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We are playing the following settings and house rules.

No Ground Attack ADs except Axis T1.
No city fort in Kerch.
No Axis allies (SUs, aircraft...) in the Northern zone.

TB control - Off
Reduced Retreat Attrition - On
Combat Delay Effects - Reduced
Miscellaneous Leader Deaths - Reduced
Amphib invasions - Limited
No temp motorisation - On
No airborne ops - On
Extended play.

Morale mod.
Germany/Finland/Slovakia - Early +0. Late +5.
Italy/Romania/Hungary - Early +10. Late +10.
Soviet - Early. +0, Late +0.

Have completed a couple of games with similar settings, however this is the first time with Reduced combat delay (it halves CD, rounding down). That is going to help Axis early war, and is going to make for a more volatile game.
I have played Leumas once before and he trashed me, we have switched sides this time – both of us playing with our less experienced army and am expecting a fair share of blunders from my side.
The aim of the settings is to make for a game that is more balanced throughout, so there is help for the Soviets early war to counter grinding by Axis, and help for Axis later war with the morale boost. And also to try and improve on historical accuracy with the house rules. From my experiences in the earlier games the Axis Allies are still pretty rubbish even on +10.

T01.

Solid opening by Axis, no chance of breaking any of the pockets.
Southern front not activated.

In the North we start building a defence line on the Pskov river, will try to hold it for a turn. There were 2 Panzers attacking Riga so maybe he is not intending to attack directly.
Usual build up around Smolensk with a thin defence on the Mogilev river. Have stacked 3 divisions in Vitebsk, maybe it will hold for a turn.
In the South the main effort is to block the double pincer through from Proskurov and coming up from Bessarabia.
VVS all on REST.
All SUs send back to STAVKA.

The Long Game
OK should be good best of luck to both players.

T02.
North. Axis storm the river below Pskov, looks like they are taking the direct route to Lenningrad. More reinforcements on the way.

Center. Vitebsk holds and we pocket a few lead Panzers, will try and hold on for another turn and OK even if it gets pocketed. Meanwhile they storm Mogilev will see next turn if they go North, South or straight on from there.

South. Another big pocket below Vinnetsa, couldn’t be helped but sad to see those Mountain divs lost. Run Run Run.

Axis were using GS in the Center and North, have activated the VVS around Pskov so will see what happens with them next turn and how much fighter cover they can bring up, certainly outside 109 AS range.

T03.
North. Pskov is pocketed but we manage to counter pocket the lead 5 Panzers so it may hold out for another turn. Also cut off a couple of mot reg’s heading for Talinn. Most of our reinforcements sent here from last turn so beginning to build up a defensive force.
I forgot to set combat support ON so all my aircraft are wasted.

Center. Vitebsk is pocketed so with its’ 3 divisions, we break the other pocket of the two free divisions though that will cost us a couple more. However should delay any attack towards Smolensk. I risk leaving the Smolensk area thinly garrisoned, could be a problem if they attack there. Trying to keep some forces NE of Vitebsk as a threat to the advance along the main Moscow highway.
Strong Axis push towards Bryansk so reinforcements being rushed there next turn.
One of our pocketed units retook Kaunas so that may mess up their rail network.

South. Steady push towards Kiev. We cut off what is probably the cav division in the marshes.
Bad news on the coast, 10 or so divisions pocketed. We break the pocket for this turn but they are lost, should have run faster ! A lot of Panzers used to make this pocket, but a good move by Axis.

VVS. For combat have the Migs on AS and Yaks/Laggs doing GS with Tacs and LBs. So far only in the North.

T04.
North. Pskov is pocketed for sure this time and Parnu taken. My other ‘annoying’ units were routed away so just 2 divisions lost here. We pull back a few hexes, maybe another turn before the main battle begins.
Combat Support was on but with only 20-80 bombers flying they are not doing much damage even though the Luftwaffe was absent.

Center. Vitebsk garrison of 3 divisions are killed, the rest of the Soviets are routed away. He has not moves up to Smolensk yet which is surprising, there is not really a great rail network to Bryansk being established so far so I am not at all clear about Axis plans.
We pocket the maybe 6 lead Panzers heading East. Am concerned that there may be a pocket coming around Gomel but hopefully that has put it off for a turn.

South. Axis are pushing dramatically forwards towards D’town.
Garrison of Odessa is pulled out by sea with minimal losses.
Am planning to let them swarm forwards in the South and only make a stand around Rostov and perhaps something in the Crimea.

Put in charge of STAVKA and we start upgrading Army leaders.

T5.
North. Pskov taken and a limited advance towards Lenningrad. Could be he is looking at the big loop to the East of Lenningrad rather than a frontal assault. GS not having a lot of effect but every little helps. No Axis fighters yet.

Center. They advance up to Smolensk but we pocket the lead 6 infantry divisions. Might let us hold out for another turn.
In the Bryansk area Axis continue to charge forwards, despite having their lead elements pocketed last turn.
We pull back from Gomel, he can certainly pocket a few divisions here if he wants to – just hope it is not a big one.
There are a lot of Panzer divisions that were in this area that have disappeared, so not much idea where the next strike will come.

South. Abandon Kiev. Hopefully D’town will hold for a turn and maybe Kherson. Depends where the Panzers are going.
Two divisions caught in Nikolaev.

T06
Disaster - Axis have pocket nearly 70 divisions.
It is possible to break the Kiev pocket for a turn but nothing can get out so they are all lost.
I conceded the game at this point.

Leumas and I had some discussion after the game.
Clearly I have played poorly and misjudged how far his Panzers could get to make that huge pocket. I thought that because they were some distance from their nearest depots they just wouldn't have the MPs, but they did. Well played by him !

Reflecting on the game set up, I still think giving the Axis allies +10 Morale a and German +5 for the later game is better than the vanilla set up.
Regarding the house rule of 'no GA' it doesn't look to be a viable solution to what in my opinion is an unrealistic air war. Leumas didn't use the Luftwaffe at all after the initial couple of turns. So no AS screen. The VVS was free to do GS and while I didn't use it as much as I could have really it is pretty anemic in defence. You can get effective GS with the Soviets early war when you are attacking with 2-3 stacks of units because that brings in sufficient aircraft. So at the cost of just a few elements disrupted he got a significant amount supplies for the Panzers which certainly paid off.

Ooof, didnt see that coming. Thanks for teh play-through and better luck next time. What where the casualties at the end?

Thanks for playing! This game has been wierd, last turn I was thinking my game was almost over due to big error defending the flanks and the rail way cut off in Kaunas

PD: If you want any screenshoot I also can provide.

What where the casualties at the end?

Game is over, but the first 6 turns were fairly normal.

Thanks to both of you. After the last very long Tyronec campaign, I thought this one would be long too

Leumas06 wrote: Wed Mar 26, 2025 8:11 am

PD: If you want any screenshoot I also can provide.

Please share print screens from your maneuvers that led to the encirclement of the Soviet troops, if you can. Its very interesting.

At the begining of the T6

Basically the IRL Kiev pocket, just bigger. Always nice to see history repeating itself.