For the first few days nothing of note happens. A few troops and air units relocate to new positions. All is quiet until the morning of 8th May 1940 when a polite note is passed to VILenin saying “up yours mate, it’s time for a rumble”
05:00 May 8th 1940
The weather has mostly cleared but remains muddy in the north and a small patch in Romania. Time to roll. The weather is unlikely to reliably hold off but waiting will make little difference, we are going in.
06:00 May 8th 1940
Within the hour four massive border battles have broken out. They all show massive German superiority except for Lvov where numbers are somewhat more equal. The battle at Lvov is nominally balanced in numbers but German advantages will win it by a solid margin. We have higher levels of experience, more brigades, better leadership, more armour and a lot more org. In a few hours the air support will arrive. Due to the weakness of the air AI the air support cannot take off until the battles have started (all together now, roll your eyes).
Notice the level of comparative engagement. The purple circles are the attacking armies and include the entire German force on the eastern front whilst the red circles show the Russian units, a mere 86 divisions engaged – less than 10% of their armed forces. Disproportionate engagement is one of the important advantages of holding the initiative and one reason why it is so important (in this game). This starting attack is an excellent illustration of this.
Once the campaign has got moving the northern three groups (3x24 infantry divisions) will become relatively unengaged as they perform their role of simply holding the flank stationary. Elsewhere the infantry will also have a low engagement rate as they get left behind. My use of the overrun attack technique during phase 1 means that only my mobile forces will have high rates of engagement but it also means that these forces engage all of the enemy in turn but never together. This should preserve a relatively high engagement ratio.
A second significant issue is that I intend to fight most Russian forces once and once only. This will mean that Russian morale is unimportant as any org regained after a battle is irrelevant. To achieve this objective I must reach every Russian unit’s retreat province before it does. Whilst some may escape during the initial stages their position will get worse during the campaign. At all stages I need to advance into and enemy province and then on to the next one before they can retreat one province. This entails moving over twice as fast as the enemy. Any of their forces achieving half my speed will have to be fought twice (but only twice). If they manage to retreat into a province just before I arrive there this leaves them only one and a bit provinces ahead and they are unlikely to fight a third time.
Remember, all forces are on offensive supply.
All bombers are on ground attack or interdiction missions whilst all interceptors are on air superiority missions. I am not bothering with any attacks on Soviet airfields. These will only ground Soviet aircraft whereas I would like to destroy them as a fighting force, hence the dependence on air superiority patrols.
If “runway cratering” was replaced by a general airfield attack mission that worked like port attack, damaging air units present as well as ground installations, then I would probably put some effort into it. As it is I am not too worried about the Soviet air force and will leave them entirely to interceptors on air superiority.
