[AAR] No Retreat - Berkut vs. Tamas

[Berkut]

Diring the German turn, I drew the Fickle Weather card, which had two effects:

1. Rather than Snow this turn, it will be Mud.
2. More importantly, since that means there will NOT be a second turn of snow, the next turn will NOT be Long Winter!

I then played another card that let me place a replacement step (normally not allowed for the German in 1941) to bring 2nd Panzer back to full strength, and yet another (Industrial Relocation) to force Tamas to randomly discard 1 card. Since he only had 1 card, that meant I could attack without concern of a Counterblow.

This allowed 2nd Panzer and the German 4th Army to attack the weak Moscow garrison. They destroyed it, and took Moscow.

This puts me just 1 VP away from AV...

[Solmyr]

Moscow: did not stand.

[Tamas]

Berk, I will have to check your second point, I didn't know that, major suckage if that's the case 

But your next AV counter is 23 for Turn 6, and you are at 18 now due to the Pearl Harbor event.

More to follow

[Tamas]

This optimal string of German cards, with the weather change especially, made my situation almost impossible.

While Moscow was conquered, the Romanians maneuvered to allow themselves an encircling move on Dnepropetrovsk next turn. There was still time to escape that, but leaving that city gave free way for the Germans to encircle Kharkov.

So, I gave up both cities. I also had to remove myself from Tula, next to Moscow. In other words, I am forced to put Berkut an inch from Turn 6 autovictory. Crazy as that may seem, this is the only way to give myself a chance: making a unit of my surrender gives a VP to the Germans. Not an option.

I did amass my reinforcements for a desparate attack on Moscow - I have near zero chance for success (I can roll a 6 I guess), but even a loss-exchange would be okay, and the odds are still far better than they'll be next turn when/if Berkut garrisons it with two units.
I also replaced a lost unit, using it as a screen for the Crimea.

Here is the map before Berkut's Counterblow declarations:

[CountDeMoney]

Holy shit, Tamas.   All this time I figured your own inability to deal with the Berkutkrieg would be your downfall, but turns out Mother Nature took a big, no-so-wet shit right on you.

Major bummer.  The Boss just had you and your family shot.

[11B4V]

 

[Tamas]

Initial reports from the front indicate that the haphazard defensive line of the Germans in the Russian capital has been overrun by the fanatical Russian attackers!

We are waiting for confirmation.


This is the time I regret we are not using an outside diceroller because it is just too awesome to believe, but this is what happened. As mentioned above, using one of my shock markers for the turn, I launched a desperate attack on Moscow. I could only come up with 3:2 odds but this was my only chance to cause losses to the Germans there before it gets superfortified.
And I rolled a 6, the only way to dislodged them.


But, there is a "have a dice rerolled" card for each side, not to mention a couple of other cards to nullify this. Waiting for Berkut to wake up.

[Berkut]

We should have used ACTS for dice rolling!

Going to sleep now...

[Razgovory]

Holy shit, Tamas.   All this time I figured your own inability to deal with the Berkutkrieg would be your downfall, but turns out Mother Nature took a big, no-so-wet shit right on you.

Major bummer.  The Boss just had you and your family shot.

The Boss didn't leave Moscow.  The Boss is probably dead, captured or MIA.  I'm not sure who was suppose to run the Soviet Union if Stalin died in Moscow.

[Tamas]

We should have used ACTS for dice rolling!

Going to sleep now...

you still can't complain about your luck

[Tamas]

TURN 5 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1942

Stalin lives, no matter who says what!

The re-capture of Moscow has given me back my full card draw capability, and took a VP from Berkut, but just like it was not total defeat to lose it, it is pretty far from victory to regain it.

As winter FINALLY set in, the Germans moved in to the abandoned cities of Tula, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov, pushing their VP to 20, 3 from the limit they needed until the start of next turn, but since this is their first Russian winter, they received an extra harsh penalty in attacking Soviet units. So they did not start an offensive, and I was wary on triggering counterblows, altough there were some tempting possibilities. But I had just one card, and I meant to keep it.

When my turn came, I finally upgraded the Leningrad garrison into a fort, and restored the Moscow garrison - in Stalino.
Why? Because I don't have the luxury of parking that by-default-very-weak unit in Moscow for a full turn so I could fortify it. Tons of Germans are still parked in front of Moscow and I have no doubt they plan to resume their offensive on the city come spring thaw next turn.

I needed the unit in Stalino to cover the flanks of an attempted counteroffensive on the Steppes, south-west of Kharkov.
Using the shock of winter, I also scheduled an offensive to retake Tula, and a blow out of the Crimean peninsula against the Romanian army guarding the German flank there.
My two main motivations for these are the shock markers I have, and the extreme winter penalty which can protect me if my Russian peasants screw it up and the Germans roll on to counterattack.

This is the map before Berkut placing counterblows:

[11B4V]

Crush the Bolshivik(however you spell it  )  swine Berkut.

[Berkut]

I hace crushed them time and again, yet no matter how hard I kick the door in, the structure has yet to fall down...

[Tamas]

The attack SW of Kharkov stopped without any effect, the attack against the Romanians exchanged losses, but Tula, next to Moscow, has been liberated!

Now all eyes turn to Germany again. Still there will be mud, so their big, final push for autovictory cannot start in earnest. But the winter will be over, so their strength will be back.

[Berkut]

The German goals for this turn are simply to clear away the riff-raff from around Moscow in preparation for our summer offensive.

Mission largely accomplished, although we took some losses that were not at all expected.