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Marshal Kulik flies over the Bialystok pocket in his classy 1920s reconnaissance biplane.
The fascist invader, our former allies, have decided to backstab us in an evil and non-heroic manner.
Over sixty of our finest Red Army units have been encircled. Our glorious VVS, the Red Airforce, has been decimated on the ground by cowardly air attacks!
Will Marshal Kulik break the Bialystok pocket?
Will I be fired from my work from home job because I am ignoring it for WITE2?
Will Gunnulf absolutely smash me?
Find out on the next episode of Clash of Titans.

Turn 1: Minsk and Riga have been captured by the fascist invader. The Southwestern front has been smashed and our finest divisions are in a disorganized rout. We have lost a grand total of 4,138 planes, 1606 pilots and 358,697 men. 2,453 of our glorious AFVs have been destroyed and 7,222 guns destroyed.
The death toll will continue to rise unless Marshal Kulik is able to break the pocket and advance on Berlin.

We will be screening the approaches to Smolensk and Vitebsk. The Northwestern divisions are mostly broken out, which should cause minor headache for the Germans. The Ukrainian front has formed a coherent line of defense.
I plan to organize my air force into three parts, under three different air fronts. Mig front, Lagg front and Yak front, and setting them to their respective altitudes. If someone knows a better way of organizing them let me know. Outdated planes have been set to fly at low altitudes to bait out German operational losses. The Long Range Air Command is set to ground support, and will be used to later bomb railyards if the enemy advances too far towards the Caucasus.
I will attempt to wear down the Luftwaffe in 1941.

Lol will you be fired from your work home job is the real question, lol…😆

The Germans come ever closer to Smolensk, cautiously meeting my screens who make a hasty retreat.
The 25th Mechanized Corps consisting of two Mechanized divisions and two Tank Divisions prepares to meet the German panzers. (Seen in red)
These are extremely dangerous 100 toe formations which have been refitting.

The Germans this turn kill 500,000 men in the Bialystok pocket, however our Northwestern Front mechanized corps slips out! Routing and running through the woods... These divisions each have hundreds trucks and numerous AFVs, which will be put to good use.

A firm front forms at Leningrad, with our best corps and army leaders. Airborne brigades, naval batallions and NKVD detachments are attached to our Rifle Divisions on the Novgorod Luga Line. Meanwhile, the approaches are screened with our toughest mech corps. At best, we may destroy some German AFVs. At worst, we will buy some time for Leningrad to dig in. Tallinn, the Estonian capital, is ordered to holdout against all odds by Stalin.

Meanwhile, a division escapes the Latvian port and lands at Leningrad, ready to man the defenses of the city! This division held heroically against a German assault on the port and was finally ordered to retreat via ships to Leningrad. Although a symbolic victory, this division is the only to escape the German encirclements in good order! It will hold out in Leningrad until the Germans are thrown back.

ORIGINAL: ToxicThug11

Will I be fired from my work from home job because I am ignoring it for WITE2?

You know, I have been thinking long and hard on this.

Kulik was a part of the Soviet upper class. He had a daughter, and that daughter married a high ranking general. And their children probably married highly as well.

What I am saying is that there is a non-0% chance that there is some post-Soviet oligarch today with Kulik as their great grandfather, who would surely pay highly for a full-time historical rehabilitation-ist. You could solve all your problems at once!

Are you Grigory Kuliks grandson?

buffed VVS

You misspelled Luftwaffe

T3: After our entire Front takes a harsh beating, men of the 25th Mech Corps surge out from Smolensk to meet the fascist invaders! In what can only be described as a glorious victory for the Soviet Union, the entire panzer division is SMASHED! All AFVs are destroyed or damaged!

https://youtu.be/UQnXBk27XzI?t=40
1152 artillery pieces and 1422 AFVs smash the worthless Fascist invader division. This song made me decide to attack.

Thundering with fire, glinting with steel,
The tanks will begin a harsh campaign!
When we're called to battle by Comrade Stalin,
And the First Marshal will lead us in this battle!

