Your grim situation makes me wonder if rather than a broad front assault in the initial stages (which is the impression I get from reading the AARs) one would be better served by conserving forces and selecting points of attack - one of the key principles of the attack, if memory serves me.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the winter pans out.

The Red Army commander can create new formations (within certain historical limits), the German player has to make do with historical reinforcements. For example: in the current turn (30) I got two fresh infantry divisions from OKW. Now I just need to rail them from Berlin to Moscow...




Ah, one of my favourite WW2 books!

You can't create German formations the same way you can create Red Army formations. But what you can do as German commander is, for example, disband the Luftwaffe field divisions (or actually any other unit) and have their manpower and equipment be used as "normal" replacements.



Keep in mind that it's not the combat that is killing me, but rather the weather conditions during the Blizzards. My casualties up to the 1st week of December were actually pretty light (~400.000).

Combat losses during the Blizzards are still (somewhat) sustainable despite my divisions having their combat value drastically reduced while the Red Army units have theirs doubled and trippled. But the 80.000-100.000 additional casualties due to the cold are brutal.

On a happy note: the first convalescents are starting to return to their units. I hope it's enough.

How long does it take you to plan then play a turn?

It really depends on the turn and how much micro-management you're willing to do.

Some turns can be done in 10-15 minutes, others might easily take an hour or more. I'd say on average I need about an hour for a turn.

Well here's hoping come spring time you can open a can of whoop arse on Ivan.

A soft retreat à "lure in and cut off"?





The panzer force - where the equipment is more precious than the men manning it...at least that's what I was told in my day.

"You [conscripts] are expendable, this Leopard 2 is not."

Yeah...maybe on the southern flank before the spring thaw and mud. Then try to bag a bunch and get Stalingrad?

The again, it may just be unwinnable????

Well, in historic comparison he got substantially farther than the Wehrmacht did in 1941, and historically the biggest advance wasn't made until about September 1942, so there's still a fair chance to win, it seems. The question is whether the game cheats by giving the Russians more resources than they should have (especially here in this example, after the fall of a few important industrial centers in 1941 already), and how many forces will later be tied down with policing the area against the partisans.

Ah! So this is where those elusive Iron Crosses grow!

I don't know how the Wehrmacht prepared for Fall Blau in summer '42, but I think they got at least a few reinforcements and pulled some units from the northern front. They kept the Soviets busy around Rzhev (to suggest a threat for Moscow), but instead broke through the rather weak lines down south to capture some oil and industrial areas.

As Snake said, Para is in a much better position than the Wehrmacht was historically, so I guess the "A-A line" (Archangelsk-Astrakhan) isn't an entirely utopian goal for the winter '42-'43.

The main point until February is not giving up any important strategically important cities...