Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: vicberg

I have to add to this. This game is getting a bit frustrating for me because I haven't muled at all. Turns 5-10 are critical for the Germans, the exact time that supply is a challenge. They have to isolate soviet units or push the Soviets into indefensible situations with armor fists or it becomes a snowball affect against the Germans where they face more Soviet units in defense, many set to reserve mode (and I would doubt that reserves suffer attrition for participating in the battle thought they are next to the enemy for combat and I wonder how much reserve mode CV is modified though they force marched up to 60 miles to the battle in some cases) and that slows the offensive even further.

I wouldn't mind the more intense fighting it if I didn't know what was coming down the road. I'm going to lose at least 1 - 1.5 million men during the blizzard. My forces will be severly depleted going into 42. The soviet OOB will continue to grow because I haven't done enough damage to soviet production or to the red army and there will be lines and lines of units in the front and in reserve mode in the back, making the 42 offensive difficult if not a waste.

The flip side is if I'm able to isolate or place the soviets into indefensible situations, which is what Pelton and Michaelt do consistently starting from turn 3 on through end of the 41 campaign season. The soviets have less troops, more difficult times establishing solid defense lines, allowing for holes to open for the Germans to further isolate or exploit. In other words, muling allows the germans to keep the soviets on their heels and that is a requirement for a good 42 campaign season.

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ORIGINAL: vicberg
The extreme Soviet manpower and production capabilities that leads to 8 million man army in 42 forces the Germans into extreme measures of mulling in order to overcome. Get two equal players and the game is matched as is. Get one player better than the other and the game becomes lopsided quite quickly because the game IS extreme.

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ORIGINAL: vicberg

Sillyflower - that's exactly what I do. I leave skeletons around the pockets and move infanty through gaps and up to the front as fast as I can.

But I feel like I'm playing a different game than you. Routing Soviet units isn't enough as they come back. I need to isolate Soviet units and requires panzer running on full tanks. I smashed two Soviet armies against cheerfully insane. He had to pull them off the line to rebuild. Did it make a difference? Not really, he maintained his defense in depth, using reserve mode extensively, and that stopped me cold.

Only with full tanks in panzers can I make progress against that type of defense, otherwise I'm facing 8 million men and multiple layers of units in reserve mode.

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If there's tactics I could be doing without muling to keep the game competitive into 42, by all means, please let me know.

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IF the german is fast enough, the Russian simply won't have the units for 2, let alone 3 or 4 rows of divisions in reserve.

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I basically kept prodding and probing the blanket with grinding infantry attacks backed up with motorised units in offensive reserve mode, this produced favourable casualty ratios without gaining much ground, until eventually a crack appeared that I pounced on, which has now allowed me to get to the gates of Stalingrad by T67 and well on the road to Baku.

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You are advocating a war of attrition across the front. That's an interesting idea against a blanket. I'll see if that works better.

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I can see a case now for no muling.

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ORIGINAL: vicberg

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IF the german is fast enough, the Russian simply won't have the units for 2, let alone 3 or 4 rows of divisions in reserve.

I have to disagree. Glvaca, with all due respect you've been fighting a very forward defense which plays into his hands. The further forward you decide to fight, the better will be his supply situation. You had a LOT of units in the Crimea and a number still defending the Denpr (both north and south) after he crossed elsewhere. Once the landbridge in the north is breached or the denpr is cross anywhere in the south, I have seen many a soviet opponent pull far back because these spots become untenable. You didn't do that. SJ80's rail lines are still way back there in the south. If you were to pull back, far, in the south, you'll see his panzers on fumes. You could have avoided these encirclements entirely.

After I post my turn 11 with Viktor, check out what he's doing. He has small hedgehog all along the south. He just wants to slow me down. He's probably already railed out all the arms and factories. So he has a minimal committment in the south and a very strong in in the north. I'm lucky to push 2 or 3 hexes in the north, but I'm doing it at high cost to my panzers, and there's still a chance for Moscow. I never posted my game with cheerfully insane and I wish I did. He did pickets in the first few turns then started his defense in depth. He didn't care a BIT about terrain but maintained solid lines running from Moscow down to Kursk/Stalino. I mean absolutely straight. If I pushed 2 or 3 hexes into his lines, he retreated ALL of his lines 2 or 3 hexes. He didn't care about cities, rivers, nothing. I couldn't isolate or do nearly enough damage. I'd like another crack at that defense because I believe I can do more damage to it, but it was quite affective. It all comes down to playing style.

I will say that I'm probably focusing my panzer too far into the wooded north and that the best route for isolation or mosow is from the clear terrain to the south of Smolensk, however, in comparing my game to SJ80, we are about at the same physical locations on the map. The difference is that I've had to do a number of small pockets vs. the larger encirclements that SJ80 has been doing. Overall, it looks like we are at similar places in terms of isolated units, though he probably has a handful more than me.

However, I can tell you right now, barring a disaster during winter, that I'll be facing LOTS of troops all in reserve mode in 42. It won't be pretty and there will be minimal chance for a good campaign. I simply haven't destroyed enough of his units.

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Glvaca, Vicberg does a have point about your defense in the south. It really is a bit too far forward.

Once the Germans cross the Dnepr in strength the Ukraine is more or less indefensible. You have to keep backing into what I refer to as the logistical deadzone. This is the area where buildups cannot be done -- the game provides you perfect intelligence regarding distance from railheads, so you can easily calculate what is eligible for buildups and where. Your main line of resistance should be located in this area, and be gradually withdrawn as the Axis supply advances. Anything forward of that is merely for screening/attrition purposes.

This provides you with the balance of forces necessary to fight it out up north where the Germans can push their supply lines well forward and you have less space to give up, but much better terrain.

Your evac probably needs some refinement, too. I don't evacuate anything west of the Dnepr and start right away with the big juicy targets. Kharkov is generally my third evacuation site (after Leningrad and Poltava.) The idea here is that you don't want to have all that stuff exposed when the Axis cross the Dnepr around turn 6. Your rail cap won't keep up with it. So you write off everything far forward and start working immediately on the big stuff.

By turn 10 or so you can strip the entire southern factory complex up to Voronezh and Rostov.