Start of the fourth day.
Losses
Russian
men 100940
guns 719
vehicles 795
planes 16
German
men 33528
guns 248
vehicles 448
planes 12
weather:Soft conditions.
This is an unexpected change of weather. The forecast was 90% chance of snow condition with a 40% chance of a storm. Only a 10% chance of soft condition. This will pose some problems. Units will have to be checked if they are located on the wrong sides of rivers and mobile units who could end up in marshes. But this gives also a big advantage, no penalty when firing and assaulting.
The 20% frozen penalty is realy a pain. Besides snow with a storm would have meant a total stop of all offensives along the frontline.
Reinforcements:
The 56th inf is resting and refitting at Luydinov and will be deployed later.
The 8th and 28th inf are not sent anymore to Strashovic but towards Pokrovskoye.
The 268 inf rest at Mozhaysk and wait for further instructions.
The 95th and 293rd inf are moving towards Tula
The legion des Voluntaires Francais moves towards Kubinka.
South: Tula
Slowly but surely the troops take up their designated positions for an attack on the well defended fortrest city Tula. With the capture of Anishino and barsuki there is only one major road left for supplies to reach Tula.
If Malakhova can be captured the city is isolated and no reinforcements can reach the city and the siege can begin. A setback is that there are at least 2 guard units, the 5th and 7th, located near Tulu/Barsuki.
Also the lack of any opposition when capturing Anishino is worrying because it is unexpected. But for now we will stick to the plan. I estimate that it will take 3 days to isolate Tula.
With the coming arrival of the 95th and 293rd inf at Tula there should be enough forces to siege the city and cover the flanks for a possible counter attack.
The goal of capturing Tula within a week already proves way to optimistic. My new estimate is that it will take at least till november the 25th depending on the weather and Russian surprises.
Centre:
It was my goal to capture Kresty, Kubinka and Istra.
Altough we have captured Sobatino, Kresty proved to be to far for now. Positive was the unexpected crossing at Ol'kheva. But there were a lot of losses to accomplish this. For now we will still try and capture Kresty and move towards Lopasnya.
I realize this is a long road considering the Russian opposition but it is important to capture any main roads in the area. From Lopasnya we have several options to continue our attack.
Naro-Fominsk wasn't high on the list of priorities but we were lucky to capture the city. For now we will continue to follow the mainroads leading from Naro-Fominsk to Moscow.
The plan to capture Kubinka was a succes. A pocket was created and Kubinka was captured in three days. The question: what's next is easy. Continue the advance following the main road towards Golitsnoye.
The 267th inf div will be assigned from the Kubinka area to support the 5th Pz div along with the 78th inf div to continue to advance along the river Moskva
The airdrop at Istra was a small disaster. Not only did we have to give up the city of Istra after some initial succes but the airborne forces and the forces trying to reach them took a heavy toll in casualties. we underestimated the possibilty to reach the airborne forces, also due to heavy Russian resistance.
This will hamper any further attack in the area. The troops need to rest and reinforced with fresh troops before any offensive can take place.
That it was not a complete disaster is because a lot of Russian forces were tied up in the fighting and we were able to encircle several Russian divisions. For now we will rest and reinforce the troops. Then we will try and capture Istra again.
The 8th and 28th inf div first destined for Strahovich are sent to Pokrovskoye to support the 2nd and 10th Pz div.
North:
After breaching the Russian frontline we are on the move towards Novozavidovskiy. After some initial skirmishes we have two major spearheads, one towards Novozavidovskiy and one towards Klin. What to do when we capture these cities is uncertain. We could move towards Kalinin or towards Solnechnogorsk and reinforce those troops. A difficult choice.
The battered troops at Kalinin are rested and refitted. Surprisingly there was no Russian attack. I'am unsure who to proceed now. Go on the offensive or not.
At Strashovich we were able, after arriving of reinforcements to start an small offensive. This was very succesfull. we were able to reach Davydovo. The next week we will try of create a pocket around Skol'niki and at the same time move towards Galki and beyond. Hopefully we can clear the area of Russain forces. I won't sent more reinforcements because of the low priority and it is far away from Moscow, our main goal.
It will be small steps at a time.
What to do next.......
As described above some choices how to continue are obvious, or at least seem obvious. But even this early in the campaign i'am wondering if i make/have made the right choices.
In the south i could continue to try and capture Tula but i wonder if it isn't better to reassign the divisions for a more direct appraoch towards Moscow. One could argue that Tula is far away from Moscow and if Moscow is the main price the forces could be used differently?
At Ol'kheva i ask myself if continuing to attack is worth while. There is no main prize in the area other then a mainroad leading from Kresty towards Moscow. But already i have captured Kubinka, Naro-Fominsk and to a lesser extent Karinskoye, which also serve as railroad and road junction.
Capturing the bridges at Novozavidovskiy will reduce the frontline and secures a fast way to travel between the north Kalinin and the centre of the map. But what to do afterwards? Move towards Klin or move towards Karachary to force the Russians to commit forces to that area?
In the north is reducing the lenght of the frontline an obvious choice. If the frontline can be reduced from Kalinin to the end of the map a lot of inf div will become availlable elsewhere.
There is one real problem if you want to redeploy your forces. It takes a lot of time because there is only limited rail capacity and driving or marching takes days.
Choices enough but which will lead to the best results? Mayby you as an interested reader has an opinion on how to proceed? It would nice to have a discussion on this. So don't hesitate and react by posting or by email.
Thanks.
