Part 63: Turn 60: August 6, 1942

And we're back up to the guards cap for the time being, so just a slow trickle of promotions until the next time the cap raises.




The 51st is on the southern front so this isn't surprising at all. Plenty of victories down there for the taking.



Speaking of the southern front it's been renamed to the Southeastern Front. Normally this is part of a flurry of renaming in which the Southwestern front gets renamed to the Stalingrad front which I was going to enjoy making fun of. Unfortunately it seems the game has a trigger to not use the Stalingrad name if we're 500 miles away from it.



Just to keep things confusing the Southern Urals M.D. is also renamed, to the Southeastern M.D. Thanks Stalin.



We could make these last month but I think I forgot to show them off so here's a tank army HQ, this will be the last time you ever see one. These cost the same as a normal HQ, the only difference being that these have 3 less command points in exchange for the leader getting +1 to his mechanized rolls. I'd rather have the 3 command points so I'm never going to build one of these.



A new ToE for rifle divisions. A slight decrease in the number of men and striking power of these divisions which is unfortunate, but most of our divisions aren't up to this strength anyways so it changes very little.




Should be able to take a hex or two this turn which is pretty incredible progress for this region.




The number of troops I need to bring to bear to take a single hex up here is kind of ridiculous. I've now got 4 hexes to this one German hex that's triple stacked, hopefully I can clear it out next turn.




Gonna slot another army in here to increase the density across the front. Hopefully this should let me get more attacks in.



A few attacks up here wherever the Germans are weak, mostly in the hexes we're trading back and forth every turn.



The 60th army joins the line and takes a hex off the Germans, fresh troops are a wonderful thing.



The twin cavalry armies on the southern end of the front start to swing north, I'd like to finally take Bryansk and the western front won't do it without help.




A line is starting to form here but it's not solid enough to stop me yet.



First things first I force those infantry divisions to surrender. The Germans cannot afford to let me keep doing this.



The Bryansk front takes land everywhere and my rifle corps cross the minor river in force.



Nearly have the Desna secured, I'll have the entire eastern bank within a week or two.



Using Kiev as a staging point 5 full armies push across the Dneipr this turn and manage to encircle a German infantry division while they're at it. I've got 6 tank corps across here and they're going to wreak havoc unless the Germans can set up a line to contain me.



Further south I nearly encircle another 3 divisions but a single hero division holds on against 3 attacks that destroy its fortifications and reduce it to 5,300 men.




I'm starting to feel sorry for the Romanians, the Germans have abandoned them and there's nothing they can do.



The Crimean front makes a little progress, now that I control both sides of the river here the pace should pick up.




The Southeastern front pushes out and routs all of the Romanian counters holding them back. These counters have to start shattering soon, they can't keep taking this punishment every turn.




One more hex syndrome strikes the Soviet army as my cavalry corps fails to shift a Romanian division. Even still these units aren't going to escape and I'll encircle them next turn. Total haul looks to be 2 German infantry, 1 German regiment, 3 Hungarian divisions and 3 Romanian divisions.




The 1st shock decides to have a little fun and the entire army spends the week chasing a German mountain division. They manage to force it to retreat 40 miles and lose half its artillery and a quarter of its strength.



Finally the Transcaucasus front and the 4th shock army take possession of most of the Dnestr river and encircle a German infantry division and a Romanian corps HQ. The Romanian forces that remained south of Odessa either rout or retreat onto the island just offshore.



That's the Romanian border, just 70 miles from elements of the 1st Shock army. And the only things standing in my way are about a dozen routed Romanian divisions that will rout or shatter again next turn if they face a stiff breeze. And next turn I'm going to have 3 brand new tank corps to play with down here.




The Germans are abandoning the river bend to me, perhaps they've finally fortified the west bank.



Lacking German counters to hold the line the Italians get deployed. All of the Italians.



Nothing escapes the pocket I was forming, all these divisions are mine now.



I've got nearly the entire western bank but I doubt my ability to keep advancing until I get a rail line over the river repaired.