Posted By: DBond
The War in the East (Grigsby's WitE) - 11/17/18 04:07 PM
An AAR documenting my questionable decision to invade Russia, re-posted from the Historical Strategy forum. A full AAR is called for, but more than I am willing to do. So this thread will instead be reports, snapshots in time, broken down in to three or four week segments. It deserves edited screens, like in Para_Bellum's fantastic AAR from 2011 , but it will have to do. The reader will need to make sense of what is shown and some knowledge of Russia and the war in general will certainly help makes sense of it all. I apologize for this, but hopefully it won't prove too detrimental.
Let's see if I can pull it off. The vast distances, the weather, the terrain, the enemy and the colossal challenge of keeping my army supplied as they drive deeper in Russia will challenge me. It's my first go at this (I did start one aborted run that lasted all of 2 turns), so feeling rather unqualified for the lofty position I hold as the Grand Poobah of the German armed forces, I will do it anyway. To the east!
Gary Grigsby's War in the East
Played German vs AI on normal. No Soviet Combat Bonus. FOW off. 260 Point 1941-1945 Grand Campaign
"Every leader and soldier is to have hammered into him for this eastern campaign the foremost order: above everything else swiftly and ruthlessly forward!" -- Fedor von Bock, Commander, Army Group Center
First three turns June 22 to July 3
Army Group Center
I kicked the thing off with the air phase, which caught the Russian on the ground, inflicting devastating losses. 3700 aircraft destroyed, including 3500 on the ground.
We then lead the ground attack with a double envelopment in AGC's sector. I sent Hoth's 3rd Panzergruppe (light green) along the north edge. The idea was to center this northern thrust on Vitebsk, to hopefully continue on beyond and strike at Smolensk, as well as clear the way for the southernmost of my two Baltic rail spurs. I needed one of his panzer corps to help seal the north side of the Slonim pocket. Guderian's 2nd Panzergruppe (light blue) helped seal the south side of the Slonim pocket on turn 1, and then pressed on, splitting to take Minsk and heading for the Dnepr crossing at Zhlobin. They were held back a bit to keep them in supply range, so that they could get some during the logistics phase. In the first run they went all the way to the river, but were then out of gas and useless for turn 3, which lead to the restart. It's only a few hexes in some cases. Every time an HQ unit is moved I next check the supply details for the unit and make sure that HQ is within 25 hexes of a rail head. Movement points also play a part, and in areas with lots of lousy terrain, or during mud and snow, then 25 hexes may not longer be enough. But here in the open spaces of the western Soviet frontier the 25 hex limit works. The closer to the rail head the better of course, but it's smart to always check this every time you move one of your corps HQs. And then ensure all subordinate units take up positions within 5 hexes of that HQ. There will be times when I think the objective is worth the out of supply positions (two of which will soon follow in this AAR!), but on the whole I'll try to stick to this rule of thumb.
Having unleashed the fury of Army Group Center, the Russian formations opposite us are trapped in a pocket.
Having sealed virtually the entire Soviet Western Front in the Slonim pocket, and having captured the city of Minsk, I turned my attention on the Russian defense of Smolensk. In run 1, he made a stand, and the line of the Denpr was heavily reinforced. This time the enemy did not get nearly so many units in to position, and at the end of turn 2 my panzer groups sat resupplying around Minsk and west of Vibtesk, I could see the chance of a breakthrough near Orsha. If I could do this, it would allow my armor to run through the landbridge and either take Smolensk, or run the southern half of a pincer to encircle the defenders south of Vitebsk, and hopefully fulfill each of those objectives. Hoth's panzers to the north (Schmidt) would have to punch through Vibtesk, which isn't easy as they aren't ideally suited for this. But I had two entire panzergruppen and their hour had arrived, As a result of this assessment, I kept the southern of Hoth's panzer corps near Minsk to give extra weight to the attack at Orsha, instead of sending it north to rejoin the rest of 3rd Panzer. I also cashiered the commander and replaced him with Hermann Balck. He is the Germans' best commander of mobile forces that starts without a command. As a Major General though it costs 26 admin points to appoint him to command a corps. That's a heavy price, but I can't resist this sort of move. The combat value of all of the divisions in the panzer corps instantly improved when he arrived. These are the tip of my schwerpunkt and he will put the finest edge on LVII Panzer Corps. Kuntzen was the man dismissed. I plan many more command changes, ruthless as I am, but the admin points keep you honest.
