D21 yet again. A tribute to the community as my thanks

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T116 round 1 and this is what's going on west of Stalingrad right now. I railed 2 Infantry divisions here from Moscow and as soon as they disembark they will lend a hand. The Italians got shoved backward by a Soviet attack at Serafimovich and that's because the Italians are worn down and low on supply. I'll have to replace them with a German unit in some future turn but soon. The Romanians are fighting at Sevastopol and Rostov and the Hungarians are also at Rostov.

temp.jpg (712.74 KiB) Viewed 727 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T117 round 1 and this is what's going on west of Stalingrad right now. I managed to force my way across the river crossing at Krasny Don. The repaired rail goes all the way to Krasny Don so the supply level on the east side of the river is okie dokie. The weather is about 3/10 cloudy with scattered rain showers. I have 20.6K HRS's assigned and 572 HRS's on hand. I have a handful of Axis units approaching from the south.
EDIT: I just noticed that I seem to have duplicated the post just above this one. That's what happens when you play this game while being interrupted by having to produce some moves for your opponent in a different game ( WITP-AE ).

temp.jpg (582.34 KiB) Viewed 697 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T117 round 1 and this is what's going on south of Rostov right now. I railed a half a dozen divisions here from Moscow and they are making a difference as I have expanded my footprint a lot and finally progress is being made in this AO.

temp.jpg (621.26 KiB) Viewed 694 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T117 round 1 and this is what's going on SW of Gorky right now. I think Gorky is one of the major spawing hexes and if I can capture it that will prevent a lot of Soviet units from entering the game. That's the theory. So far the supply levels are adequate. Just. It's about 4/10 cloudy with scattered rain showers.

temp.jpg (808.96 KiB) Viewed 690 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T117 round 1 and this is what's going on SE of Gorky right now. The Soviet units in this AO are sparse so far so progress is rapid. I'm going to really have to stay on top of monitoring where the low supply areas are here. It's only early August so there's still time to make hay while the sun shines.

temp.jpg (748.59 KiB) Viewed 688 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T118 round 1 and this is what's going on south of Rostov right now. Moving half a dozen divisions to the Rostov AO has made all the difference. It turns out that the Soviet units are sparse and progress is rapid. And the supply levels are great. I made an automated gif image of the weather in this AO to give you an idea of what's going on in the upper atmosphere.

T118 weather movie.gif (1.12 MiB) Viewed 675 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T118 round 4 and this is what's going on west of Stalingrad right now. I've managed to expand my footprint on the east side of the river and now we have a full fledged war going on in the Battle Of Stalingrad. It's about 5/10 cloudy with lots of scattered rain storms complete with lots of T-storms. I have 20.2K HRS's assigned and 447 HRS's on hand. I managed to repair the rail to the east side of the river so supply levels are okie dokie.

temp.jpg (701.74 KiB) Viewed 651 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T118 round 5 and I just now captured Gorky and my units don't have enough MP's to attack or they are too tired to attack, etc. so I'll postpone the final assault until next turn. The supply levels appear to be too low in some places but I've been repairing the rails so the supply levels should be a tiny bit higher next turn. That's the theory.

temp.jpg (811.3 KiB) Viewed 646 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T119 round 1 and I just now drove my brown-water boat completely around a lot of Soviet units cutting them off from their supply source which should make their take down easier. The supply rails are repaired almost all the way to the front lines so supply isn't a factor. It's about 4/10 cloudy but no rain. I have 20.2K HRS's assigned and 954 HRS's on hand. I'm wondering how far east I should go. I suppose I'll go until winter approaches and then establish a defensive line for the winter season.

temp.jpg (796.98 KiB) Viewed 630 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T119 round 4 and I just now drove one of my recon units way too far forward for me to support him and now I'm wondering what kind of support I can provide for him to survive my mistake. I railed in one unit of my RR arty to provide some support for my main drive on the city. But as a matter of fact I have another repaired rail approaching from the south and it's far enough forward that it just cries out for me to rail in some more reinforcements to protect the right flank of the ongoing advance. I'm not sure what's available but I'm hoping for a Panzer Division or at least something heafty.

temp.jpg (689.99 KiB) Viewed 617 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T119 round 4 and this is what's going on just south of Rostov. I railed 5 divisions here from Moscow and they have done a good job of lending a hand. Now those divisions are needed at Stalingrad so I'll have to find some way to disengage them and rail them to their new duty station.

