Barbarossa started, June 15th 1941!
Well, what can I say, a disappointment for the German army, I had 90+ infantry, 16 PZKWIII, 10 motorized, 6 fighter, 8 bomber, 3 stuka.
- First thing that impresses is the sheer strenght of the russian army, although all borders showed no more then max 10 divisions and in the south even 2-3 (border Romania), they did really put up a fight.
I saw only T34 tank divisions and their infantry is strong in defence. Hence, some breakthroughs were accomplished but the big break and encirclement of Minsk fails MISERABLY, my inf + tanks which I have attack together now fail to close the gap in Minsk because suddenly the USSR has 30+ strong divisions here, no way in breaking through! The central front remains before Minsk.
In the North, I break in September and take Riga (USSR has bad news from the front fires) and the province above in a swift infantry dash. Helas, Finland takes Leningrad!!
In the south I break Lvov and drive quickly east and south encircling the boekovina area (a novelty for me is also not to take military control of Axis satellites, I only use the armies they send me and they keep A LOT behind), but another crisis, I decided to break up Kleist's 5 panzers into 2 and 3, and have one part take Odessa and the other break through to Kiev, both FAIL, my 2 (a little beaten up) panzers under Hoth fail against 1 T34 tank divisions and 1 infantry.
After I send the infantry much later, I take it and Roemania FINALLY finishes the trapped (only ONE)tank division in Boekovina.
South has more possibilities so I drive towards the Don in September, army group center is deadlocked and it takes AGES to get the battered tank & infantry divisions up to org. again.
Manpower suddenly ZERO.
All resources run out, but economy managing a fine 530 average.
Rostov is taken, Dnieper dam event fires, I take Kiev and Charkov but need new divisions now, any attempt to the north fails.
Frontline now roughly Estland, 2 provinces around Minsk, marshes going okay, Don reached there on 1 point, south looking better, Bulgaria took the Krim with 3 infantry div's by BOAT!!
- USSR gets Patriotic War NEVER fires (=edit, now I know because Minsk = still SOV!)
- USSR puts great forces in Minsk, up to 30 divisions while the rest of the front is defended but only lightly, lightly enough for Finland to walk into Leningrad.
- USSR airpower is AMAZING, 10-15 fighters concentrated, they decimate my fighters/bombers etc.
- UK invades Lille (11th July 1941) with 11! infantry divisions (3 Canada, 3 France, 5 UK). They break my 2 defense divisions and destroy the force 2 fortress. They however do not break out and I can rush reinforcements and attack 2 weeks later from all directions and retake it, but a bit of a crisis anyway.
- Italy is finished in eastern africa (but I can still see the area) and is before Cairo in the North but this front looks locked.
- Japan successfully influenced the USA in October 1941
- Persia was declared war on 2 weeks after I started Barbarossa by the USSR and the Allies but now, in October 1941, they are STILL fighting and it looks like the only progress is by the USSR, ONE province! This takes frontline troops from USSR so I'm not so sure if this is good?
- Mannerheim decided not to attack Leningrad for both political and military reasons no matter how hard OKW tried (Keitl & Jodl even flew up with personal instructions from Hitler to attack east of the city around it and cut it of making contact with German forces there) Mannerheim REFUSED. Can an event be introduced that Finland decides not to attack Leningrad with a B option of yes, we'll attack for a human player. Does that command exist
country = fin command not_attack_province_XXX (#Leningrad)???
So, October 1941 now, I will not make it to Moscow for sure, but can maybe pull a trick in the North and South. One more try in October to take that long province on the approach to Moscow with everything I got and we'll see how we settle for the winter.
I think I will add the 200 MP I took away earlier
/hendriks