This shot introduces the dashing and capable General Balck, shows some of the positions at the end of turn 2, as well as the weak defense of the upper Dnepr. The Russian would strengthen it during his turn a bit, but it's a far thinner line than in my first aborted attempt at the grand campaign.
The plan to breach the position on the upper Dnepr worked to perfection. By holding my leading units back a bit to end turn 2 it enabled enough momentum to score a fantastic success on turn 3.
Using the full weight of Schmidt's XXXIX Panzer Corps we punched past Vitebsk and sealed the northern half of the pocket. Using XXXVII Panzer Corps (Lemelsen) we blew it open at Orsha. The newly installed Balck then lead LVII Panzer Corps through the breach, sealing the pocket. Schweppenburg's XXIV Panzer Corps then raced through to to capture Smolensk! It went off so spectacularly that I could now decomit Vietinghoff's XXXXVI Panzer Corps from this operation and send him south toward Gomel as part of my effort to seal the Pripet marshes and link up with Army Group South. A solid pocket has been formed, but the screenshot shows a glaring mistake I made. I have no unit in Orsha, blocking the railway there. Hopefully the ZoC of the units there will prevent the encircled troops from breaking out here. If the Soviets try to breakout by atttacking from both sides the ring may break. Could be a very bad mistake. I don't want to let this bag o' Ivan escape.
In all this operation far exceeded my expectations by turn 3. To be in Smolensk is a best case scenario. It's a calculated risk to leave these valuable forces in a spot that's out of supply, but I felt it had to be done. Another turn could have seen the Russian reinforce the position along the upper Dnepr in front of Smolensk. I believe these units can pull some supply from the city. But if I can hold the encirclement and keep Smolensk it was certainly worth the gamble. This is the reason all of those tank formations were put in AGC in the first place right?
Army Group North
In the north the singular overriding objective is Leningrad. But there are some key lesser objectives along the way. To take Leningrad not only denies it to the enemy as a population and production base, it gets Finland fully in the war. To have the Finns helping hold the northern part of your front allows you to strengthen other parts of it. Taking Leningrad is therefore the number on thing I want to accomplish in '41. I hope it isn't all, that I can also take Kiev and Rostov, Kharkov and Moscow. Even Sevastopol. But Leningrad is the key for me.
The attack was launched, holes were opened and Hoepner's 4th Panzergruppe was unleashed.AGN has the least armor and this is the only panzer group, which limits our flexibility for mobile operations One panzer corps, the XXXXI under Reinhardt was able to capture Riga on turn 1! Manstein's LVI Panzer Corps was sent toward Pskov. The rail repair teams were put to work and I am trying to take advantage of the lower Baltic zone repair cost by building a line Riga-Pskov-Leningrad. And another to the south, though Polotsk and on to Vitebsk and Smolensk. All reinforcements from Germany (7 infantry divisions so far) were sent by train to this front, where they detrained and were split up among the various infantry corps, again careful not to overload the command capacity. AGN is the only Army Group that doesn't start seriously overloaded, so these troops were sent here partly for this reason, and also to add weight to the attack on Leningrad.
On turn 2, Manstein was able to capture Pskov, but low on fuel he would have to halt in this position for a turn. Pskov is an important rail hub in this sector so worth the effort. Reinhardt's corps, having taken Riga, then raced along the coast and captured Kallinn on turn 3! and still had the momentum to shuffle up against the defense southwest of Leningrad along the Narva river. A spectacular advance. The Riga rail line will support them and I am hoping to work toward capturing the east shore of Lake Ladoga while the infantry continue to move toward Leningrad. They are still several turns away, as this is quite a distance. In all we were able to take full advantage of the relatively weak Russian defense in this area. Evidence shows they are gathering near Velikiye Luki and this could pose a threat. The infantry continues to arrow northeast and some can be shifted here if necessary.
