76mm
Posts: 4688
Joined: 5/2/2004 From: Washington, DC Status: offline
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Finished Turn 31 and sent the turn back before I remembered to get screenshots. Oh well, nothing that exciting this turn anyway... In general, he pulled back 1-2 hexes across most of the front, although he left some stronger stacks in place without pulling them back. In particular, he pulled back in the Bryansk area (although he still holds Bryansk), although I've managed to encircle one lonely infantry division. He has more or less plugged most of the gaps in his line north of Kursk, although the Sumy-Poltava gap is still open (but narrowing...). I am rushing everying I can towards there, but there is not that much, and as luck would have it, that is the one part of the map where I have not gotten ANY recon flights for the last couple of turns. He still seems determined to hold Kharkov, with the city now at the angle of lines running to the west and south. I doubt he will hold it much longer, but we'll see. Down south, he has continued his strategy of pulling back slowly, so it is difficult to attack him successfully there. I finally launched my first (unsuccessful) attack on the Romanians across the frozen Dnepr, I have been reinforcing this area as quickly as possible, but it is ridiculously difficult to do (no rail or ports nearby). A few general comments--it has been much more difficult to launch attacks in the last turn or two, for a variety of reasons. First, he has generally been pulling back at least a hex every turn, which makes it very difficult to launch deliberate attacks. Second, his units seem to be on the mend, picking up a couple of CV over the last turn or two. Third, his tactics have become much better, and he is actively whacking whatever tank brigades or cavdivs that I insert into gaps in the line. Fourth, in general, the Luftwaffe has been kicking my butt, not something I really expected during the blizzard. I haven't shown you my attacks each turn, so I thought I'd comment on that...in general, I have launched very few attacks per turn, maybe 10--12, sometimes fewer. While I would like to attack more, my weak units and his withdrawals make it very difficult to get adequate odds, and if I don't win the battle I suffer punishing losses--several thousand men, generally 10x what he loses, which I cannot afford. If I win, my losses are generally the same as his, perhaps 1.5x. I'm not certain, but I think that so far I have only suffered about 300k losses during the blizzard (went from 3.8 mln to 4.1 mln losses). IIRC, his losses are now at 1.1 mln, probably up from 400-500k at the beginning of the blizzard (not really sure what his losses were pre-blizzard, but they weren't very high). Also, unless I can pull off something major in the next couple of turns (I'm trying my hardest!), I doubt that the game will end after the blizzard. I think his losses are relatively light, and while his strategic position won't be great, it won't be disasterous either (although I'm not sure what his objectives would be be for 1942). Most important, according to his last e-mail, he is having fun, so I expect he'll stay with the game.
< Message edited by 76mm -- 3/30/2011 8:04:12 AM >
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