Turn 3 is certainly an interesting one.

Consolidating our army, making sure our tanks get the AFVs they need, making sure the different theater boxes get the material they deserve. Disbanding torn apart tank and mechanized divisions, we make sure there is an overflowing truck supply on turn 1.

First, we start with consolidating all our anti air into the army, which is already taking a toll on the German air force. Next, we ensure all motorcycle regiments are disbanded and integrated into Tank Divisions.

Finally, our air force is ready. The MIG 3 is assigned to the most crucial front (the center), LAGG3s are assigned to Leningrad and all Yak planes are assigned to the Bryansk Front (Currently the Orel MD).

The I-16 and I-153 have been neatly assigned to the south and center (Northwestern, Southwestern and Southern air fronts) where they will fly at low altitudes, which will hopefully cause further operational losses to German planes which attempt to dogfight with our outdated planes.

In this image, you see that the Germans have 3,927 AFVs left. The Germans are taking nearly equal losses in the air.

[&o] Kulik Marshal of Air, Artillery and Tank

of course
another game where Soviets are hunting for a panzers already from a turn 3!
and then some people refuses to believe that this is not ok

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Smolensk_(1941)
It's actually fairly historical but needs more Soviet losses when attacking IMO.

It is whole battle of Smolensk, july - september.

And lets look onto losses. 760k for Soviets.

Its not happening in a game. Not even close.

For the whole `41 Soviets, in game, suffer only 2.5-3 mil opposed to 5-6 mil in history.

While IRL only in this battle it was already 760k

More over, there should be penalty for over stacking, which leads to additional losses, as discussed here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5149970

and only 3 divisions fit inside that limit, while you are attacking with 8?

I should note that the wikipedia article is the Russian historiography for the Battle of Smolensk, which includes forces that fought hundreds of kilometers away from the Smolensk and the Land Bridge area.

Please keep the discussions on game issues to other threads, let's not derail the AAR.

Thank you Erik for defending my AAR from fascist invaders!

Turn 4 status report:

The last of the Bialystok Pocket is destroyed and the Western Front is battered by German invaders.

"Comrade Stalin, the enemy has captured Vitebsk and Mogilev and are proceeding with haste to encircle the city of Smolensk."
Dmitry Pavlov is summoned to Moscow to answer for his criminal incompetence. He offers excuse after excuse for his embarrassments at Minsk but is finally given a pistol and told to "blow out what is left of his brains".

A new commander takes command of the Western Front! Semyon Timoshenko has a no nonsense approach to defending the motherland. He immediately orders new defensive lines built, and orders fresh counter offensives against the German invaders. The Western Front is reinforced by hundreds of planes, fresh divisions and reservists. Meanwhile, Bryansk, Rzhev, Kaluga and Vyazma are turned into fortress cities to be dug in and defended to the last man by Red Army militiamen.

Semyon Timoshenko directs the 19th Army to assault the V Corps which currently cuts off four of our finest divisions.
One attack goes well. The rest are a bloodbath. For a total of 500 AFVs lost, our counteroffensives achieve little.




While the Mogilev Pocket is temporarily relieved, the impact of this is questionable compared to our 500 tanks lost.
(Option A: Germans must encircle them again, then pass another turn to surrender them. Option B: Germans bite the bullet and rout them, this will waste German CCP and stall our opponent's advance somewhat. Option B also means these divisions will live to fight another day!)


The admirable efforts of the 19th Army destroy a considerable amount of guns in the German 5th ID. Now it is time to pile reservists into Smolensk and contest the German crossing of the river.

Was the waste of Soviet AFVs worth it? In this game we will get into the mind of a true Soviet commander and launch many ill fated counter offensives.

Turn 4. The current state of the Southwestern Front. The 26th Army and 5th Army consists of extremely dangerous mobile formations. The enemy fears them. It is time to decide the fate of the German Panzer Group 1 which has dangerously stretched itself thin with its snail paced advance. Kirponos is removed from command. Marshal Shaposhnikov mulls a potential counterattack to cut off the German advance...