The screenshot shows Manstein halted in Pskov and Reinhardt standing on the Gulf of Finland! The strength of the defense at Leningrad is formidable, and growing. But they are running out of time to keep doing so.
Army Group South
The south. Honestly, I really don't know the best way to approach this front. It's complicated, with far-reaching objectives, a mix of German forces and satellites, has the slowest rail repair along with just a single FBD unit (rail repair), and a terribly overloaded command. It's easy to say I want to take Kiev, Sevastopol, Rostov, Karkhov and Dnepropetrovsk, hereafter known as Dnepro. It's another thing to do it, as this will surely be the front that feels the most stretched, in all directions. The terrain in the Ukraine is wide open, but the enemy, logistics and river crossing after river crossing will test the limits of our ambition.
One immediate complication is much of the force at your disposal in the south begins the game frozen. The Romanians, the Slovakians and the Hungarians are not available and will all join in the coming turns. Some of the German motorized divisions are also frozen. AGS is the largest Army Group, in terms of troops, but still well short of the armored strength of Army Group Center. So how to crack it? I made Kiev the first real target. The plan was to drive behind Lvov, encircling the defenders, then pivot east to cross the Denpr at Cherkassy. If a bridgeghead could be won, the units across would wheel north and follow the right bank of the river to take Kiev from the rear, trapping the defenders I would expect to have gathered in front of the city.
The first move I made was to load the FBD here on to a train, and sent him on a ride to the Romanian border, ultimately to a town called Ugenny to begin construction of the rail spur. This single spur will support the entire AGS, or so I hope!
The attack opened with two infantry corps smashing open the front south of the Pripet marshes. Kleist's 1st Panzergruppe has three panzer corps, and these were sent through the gap. One cut south past Tarnopol toward the Dnestr river. It could not close the remaining distance to the Romanian border, and the rail line there carried out much of the force defending Lvov. The pocket was closed the following turn, but by then many had escaped encirclement, and seemed to be sent to Zhitomir where the Russian was anchoring his defense, barring the direct path to Kiev. A second panzer corps was sent east to take Rovno, which was done. The third panzer corps went southeast past Tarnopol, then probed east toward Vinnista, capturing the city on turn 2!. The infantry near Lvov was sorted, with some re-assignments to cure corps-level overburdening. I attempted to use them to seal up Lvov, but not much progress really.
By turn 3 the Romanians had entered and breached their front to march on Odessa and protect the right flank of the panzer group. These troops aren't powerful, and seem to move much slower (all horse-drawn?), but they should be sufficient to take Odessa and then on to Nikolaev. Their air corps is also nice to have. With the Lvov pocket now sealed, the infantry set about trying to reduce it. It proved difficult, as the best Russian tank units are deployed in the south, but eventually Lvov was taken and the last few remnants of the forces trapped are being eliminated. I was able to send a few infantry corps east to support the armor, but the majority of it has been mired around Lvov.
The enemy's decision to stand at Zhitomir however was a mistake of the first order. The Russian has obviously underestimated the speed at which blitzkrieg moves. The ability of our panzer formations to cover ground, especially here in the Ukraine, is phenomenal. An amazing opportunity appeared. With some luck, Kleist's tanks could outflank the enemy's main line to the south, and take Kiev almost unopposed, negating the need to cross the Dnepr and accelerating our time table by weeks. The force near Rovno could try to strike at the northern flank of the enemy's line, hopefully preventing large-scale retreat in to the marshes (grrrr) and with good fortune breakthrough to form the northern arm of an encirclement together with the two panzer corps sent to take Kiev. That trap could not be completed yet, but we are laying the foundation. If the units threatened with entrapment don't react immediately, the chance for a tying a huge noose around the bulk of the Red Army in the south beckons.