temp.jpg (664.39 KiB) Viewed 616 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T119 round 5 and I just now captured Saratov which is an objective worth 25 points and has a rail and a road that crosses the river just to the east and unfortunately the Soviets still own the crossing there and I'm going to need some engineers or a pontoon unit to leap across the bridge and get some units to isolate that roadblock from the rest of Russia. Plus capture the airfield just to the east of the crossing while you're at it.

temp.jpg (568.18 KiB) Viewed 611 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T120 round 1 and I just now finished an adequate surround on a group of Soviet units and I'm in the process of killing all of them. When they are gone that will release all my units to move toward Stalingrad. It's about 2/10 cloudy with no rain at all. I have 20.4K HRS's assigned and 523 HRS's on hand. I'm wondering if Stalingrad is as far east as I need to go.

temp.jpg (782.89 KiB) Viewed 580 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T121 round 1 and I just now captured an intact bridge at Ulyanovsk. I used an engineer unit to capture that crossing because he was the unit closest to that hex. Now I need to replace him with some infantry or armour so that I can hold onto that crossing until the rest of the follow on forces get there. So far the Soviets have been sparse and easily surrounded and destroyed. The supply levels are getting too low at the tip of the spear so I may have to slow down the advance in this AO for a turn or two.

temp.jpg (699.65 KiB) Viewed 568 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T121 round 2 and this is what it looks like around Stalingrad right now. I've fought my way to the crossing NW of Stalingrad and I'm in the process of forcing my way over it. Meanwhile I'm still trying to expand my footprint SW of the city and to top it off I finally have some people approaching from the south. I think I can do this before winter sets in.

temp.jpg (713.98 KiB) Viewed 566 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T122 round 2 and this is what it looks like around Stalingrad right now. The Romanians are still struggling at Sevastopol and the Hungarians are pushing south from Rostov toward the mountains toward the south. The Italians are resting from their recent battles to capture a crossing just west of Stalingrad. They were roughly handled and new need rest and refit. I have 20.5K HRS's assigned and 959 HRS's on hand.

temp.jpg (604.6 KiB) Viewed 558 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T123 round 1 and this is what it looks like around Kirov right now. I've never before been this far east in Russia and it's all interesting what terrain there is to defend in, the relative lack of airfields, the parsity of roads and rails, etc. I'm not at all sure how many objectives there are for me to go for....I'll have to look into that because if I have all the objectives there are then I'll have to go after the Soviet army to see how much of it I can destroy by the end of the game.

temp.jpg (774.34 KiB) Viewed 542 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T123 round 3 and this is what it looks like around Stalingrad right now. I've never before actually assaulted the city so this is my first time this ever happened in one of my games. And I've played this scenario dozens of times. There's not much in the way of equipment sitting in the city so I'm relatively sure that I can gain the city either this turn or early in the next.

temp.jpg (598.12 KiB) Viewed 530 times

[larryfulkerson]

So um.........hey you guys: I just bought "Strategic Command The American Civil War" and "Flashpoint The Southern States" from Matrix and I looked through both of them, let the computer play itself a few turns, etc. And I'm returning to TOAW4 as my favorite. There are a few reasons for that: (1) There's a huge learning curve in both of those games. (2) There's way way too much detail to keep track of in each game. And I used to think that WITP-AE was the most complicated game I've ever played. (3) There's way way more scenarios to play with TOAW4. And if you aren't able to find the exact scenario you're thinking of you can write your own. That's why there are 1,000+ scenarios for TOAW4. (4) TOAW4 is actually easy to MOD. Different colored units, different terrain types, different unit types, etc. I actually LIKE the different things that are abstracted out of the game in TOAW4 and I LIKE that there aren't thousands of things to consider when making plans, planning attacks, moving to contact, etc. Don't get me wrong....if you're even a little bit OCD then go for Flashpoint.

Ladies and gentlemen....I give you TOAW4

applaud.gif (4.72 MiB) Viewed 528 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T124 round 4 and this is what it looks like around Stalingrad right now. I have captured the city and now I just need to hold onto it for one full Soviet turn. I'll have to stop the Soviet turn and see what their production rate is now for rifle divisions. Last time I checked was back in July 1942 and at that time it was 1033 rifle squads per turn. But there have been changes in possession since then so the rate should be somewhat lower now. Whatever rounds I might have left will be dedicated to killing that small group of Soviet units that I have almost surrounded.

temp.jpg (580.83 KiB) Viewed 506 times