Finished Stan Obirek's "OPERATION BARBAROSA", the long game as the defender (I'm accustomed to working with a disadvantage) and it absorbed me for five hours plus. Stan's first contribution, I believe, and he took the historical route. When I first viewed the recon map, I was certain Stan had named each Russian POW rather than the VP locations, but as it turned out no, there were that many points of contest. So, there came my first decision: Do I plot out the foot soldiers (bazookas in mind) and allot as many as possible into all these cities, or do I mass concentrate my units in the south and give the Axis a blockade right from the start? Call it prudent, call it coward, I took the VP's figuring I would gain at least a 1500+ advantage (the objective of the conflict would be to outrank Earl, no?) and it would be up to the Germans to whittle it down. They'd have 18 turns to do it with three major railways running up and down the map. The veins in my temples mirrored their configuration around turn nine when my earned points fell to the lowest levels.
I had elected the defense based on the long description's depiction of their heroic efforts failing in the end, due in part to the fact they were outnumbered and disorganized. While I was confident I'd made the right decision to hold points initially, I was also certain that the strategy I was employing demonstrated an extent of disarray because I wouldn't be able to mobilize a great deal of force in any one place. The gamble was that what forces the Axis attackers would muster would be in small enough groups that surgical placement of units would be able to blockade or slow their progress long enough to utilize the 20pts per turn for holding Russian real estate. In the initial engagements the Axis force moved a great deal more quickly than I'd predicted, but the plan worked. And it was further aided by attacker artillery inadvertently damaging railways and/or roads prematurely. At least from the attacker's viewpoint.
The initial deployment was, as I'd mentioned, composed largely of bazookas (app 17), light tanks, an engineer or two, a couple of light and mobile artillery, two or three infantry for the very remote locations, and a heavy artillery to cover me four-five turns deep when the Axis would be presumably closer than comfortable. The early turns were reminders that air power = why-buy-mobile-artillery? and targeting invasion routes rose to a priority level. Guard the remaining artillery (why didn't I deploy more machine guns?) and get at least to midgame and still have the heavy at work.
Nearing turn six or seven it became obvious to me that railways were going to dictate the course of the conflict, as each of the three led to key locations - two major VPs (Kiev@250, Minsk@150) and one that would prove strategically important (although I didn't know that at the time), Daugavpils@150, a bridgeway west to Riga, and then consequently a roadway south to Konigsberg. The victory points began to level out about that time, coinciding with a decision to pull back and establish strongholds, in order to also establish a more cohesive front line. Anonymous General must've shouted somewhere in this initiative, "Give Earl something to do he thinks is important!", and I drove a platoon of four tanks down and across the river toward Konigsberg and found it more lightly defended than I'd expected. A turn later I'd taken out the two bombers on the runway and his Heavy Tanks were turning around. Unfortunately, so did the mobile artillery. I had plans, he had planes. But it was an operation I'd repeat twice more while he consumed energies south instead of taking the rail north. It appeared I'd learned.
At midgame I made one error that posed a drawback, but at the same time put me on the right path. Such are the lessons of war. On turn 11, I'd opted to deploy more light artillery to assist in diminishing the attacking forces at Kiev and completely overlooked the fact that the Axis forces were receiving 100pts of reinforcement to my 20pts. The next few turns were heavily invested in bazookas (a lasting reminder of why they are referred to as anti-tank personnel).
By turn 13-14 I'd taken note that the attack phase had begun to go by more quickly indicating that the number of units left on the map were becoming fewer and it crossed my mind that being in "attack mode", the Axis commander might not have left many units to defend the southern railway and I had the advantage of deploying units near Russian cities south on the Kiev rail where I'd made some counter progress. In that light, the next few deployments consisted of simply four AC's with the mission of assaulting as far south as they could get each time; serving as both distraction AND keeping the VP margin in my favor should I succeed. Even though there were plenty of local battle's north holding key facilities, those little warhounds made it all the way to Warsaw!! Passing more than one damaged mobile artillery, the mission was the city so they just pointed and laughed.
It wasn't annihilation, as a matter of fact it wasn't a brilliant victory. But victory it was. The Russians held together and managed to overcome the Axis assault. The casualties were similar, although the Axis forces took a few more when the number of bazookas increased in number - the victory point margin stayed about the same from the initial turns, getting slightly wider when Konigsberg was occupied off and on early, then narrowing back again late game until Warsaw saw blue. ColEndgame: Lt.Colonel 25830, Earl: Captain 20430. No prisoners.
To my recollection, this is Stan Obirek's first offering and he gets my vote for Rookie General of the Year. An outstanding endeavor that played well, no visible glitches (but don't trust my eye, it's intuitive), a balanced and presumably historically accurate reinforcement schedule providing opportunity for exploiting weakness on either side, probably the most important element of scenario-creation: it was an absorbing event, allowing this Colonel a distraction resembling joy for an inordinate amount of the day. The play captured me. Okay, one prisoner.
Great work Stan. This bird gives it a solid 
.