Like the decision to go for Smolensk, here was a chance to capture a major prize at the earliest opportunity, and potentially ensnare a huge gob of enemy divisions, but would leave these advanced units in an out of supply location. Like Smolensk, I am banking on the ability to draw supplies from the city itself..These units also displaced a number of enemy airfields on their way to Kiev, capturing enormous quantities of fuel, including 31 tons at one particular airfield, so they should still be useful next turn, even out of supply range. The fact that my infantry lags so far behind is a problem, it will be hard to form a solid ring for a few more turns. I doubt the Red Army will sit and wait for it. But if I can take Kiev, and prevent a large migration in the the marshes it will be another spectacular success, though I fear I will have outrun my ability to make it the victory it could be. I love how this game continues to ask questions, and the player needs to continually adapt to changing events, threatening situations and golden opportunities.
Maximum momentum of attacks is best achieved by selecting from the units you are committing to the operation, the ones furthest from the point of attack to launch it. Doing so allows those units with decreasing MPs to force the front, and those with the most MPs to plunge through the breach. So that's what I did here too. Jumping off from positions near Vinnista, I broke through the weaker defenses south of the enemy's main line, and using both of the southern two panzer corps, Mackensen's III Panzer Corps and Kempf's XXXXVIII, outflanked the enemy's main effort and we drove straight in to Kiev, routing the relatively small force defending the city, and Kiev was captured! Wietersheim's XIV Panzer Corps moved to strike the northern end of the enemy's line along the southern boundary of the Pripet marshes, but no breakthrough was possible by the end of turn 3. If these two forces can link up next turn, and if some additional help from the infantry arrives we could see a huge haul of prisoners. I doubt though my ability to do this in time. We will see.
In all a smashing success in the south. My infantry is too far behind, and we will soon outrun our rail lines. But to have Kiev in our hands already is awesome. To the east!
Here you see Kiev in our hands and the armor at the north edge. The mass of our infantry is still around Lvov however.
Here are the ground losses for both sides through July 3rd. The Russian has lost almost three quarters of a million men and 5100 tanks. I don't show it, but he has lost 4400 aircraft to our 70 or so. Additional encirclements promise another big haul if things break our way.
And here is the 'strategic view', showing the depths of our advances. All of our units appear as white and the Russian in gold. This seems a solid start
Let's see if I can pull it off. The vast distances, the weather, the terrain, the enemy and the colossal challenge of keeping my army supplied as they drive deeper in Russia will challenge me. It's my first go at this (I did start one aborted run that lasted all of 2 turns), so feeling rather unqualified for the lofty position I hold as the Grand Poobah of the German armed forces, I will do it anyway. To the east!
Gary Grigsby's War in the East
Played German vs AI on normal. No Soviet Combat Bonus. FOW off. 260 Point 1941-1945 Grand Campaign
"Every leader and soldier is to have hammered into him for this eastern campaign the foremost order: above everything else swiftly and ruthlessly forward!" -- Fedor von Bock, Commander, Army Group Center
First three turns June 22 to July 3
Army Group Center
I kicked the thing off with the air phase, which caught the Russian on the ground, inflicting devastating losses. 3700 aircraft destroyed, including 3500 on the ground.
We then lead the ground attack with a double envelopment in AGC's sector. I sent Hoth's 3rd Panzergruppe (light green) along the north edge. The idea was to center this northern thrust on Vitebsk, to hopefully continue on beyond and strike at Smolensk, as well as clear the way for the southernmost of my two Baltic rail spurs. I needed one of his panzer corps to help seal the north side of the Slonim pocket. Guderian's 2nd Panzergruppe (light blue) helped seal the south side of the Slonim pocket on turn 1, and then pressed on, splitting to take Minsk and heading for the Dnepr crossing at Zhlobin. They were held back a bit to keep them in supply range, so that they could get some during the logistics phase. In the first run they went all the way to the river, but were then out of gas and useless for turn 3, which lead to the restart. It's only a few hexes in some cases. Every time an HQ unit is moved I next check the supply details for the unit and make sure that HQ is within 25 hexes of a rail head. Movement points also play a part, and in areas with lots of lousy terrain, or during mud and snow, then 25 hexes may not longer be enough. But here in the open spaces of the western Soviet frontier the 25 hex limit works. The closer to the rail head the better of course, but it's smart to always check this every time you move one of your corps HQs. And then ensure all subordinate units take up positions within 5 hexes of that HQ. There will be times when I think the objective is worth the out of supply positions (two of which will soon follow in this AAR!), but on the whole I'll try to stick to this rule of thumb.
