Let’s Play Decisive Campaigns Barbarossa : Onwards to Minsk!

The Assault Begins

Hello and welcome back to Turn 2 of our invasion of Russia. Our first turn had us encircling Brest-Litovsk and also making pocket big enough to trap a whole bunch of Soviet units around Bialystok. Up North things are heating up and on the Romanian front we are just getting moving. For the moment our supply situation is looking good. This will change quicker than an M5 Stuart crossing an open field.

But first, our current disposition.

Army Group North pushing towards Riga with the 9th Army heading East.

Army Group Center with a pocket at Brest and also Bailystok.

Army Group South with the one armed pincer working about as well as you’d think.

Romanian Front. Lots of ground to cover!

For the moment AGC looks the best with a solid pocket and a fairly porous front ahead of it. AGN is going to get stuck quick if I had to guess. AGS is always a shit-show. That one-armed pincer is a pain in my ass.

Decisions

A good solid PP start. This will give us some nice flexibility.

Yes, I will absolutely shit on the civilians to get more oil. I have to pay a pretty hefty price though. Without oil my Panzer Divisions are stuck, and that’s no good. I’m hoping to bite this one in the ass right now.

And Goebbels is upset. That’s OK. Hitler’s unimpressed but neither one worries me. We need that oil.

Meh. Screw it.

Goebbels is upset once again, he can suck it. Why Keitel is unhappy though I’m not sure. The bigger question, if Goebbels doesn’t like me, what changes? We’ll see, as I’m not entirely sure.

I love the little insights from decisions like this. It provides a good counter-point to that hard nosed Prussian officer, instead we have a lazy general who recently returned from France. For as many good officers the Wehrmacht had I’m sure they had just as many bad ones. For every Guderian there must have been a dozen General von Roques’s.

This one is almost the same as the choice above with our half-drunk noble, but the points cost is much higher. Our general this time is a noted anti-partisan expert. Interesting. I’ll leave them for one more week then onto anti-partisan duty.

The Finnish Front

Now we move North, way North, to see what Gustav Mannerheim is doing. Our forces on the Karelian Isthmus make precious little progress. Those to the East do a bit better, but it’s a slow going zone. This is the same terrain that the Winter War was fought on two years prior, but this time the Finns are attacking and it’s not winter. The Soviet army has also changed significantly since then.

I’ve got plenty of time to move ahead and secure the line in the Finnish forests. But it’s still a tough slog, these units aren’t nearly as sharpened as the Germans down south.

Army Group North

AGN makes a big push to the suburbs of Riga. The 9th Army has a big bulge with the Soviet 4th Army. This is rather ugly, and is more solid resistance than I thought I’d see this early. Once we cross those rivers this should all get easier. The 9th Army is moving up and will catch up with the Panzers soon. (Once they run out of gas!)

Army Group Center

AGC has a massive pocket at Bialystok. Beyond that our Panzers are just plowing towards Minsk. The resistance here has been paltry, the units fall apart quick like. But I can already see an issue here… fuel. I’ve got maybe two more turns and those Panzers are going to be dry. I need to get that pocket mopped up quick and move those infantry up so I can give the supply line a chance to recover. Now it’s going to get tricky as I need to balance my reach with my supply.

Army Group South

The best thing here is we’ve cut the rail link to a good deal of those Soviet units. One Army will continue to move east, while the other is going to mop up that pocket. Or at least try to mop it up. The decision now is do I attempt to link up with the Romanians or start driving East? If I can break that wall to the East I’ll have some favorable terrain heading towards Kiev. Driving that line to the Southeast doesn’t look easy…

All in all I’m satisfied with where we are. No one hates me (yet) and we’re still making forward progress. Next turn will be interesting though…