Jim D Burns
Posts: 2731
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: offline
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Turn 7 - 7/31/41
2 x Armaments and 2 x heavy industry factories evacuated from Kremenchug. 3 x heavy industry factories evacuated from Krivoi Rog. 3 x armaments and 3 x heavy industry evacuated from Odessa. 3 x armaments factories evacuated from Nikolaev.
North of Leningrad saw my lines get crushed by the Fins. All my defensive CV's in every single battle dropped by hundreds of points, the largest drop saw a CV of 807 drop to 180. I'll keep up the defense, but it looks like I'll be pushed out of Finnish territory pretty quick.
Tallinn fell to a 5 division attack (3 regular infantry and 2 security) and was routed after first suffering two air strikes by Stukas.
Near Pskov the drive towards Leningrad only made one attack and recon shows the panzers were pulled back near the city of Pskov, obviously to resupply and refuel after their recent off-road jaunt to encircle Pskov probably drained their fuel reserves dry. The units evacuated last turn from the Pskov area continued to pull back this turn to the Luga River to begin digging in.
The big news in the north this turn was a deep and most unexpected penetration made by my opponent through the forest and swamp terrain west-southwest of Velikie Luki. The entire 29th Army that was defending the line saw most of its units route or shatter, and the Soviet front lines were pretty much obliterated in the area. The only thing that prevented a much deeper penetration by the panzers was probably the difficult terrain in the region he advanced through.
I managed to shore up the lines by withdrawing from the Dvina line west of Vitebsk and bringing up additional units of the 20th and 22nd Armies north from the area around the land bridge. I also made a weak attempt to isolate the panzers, but the best I could do was get a ZOC on the last two hexes, but it's through difficult terrain so perhaps a lot of German trucks will suffer from attrition trying to bring in the fuel next turn.
I should state I was sorely tempted to stay on my lines north and south of his breach for at least one more turn to try and slow his ability to exploit the breakthrough, but with the large group of panzers spotted at Pskov, the risk they would drive southeast and pocket a large chunk of my units next turn forced me to concede the area and retract my lines to the east.
The center saw the Germans continue to push my lines back towards the Dnepr, though no huge gains were made. They did however reach the Dnepr south of Mogilev and actually forced a retreat on one hex on the east bank of the river, though no German units managed to get cross. Three divisions were placed in the hex this turn, so hopefully it can hold him up for at least one more turn.
The worst news of the turn was a huge German breakthrough in the south that created a Lvov sized pocket of my units near Vinnitsa. I suspect my opponent was perhaps playing possum with me when he wrote in an email that he was having real difficulties keeping his panzers in operational order. Kudos to him for giving me the false sense of security.
Had I not had the impression his panzers were in real trouble down south, I would not have sat on my lines for so long and instead I would have continued my slow withdraw to the east. And I really would not have felt confident enough to try a redeployment of force in front of the German lines last turn, which resulted in a much larger pocket of units getting trapped this turn. So instead of a 50,000 - 70,000 man pocket, he managed to pocket perhaps twice that many men because of my boneheaded attempt at a redeployment last turn.
Luckily for me the majority of the Soviet airbases were not forced to rebase during his move, so there was enough airpower left in the area to allow for some small Soviet attacks to break the north arm of his pocket this turn which was only held open by regiment sized units. The hex with the Slovak brigade proved to be too tough to crack however as my available air power was used up by the time I tried to attack that hex, so ultimately I doubt I'll be able to save any of the units he's pocketed.
The south side of his pocket was broken via movement of units alone, though I did manage to retreat one small German regiment down south as well, it was not related to the breaking of the pocket.
Given the inability of my pocketed units to take the hex with the Slovak brigade, I decided to forgo any further attacks on the north side and instead spent the rest of the movement available getting most of the rest of the Southwestern Front units to the east to get them out in front of his panzers.
Had I managed to get the Slovak hex to retreat, I would have instead used the majority of the units to get the two previously battered SS regiments retreated and then stuffed the two hex gap with units to try and keep it open long enough to save some stuff, but my plan didn't pan out so as you can see my defense looks a little disjointed due to the fact my goals shifted mid-turn.
On the south side of the pocket I really didn't have much to work with due to the fact most of the units I tried to get down there last turn never made it. So I'm pretty much totally reliant on the lack of fuel deliveries to his panzers to give me some breathing space next turn. The displayed soft factors are set to fuel this turn, so as you can see, if my recon Intel is right, he's got very little fuel left.
What a difference a turn can make. This turn saw my attitude shift from calm satisfaction back to the more familiar desperate concern that typifies normal Soviet play in the early game.
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< Message edited by Jim D Burns -- 10/15/2012 4:47:35 PM >
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RE: Emu for breakfast, Divepac88 (Axis) vs. Jim Burns (... - 
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