Having unleashed the fury of Army Group Center, the Russian formations opposite us are trapped in a pocket.
Having sealed virtually the entire Soviet Western Front in the Slonim pocket, and having captured the city of Minsk, I turned my attention on the Russian defense of Smolensk. In run 1, he made a stand, and the line of the Denpr was heavily reinforced. This time the enemy did not get nearly so many units in to position, and at the end of turn 2 my panzer groups sat resupplying around Minsk and west of Vibtesk, I could see the chance of a breakthrough near Orsha. If I could do this, it would allow my armor to run through the landbridge and either take Smolensk, or run the southern half of a pincer to encircle the defenders south of Vitebsk, and hopefully fulfill each of those objectives. Hoth's panzers to the north (Schmidt) would have to punch through Vibtesk, which isn't easy as they aren't ideally suited for this. But I had two entire panzergruppen and their hour had arrived, As a result of this assessment, I kept the southern of Hoth's panzer corps near Minsk to give extra weight to the attack at Orsha, instead of sending it north to rejoin the rest of 3rd Panzer. I also cashiered the commander and replaced him with Hermann Balck. He is the Germans' best commander of mobile forces that starts without a command. As a Major General though it costs 26 admin points to appoint him to command a corps. That's a heavy price, but I can't resist this sort of move. The combat value of all of the divisions in the panzer corps instantly improved when he arrived. These are the tip of my schwerpunkt and he will put the finest edge on LVII Panzer Corps. Kuntzen was the man dismissed. I plan many more command changes, ruthless as I am, but the admin points keep you honest.
This shot introduces the dashing and capable General Balck, shows some of the positions at the end of turn 2, as well as the weak defense of the upper Dnepr. The Russian would strengthen it during his turn a bit, but it's a far thinner line than in my first aborted attempt at the grand campaign.
The plan to breach the position on the upper Dnepr worked to perfection. By holding my leading units back a bit to end turn 2 it enabled enough momentum to score a fantastic success on turn 3.
Using the full weight of Schmidt's XXXIX Panzer Corps we punched past Vitebsk and sealed the northern half of the pocket. Using XXXVII Panzer Corps (Lemelsen) we blew it open at Orsha. The newly installed Balck then lead LVII Panzer Corps through the breach, sealing the pocket. Schweppenburg's XXIV Panzer Corps then raced through to to capture Smolensk! It went off so spectacularly that I could now decomit Vietinghoff's XXXXVI Panzer Corps from this operation and send him south toward Gomel as part of my effort to seal the Pripet marshes and link up with Army Group South. A solid pocket has been formed, but the screenshot shows a glaring mistake I made. I have no unit in Orsha, blocking the railway there. Hopefully the ZoC of the units there will prevent the encircled troops from breaking out here. If the Soviets try to breakout by atttacking from both sides the ring may break. Could be a very bad mistake. I don't want to let this bag o' Ivan escape.
In all this operation far exceeded my expectations by turn 3. To be in Smolensk is a best case scenario. It's a calculated risk to leave these valuable forces in a spot that's out of supply, but I felt it had to be done. Another turn could have seen the Russian reinforce the position along the upper Dnepr in front of Smolensk. I believe these units can pull some supply from the city. But if I can hold the encirclement and keep Smolensk it was certainly worth the gamble. This is the reason all of those tank formations were put in AGC in the first place right?
