AshesFall

Turn 46, September 25th, 1942 As more forces streamed out of recruiting grounds in the Caucasus, the Wehrmacht failed to break the encirclement of XVI panzer, the bitter fighting intensified in Southern Soviet. Meanwhile, the Allies strove to push a steady stream of arriving axis forces back. Gaining ground was difficult in the harsh terrain of Greece. The Northern front is looking very thin. I’m not deploying any reinforcements here, and will likely commit few of the freshly built forces to this area. It’s a deathtrap, and I probably cant hold it. I’m looking to make it take as much time as possible though. I got the panzer! Yay! Its not much of a victory, but I’ll take any kind of win I can. It looks like Will now has both lvl 3 inf, and lvl 3 armor. That is very bad! I’m happy that bad weather is afoot, hopefully that will save me from what would otherwise be a total annihilation. I debated a long time whether to break off two US armour groups and a special forces from the main invasion to try a sneaky landing in Italy. After a lot of counting, hand wringing and thinking I decided against it. I need the weight of all the allied forces in Greece if I want to make any headway, especially now that Will has a big tech advantage on them. Progress is pretty slow, but research is going full tilt back in the US. Its worse with the Brits, who have had to invest most of their MPPs getting their troops to Greece at all. I’m looking to make more investments there during the winter.

Turn 45, September 11th, 1942 As September crept in across northern Europe, the first of the two British armies marooned in Norway was defeated. The weight of the Luftwaffe turned the tide. A memorial to the sacrifice of all those brave men and women now stand outside the Palace of Westminster. Vatutin quickly found himself embroiled in chaotic fighting as German reinforcements came by rail, and more armour groups closed on his position. Desperately trying to withdraw, valuable soviet armour was lost. However, the Germans had been distracted. As XVI panzer closed on Baku, contacting and nearly overrunning Rokossovskys command position, new Soviet Armour started emerging directly from factory floors onto the battlefield. The elite enemy panzers were trapped and out of supply, and the Germans readied to immediately turn to its rescue… The south turned into something of a cluster-eff. I had to withdraw a little after loosing some armor, and I think I’ll get hammered even more next turn. However, deploying new reinforcements actually trapped some of Wills armour, we’ll see how it goes! Greece is going forward. I lost an American army, which is a pain since they take forever to get to the theatre of operations. In return I destroyed the Italian armour and a Romanian army. Bradley has arrived to take command of American forces in the area. I also adjusted convoys from US to GB to max, and the same to Soviet.

Turn 43, August 28th, 1942 The fighting in Greece intensified as German and Italian forces responded. Though battered by the advance of the German 14th and 16th armies, Canadian armoured forces fought well and retreated in good order to receive replacements. In turn, the western allies scored their first significant victory, destroying the German 14th army. Bitter fighting, ongoing for most of the year still raged in Drammen, where the Royal navy could continually sneak in valuable reinforcements under cover of darkness in what came to be known as the “night express”. In Southern USSR, under immense pressure from Stalin to preserve the last oil fields in the Baku area, Vatutin launched a counter attack to cut the railway link between the forward German army group and Rostov. The beleaguered Rokossovsky launched his own limited counter attack, temporarily disrupting the elite XVI panzer corps advance. Not much to add aside from the pictures! Retreat in the north, a (most likely) doomed counter thrust in the south to buy time. Greece full of allies and fighting. Forgot the picture of Greece, will include one next time!

Haha, thanks! That word kept going through my head that turn . Oh, you can adjust them? Cool, I didnt know! Will have to do that. Thanks for the tip!

Thank you for following! I'm glad you like it. Its a great scenario, the best ww2 one in my opinion due to the large areas involved and therefore the focus on manoeuvre warfare.

