Part 21: Turn 4 - Axis Combat Phase: Across the Muddy Steppe

Back here for a second. The Axis discards River Crossing / Ivan Konev due to Pearl Harbor. I guess they're sending all those pontoon bridges the same way they sent their siege artillery.

And good riddance, if I may say so. I hate this card (River Crossing, not Siege Artillery) and it's awful, hopefully SNLF will have some use for all that gear.





Back to more serious business. Facing a major encirclement and knowing that his troops are on their last legs, Generalmajor Valkri decides to abandon the positions contested by the 2nd Panzer and Caucasus Front, reasoning that those troops will be of more use elsewhere.

The 2nd Panzer may hop from EZOC to EZOC here because it moves to stack with another friendly unit. They could also go around and make it there just fine (and that would be in fact the precise wording of Davin's orders, but I already drew the arrow like this and going back to redo it would be ).


The Army Group Centre Rear is offended by the suggestion that they should only do what helps their beleaguered colleagues and instead opt to push east across the Ukrainian steppe. They approach the important industrial centre of Kharkov and prepare to siege the Soviet Kalinin Front divisions protecting it.


The rest of Generalmajor Logicone's forces press east from the Dneper. They want to take on the Bryansk Front protecting the major cities of the Donbas: Stalino and Rostov. The Soviets are quite overwhelmed, but they can probably slow the Germans down, at least. The Rumanian armies form a multi-layered defensive line between the Crimea and Dnepropetrovsk.





I need up to 5 Target Hexes from HerpicleOmnicron5. Once that is done, Fangz can pay cards to place additional counterblows. Afterwards, Army Group commanders declare which of their units attack which enemies and where do they want to advance. The Soviet Front commanders declare where do they want to retreat and would they accept a counter-attack (if applicable). Meanwhile, Herpicle may commit cards to specific battles, followed by Fangz doing the same.

Deadline: Saturday, December 14, 7 PM GMT



The Germans took a lot of pictures and films of events on the Front to be used in the making of propaganda videos. This photograph shows a soldier from a Propaganda-Kompanie in a Panzer I rolling around the Russian countryside and taking pictures of the fighting. I'm sure riding around the battlefield with a guy constantly telling you to rotate the turret so that he can get a better shot must have been a wonderful thing. As if having to crew a Panzer I wasn't bad enough just yet.