Army Group North
In the north the singular overriding objective is Leningrad. But there are some key lesser objectives along the way. To take Leningrad not only denies it to the enemy as a population and production base, it gets Finland fully in the war. To have the Finns helping hold the northern part of your front allows you to strengthen other parts of it. Taking Leningrad is therefore the number on thing I want to accomplish in '41. I hope it isn't all, that I can also take Kiev and Rostov, Kharkov and Moscow. Even Sevastopol. But Leningrad is the key for me.
The attack was launched, holes were opened and Hoepner's 4th Panzergruppe was unleashed.AGN has the least armor and this is the only panzer group, which limits our flexibility for mobile operations One panzer corps, the XXXXI under Reinhardt was able to capture Riga on turn 1! Manstein's LVI Panzer Corps was sent toward Pskov. The rail repair teams were put to work and I am trying to take advantage of the lower Baltic zone repair cost by building a line Riga-Pskov-Leningrad. And another to the south, though Polotsk and on to Vitebsk and Smolensk. All reinforcements from Germany (7 infantry divisions so far) were sent by train to this front, where they detrained and were split up among the various infantry corps, again careful not to overload the command capacity. AGN is the only Army Group that doesn't start seriously overloaded, so these troops were sent here partly for this reason, and also to add weight to the attack on Leningrad.
On turn 2, Manstein was able to capture Pskov, but low on fuel he would have to halt in this position for a turn. Pskov is an important rail hub in this sector so worth the effort. Reinhardt's corps, having taken Riga, then raced along the coast and captured Kallinn on turn 3! and still had the momentum to shuffle up against the defense southwest of Leningrad along the Narva river. A spectacular advance. The Riga rail line will support them and I am hoping to work toward capturing the east shore of Lake Ladoga while the infantry continue to move toward Leningrad. They are still several turns away, as this is quite a distance. In all we were able to take full advantage of the relatively weak Russian defense in this area. Evidence shows they are gathering near Velikiye Luki and this could pose a threat. The infantry continues to arrow northeast and some can be shifted here if necessary.
The screenshot shows Manstein halted in Pskov and Reinhardt standing on the Gulf of Finland! The strength of the defense at Leningrad is formidable, and growing. But they are running out of time to keep doing so.
Army Group South
The south. Honestly, I really don't know the best way to approach this front. It's complicated, with far-reaching objectives, a mix of German forces and satellites, has the slowest rail repair along with just a single FBD unit (rail repair), and a terribly overloaded command. It's easy to say I want to take Kiev, Sevastopol, Rostov, Karkhov and Dnepropetrovsk, hereafter known as Dnepro. It's another thing to do it, as this will surely be the front that feels the most stretched, in all directions. The terrain in the Ukraine is wide open, but the enemy, logistics and river crossing after river crossing will test the limits of our ambition.
One immediate complication is much of the force at your disposal in the south begins the game frozen. The Romanians, the Slovakians and the Hungarians are not available and will all join in the coming turns. Some of the German motorized divisions are also frozen. AGS is the largest Army Group, in terms of troops, but still well short of the armored strength of Army Group Center. So how to crack it? I made Kiev the first real target. The plan was to drive behind Lvov, encircling the defenders, then pivot east to cross the Denpr at Cherkassy. If a bridgeghead could be won, the units across would wheel north and follow the right bank of the river to take Kiev from the rear, trapping the defenders I would expect to have gathered in front of the city.
The first move I made was to load the FBD here on to a train, and sent him on a ride to the Romanian border, ultimately to a town called Ugenny to begin construction of the rail spur. This single spur will support the entire AGS, or so I hope!
The attack opened with two infantry corps smashing open the front south of the Pripet marshes. Kleist's 1st Panzergruppe has three panzer corps, and these were sent through the gap. One cut south past Tarnopol toward the Dnestr river. It could not close the remaining distance to the Romanian border, and the rail line there carried out much of the force defending Lvov. The pocket was closed the following turn, but by then many had escaped encirclement, and seemed to be sent to Zhitomir where the Russian was anchoring his defense, barring the direct path to Kiev. A second panzer corps was sent east to take Rovno, which was done. The third panzer corps went southeast past Tarnopol, then probed east toward Vinnista, capturing the city on turn 2!. The infantry near Lvov was sorted, with some re-assignments to cure corps-level overburdening. I attempted to use them to seal up Lvov, but not much progress really.
