Turn 96. November 13, 1944
Mud weather everywhere but the Med. Velikiye Luki and Tallin were finally liberated by Red army and Minsk will be soon. Vitebesk might last a little bit more in axis hands. Anyway, is in Hungary and Romania where the action is focussed now. Soviets have destroyed all romanian units but a corps unit in Bucharest. Ploesti will be captured in next turn thus affecting axis oil levels. In Hungary, a german corps was destroyed by Bagramian's armoured and an hungarian corps was reduced to 2 steps. Vatutin group made contact with Wehrmacht forces stationed along the Wisla. New soviet army push in Finland made the finnish retreat again. Finnish partisan south of nickel resource destroyed and the other one south of Joensuu (forget to mention this in last post) was reduced to 1 step (initially 3 steps). Shots below, at the start of axis turn.
Wehrmacht forces that in last turn occupied Pskov-Minsk line retreated to eastern Poland and Latvia. These units are being railed little by little so when the withdrawal ends it will be only a few the ones making all the way from USSR to Wisla river. Priority in this sector now is to succeeed in keeping alive halved mech west of Minsk. Keep in mind that currently rail cap is only 3 points so axis have to pay many PP's for rail network overuse. Still don't know what to do with german corps in Pskov: to hold there or to retreat it. About other fronts german defensive line along Wisla river is completed. You can see in the pics below that this defensive line is rather strong and I doubt the soviets go anywhere here for now. This position might be hold until may 1945 I think. Regarding Hungary, I repaired the mechs and made a last attempt to retake Cluj with no success. Soviet inf in mentioned city became a guard in last allied turn. I repaired romanian corps in Bucharest: it might resist 1 more turn but no more. Shots below are at the end of axis turn.
France. In last allied turn (fair weather) w-allies were about to breach Siegfried line when a garrison unit there was reduced to 2 steps. Furthermore, SS corps in Antwerp was again halved in strength. I foresee a massive allied landing in Denmark and northern Germany in 1945 since now choices of progressing in this scenario are tiny for the w-allies. Shots below are at the start of axis turn.
I repaired SS corps in Antwerp and moved a corps unit to the Siegfried line hex where the allies have been trying repeatedly to breach. A garrison replaced mentioned corps. As you can see in the images below, reserve corps units are available in Essen, Frankfurt and Nuremberg. I will withdraw german corps 2 hexes NW of Stuttgart and replace it by a garrison units since in that point of Siegfried line only 1 attack can be made. This will release a 4th german corps available for western front. Shots below are at the end of axis turn.
Italy. A free french landing ships appeared in the Adriatic in the hope for fair weather this turn but no luck there. Rome will likely fall in the next allied turn since paratrooper division there was reduced to 3 steps. Ancona was also attacked from recently landed american mech and X british armoured corps and it was reduced to 7 steps. Shots below are at the start of axis turn.
I repaired paratrooper units to 7 steps and Ancona garrison. Corps in Venice was also repaired. Forget to mention in last post that german fighter in Venice at 2 steps was destroyed by allies so no air support at all for the germans in Italy now. In the images below you can check out the lack of german units in this scenario. I will try to garrison all italian cities and to form a defensive line in Florence or in the Po river if it is not possible there. Also, if Ancona holds several turns (I doubt it) american mech could be cut from supply with the corps in Venice when fair weather returns. Shots below are at the end foa axis turn.
Finally, a screenshot with current german PP's (now collecting 86 PP's), manpower and oil levels and with the war event window showing how the iron ore route is closed so no resources can be drawn from there currently. Oil production is now basically off-map.