"Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting ” BitE Dortmund Campaign AAR, pt 14 May 1942, pt2

I am playing out a solo campaign of Blocks in the East using all optional rules. As I play, I'm taking photos for a session report, which I hope will function also as a review of this game that I have become enthralled by. This is Part 14. The Supreme Commander read reports from the front. He was, indeed, well pleased. His staff officers were not all happy. Colonel Filipe Lebarque had advocated for a hard strike both south and west, to encircle ALL of the remaining Soviet forces. If successful, that move would have likely have ended the war. And it was so tempting. But in the end, he could not take such a risk. Not now, with things going so well. He had ordered his panzers south, to crush any resistance between the Germans and the rich oil fields of Baku. Now the Russians would be pushed to the limit, and his troops would have hardly fired a shot so far this summer. After careful deliberation, I chose to act only on half of Filipe's plan.

Here are the opening moves (more or less, I repositioned a couple of armor units in the east).

And here are the final positions after armor exploitation. Note that the white barrels are for contrast, so you can see the oil barrels marking the units in reserve.

Moving to encircle the Russian southern forces, and not move on Stalingrad yet, has several benefits that I can see. 1) It allows the Germans to set up a fairly strong screen along the Don; 2) It makes the German ring in the south, for all practical purposes, unbreakable; 3) It forces the Russians to decide between focusing their resources for May on trying to relieve Moscow or strengthening Stalingrad, for an attempt push back at the Germans; 4) It keeps the game relevant, at least for a while, if the Russians can't relieve Moscow Also, because I like to play with big guns, the Germans launched an assault (unsuccessful) on Sevastopol.

The Germans had to retreat, but they'll be back.

So now we go over to the Russians, to see if their Supreme Commander can think of some way to save his beleaguered country.