By turn 3 the Romanians had entered and breached their front to march on Odessa and protect the right flank of the panzer group. These troops aren't powerful, and seem to move much slower (all horse-drawn?), but they should be sufficient to take Odessa and then on to Nikolaev. Their air corps is also nice to have. With the Lvov pocket now sealed, the infantry set about trying to reduce it. It proved difficult, as the best Russian tank units are deployed in the south, but eventually Lvov was taken and the last few remnants of the forces trapped are being eliminated. I was able to send a few infantry corps east to support the armor, but the majority of it has been mired around Lvov.
The enemy's decision to stand at Zhitomir however was a mistake of the first order. The Russian has obviously underestimated the speed at which blitzkrieg moves. The ability of our panzer formations to cover ground, especially here in the Ukraine, is phenomenal. An amazing opportunity appeared. With some luck, Kleist's tanks could outflank the enemy's main line to the south, and take Kiev almost unopposed, negating the need to cross the Dnepr and accelerating our time table by weeks. The force near Rovno could try to strike at the northern flank of the enemy's line, hopefully preventing large-scale retreat in to the marshes (grrrr) and with good fortune breakthrough to form the northern arm of an encirclement together with the two panzer corps sent to take Kiev. That trap could not be completed yet, but we are laying the foundation. If the units threatened with entrapment don't react immediately, the chance for a tying a huge noose around the bulk of the Red Army in the south beckons.
Like the decision to go for Smolensk, here was a chance to capture a major prize at the earliest opportunity, and potentially ensnare a huge gob of enemy divisions, but would leave these advanced units in an out of supply location. Like Smolensk, I am banking on the ability to draw supplies from the city itself..These units also displaced a number of enemy airfields on their way to Kiev, capturing enormous quantities of fuel, including 31 tons at one particular airfield, so they should still be useful next turn, even out of supply range. The fact that my infantry lags so far behind is a problem, it will be hard to form a solid ring for a few more turns. I doubt the Red Army will sit and wait for it. But if I can take Kiev, and prevent a large migration in the the marshes it will be another spectacular success, though I fear I will have outrun my ability to make it the victory it could be. I love how this game continues to ask questions, and the player needs to continually adapt to changing events, threatening situations and golden opportunities.
Maximum momentum of attacks is best achieved by selecting from the units you are committing to the operation, the ones furthest from the point of attack to launch it. Doing so allows those units with decreasing MPs to force the front, and those with the most MPs to plunge through the breach. So that's what I did here too. Jumping off from positions near Vinnista, I broke through the weaker defenses south of the enemy's main line, and using both of the southern two panzer corps, Mackensen's III Panzer Corps and Kempf's XXXXVIII, outflanked the enemy's main effort and we drove straight in to Kiev, routing the relatively small force defending the city, and Kiev was captured! Wietersheim's XIV Panzer Corps moved to strike the northern end of the enemy's line along the southern boundary of the Pripet marshes, but no breakthrough was possible by the end of turn 3. If these two forces can link up next turn, and if some additional help from the infantry arrives we could see a huge haul of prisoners. I doubt though my ability to do this in time. We will see.
In all a smashing success in the south. My infantry is too far behind, and we will soon outrun our rail lines. But to have Kiev in our hands already is awesome. To the east!
Here you see Kiev in our hands and the armor at the north edge. The mass of our infantry is still around Lvov however.
Here are the ground losses for both sides through July 3rd. The Russian has lost almost three quarters of a million men and 5100 tanks. I don't show it, but he has lost 4400 aircraft to our 70 or so. Additional encirclements promise another big haul if things break our way.
And here is the 'strategic view', showing the depths of our advances. All of our units appear as white and the Russian in gold. This seems a solid start