Progress to date:

 

Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 3

Date 22-23 Nov.

Axis Air 6

Soviet Air 2

Reinforcements both sides,

Weather Clear

Turn 3 saw the Soviets from North to South do the following; 1st and 5th Army surround stragglers and clearing pockets of resistance. in and around Blinovskii to  Korontkovskii.  Similarly in light fighting 21st and 65th Army fought along the line from Kletskaia to just NE of Srendaii.

See map of city locations:

The Rossoshka River  (NW of Stalingrad) essentially became a blocking line ofr the Axis, and the Soviet forces mapped along the opposite side. Except for the 16th Tank that attempted a narrow breakthru East of Marinovka. Below the Soviets pile on the hurt with nearly  10 attacks just in the North.

The now reduced 62nd Army HQ moves with the Katys to the front under a protection. 51st and 57th Army focus on pice meal attacks and draw units North to support the push in clearer terrain.  Soviets destroy 8 steps this turn, mostly int he North.

In the German turn, they continue their staged retreat and attempt to extricate high value units from the path of destruction. Force continue to head for the Surovikino-Nizhne line. All Turn 3 Northern reinforcements head that direction also.

The South is now more stabilized, with alert units plugging gaps and forces pulled from Stalingrad proper to reinforce the open plains around the city. 60 Motorized and 24th Panzer combine to attack the feeble attempt to breakthru by 16th Tank near Marinkova. Heavy Barrages destroy a step and allow air strikes to compound the beleaguered adventurers.

In Stalingrad the armor combines with air and artillery to pound the living shit out of 13 & 39 Guard units.

DG’ed and using HQ and Air and a determined attack drives the soviet forces back across the Volga!

2 other DG results allow for one more desperate 4:1 attack resulting in a 2 step loss and retreat by soviet forces. To add insult to injury the attacking units follow on and overrun  a unit in 49.26. You can see the cluster of 3 DG’d units, the bottom most one is in a nook of the Volga river on the North West side! See here:

Whilst it is indeed early days the Axis side appears to be doing ok. They stemmed losses, reduced key Guards units with high attack and defense factors and generally made a nuisance of themselves. Several units will die next turn buying time for the rest to escape. Several are also going to be out of supply. Such is life.

The Soviets on the other hand are lacking tempo. This seems to happen with me a lot. One side I “get” how to play the other…not so much. So lets see what happens next turn.