#turn six

The Caucasus' + Kuban/Crimean Armies advanced from Ekaterinoslav towards Kharkov in order to attack the reduced 2nd Red Army and Red Train located in the city.  The White player could have targeted the Red Army just outside of Kharkov, but the opportunity to remove (instead of just reduce) a Red Army + the Red Train (even though the Train will just reappear next turn) is too good to pass up; especially considering that the Southwest front is woefully undermanned with Red Armies.

However, even a daring attack on Kharkov would do little to directly relieve the pressure facing the stack of White AFSR units across the Black Sea.  For that a more daring plan had to be concocted- one involving the newly turned-White Makhno Partisans and the Red City of Rostov.

At the beginning of every turn, the Makhno Partisan unit checks to see what side it is closest to and then 'changes sides' to the opposite faction.  At the start of this turn, the Makhno Partisans were closest to Red units so it became a 'White' unit.  Even though this means the partisans will constantly change sides, it does, for this turn, present an opportunity for the aforementioned stranded and soon to be surrounded White units across the Black Sea.  With the partisans moving south to take Taganrog, the White units near Ekaterinodar could then attempt to link up with their brethren by attacking Rostov and opening up a supply line to Sevastopol.  This would mean that Red Armies in the South front could, effectively, sweep down and control the landmass between Rostov and Astrakhan- but they would have to quickly shift over forces to the Southwest front since the White player will have *several* units potentially creating havoc in that area.

Against these rather monumental offensive choices, the Terek Cossacks move, alone, to attack the Red garrison in Astrakhan.  Success here would mean that Tsaritsyn could more easily be cut off from supply, although the White forces have little to use in making this goal a reality.  Still, it does put some pressure on keeping the supply lines to Moscow open and perhaps the White units will be able to counterattack in future turns and threaten Tsaritsyn proper.

As a final move, the AFSR partisans (placed via random event in turn three) hanging around above Tsaritsyn began moving towards Tambov- if the Terek Cossack attack succeeds, then these partisans *might* be able to really threaten units in Tsaritsyn by cutting off supply coming from Tambov.

Incredibly, every attack by the units of the AFSR came off splendidly.  The Kharkov attack resulted in an 'aDR', meaning that the 2nd Red Army + the Red Train in Kharkov were eliminated while the North Caucasus took the hit and was reduced.  Over at Rotov, the stack of units led by Alekseev also secured an 'aDR' result; the 9th Red Army, now reduced, retreated to Lugansk while Alekseev took the 'a' result and flipped to his reduced side.  Same results applied to the Terek Cossacks, who were unlucky in their rolls- they managed to eliminate the garrison unit, but had to flip to their reduced side in order to do so.

Next to activate was Poland, but since the conditions triggering the entry of the Poles into the Russian Civil War were not met they did little except remain in their defensive positions.  The North/Islamic units activated next, and the North + Tashkent armies moved closer to the Red army in Turkistan.

Next up was the Field Staff chit, and the Red player activated the lone 3rd Red Army in the Southwest front to plug the hole made by the AFSR in Kharkov.  (White units attacking Kharkov at the beginning of this turn did not advance into Kharkov after victory as that would allow them to be easily cut off from supply in Sevastopol)

AIF, then Logistics, were the following chits pulled.  For the former, the Murmansk unit continued making its trek towards its sister Archangel unit stationed in Kotlas.  Logistics saw the Tsar auto-rally of Alekseev and a few '1' rolls (the only value, thanks to White Corruption, that could rally units) for various White units.  Without the Red Train, the Bolsheviks could only rally the 4th Army located in the East front.

Speaking of the East front, that was the next force to activate.  The 5th Army continued its quest to track down and eliminate the Siberian Partisan unit that appeared on turn five around Viatka while the 16th and 13th Red Armies, supported by a reduced 1st Army moving out of Samara, moved to attack the White position at Izhevsk.  Keeping the pressure up, the 4th and 6th Red Armies begin to approach Ufa; while not exactly a steamroller, there are enough Red Armies in the area to give the Siberian units pause when considering their next move.

The attack on Izhevsk produced an 'adR' result- while the White forces had to retreat, and reduce the 2nd Siberian unit, the attacking Red forces also had to flip a unit, in this case the 16th Red Army, before the 13th Red Army could take Izhevsk via 'advance after combat'.  The attack on the Siberian Partisans by the 5th Red Army was also successful, forcing the Partisans to both flip and retreat deeper into the woods.  While the 5th Army emerged unscathed, the fact that the partisan unit retreated into the woods meant that it would be at least a few more turns before the 5th Army could complete its quest and return to the more pressing task of eliminating the White Siberian presence in the East front.

Siberian forces, the next to activate, could do little except retreat to much better defensive positions in the Ural mountains.  The hope is that Red forces, pursuing the Siberian units into the hinterlands, will stretch their supply lines as well as divert much needed forces from the growing threat of the AFSR in the South/Southwest fronts.

The Northwest activated after the Siberian forces, and here the White random event for this turn- the Freikorps- came into effect.  The von der Goltz unit, brought in with Strategic Turn B, is a unit the White player cannot move until the 'Freikorps' event occurs.  Being a rather special unit, von der Goltz has some interesting abilities- it is the only White force that can attack the Baltic garrison unit at the resource city of Riga, thus giving the Whites a potential boost in total resource acquisition.  It also bolsters the power of the Whites in the Northwest, as von der Goltz can team up with the Northwest Armies in Reval and actually journey outside the Baltic area.  (The Estonian Army, also in Reval, is forbidden by the rules to leave the Baltic area, meaning it cannot help out on a Petrograd attack)  While attacking Riga would be nice, the rules stipulate that if the von der Goltz unit attacks the garrison in Riga then the Allied cruiser in the Baltic Sea will come to the aid of the garrison unit.  This represents the Allies reluctance to see a largely German-based unit make territorial gains in what was once a portion of the battlefield for the First World War.

Since the odds are against the von der Goltz unit, the White player decided to bypass Riga and, instead, move the White army towards Reval so that it can join the Northwest Army units stationed there.  Hopefully this means that in a few turns the White player can make a dedicated attempt to take Petrograd- something the Red player would be hard pressed to prevent/respond to without draining essential manpower from other fronts.

For the final activation for the turn, the South front came up to bat.  Due to the extension of Red lines in the East front, there are no additional garrison units left to hold cities once the Red Army leaves them.  This normally wouldn't be much of an issue, except that in this case it meant that the 10th Red Army, stationed in Tsaritsyn, could not leave the city to aid the attack on the White units (led by Alekseev) who, previously, busted in Rostov.  Actually, the 10th Red Army *could* have left, but the presence of the annoying White Partisan unit above Tsaritsyn means that the city could easily fall into White hands without a fight should the 10th Red Army abandon its post.

Instead, the collective forces of the Latvian Rifles/15th Red Army (both reduced) and the full-strength 8th Red Army decide to forgo attacking the White stack and retreat towards Tsaritsyn.  This does allow the White stack to link up with its counterpart just outside of Kharkov, but is also allows the Red forces to more easily shift their armies over to the Southwest front since they are not galavanting around Ekaterinodar.