Fungwu
Posts: 161
Joined: 8/22/2007 Status: offline
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I am playing Buzz mod v7 FITE vs "FITE master" Karri. I am Germans, I had played a previous game against Karri as Russians and got crushed. I had played another previous game as Germans, but my opponent disappeared around turn 10. I adopted my favorite strategy from operation Barbarossa 1941, which is to ignore North and South and make one decisive stroke towards Moscow. The route of my main advance was through the North, through Daugapils, Velikiye Luki, Rhzev, Istra, to Moscow. I planned on redistributing my forces so Army group north would follow the above route and ignore Leningrad entirely. Army group Center would mainly bypass Minsk and Smolensk. Army group South would be stripped of all panzer divisions and artillery regiments which would provide a reserve for my main advance. T1-10: My plan got off to a good start, but Karri heavily defended Minsk, so I had trouble taking it. His first line of defense was 4 fortified divisions by Zapadnay Dvina. I attacked each division with a couple of pzgren regiments, artillery, and dropped brandenburgers behind the lines. I pushed through pretty easily. He funneled some odds and ends divisions to slow me down. By turn 13 I was making a preliminary attack on Moscow from the Northern direction. Several fresh pnz Divisions led the attack, pushing into the city. The last round of turn 15 I was attacking the city center itself, and only one armor brigade holding on. On turn 16 I captured Moscow. Karri moved up many divisions and a lot of artillery to counterattack the city. For a few turns we battled it out. I had a ton of artillery to hit his stacked divisions trying to retake the city. He had a ton of artillery to hit my defending divisions. I made breakthrough east of Moscow on turn 19 and dropped paratroopers behind his arty. The next two turns his defense broke and I was able to take out many artillery pieces. In the North I started an offensive towards Leningrad once Moscow fell. My main route of attack was up through Novgrod, but I also attack through Demyansk. I broke the Soviet defense, surrounded Leningrad, cut supplies, and as of turn 27 am attacking the city itself. As of T27 the battle lines lie as follows: The south I was unable to make offensive movements, basically I did not cross the border. In the North I am almost ready to capture Leningrad. His line is west of Yarslavl and Volgoda. His line rises from Odessa, along the S. Bug, through the Stalin Line, through the middle of pripet marshes, Up the Dnepr, through Smolensk. North of Smolensk it take a 90 degree turn, Running N of Vyazama and Ghzatsk. I hold Moscow, and south of Moscow is a big bulge running south adjacent to Tula. East to west the Bulge goes from Serpuchov to Kolomna, so about 12-15 hexes at its widest. I hole a couple of hexes east of Moscow along road to Gorky. My rifle losses as of the end of turn 24 were 13,500. I think they are at about 15000 right now. Loss penalty is somewhere between 4.5-1 and 5-1. My tank losses are similarly low. Fighter losses are high however, and Karri is gaining air superiority. I estimate Karri has lost between 50,000, and 65,000 rifle squads. As of T27 I hold Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow, and Kalinin. Leningrad will fall before mud, possible by T 28. Tula is on the front lines, but my forces there are vulnerable to counterattack because of the big bulge. Smolensk is also on the front lines, but my forces are stronger there. I deleted most of my end of turn screens, so maybe Karri can provide some screens of the battle lines and some commentary. I plan to try and break his battle lines in the Center before MUD, but it seems even with the early loss of Moscow and Leningrad, Karri will be in a strong position to make a good winter counterattack. If I have done my math correctly he will be at 718 rifle squads per turn if I capture Leningrad. 682 if I capture Tula, but I don't think I will as Karri has some very strong reserves there. Right now capturing Moscow at T16 cuts soviet replacements 20%, cuts rail capacity to 6000, and brings Turkey into the war. In every other scenario a capture that early ends the game. In DNO captured after turn 30 gives germans the chance of Shock + soviet pestilence. So, while diminishing rail capacity by half is very helpful, an early capture of Moscow is not decisive.
< Message edited by Fungwu -- 11/23/2007 11:31:28 PM >
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