Turn 43, August 14th, 1942 Wehrmacht forces continued a slow consolidation of conquered territory in the east. A massive Luftwaffe redeployment to readied airfields in Denmark prompted the withdrawal of the navy from the sound, As the jubilant army in Oslo cheered at silhouettes of salvation close by, they received only one message, “hold, we will return”. This strategic decision, tying up Luftwaffe and fallschirmsjaeger forces in Norway, was one massively unpopular on the home front, and would eventually lead to Churchills fall as Prime minister… It looks like will has redeployed a lot of the Luftwaffe to Denmark, so I have to pull out for a bit. I’m pretty happy about having draw down such a large force with just two armies, so they’ll stay to make sure those paras don’t cause me trouble elsewhere. I’ll come back once I have a lot of reinforced carriers. Fighting is escalating in Greece, with Canadian armour and the British army engaging Italian armour forces and Bulgarians in decisive victories. The RAF and US Air force has begun to deploy in strength. As German forces attack Smolensk, Timoshenko directs a small distraction and attacks a german corps north of the city. Shortly it will fall, and the Germans turn north towards Leningrad. I don’t much like that thought, but not much to do about it! Grozny oil fields gone, and more Russian MMPs down the drain. Not… good. I’m gathering forces north of the german approach to see if I can try a cutoff again and buy some time.

Turn 42, July 31st 1942 The fighting temporarily abated as July drew to a close. The Germans had to consolidate their conquests and reinforce what losses they had sustained, and the Soviets could not mount an offensive of any kind. In this vacuum, the allies continued to tighten their grip on Norway, and land ever more forces in Greece. Nothing much happened in Soviet. I reinforced what I could, upgraded weapons, and Grozny along with its oil field will fall to the axis next turn. Slightly more lively was Norway, the kriegsmarine has withdrawn, though I suspect the –at least- four subs previously harassing soviet lend-lease might be heading down to cause me headaches. I sank the trapped sub, and started bombarding the coastal towns and sending air forces towards Kluge, who was mildly damaged. Bulgarian forces approaching Salonica were driven back with heavy losses as three US armies appeared. O’connor landed to coordinate supply, and ever more forces move towards the area.

Turn 41, July 17th 1942 As the USSR crumbled under the jackboots of the Wehrmacht, Germany issued a pre-emptive declaration of war to Greece. Initial incursions were light, an Italian armour group struck towards Salonica. The Western Allies, having fount the ingress into Europe that they needed, started to land and position forces even as the Greeks consolidated inwards to mobilize reserves and receive allied weaponry. The “brawl in the sound” continued, with periodic skirmishes between the Allied naval forces and the Kriegsmarine. The Cruiser Norfolk was torpedoed near the mouth of the Sound off Aalborg, and listing suffered a fatal salvo from arriving German cruisers, the Admiral Scheer and the Scharnhorst. The Washington battleship took heavy damage, and disengaged leaving the rest of the combined navy to sink both cruisers and chase one submarine from the sound. The British army in Norway continued to hold out, for now. Wow, that was almost as bad as last turn. An unlucky retreat off the line left Zhukov exposed to Armor, and an unlucky retreat by him in turn exposed him to a corps attack. That was… not good. With the Northern front crumbling, I have no option but to retreat. It wont do any good, but I might distract Will for a while. Likewise, Moscow fell like a wall of wet paper, and my few remaining forces took a battering and are now trying to escape northwards. In the South, panzers are no doubt refitting. I cant think of much to stop them with, but I’m making some sort of attempt at building a fortification on the access route to Baku. I have almost no units, much like everywhere else. The first Allied units landed in Greece, and I’m trying to consolidate Greek forces to upgrade them and reinforce. Americans inhabit nearby ports to disembark where needed.

Aha, thanks for the answer! Just got confused by some being colour coded red/green (I assume for each player playing once as axis and once as allies) and some olive green/tan. I guess that means the players play the same faction twice? Awesome job with the tournament, nice to see so many participating!

This is pretty awesome, I hope I'm not cluttering the thread, but how do you play mirror matches? Doesn't one have to be allies and one axis? :-)

Yeah, that was pretty silly of me . I'm not so sure actually, the Eastern front is going terrible, mostly due to mismanagement and waste of units on my part and the absolutely massive german attack on the south. If Will breaks them this year, and he actually might, the western allies wont be able to put up much of a struggle against the Germans. I'm still holding out hope, we'll see how it goes. I never give up until its over!

