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WingedIncubus -> RE: Newbs in the East: Psych0 (Axis) vs Drakken (Sov) - NO AXIS ALLOWED (9/27/2017 5:10:26 AM)
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T7 - July 31st, 1941 - SITREP
Just as M60A3TTS predicted, psych0 went for a wide right turn passed the Volkhov river. However, thankfully he reached neither Novaya Ladoga not Sviritsa. First order of business will be for me to redeploy all my Northwestern Front to cover both ports, the river lines, and the neighboring swamp hexes. Time to use my available vehicles to motorized the lot of them and move them out.
His infrantry blasted my line at Kolpino, routing both Divisions there. Thankfully, one of them magically teleported right on Novaya Ladoga.
However, the Mga railroad is now permanenly cut, and its furthest ZOC prevents me from using the Volkhov rail rine. Officially, Northern Front is now totally ****ed, trapped with next to no escape except through Osinovets. The silver lining is that I have enough port shipping available to move a whole stack away from Leningrad each Turn, which I will use to extract full stacks right into Sviritsa - and away from that cauldron. I will attempt to evacuate whatever I can until he either surrounds the town or he caps it.
In the Centre, just as I expected, psych0 has committed ALL its panzer groups' divisions to a sheer brute force push right into my strongest point. All of them were concentrated like a massively ram right in my centre line into Rossokovsky's forces. Many divisions were routed and it has created a six-hexes wide gap, however it seems that my tactic of using Cavalry in my rear as a anti-penetration anchors has worked: psych0 attempted to send forward units further in my rear but their movements points was absorbed by those units. No maneuver in my rear was achieved!!
While costly, this proves to be a strategic and operational failure for psych0. Panzers are made to pierce, and reach wide and deep in the rear, and surround. Currently, two panzer groups are now reduced to be battering rams into deep Soviet lines. In the end, for now, this has achieved no encirclement nor real degradation of my situation in the Centre - except being nearby Moscow and tettering on losing it.
I might as well face the facts: Moscow seemss all but gone. And it's not even August yet, I am right there at the Capital and I do not expect to reach September holding it. Totally frustating because this is beyond ridiculous from any real-life logistical standpoint but that's WITE 1.0 for you. It was announced that the next patch will introduce supply deterioration for the Axis players. We'll see how it changes things for the Soviets.
I will have no choice but to reel my troops behind the Lama river and Kaluga - and in the vicinity of Moscow - right into the woods. But this might prove to be a blessing in disguise, I believe? This basically commits him to keep pushing through again in the centre, sacrificing maneuver mobility for sheer mass because the alternative is to attempt lateral flanking attacked into Rivers, bad terrain, and fortified towns.
My consolation is that psych0 seems to have totally crapped his panzer units doing so. He has commented that all his three pushes was at heavy cost of panzers, with many Pz divs down to less than 200 AFVs. That was, if you remember, my first objective - attrite his panzers to the point that psych0 loses his teeth. I have a feeling that, at least in the Centre, his forces might be reaching its limit. I do not know how all this impacts the Axis game, so more experienced players may chime in if I am being too optimistic.
Comparatively, my current losses so far are "under control" at under 1,8 million reaching August, with no big encirclement in sight except Leningrad of course. Far from the 3+ millions casualties the Axis has to cost the Soviets to have a realistic shot. I still hold the numerical advantage and starting mid-August the reinforcements will start pouring in.
In the South, predictably PG4 has assaulted my line and is now beyond the Dnepr. However the retreat was in good order, leaving a big salient that unfortunately I cannot exploit. Plus, Zaporozhye still holds.
I will have no choice but to retreat yet again, this time to create a new "line" with what remains between Kharkov and Stalino, and draw him even further from his 25 hex supply line. This will also force to separate my front line to create a new Crimean front.
All in all, this Turn was much better than anticipated. I was scared to death of what was about to happen, but now it seems that my opponent is reaching overextension. I see some things that seem to bring glimmer of hope that I might, in fact, changing my situation for slightly better.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/vci4T1u.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/r0voSQ6.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/8OntvAw.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Y0We5Eq.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ReYuxAx.png[/img]
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