Part 65: Turn 10 - November/December 42

Turn 9 - Spetember/October 1942


The Moscow Front is shipped to the Crimea, blocking the German advance east of the peninsula.

With this we conclude Turn 9.

It has been the bloodiest turn so far: the Axis suffered some 200 000 casualties, 137,500 of those wounded, 57,500 killed or missing and some 12,500 POWs. That still can't hold the candle to the Soviet losses: 475 000 men, 225 of those wounded, 125 000 killed or missing and 125 000 POWs. The Soviets took a bit more casualties on Turn 3, and the Axis had roughly the same on Turn 4 as now, but never has the situation been so dire for both sides at once.


Blue is last turn's front line, red is current. Yellow is the front line at the beginning of the Operation Saturn scenario (which starts on Soviet Turn 10, so technically still one player turn away).


Housekeeping


It is now Turn 10. The Turn event is El Alamein.



Dire news come for the Germans from Africa: it appears that the British have struck a powerful blow to the Afrika Korps. The German and Italian lines near El Alamein have been breached by their tanks and infantry, and now General Montgomery stands poised to take the fight further and further west. With the Allies gaining more and more of air and naval superiority in the Mediterranean, chances of reinforcing Rommel are low, and even evacuating men from Tunisia seems like a lost cause. With the forces in Russia not even close to the British possessions in Persia, morale at home starts dropping like a stone. A success is desperately needed in the East, even as more and more resources are being syphoned away to protecting the skies and trying to salvage the situation in Africa.

The Germans lose 1 VP and will have to discard another card after drawing. German VPs now at 19.

The weather for the turn is Variable Snow. As a reminder, this means that:
- The Germans use the Soviet Combat Results Table for all their attacks.
- All units with more than 4 MPs have their movement allowance reduced to 4 MPs.
- Rivers freeze over and have no effect.
- All non-Finnish attacks against Soviet units in the USSR are shifted one column to the left.
- Multi-hex advance after combat is allowed, but the Armour units do not receive an additional third hex they would normally get.

The Axis get one Blitz! marker for use this turn, while the Soviets get two Shock! markers.



The Axis have 3 cards in hand, so they have to discard Elastic Defense. They draw 4 and have to discard another one due to the El Alamein event.




The Panzers are yet again put out of supply. At this point, the soldiers barely seem to notice, they just reset the rat traps.



Any overland-supplied German units on their reduced-strength side are now eligible to be flipped over to their full-strength side. That means that the OKH chief may decide to flip any number of the following: 4th Army, 6th Army, 9th Army, 11th Army, 16th Army and 18th Army at a cost of two cards per unit.

1st Panzer is not eligible due to being out of supply. 2nd Army is not eligible because it can only trace supply via an Alternate Supply Source (the Black Sea).



The Axis also receive a new unit, the Luftwaffe. Luftwaffe ground forces were initially supposed to build, defend and develop airfields in and near the front lines, but at this point the German High Command is getting so desperate for manpower they start to fight like regular infantry. Unfortunately, in this role they're notoriously unreliable in spite of Goering's best efforts at making them his private land army. In the game, they are a German unit, but work like an Axis Ally: if destroyed or surrendered, they go to the Turn Track and return 3 turns later.

Did I mention that Goering seems to love the OKH in this timeline?

This new unit has to be placed in a supplied, Axis controlled City hex in Greater Germany or on the Axis-friendly map border and assigned to an Army Group. It cannot be placed on the Kampfgruppe. The full map is in the OP, if you need a reminder.



I need all of the organizational decisions and the El Alamein discard from Logicone. The deadline for them is Thursday, March 27, 7 PM GMT.