Turn 40, July 3rd 1942 The slaughter on the eastern front reached such intensity that Stalin briefly evacuated Moscow to fly to Athens, begging the western allies to open a new front immediately, and the Greek Government to enter the war. The German Juggernaut was unstoppable, and losses were reaching critical levels for even the Red Army. The Western Allies meanwhile increased political pressure on Greece, and continued to ready for a mass landing. The second battle of Kattegat began as the Royal Navy returned, trying to race time to fulfil Churchills promise. Well, that was really, really painful. 14 units lost this turn, many of them armies. I cant recover from more hits like this, and my only option is to throw caution to the wind and abandon investments in Spain in favour of Greece. That may well prove to be a serious mistake, but I cant afford to wait any longer. At the end of the turn, probability stood at 45%. Moscow is done, I’m attempting to withdraw some forces, in the main to bait Will into chasing them instead of the other huge problem I’m about to have. The Northern front, though in many ways a tactical success, is about to turn into a strategic disaster. With the fall of Moscow, the route is clear to outflank Zhukov. I think I’ll have to start falling back towards the swamps shortly, unless Will is distracted, or I can get reinforcements to the right place. The south. Eh. The attempt to cut supply was a disaster, lots of units died, and I had to withdraw completely. Thems the breaks. Norway. Will is finding upgraded armies a lot harder to destroy than piddly garrisons, but despite this our brave soldiers cant hold on for much longer. I threw the navy at Skaggerack, we’ll see what happens next. One submarine went down, and the Bismark sank to the bottom of the sea. Soviets finally got infantry weapons 2, and .. belatedly, Greece moved 10% towards the allies! With any luck, they wont actually join the war until the start of my turn. I may still be in this. We’ll see!

Turn 39, June 5th 1942 With summer and long days the fighting all over Russia bloomed. Everywhere, in the North by Smolensk, in central Russia by Moscow and in the Caucasus, men fought and died. This was a desperate battle for survival. In the Mediterranean the allies suffered a severe setback, transports awaiting permission to debark came under attack by an Italian submarine, a threat thought neutralized. The admiralties failure to cast an adequate net to catch the Italians was the catalyst for doctrinal change in the navy. Gosh dang naggit. Somehow, Will got wind of my transports off Greece and I had to retreat them and unload at Alexandria to avoid further losses. The tattered Mediterranean arm of the Royal navy sallied out and found a cruiser blocking the crossing near Crete, and a fierce naval battle ensued in which all parties suffered severe damage. The Americans are en route with destroyers, but I failed to read the red arrows adequately and sent them to the bay outside Spain, they’re a ways away yet. The genie is probably out of the bottle, and I have to invest in diplomacy just in case will is not ready to attack yet. Unfortunately, even with a 25% chance after both American and Russian chits, I didn’t get a hit this turn. In Russia there is fighting on all fronts. Moscow came under direct attack, and the German army is strong. I will probably need to retreat from here, but will try to cause some damage and delay. A fortunate bombardment on forward axis armour in low supply kicked off a bigger attack than I expected, and the combined efforts of Air and a lot of ground assets finished that armour unit. Hurrah! That’s probably my only coming victory in this region though, as Wills counter blow is sure to be brutal… Zhukov, meanwhile, made the motherland proud. Despite losing two armour groups here, I’m hoping that I have now destroyed the last of the Panzers in the region and that Will must now pull forces from elsewhere. A complicated series of shifts and attack+retreats saw the end of a Panzergrenadier, an AT unit, and finally an armour unit at 6str for minimal losses. Bombardments from the two artillery pieces helped, I really like that I can bombard after “switching” unlike in the WW1 scenario (it makes sense there though). All the fighters chipped in for one hit too! The south is the most difficult theatre, with German forces advancing virtually unopposed. I sent one AT gun ahead to damage the forward armor, but the second flanking AT gun was just out of range and denied my the plan I had to combine all four AT pieces and perhaps destroy another Armour unit. Instead I shifted, pulled back some AT and sent two armies to attempt a cutoff, at the very least it will force Will to send units back there to guard the supply lines. Soviet inf tech was at 97%, but failed to proc. Much sadness was had.

