossings. Supply is down to 15 on the east side of the river. That's
adequate for the advance to continue.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally captured Minsk in T4 and I wasn't really expecting to be able to do that
until T5. So this is a good thing. The supply level is 12 at the tip of the
spear. About 9/10 of my aircraft are resting because of all the airfield attacks I did this
turn. But I sank a lot of Soviet planes doing so. I need to do all my airfield attacks in these
early turns because of the magnificent difference between air shock values of the two sides. The
Axis air shock is 140 and the Soviet air shock is 40. I'm trying to have my Panzer
divisions at the front leading the way. At least the recon units are doing well. I may well be
ahead of schedule now.

[larryfulkerson]

double post, sorry

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T6

[larryfulkerson]

This is a detailed view of the Pskov area right now. As you can see the supply level isn't
all that great at the tip of the spear. I haven't done any airfield strikes yet this turn but
already it's saying that 100 Soviet planes have been destroyed. Most of my land units are
green but there's quite a few yellow ones. All my aircraft are green except two bombers. I should
arrive at Pskov sometime next turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on just south of the Prypett Marshes. I'm going to try to surround these Soviet
units and destroy them over the next few turns. The supply level is 20 at the tip of the
spear. The weather is still good. The advance continues.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on at Orsha right now. I've captured a couple of crossings over the
Dneper river so it's just a matter of time before I have a lot of troops on the east side
of it. I want to push to the east of course, but at the same time I'd like to insert a lot of
troops on the east side of Kiev as well to capture that important crossing as well. Getting
on the east side of Kiev to cut off the flow of supply to the defenders there will help the
takedown of the city much easier and quicker without the magnificent losses I usually get from
attacking those large stacks of Soviet equipment with ample arty to back it up. I want to avoid that
in this time. About half of my aircraft are resing by this time in the turn.

[larryfulkerson]

"I just swung by the R&D Lab to talk to the eggheads and nerds we've hired to do our R&D. About a dozen of them doing various things to see what we can produce for the troops and the war effort in general. I used to work in high pressure solid state physics before the war so I'm particularly interested in what progress is made in that area.

There was a team of people close to the entrance doorway so I veered that way and had a good visit with them while they worked. They were pleased to show me the latest project they thought they might be able to pull off. It's a way to 3D print waffles for the troops for breakfast. They have developed a sort of "batter" that can be used for input and a low-powered infrared lazer to "bake" the batter as it's laid down. They decided to use some off the shelf software * ( Blender ) needed to produce the *.STL file needed by the 3D printer as input.

Using the current version it takes about 10-15 minutes per waffle. So the chow hall personale will have to start about mid-night or more specifically about 6 hours before breakfast starts to the make the waffles in order to have enough for an entire Batallion. They are having trouble getting the batter cooked just right. They are experimenting with batter flow rate and lazer power settings, etc. So far they have had the best results with 110 nanometers for the wavelength and about 21 watts of power with a batter flow rate of 1.12 grams per second. There are areas that are still doughy and areas that are too brown, almost burned. But they say they will have it worked out in a couple of days."


Notes: 1) those of you that have a problem with my R&D team using software written for a PC will have to assume my R&D folks invented one. C'mon go with it. It'll help with the illusion.

[larryfulkerson]

My R&D folks have done it again. They have developed an anti-anxiety medicine from a hemp-derivitive that is used for recreation by the troops. It's a hybrid of Gorilla Glue, Girl Scout Cookies and Cosmic Sprinkles. We're calling it "Spice". It's in the form of a doobie and comes in a metal tube designed originally for cigars. It's a doobie in a tubey. It comes in 0.5 grams, 1.0 grams, and 1.5 grams dosages. We've already done clinical trials and the data is looking good. We plan to start production in another 5 - 7 days so we can get it out to the troops by late October.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Pskov right now. We're fighting over the crossings and it looks like I may have captured one. Of course I need more than one so I'm going to get some troops across the river and help out the other crossings. I need those crossings to allow the supply net to flow to the east side of the river. The railhead isn't all that near but will soon catch up to the front now that the advance has stalled for a bit. We're in mid-July so there's plenty of time left to capture Leningrad yet. I'd like to go further east and then north to isolate the city from the rest of Russia. To prevent the Soviet reinforcements from getting into the Leningrad area. Especially via rail.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T8 front lines.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on to the west of Smolensk right now. I'm getting troops across the river slowly and pushing the Soviets back making my footprint bigger on the east side of the river.

All my aircraft are green except for one bomber.

Last turn I sank 5 Soviet DD's and inflicted some damage on another 7 DD's and one CL. For the loss of over 50 Stuka's. I'm not sure it was worth it.

The rail is keeping up now that the advance has stalled. So the supply level is in the 20's on the west side of the river. Supply hasn't started trickling over to the east side yet and supply is really low on the east side of the river. As soon as I get rid of some more of those Soviet units on the west side of the river the supply situation will probably start to improve.

I'm starting to get close to Smolensk. Elmer is railing all kinds of troops into this AO. I'm starting to think he may want to hold onto this area pretty badly. My engineers are coming in really handy to get my troops across the river without having to have a crossing.

The air shock for the Soviets is up to 50% now and airfield attacks are more costly so I've quit doing that. The bombers are coming in really handy on CS missions in that more than once I've seen Soviet attacks stopped in their tracks with heavy losses because of my bombers and fighters. The Soviets have started some INT missions. I know that because when I move my units sometimes they get interdicted. Especially on rail moves. Most especially when the path traverses a hex with an airfield.

The weather is still holding up even though it's 20Jul41 already.