This turn July 16th and 17th 1941.
The Muddy summer showers rain on the Fuhrers parade.
But fear not! For the grand scheme will allow for some mud, some delay is of no consequence.
Recall our plan:
“Let’s see if we can construct a game plan to outfox the enemy and get those 21 pts. 3 are gimmies at the open, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa and possibly Fastov; which leaves 18 to acquire. We need to ignore Korosten as it is too far North and diversionary moves dilute the main effort. The only reason we would attempt such thing is to draw the enemy from our real objective.
Assuming we do not make the deadline for Kiev but do capture it that is 8 VP, and 4 more for Odessa if we miss the early dates racking up just 12 VP. 6-9 more VP are required to achieve an Operational Victory level. This would lead us to taking on secondary VP locations or placing units in OOS , especially armour and HQ can easily generate 4-8 VP. All of this is of course predicated upon actually taking Kiev and Odessa, if either can be captured on schedule then a relatively easy path to victory lays before the Axis. ” From this POST
The first thing we should note is that with movement impaired and ZOC’s limited we must still strive for our goals, but be careful not be caught flat footed. Last turn the Soviet attacks again were of little consequence.
In the North his Korosten front is isolated and likely not able to mount powerful attacks, but forces are stretched thin there. Similarly around Berdichev we have a small pocket of soviets and Fastow isolated. Near Kiev units clear fortifications and await a division of infantry to boost the fighting capacity.
Units pull back across the Kanev Bridge, there is no need to be exposed to a lucky attack there at this point. The rest of the deep recon units are similarly out of supply. They will defend in place or retreat slowly to stay out of harms way. Our infantry lead press West of Berdichev is proceeding too slowly. However I think it will force him to collapse on his lines towards Vinnistsa. Speaking of which this is the key here. Locking it up in ZOCs, means no supply for ANY of these units West of there or even North. Once we get them to the OOS state, we can begin cherry picked attacks against armour and HQ’s if we can get them. The forces South of the Dnepr have almost connected with the SS in Vinnista. Other isolated pockets of OOS Soviets remain, placing them into surrender roll status next turn more than likely. So our approach to Kiev and taking Fastov is off a turn but the encirclement is well ahead of the plan. In fact our VP count is much higher in the first 6 turns than I had originally hoped for.
Now we must husband resources and drive on the three key attacks that matter in this sticky morass.
First off our 2nd heavy infantry attack goes poorly! We lose 2 steps as does he. Sadly there is a NKVD unit and a 4 step unit, so it wont break and run this turn.
The attack in Vinnitsa goes well. It was skinny at best with a 3:1 attack. Air softened the OOS, Strong point and City DRM’s. An air unit of the Soviets was wiped out. The attack result is a R, with NKVD this means he loses a step. This drops the D down to 2 steps. The key is that we know have ZOCS around the city and it is now preventing all units from using it as a supply source, All rail is cut, the Soviets are out on a limb. How will the Soviet player react?
Finally, in the South we attempt to knock out one Soviet blocking rail progress and wind up with a no effect. The attack or assault on Kishinev will have to wait one more turn. Strangely he has not attempted to keep Kishinev connected to the Odessa road. Hopefully we can cut that this turn.
We wrap up the German half of the turn, with engineering, replacements, and rail movement.