Turn 38, May 8th 1942 May saw the largest tank battle the world had ever seen. The Germans launched a massive spearhead assault into the waiting soviet lines, the 6th mechanized tankovny army was destroyed in the initial fighting, scattered by swarms of the Luftwaffe. The 50th army quickly followed. Zhukov released the entire armoured wing of the Red army in one wave. Observers later commented that the shadows of the tanks covered the horizon for as far as the eye could see, and the dust plumes created a stinging fog for miles. Two german Armour groups were destroyed in that first thrust, along with two armies. The first real losses of the Wehrmacht on the eastern front, but not the last. The Axis pre-empted allied plans and invaded Yugoslavia, Britain and the US now raced to get forces into position before an attack on Greece put a premature end to their plans. Well gosh. I hate it when my pseudo history book writer is right! A real scrap is shaping up, unfortunately my poor tanks are getting the worst of it in each exchange so far, not to mention my technologically retarded infantry. I’ll keep reinforcing this area if I can, hoping to pull Germans from other fronts into the grinder. In the south, the germans advanced closer to Georgyevsk as Pyatigorsk fell. Vatutins flanking army group moved closer, careful not to extend the “red” tiles any deeper into German territory. If you want to pull something stealthy, its’ important to remember than your zone of control advances one space ahead of all units, and it’s a dead giveaway through the fog of war. I’m beginning to question the wisdom of trying to outflank armour with nothing but AT guns… Whoa… Will has committed an HQ in Norway. This could get bad… I don’t particularly want to lose those units. I need the carriers, and they’re a few turns away. I might have to go in regardless, using the American forces. A German carrier (eeek!) doesn’t really make things any better. I had a hard decision to make in the Mediterranean, the German surprise conquest of Yugoslavia really threw me. This could derail my attack plan completely. I decided to hold off on investing diplomatic chits in Greece this turn, if Will declares war on Greece next it could get messy. On the other hand, if he doesn’t and moves his troops away it would be something of a win. We’ll see what happens! I was, on one hand, pretty happy I didn’t spend mpps on Yugoslavia, their army was absolutely terrible.

Turn 37, April 10th 1942 As spring bloomed across the vast lands of Russia, so did tension along the fronts, as forces built all across Soviet, and the Germans landed forces to contest Norway. Near Mogilev, a skirmish between the 20th army and scouting German forces became a spark to light conflagration. 1941 had been bloody, and it looked like 42’ would be worse… This turn made some target priorities more clear. I caught glimpses of Panzers and Armies moving across Tula towards Moscow. Simultaneous scouting west and northwest of Stalingrad spotted no buildup of forces there. The Axis are pushing in the Caucasus, at the moment it looks like any strike towards Stalingrad must come from the Stavropol area. These realizations means a couple of things; First, I wont be setting up the Siberian army group near Stalingrad as intended. The main reason for that was saving on operating costs, but I had to make that expense now. The Russian army group around Elista can react both east and south, depending on where the advance happens. I pulled the screening forces back to Georgievsk to draw the Germans there so I can perhaps flank them. Second, Moscow was considerably strengthened both by arriving reinforcements and Siberian troops. If will has four or five armor units here I will have to retreat most of the Northern front to contest this area, or simply abandon it as lost rather than bleed dry. We’ll see how much he’s packing. Third, I beefed up the Northern front into proper fighting shape, there are lots of Germans, but hopefully they wont be ready for the number of armour units I have here. It might be that my destruction of that scouting corps kick things off in earnest here. At least my history book writing says so! ^^ I'm pretty surprised at Will landing paratroopers to contest Norway, its pretty likely that 2/1/1 upgraded corps and armies will be significantly harder to dislodge than a Garrison, and perhaps it will take enough time to allow me to send a refurbished royal navy with american support to make Wills life miserable. I need to wait for all the forces to gather though.

