After a difficult winter, Axis troops have been refitted and Panzer divisions began to receive new material ( only 5 Pz Divs remain flipped ) .
OKH is certain that soviet will not survive another victorious summer campaign.
the objectives are as follow :
2Pz army will lead a sucesfull offensive against Bryansk and Orel while 2Pz army will conquer Kharkov, assault Voronej and support attack against Orel.
Once these objectives held, soviet will obviously sue for peace .
This is the official strategic plan, but operational leaders are contesting this optimistic conclusion .
They more generally think that war will continue for several years ...
( from gaming point of view, this is only aiming at gaining minimal obectives goal: obtain +3 objectives compared to Dec 41)
June 42 ( turn 12 ) :
Reinforcements have arrived and offensive has begun.
But soviet armies are not anymore the 41 version . they still lack combat capacity , but lines are tough to crack .
In central front, woods , rivers and also defensive positions prove efficient to slow panzer pushes.
In front of Kharkov, the city is difficult to suround , despite the arrival of Manstein .
July 42 ( Turn 13 ) :
Kharkov defense is breached and the city surrounded . this effort needs around 10 Pz divisions to be achieved !
August 42 (Turn 14) :
by the beginning of the turn, Axis engage next phase of the summer campaign : Objective Orel !
Once again , 3rd Pz Army will have to make the large part of the job because of heavy defense in front of 2ndPz.
But Orel is heavily reinforced with the arrival of 1stGuard Rifle Army...
Once again, Manstein take the responsabilities of the offensive plan ...
. and they succeed in pocketing Orel ! 3rd Pz Army is out of fuel , but Orel will fall !
September 42 (Turn 15 / Mix ) :
After Orel , Voronej is definively too far to be reached . a last assault against Tula will be launched, by a new pincerhead attack . but now Manstein is away , and only 1 Pz chit remains in hand.
Priority is given to 2nd PzArmy that launches its attack around Kaluga
Tula encirclement was really not far from succeeding , but Panzers were short by a couple of kilometers and lacked combat power
Axis have now 31 objectives in hands which is +3 as compared with December 41 ( Orel, Kharkov, and Dnepopetrovsk which fell in Axis hands in January ) ( Actually it should have been counted in December , if I had better read rule 2.4 before ... but I'm solo ... so I choose to forget to correct my past error )
October 42 (Turn 16 / Mud ) :
Kaluga salliant is evacuated . Soviet push to kill some weak Pz divisions , but Luftwaffe is still dominating the skies.
November 42 (Turn 17 / Mix ) :
Initiative has now switched to Russian side. .
Russian amries are severly weak after this bloody summer canpaign . But Stavka wants to take advantage of the advanced panzer positions around tula to surround and kill them
First chits are soviet movement followed by Zhukov Combat :
2 German Korps are surrounded and now risk isolation ... depending on Logistic chit ....
But German army is not finished yet and efficient reaction allows surrounded troops to escape . Thanks to 3Pz and Move chit .
New 502Tiger battallion successfully enter the battle . "A battalion of these tanks is worth a full division" would have said the Fuhrer !
December 42 (Turn 18 / Snow ) :
Russian army is quickly regaining power , due to massive reinforcements. Stavka is constituting a large offensive reserve ...
New deep battle tactic is launched between Orel and Kharkov :
But this December assault proves to be a semi failure . Frontal assault on German lines is still hard to succeed .
January 43 (Turn 19 / Snow ) :
New Sturmovicks arrive in the air ( 2 air support / combat are possible )
And Zhukov launches another deep battle which takes Axis totally by surprise : Starting near the souves of the Dniepr a breakthrough is made through German Infantry and T34 are launched as far as Bryansk and Orel.
Situation is very very serious for German. Manstein is in charge of launching emergency counterattacks and flexible retreats .
Bryansk is successfully reconquered by Panzers and lines reconstituted
February 43 (Turn 20 / Snow ) :
Winter is not finished and Stavka introduces new Guard Tank Armies in the battle !
Objective is to create a huge pocket North-West of Orel and kill german panzer forces .
but Mud arrives , and that stops Soviet offensive ...
March 43 (Turn 21 / Mud ) :
Offensive is stopped , but it's time of a great reorganization and creation of 6 Guard Infantry armies .
( don't understand why so many 4-4 guard corps are provided, only to be mandatory changed into armies ? )
Orel salliant is evacuated while combats are growing on the main Smolensk-Moscow road
