Turn 18 - Late January 1920: "Let them eat caviar."
I have never paid this much attention to supply before. Every stack is checked in order to ascertain how long its supplies will last. My role has changed from strategist to quartermaster.
Northern front: Parsky has retreated back across the Kama, his supply situation seems to be almost worse than that of the Siberian troops.
Third Battle of Votinsk: Meanwhile Votinsk remains the favourite killing ground between Reds and Whites. This time Shorin attacked with two divisions. Strangely he left Mezheninov with another stack behind. Perhaps he was in control of battered troops? Janin stood his ground and the Red Army was repelled again. 4.700 White and 7.700 Red soldiers are left behind in the bloody snow. The Siberians gain 1 point of NM.
With Panov and Pepeliaev arriving from Sarapul, the Siberian Army now has 7 divisions at Votinsk. Supplies will only last for one more turn. Another massive retreat is necessary: The divisions at Votinsk are completely reorganized, troops with acceptable cohesion and few combat losses stay with Pepeliaev at Votinsk (three infantry divisions). Their supplies last for two more turns. Janin takes three battered divisions and heads for Omsk. He will not arrive there this turn, though. But he should be able to pick up just enough food at the small town of Ishim to sustain him for the rest of the way. The seventh division reinforces Gaida at Perm. Currently the city is the weak spot in my defense. Gaida has only one small division to defend the city. Luckily an attack is rather unlikely at the moment. Only Parsky could reach the city but his troops must be low on cohesion after their long adventure east of the Kama and their supplies seem exhausted.
I made a highly annoying discovery this turn: My airforce had been at the top of my evacuation list for some time now but I always lacked the railway capacities. Since it doesn't consume much supplies and its units always seemd well stocked, I let them stay. Then I checked their supply stocks. Airfields are supply dumbs! The average airfield carries around more than 100 points of general supplies yet uses only 4 per turn (in comparison, a fully stocked supply train can only transport 80 points of supplies). The annoying part is that airfields won't share these supplies with the units they are attached to. Otherwise they could serve as impromptu supply trains. But unfortunately they only steal supplies from the troops and then hoard them. Parasites!
Southern front: Otani took Tambov without much of a fight; Shaposhnikov retreated before a battle could ensue. Only a unit of Red guards was brave (or folish) enough to fight. They were swiftly dealt with. The supply depot at Tambov was a dissapointment, though: it contained only 24 units of supply while Otani's needs 105 units per turn. To make matters worse, he has only 78 points of supply left. This leaves Otani 3 points short, a few of his men will stay hungry this turn.
The current number of troops clearly isn't sustainable any longer. Consequently Smolin's big division (20.000 men strong) is sent back to Ufa. I put him on offensive posture in the hope of killing the Red cavalry that will probably try to blow up the Peanz-Tambov railway line next turn. Otani's remaining force numbers less than 17.000 men and only 618 pw. Hopefully it won't have to face any major counter-attacks. Meanwhile two supply trains heading to Tambov should secure Otani's supply for another turn - unless they get intercepted that is ...
At Penza Dutov is a little better off. He has enough supplies for two more turns. But just like Otani at Tambov, Dutov is incomfortably weak (600 pw).
The siege of Syzran may seem like luxery, Kappel needs a constant stream of supplies which I can hardly afford. Yet if I abandon the siege, I will not only loose control over the vital railroad from Samara to Penza but with Samoylo roaming freely I would also have to reinforce my defences at Penza, Samara and even Saratov. Consequently, it is cheaper to keep Kappel at Syzran. He has enough supplies for two more turns. And supplies for another two turns are already on their way.
Now that Akutin and four of the seven divisions at Syzran are gone, I could imagine Samoylo and Trotzky might try to break the siege: Trotzky has roughly 600 pw, together with Samolyo's 900 pw they match Kappel's force. I am not worried, though. Well entrenched and on defensive posture Kappel should be able to give them bloody noses.
A bit further south, Shukin's divison will leave the depot it has been guarding and retreat behind the Ural as well.
East of Saratov, Voitsekhovski has finnally caught Chapaev (in the battle report Tolstov is shown as commanding general, but it was Voitsekhovski and the Wild Division that did all the fighting). These men must have been starving already. Moreover, the long march through the steppe had reduced their cohesion almost to zero. As a result they were no match for the Siberian troops. Almost 80% of his surviving soldiers were butchered. The unlucky survivors retreated into the steppe where starvation will finish them off next turn.
Central Siberia: Semenov's hour has come, reinforced by troops from the West he is ready to take Barnaul. This attack will hardly change the prospects of the war but it might gain the Siberian cause a few points of NM and will reduce the need for garrisions in the future.
The force Semenov has under his command is complete overkill. But in Central Siberia supplies are plentiful. Consequently Semenov has received a steady stream of reinforcements. I would rather have them do something usefull than have a vacation.
The Great Retreat: Once the current orders are executed, the Great Retreat of the Siberian Army will hopefully be concluded. By the end of this turn only 12 divisions will remain on the frontline, 9 will have retreated behind the Ural and another 9 guard cities removed from the any direct threat (Ufa, Orenburg, Uralsk, Saratov, Samara, ...).
Meanwhile the Siberian supply network is constantly upgraded. This turn another 3 new depots will be built, a fourth gets an upgarde. During the last 6 turns the capacity of my supply depots has more than doubled: a few depots have been conquered (Saratov, Penza and Tambov), but more have been newly built or upgraded. In total 22 supply trains have been transformed into depots within this time. Finally a close net of depots stretches from Kurgan in the East to Tambov in the West and Votinsk in the North. The next step will be to extend the chain all the way back to Omsk and Central Siberia. On its own this won't solve the supply crisis, though. Supply production is still far from sufficient.
Plans for the future: I am itching. Marvellous plans are forming themselves in my head. If I ever get the supply crisis under control, it will be a joy to implement them.
The obvious strategy would be to make a push for Moscow. In this game the Siberians will follow a different plan, though. Instead of stabbing Communism in the heart, they will gut its belly.
Four big operations are designed. The intention is nothing less than the demise of the Bolshevik regime before Christmas 1920. The names of these operations have been designed by the psychological warfare department to taunt the Communists:
1. Operation Sickle
2. Operation Hammer
3. Operation Feint
4. Operation Sandwich
For now the map and details of these operations will be kept secret (my opponent is a gentleman, but I don't want to tempt him
). Feel free to speculate, though ...