by LouCoatney
So it's 2:30 AM here, so what did I decide to do an hour ago? ?? 🙄
This time, after 39. PzKps helped out AGN taking Dvinsk I routed it back into AGC - no more of this sideshow nonsense! - so that ultimately I could have 3 stacks of 4 factors each - 1 army and 2 pzkps - against Moscow from its 3 neighbor cities, immune to Russian counterattacks, since the Russians have to have MORE known factors or unknown units attacking a German held position, to be able/triggered to attack.
I decided to do the faster random Bell Curve Russian unit selection, so setup took about 10 minutes and the game itself 50, and when I started attacking I ran into one Weak Russian unit after another, EXCEPT at Slutsk where 2. LuftFlotte FAILED even with its Surprise/1st turn bonus and BOTH Russian units turned out to be Strong. Since I had blindly ordered a Blitzkrieg attack - blindly, since no air assistance - their 2 factors were doubled, so I had to withdraw 4. Army and 2 pzkps back to AGC base, and only 24. PzKps was left to occupy Slutsk ... and any Blitzkrieg it might attempt would fail, since its 1 hit would be absorbed by the (Minsk) position.
(4. Army and the 3 pzkps were 5 hits which equaled the position's initial/defensive 1 hit absorption and the 2 hits each to eliminate the Strong units.)
This enabled the Bialystok Pocket to escape to Smolensk via Minsk. 😐
Elsewhere, things were going well, with all the Weak Russian units turning up, and I Kiev in July and both Smolensk and Mozhaisk (with a 2. LuftFlotte-aided Blitzkrieg attack through minimally held Smolensk) in August, automatically bringing in the Siberians in in August. (And for the FIRST time, the Japanese did right then invade in the Far East, but that's just for historical trivia in this game - not detracting from Russian replacements.)
October was a "turd 2" on the weather die roll and thus a normal Mud.
Without 39. PzKps the Siege of Leningrad was drawn out, but it finally fell in Hard Frost/Good weather November, thanks to 1. LuftFlotte doing its bit. Rostov also fell in November, so its 3 pzkps could not be deployed north in time to help against Moscow.
The Battle of Moscow went on for the last 3 turns and Moscow survived by only **1 hit** - only 1. Guards Kavalry Korps surviving to hold it!
In the Russian phase of the 2nd turn, I had (2-factor/hit) 9. Army alone on Podolsk WNW of Smolensk, and *3* Russian units already on Smolensk were thus triggered to attack attack it. They were revealed to be only 1 Strong and 2 Weak Russian units. The Strong unit could absorb 1 hit and withdraw - Disrupted - back to Smolensk (still getting its 1 hit firing factor when later attacked) - but 1 of the Weak units had to be eliminated, since 1 hit eliminates them, which I forgot. Could 1 Weak unit less have made the difference later at Moscow??
This game is VERY "cumulative." It mercilessly teaches that mistakes made early in the campaign can catch up decisively in the final turns. Anyway, ...
So time to count up the Weak Russian units, and there were an extreme *15*!, driving up my victory point requirement 2 points to 9! I had 6 points for Leningrad and Rostov and Smolensk and Kiev, and if I HAD taken Moscow, that would have given me the necessary 9.
By the way, one thing I did early was Blitzkrieg out into weakly defended Russian positions, and early in the game the Russians need to then cover adjacent positions with replacements, which greatly thins the Russian line. This helped contribute to Smolensk and Kiev falling so soon.
I think the game is balanced now ... but I may be wrong and look forward to others' findings.