Thank you both for following us ^^. I am very happy that my blundering and philosophing can be helpful. On many levels I am pretty sure that the Russians cant strike back in any meaningful way in 1942, but I dont really see a good option and I need to distract Will from the Balkans. We'll see how it goes! Turn 36, February 27th 1942 The start of 1942 was quiet as the Wehrmacht recovered from freezing winter and the red army attempted to build a semblance of resistance. Zhukovs grand winter attack in the North was forcibly cancelled, as recon flights revealed a much larger concentration of the enemy than anticipated. In the west, the allies quietly geared up to participate in the real war. Well, crap. I just cant attack that massive German stack, my forces aren’t up for it, and I cant reach them efficiently. This is probably a mistake, I generally think the soviets have to attack after the winter hits, or they’ll be murdered in 1942. The ugly truth is that I just don’t have an army to do it with that would withstand the counter blow. Instead, I’ll keep building my forces. While recon in the North is fine, I suffer some anxiety over the fog of war elsewhere. I have no idea what is hiding around Kursk or Voronezh, is there a large german force there? I’ll have to move planes to find out. Same thing in the South, I know there are forces around stavropoli, but will the thrust go for Stalingrad from Rostov or Borisoglebsk? Will the Germans go for Stalingrad at all? I think I’ll build some cavalry next turn, so that I can scout a little later. This something I should have done much earlier, to have ready now when it is needed and I need to know where will is going. Oh well, play and learn! Despite all the losses, soviet economy is around 540mpps per turn with the latest industry development. Not quite a match to the Germans unfortunately.

Turn 33 - 35, November 1941to January 1942 As winter crept up and the bloody year of 1941 drew to a close, the axis continued to push forward in smaller increments regardless of weather. The fortress of Sevastopol came under siege in December, and would soon fall. In desperation Stalin transferred Siberian forces to the west front. Even as Tripoli surrendered to the British in November, the pressure of a suddenly reinvigorated Kriegsmarine forces the Royal Navy from the bay of Kattegat, leaving two armies and a corps trapped in Norway. Churchill, in his new-years speech, vowed to return and bring “our soldiers” home. At the close of 1941 the US, having long debated entering the war, declared war on the Axis powers after suffering a humiliating blow at Pearl Harbour from the IJN. Well then. Not much going on thankfully. I had to leave the troops in Norway for a bit to return to Britain and upgrade and reinforce the navy. With the US navy now coming into play, I will probably be able to secure the bay and retrieve two armies again. The convoys from Norway to German have stopped, but I don’t really know whether Will still gains resources from the mines under his control. In the Mediterranean the last two Italian naval units came out to maul the British battleships in the area. One submarine and one cruiser, I thought that last one was a battleship, but it wasn’t! Anyway, the carriers are on their way to Britain to gather up and extract the troops along with conducting a bombing campaign on the Norway coastal mines eventually, but American ships will be arriving in the Mediterranean soon. The soviet situation as of the turn of the year So, what about plans? 1941 has been a bad year, the Soviets have taken so much punishment I’m not sure they can ever recover, so they really need help. Since Greece and Yugoslavia are currently neutral but very high on allied leaning, I’ll be moving both Brits and Americans into the Med and transporting them to Greece. With a timely diplo-bomb I should hopefully be able to get them in at an opportune time. There are quite a few Western Allied forces rearing to go, and the better part of these will proceed from Greece to Bulgaria, and then Romania, whereafter I hope that they will present enough of a distraction with threatening the German hold on southern Russia to draw forces away from the ailing soviets. To complement this, I am going to try build up a strong army in the north, pushing there to draw forces away from the Southern front. The Siberian forces will move down to slightly north north-west of Stalingrad to counter attack any forces coming for that city. I will try to just hold at Moscow. The goal, in general, will be to force will to concentrate forces in Russia on one hand and thereby limit the massive land gains he’s making, and on the other hand divide his forces between several fronts. An attack on Italy is in the cards, but we’ll see how things go. I had to invest three Russian diplomatic chits in Spain to definitively counter any further gain there, as will have now gotten them to 75% and a lucky hit would bring them into the war. Meanwhile, I will continue to bomb German and French resources and hopefully starve the German economy slowly to allow the Soviets to catch up despite their losses.

