Home after three weeks in better weather.

Fired up my Vassal Panzergruppe Guderian (PGG) project.  Actually read the Simonsen article.  Discovered my initial efforts were all wrong.  According to Redmond, the Soviets were defending too far forward, and the Germans not moving east fast enough.

Chastened,  I finished up Game Turn 1 using (I hope) the proper courses of action.  Here’s some screen shots.  By the way, you have to rename the each Vassal photo with a .jpg suffix in order to view/upload.

Soviet forces have moved east from their initial positions at the west map edge(s), and are using rail movement to move reinforcements so as to build defensive positions west of Smolensk.  The Soviets initially placed in Smolensk rolled a six, and could not activate/move.

Germans moving at speed to the east, but attacking the Soviet rear guard threatening their supply lines.

Germans were able to ZOC kill the Soviets, but were lucky.  The blocking force (Soviet unit strengths not known until moment of combat) was strong – 13 total combat factors – but placed out of supply, so halved for combat.  The German armored divisions then exploited east, while the motorized divisions used their second movement phase of the turn to pin Soviet units posing a potential threat to the German right flank.

This is going to be interesting……