Part 18: Turn 15: September 25, 1941

More breakthroughs, less troops to deal with them. Just a few more weeks of this and then we get a break.



This guy is executed for some reason, maybe he's the traitor responsible for the breakthrough near Kharkov?



Partisans blow another rail line near Rovno, I wonder when a German security unit will make its way down here to stop this.




Just buying time up here. I do literally nothing except move a few frontline units around to get higher defensive CV in the big forts.



To the east we've got those annoying German divisions. We've got to protect the rail line running through Cheropovets, if we lose that rail we lose Leningrad. I'm thinking about railing up a reserve STAVKA army from Moscow if I've got a spare one, we'll see later in the turn.




We're under heavy pressure in 2 areas here, in the north near Kalinin and in the south the Germans have reappeared to continue their offensive into the bulge near Moscow.



We reinforce this northern area along the river. I probably don't need this many troops up here but that motorized division and tank have me scared. If I need too I can always strip these units off to reinforce other sections of the line.



We reorganize this area a bit but don't give up any hexes, I want the Germans to have to waste MP assaulting each and every fortified hex in this region, Soviet losses here are irrelevant.




The area around Tula remains extremely dangerous, the only thing holding it together are the high defensive CV we have in the city itself.



The rock of our defense in this salient, Tula will take a lot of work for the Germans to dislodge. We add some depth around it in case the Germans decide to go around or otherwise encircle the city.



Further down there's a large German force outside Orel. I don't really have troops to reinforce this region right now, if the Germans make a move I'll deal with it next turn.




That's a big break in my line. My only real option is to bring the 18th army back in from the Southern Front.



We fall back and rail the 18th back in. Look at the CV on that army! This is what keeping an army in reserve that hasn't been beat to shit for 3 months straight gets you.



The rest of the front really isn't in any danger so they hold their ground. I do mostly abandon the western bank of the Dnepr, I might start pulling this front back next turn depending on what happens near Kharkov.




So many troops! And with the crisis up near Kharkov we don't have any reserves down here anymore. The only thing holding this all together are our fortifications along the Dnepr and the fact that there's no armored German formations this far south.



The North Caucasus M.D. continues its slow retreat, buying time for the 19th army to dig into the Dnepr.



The Southern front condenses further with the newly formed 51st army taking up positions along the river. The Romanians won't be able to cross here anymore, the Germans might be able to get a bridgehead with a concentrated assault but I'm skeptical about them crossing without armored support.



New army forming up, the 52nd. They're going to rail up north and put a stop to those goddamn infantry divisions driving east.



While forming this army I run into something terrifying, I'm nearly out of army HQ's to stick units in and most of my armies are slightly overloaded. The CP column shows the available command points for each HQ, positive numbers are the amount of remaining CP and negative numbers show the HQ is overloaded. I'm going to have to do some major reorganization when the mud hits, overloaded army HQs are bad news.

Back to what originally brought me into this spreadsheet, the HQs with 21 CP are the empty ones so I'm down to 3 empty armies unless I get some more free ones as reinforcements.



The 52nd gets deployed up north, next turn they're going to put a stop to these annoying infantry divisions running loose up here.




There's a German panzer army driving for Kharkov so everything in here needs to get out.




The Germans are just 10 miles from cutting off the city via land. East of Leningrad they begin pushing for Lake Ladoga, can they take the ports before the rain starts and puts an end to their offensive?



Outside Moscow the Germans continue to push in the flanks of the reserve front, hoping to find an end to the fortifications. Don't tell Hitler but there is no end, it's forts forever.



Unable to assault Tula the German tanks leave it behind and drive further east, stretching my lines further and further.



The tanks back away from their old hole in my line and make a new one 20 miles south. I don't think this army is actually trying to accomplish anything, they just like showing off how easy my line is to break.



Push push push.



The Germans are running very low on time and aren't much closer to their objectives than they were at the start of the month.

This was the last week of September. Since I don't have a decent September-October map here's a comparison to the historical Germans furthest '41 advance. We're in red, historical Soviets are in black.(Thanks to gradenko_2000 for the link.)