Turn 32, October 10th 1941 As the shadow of disaster loomed in the east, 1941 was not without victories for the Allies. The largest single naval operation in history, aimed at securing the northern coast of Germany and the bay of Kattegat, successfully held through skirmishes with the Kriegsmarine to enable the official liberation of Norway. The Germans still held most of the important cities and resources along the coast, but the heart of Norway had been taken. The collaboration government was ousted, Quisling imprisoned, and key politicians replaced. In North Africa, the token Italian resistance as all but crushed, with Italian soldiers meeting the advancing British tanks on the dusty roads to surrender and receive a modicum of comforts. The south. The entire area west of the Caucasus gone. Very bad. I’m praying for crappy weather and winter to save me. In the North, intelligence hits and aerial scouting revealed some of the forces in the area. I sat around and debated the situation for a long time, counting supply paths and decay (the most fun part of the game for sure) and trying to make an attack work. I couldn’t, not with bad weather coming. Will has won in this area in the sense that his minimal forces have stumped a large Soviet one. I was just too slow and inefficient in reorganizing them, and their readiness is rising so… so slowly. On the other hand, Will has not gotten Finland into the war, which is nice and in accordance with my “Germany will stand alone” line of strategy. One question here, how on earth does carriers hit three or four out of four on entrenched units? That’s just… eh. That has to be looked at. It was nice to take it, but left me returning an amphib HQ and corps to the mainland. In the Mediterranean British armor hit Tripoli, and one of two remaining battleships that came out to battle British was sunk.

Definetly Agreed on all points. I actually made a pretty long and detailed test of France, and suggested several ways to make the battle for France both interesting (several tactical decisions for both players) and harder to "suicide". Here is the link; http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=110062 The pictures wont be up until the 4th unfortunately (bandwidth resets). The relevant part is in "suggestions" in the second post, so skip right to that unless you really want to read an attempt at recreating the historical fall gelb results by doing everything as closely as possible to history, including allied blunders into Belgium.

Turn 30 – 31, September 1941 As fall approached with slow steps, the Soviet union faced economic collapse. Rostov had fallen as the Germans continued their offensive without pause, and the industrial heartland of Baku and urals lay open. Desperate, the soviets attempted to erect defences deeper into the mountains, ceding Maikop and the Crimean peninsula. So far, Zhukovs posturing in the north had produced no results… Well, I wont lie. I’m in definite trouble! This game has seen what is probably the most effective 41 incursion into the USSR that we’ve had so far in our games, and I can’t seem to do a thing to even slow it down. If I hadn’t at least tried to, Will would be in Stalingrad and Baku by now, and he might still be. The only thing I can really do is try to create defensive lines further back, and pray for early bad weather. That, and attempt to create a credible threat with the western allies in 1942. Game on then! Will seems to know exactly where Zhukov is, and hasn’t made a wrong move in this area. That’s very vexing, he is scouting with Italian bombers, and leaving me no good areas to exploit. Still, I have to strike, and I will do so at newly captured Minsk. We’ll see how that goes, I just wish the blasted tankovy armies would regain readiness/morale a tad faster… The Brits sank two cruisers near Kristiansand, and are now blockading the Kattegat while forces attack Oslo. It proved harder to crack than I had hoped, and since I neglected to bring a HQ (serious newbie mistake) I might not even be able to take it! I’ll certainly make the attempt at least. The US is slowly building up and building troops, I’ll have at least an army group to play with come summer 42. Now it’s just a question of where to use them.

