Republished with repaired images

From last time….

“Back to 3^rd Pzr Group, the rest of the org, splits and we leave one unit at the gateway thru the northern woods, and 9^th Army XXII Corps locks up and isolates the 22^nd Army where he took reinforcements.”

PART 2 of AVD:

Turn 3.

The Soviet retreat picks up pace and once again from a game play perspective this rapid a withdrawal does not seem in the Soviets best interests. While counter attacking is foolhardy, for sure leaving some units in contact at the very least will delay my advance due to the cost in MP’s to EXIT the hex! (+2).

 

Turn 4:

Having not played before I am unsure of the value of the over run mechanic here. It forces a retreat of HQ’s under specific guidelines. So where ever possible I am displacing his HQ’s, this should interfere with his next turn planning and positioning if the HQ is popped back 4 hexes! Especially if it is after he has finished movement for the turn.

 

Panzers pressure the middle in an attempt to keep the Soviet forces split. They redirect Southwards in a broad arc around and partially thru the forests. The red encircled units will be isolated (versus OOS, only German units end up OOS), this helps me limit the number of units in play, so far the Soviet player has deemed it not worthwhile to attempt to extricate those units. At some point I will need to kill them off.

In the centre I would have imagined that the Soviets would attempt to disengage, bu cannot due to lack of HQ to reach them. I need to re check “how” HQ can reach them and under what circumstances. I.e. can he bring a reinforcement HQ in right there?  That would be bad.

Turn 5

9th Army activation uses road movement to push forward units, securing a path for our move!

This turn the chit pulls favor the Soviets, from the perspective that they got all of them first. Yet, this does mean that I know who is OOS, I know where his reinforcements are and I can ‘go last’. With all his units moved and all the ‘support’ chits played its time for a bit of fun. When 9th Army is pulled we place it back in the cup and elect to use Guderian to move.

 

This then sets up my next uninterrupted move, 2nd Panzer Group. Yes! two back to back uninterrupted moves. I am now deep enough that his units can’t play catch up. I can screen with some units and surge forward with one division. While I am separated I will split a turn and use the heavy units to place pressure in this pocket forming around Roslav.

Once again by stroke of fortune the Germans end up going largely last. They drive 2nd Pzr Group around the enemy clusters a full ten hexes and 3rd Panzer get into the swing of things appearing to press center as well.

He will have to place new units in front of me to block my movement. On the rest of the map in the North we can hopefully activate to kill off the Isolated units and clear up that area in Turn 6. In the South near the River we have a large number of units, that need a turn or two moving to capture a VP location and begin locking up the southern forces.

The question is now, how fragmented do I want the forces, an error in the center has me split, and now an Armoured Div in the South is split also. Not entirely un intended as I fear a counter attack coming. The Soviet player has placed a large number of forward units OOS, and ignored my rear where he migh have some minor advantage, especially in a breakout attempt in the North.

Part 3 next