Part 66: Turn 63: August 27, 1942

Another cavalry corps promotion, not many more of those are possible.



No promotions this turn but there is one thing of note, I'm running out of trucks. The number in parenthesis is the number of trucks I need to keep my units in supply and as more and more troops push away from my railheads this number starts to balloon out of control. There's still over a month before the mud hits so my lack of trucks is going to start becoming a limiting factor on my ability to get ammo and men out to my troops next turn, the turn after that if I'm really lucky.




I really want to buy more space up here, especially near Leningrad. I'm just so compacted that it's extremely difficult to bring the full strength of my formations to bear.



2 hexes taken this turn, I continue to condense divisions into corps and it's paying off. I've now taken enough hexes that I can get a rail into Leningrad but I need to take another hex or two before I'll actually be able to repair them, right now I'm stacked too deep.



The Volkhov front takes a hex and reduces some forts, starting to build some momentum up here.




Nothing much going to happen on most of this front for a few turns, I really need another army here to start pushing the Germans back anywhere but the western front.



Taking a bunch of random hexes wherever I can, a lot of these are just going to get taken right back on the German turn.



Bryansk is taken, again. The Germans could retake it if they wanted but it would probably be smarter to abandon the city and get these counters out of this bulge.




I want to get across that river before the Germans have a chance to recover.



The Bryansk front continues to push northwest, preventing the Germans from forming a real line and threatening to turn the German line near the western front into a huge bulge.



The southwestern front decisively takes control of the western bank, pouring across through the bridgeheads I made last turn. While they're at it they pocket 4 German infantry divisions, a panzer divisions and 2 regiments. Now that I'm across the Desna they're going to start pushing for the Dnepr and the Pripyat marshes. There's no way I can fight the Germans in the marshes during this summer campaign but once winter comes and the whole thing freezes over they'll be easy pickings.



The Voronezh front is now completely across the river and begins to push out from Kiev. I'm beginning to notice a marked drop in MP on this front now and it's because of their distance from the nearest rail. This front is going to be limited to ~1 hex per turn for probably the rest of this summer campaign season and it's going to get worse the further I get from Kiev.




Oh my that is a lot of red highlights



The first two pockets don't surrender entirely. The eastern pocket is too strong to finish assaulting and the western pocket has a 2 infantry and a panzer division that absolutely refuse to surrender. Another week behind enemy lines should convince all these units that they'd be better off surrendering.



Now that the Voronezh front is fully occupying a section of the line instead of being intermingled with the southwestern front I'm able to swing the Crimean and Southeastern fronts further south. This is going to allow me to begin the invasion of Romania without worrying about my flanks.




Couple things going on in this screenshot all at once. First off I successfully reduced the pocket I had formed down here last turn. Secondly that Hungarian brigade is made of goddamn supermen, it singlehandedly held off the entire 1st Shock army without any fortifications. These Hungarians lost a total of 678 men and 9 guns in exchange for 1,112 men, 13 guns and 26 tanks in what is probably the most experienced, highly trained force in the entire Red Army. I immediately encircle this brigade so it cannot do any further damage.

Finally, the invasion of Romania begins with the border town of Husi falling to a tank corps that's swinging south in an attempt to cut off the remains of the Romanian army before they can cross the major river into Romania. Husi falls into the area of Romania that forces surrender checks by 2 hexes, so from now until I'm kicked out of the country the Romanians are going to roll a random number between 1-10 every turn. If that number is greater than the surrender threshold then Romania surrenders and most of its units switch sides. The surrender threshold is 2 + 1 for every German division in the capital plus an additional 2 if the division is SS. That said the surrender threshold cannot exceed 9 so if I roll a 10 then Romania will surrender regardless of the German presence.



The Romanian army in question. If they're smart they're going to start running and they won't stop until they're on the other side of the Romanian border, this minor river is no defense at all.




German armor beating up my line again, but what's the point if there's a huge fucking hole in your line that I'm gonna rip open.



Bryansk holds and the Germans are pulling back from the Bryansk front in droves. I imagine they're pulling back to that river to fortify rather them letting me butcher them in the clear.



The pocket on the southwestern front holds, a series of interdiction flights against those Slovakian and Hungarian counters prevent them from having the MP necessary to dislodge my tank brigades.



Realizing the war effort depends on it an Italian and Romanian division throw their lives away to get the hero Hungarian brigade back in supply so it can begin its long march on Moscow.



This turn was a pretty huge blow to the Axis OoB, I've now officially captured more Axis forces than the Axis have captured Soviets.