Thank you Steele! Perhaps I should have followed your advice from the start ^^. Glad to have you following us! Turn 28 – 29, August 8th – August 22nd 1941 The Axis army crossed the Dniepr in strength at Kiev in early August. The question now among the slowly re-ordered STAVKA was, where would they move next? The answer quickly became clear. Even as Zhukov moved his army into position in the north, the Axis flooded the plains of Russia. Nothing could stand against them, and vast tracts of land fell in a matter of weeks. The loss of men was immense, “the bloody harvest of August” directly impacted soviet policy for the rest of 1941, Kursk and Rostov would be defended, and then the open fields would have to be the defence of mother Russia, until Moscow itself. Holy crap. That was really bad! Will is pushing farther, faster, than I thought possible and inflicting horrible losses on me in the process. I thought about simply withdrawing, but Will is doing this neat little “leap frog” attack where he always has a HQ ready to occupy the city and provide good supply on his turn to units within two tiles. Low supply is never an issue, and his advance simply continues. Unfortunately, at this point, I can no longer even attempt to slow him down. I can just hope he wont reach Moscow or Stalingrad before winter. This image is recreated in a vacuum after my turn, for some reason it dissapeared and I really wanted to show this tense situation! As such, there might be one unit in the wrong spot or so The Italians ran into trouble moving on Daugavpils, and were beaten back only to return with help. By carefully keeping out of sight I’m hoping to intercept and destroy any pursuing forces. This is where I place my hopes, I need this attack to pull forces from the southern front. The Royal navy is ready to support an amphibious attack, one bomber wing rests and refits.

Turn 27 – July 25th 1941 As the slaughter continued in the south, General Zhukov began to make headway in reorganizing the Stavka forces around Vilikiye Luki. For two whole weeks, not a man among the recruits reached the front, as Stalin and his staff struggled to create order in the ranks. German Panzers reached the fortifications of Dneprotovsk just in time to prevent their completion, a fact that would prove decisive in cracking the soviet attempt to hold the city… This is starting to look desperate. At least Will has taken a lot of losses just throwing everything forward like this. Beyond Gomel, the road lies completely open to Smolensk, as I didn’t get a single reinforcement this turn. Will the Soviets survive this desperate hour? I finally got Zhukov and his tanks into good supply, ready reinforce and intercept the Germans in two turns time. We’ll see how far they’ve gotten until then… Tobruk falls in North Africa, and the British are preparing to launch an amphibious invasion…

Turn 26 – July 11th 1941 Operation Barbarossa continued unabated throughout June and into July. Every stand attempted by the red army was brushed aside, the army group defending Kiev faced decisive defeat within two weeks. As the situation grew ever more desperate, Stalin faced chaos in the organization and leadership of the military, leading to critical delays in deployment, equipment and supplies. Even though hundreds of thousands flocked to their leaders call for a great patriotic war, the military lacked the ability deploy them effectively. I continue to fumble the placement of the tanks here, they can upgrade, but will have to move next turn before they can be reinforced. I hope to be able to hit the germans near Pskov or Tartu. The South is a mess, Kiev fell in a single turn, not unexpected, but still worrisome. The fortifications near Dneprotovsk finished at the end of the turn, and hopefully I will be able to withdraw the engineers and place an army there instead. The sole encouraging fact here is that the Germans are taking quite a lot of losses themselves in the advance, and with any luck they will have to pause and refit for a turn shortly, buying me a little time. The RN deployed in force in the North sea, and I’ve set a strong force to raiding Norwegian shipping. Every little bit of lost German income helps the Soviets. Tobruk is now under Siege. I’ve reduced three mines to rubble, and halved the production of Brussels. That’s some 70mpp per turn. One would think that drop would be visible on this graph, but it isn’t. Any insights into this?