Losses
Russian
men 100940
guns 719
vehicles 795
planes 16
German
men 33528
guns 248
vehicles 448
planes 12
weather:Soft conditions.
This is an unexpected change of weather. The forecast was 90% chance of snow condition with a 40% chance of a storm. Only a 10% chance of soft condition. This will pose some problems. Units will have to be checked if they are located on the wrong sides of rivers and mobile units who could end up in marshes. But this gives also a big advantage, no penalty when firing and assaulting.
The 20% frozen penalty is realy a pain. Besides snow with a storm would have meant a total stop of all offensives along the frontline.
Reinforcements:
The 56th inf is resting and refitting at Luydinov and will be deployed later.
The 8th and 28th inf are not sent anymore to Strashovic but towards Pokrovskoye.
The 268 inf rest at Mozhaysk and wait for further instructions.
The 95th and 293rd inf are moving towards Tula
The legion des Voluntaires Francais moves towards Kubinka.
South: Tula
Slowly but surely the troops take up their designated positions for an attack on the well defended fortrest city Tula. With the capture of Anishino and barsuki there is only one major road left for supplies to reach Tula.
If Malakhova can be captured the city is isolated and no reinforcements can reach the city and the siege can begin. A setback is that there are at least 2 guard units, the 5th and 7th, located near Tulu/Barsuki.
Also the lack of any opposition when capturing Anishino is worrying because it is unexpected. But for now we will stick to the plan. I estimate that it will take 3 days to isolate Tula.
With the coming arrival of the 95th and 293rd inf at Tula there should be enough forces to siege the city and cover the flanks for a possible counter attack.
The goal of capturing Tula within a week already proves way to optimistic. My new estimate is that it will take at least till november the 25th depending on the weather and Russian surprises.
Centre:
It was my goal to capture Kresty, Kubinka and Istra.
Altough we have captured Sobatino, Kresty proved to be to far for now. Positive was the unexpected crossing at Ol'kheva. But there were a lot of losses to accomplish this. For now we will still try and capture Kresty and move towards Lopasnya.
I realize this is a long road considering the Russian opposition but it is important to capture any main roads in the area. From Lopasnya we have several options to continue our attack.
Naro-Fominsk wasn't high on the list of priorities but we were lucky to capture the city. For now we will continue to follow the mainroads leading from Naro-Fominsk to Moscow.
The plan to capture Kubinka was a succes. A pocket was created and Kubinka was captured in three days. The question: what's next is easy. Continue the advance following the main road towards Golitsnoye.
The 267th inf div will be assigned from the Kubinka area to support the 5th Pz div along with the 78th inf div to continue to advance along the river Moskva
The airdrop at Istra was a small disaster. Not only did we have to give up the city of Istra after some initial succes but the airborne forces and the forces trying to reach them took a heavy toll in casualties. we underestimated the possibilty to reach the airborne forces, also due to heavy Russian resistance.
This will hamper any further attack in the area. The troops need to rest and reinforced with fresh troops before any offensive can take place.
That it was not a complete disaster is because a lot of Russian forces were tied up in the fighting and we were able to encircle several Russian divisions. For now we will rest and reinforce the troops. Then we will try and capture Istra again.
The 8th and 28th inf div first destined for Strahovich are sent to Pokrovskoye to support the 2nd and 10th Pz div.
North:
After breaching the Russian frontline we are on the move towards Novozavidovskiy. After some initial skirmishes we have two major spearheads, one towards Novozavidovskiy and one towards Klin. What to do when we capture these cities is uncertain. We could move towards Kalinin or towards Solnechnogorsk and reinforce those troops. A difficult choice.
The battered troops at Kalinin are rested and refitted. Surprisingly there was no Russian attack. I'am unsure who to proceed now. Go on the offensive or not.
At Strashovich we were able, after arriving of reinforcements to start an small offensive. This was very succesfull. we were able to reach Davydovo. The next week we will try of create a pocket around Skol'niki and at the same time move towards Galki and beyond. Hopefully we can clear the area of Russain forces. I won't sent more reinforcements because of the low priority and it is far away from Moscow, our main goal.
It will be small steps at a time.
What to do next.......
As described above some choices how to continue are obvious, or at least seem obvious. But even this early in the campaign i'am wondering if i make/have made the right choices.
In the south i could continue to try and capture Tula but i wonder if it isn't better to reassign the divisions for a more direct appraoch towards Moscow. One could argue that Tula is far away from Moscow and if Moscow is the main price the forces could be used differently?
At Ol'kheva i ask myself if continuing to attack is worth while. There is no main prize in the area other then a mainroad leading from Kresty towards Moscow. But already i have captured Kubinka, Naro-Fominsk and to a lesser extent Karinskoye, which also serve as railroad and road junction.
Capturing the bridges at Novozavidovskiy will reduce the frontline and secures a fast way to travel between the north Kalinin and the centre of the map. But what to do afterwards? Move towards Klin or move towards Karachary to force the Russians to commit forces to that area?
In the north is reducing the lenght of the frontline an obvious choice. If the frontline can be reduced from Kalinin to the end of the map a lot of inf div will become availlable elsewhere.
There is one real problem if you want to redeploy your forces. It takes a lot of time because there is only limited rail capacity and driving or marching takes days.
Choices enough but which will lead to the best results? Mayby you as an interested reader has an opinion on how to proceed? It would nice to have a discussion on this. So don't hesitate and react by posting or by email.
Thanks.
Last edited:
