Dog Fight - Ostkreig Tournament Round 2

[Ricky B]

Turn 2:

My western forces have released and are ready to attack, although 5 units are still low fuel. 5 artillery units are also unavailable, including 2 Katyusha units in the center bridgehead, my most powerful artillery. On the plus side, 3 of 8 units undisrupted, better results than I expected for Soviet units.

My plan for the turn is as follows:



The central bridgehead will continue to fall back as shown previously. The units shown in the image are located just behind the front lines, showing how weak most of my tank units are in the center.

In the west, I can only see one LW unit, the others have pulled out of sight, so it takes the brunt of my attack for the turn while I prepare to create a hole to exploit in a future turn. I move up my corps motorcycle unit toward the front but it is low fuel and unable to reach its position and deploy so it is left in travel mode within sight of German units.

Also, it is now obvious that the Germans have decided to abandon their Surovikino bridgehead, giving me a free objective but allowing them to concentrate much stronger forces south of the Chir River.

In the east, the Germans have moved 3 units, from 3 formations, into postion to block my cavalry crossing. This will delay the attack there, and put me at high risk of a counterattack if the Germans disrupt all my cavalry, so I will have to proceed with caution there. In hopes of a quick push, though, I keep my cavalry on the north bank in travel mode ready to exploit, rather than moving up on flanking positions to the east this turn. I will regreat this decision next turn, but it doesn't cause me any serious harm, fortunately. I cause the German defenders that the cavalry face heavy losses through artillery and small arms fire, followed by a cavalry assault.

This turn was primarily a setup turn, preparing for the following turns where I will be able to accomplish more.