Turn 25 – June 23rd 1941 The Axis onslaught continues, and the Soviet union is reeling. The enemy advances so quickly that reserves often arrive to the front when that front, in reality, is already beyond them... In the North, the German push is closing on Riga. I made a logistical error in my withdrawal of the tanks. Leaving them in bad supply and unable to upgrade or reinforce. I attempted to rectify that this time around. A tip to other beginners like myself, reinforce a HQ or two before the invasion! I sort of forgot to. I also took a look at upgraded rockets this turn as it hit two turns ago. The only thing the upgrade does is give it a strategic attack value. No other changes. Hm. Well, not researching that again that’s for sure! Does anyone know if the second level is any different? The south was bad, the Germans are closing very quickly, and I barely had time to rail reinforcements to the appropriate locations. At this rate, they might be in Stalingrad before winter. The kriegsmarine was spotted closing in on the few soviet ships. There are still unupgraded submarines among them. It seems Will really did decide to scrap the convoy war and just throw every single mpp into the land army and the attack on USSR. Well, it’s my job to try to punish that, and create nasty distractions and MPP drains elsewhere. I have a few ideas, but getting Yugoslavia and Greece in will probably require active diplomacy, and might have to wait until the US joins. Perhaps an amphibious attack on Norway and Denmark will get Wills attention, we’ll see how it develops. The British are on the move in North Africa, and bombing continues with Mons and one of the mines near dusseldorf completely reduced, and the other of those mines at half.

Turn 24 – May 23rd 1941 May saw the start of a new phase of the war. A conflict that would dwarf any previous engagements loomed, and the Germans struck first. Through the early spring mud, operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion ever planned to date commenced. The Soviets, in the midst of reorganizing and redeploying the army, were caught entirely by surprise. The outdated defence plans set in place by STAVKA resulted in the destruction of the fighter wing placed near siauliai, and the Armor group stationed there barely escaped. Worse the fate of the army group deployed at Proskurov, its wholesale destruction is a blow that will take time mitigate. Well, here it is. The clash we’ve been waiting for. It seems that Will, the contrary bastard ^^ has declined to follow my carefully set up script, the gall! Instead of blithely striking north into my pretty fortifications, the absolute bulk of the Wehrmacht is coming through the south. This is going to get sweaty. With seven Panzer Corps in the Ukraine area, it will probably be impossible to stop the Germans before Kharkov or perhaps even Rostov before winter. That will mean a good bit of lost economy. However, it’s not all bad. Though the German advance is overwhelming in the south, it is so far very weak in the north. Two Panzer corps, three armies and one artillery piece along with a HQ have been spotted. Also, Will neglected to destroy the STAVKA forces in the north, where only a single fighter wing was lost. I cant but feel that this was a big mistake, I always make it a top priority to destroy all of these on the first turn of the invasion. This both denies the soviet powerful assets, and makes sure that they go down in low supply so they cant be rebuilt cheaply. Putting two armour groups up north to deal with the forces around Minsk and then operating them south seems to be totally worth it. Will has left the door open, and I intend to make use of it. As heavy armor tech hit lvl 2 this turn, there will shortly be four strong armour groups under Zhukovs leadership (apparently he’s left his Siberian command for some reason and spawned by minsk.. with the Stavka forces). There are two armies in the North as well. If I can at least stop the northern German advance, that could mean that Finland wont join the war, and that will deprive the Axis about what they gain in the south. Where the enemy is weak, attack, where the enemy is strong, fall back and defend. Also, the little green numbers spy spotted lots of German armour still at lvl 1 but upgradeable to lvl 2, same with armies. Will forewent upgrading his units fully to get an early attack. Fair enough! Operation “Europe in Ruins” is going ahead, and strategic bombers are now hitting German production to good effect. Since nothing has arrived out of the port of st Nazaire so far, I went to take a look with a destroyer to find it empty. The Kriegsmarine has been quiet as a church mouse, so I can’t but wonder what its up to. It might be that Will has decided to entirely forego this, but I think it unlikely and it would be a huge mistake. I suspect that he might be upgrading submarines and his fleet entire, and try to hit the USSR convoy hard to deny the Soviets badly needed production. I started moving most of the British fleet towards the North sea.