Let's go north to south.
Overall? See those numbers in the upper right hand corner? They say I have X number of trucks but (need X). So yeah, that's how I'm doing - I literally have only less than 2/3 of the motor vehicle transport I need. I have ~105K trucks, I need ~180K trucks. Oh, and they break down faster than I can manufacture them in these bad conditions. Many of my units are short on fuel, supply, and ammo. A few of my units are in the front lines and fighting incoming Soviet formations and have 25% of their listed TO&E. Amusingly, sometimes those units get "upgraded" to 1942-level units, but it's just a paper improvement because they can't get any reinforcements deployed to them. I'm losing 1 man for every 2 the Soviets do, but at least most of theirs are killed and captured, most of mine are disabled - and most of those will eventually return to the reinforcement pool.
Red-limned units are isolated.
Yellow-limned units are getting limited supply.
Red Soviet units have been promoted "Guards" status from combat experience.
Leningrad. I launched a winter offensive and pushed the Soviets back. I got tired of bouncing their units from my front and went for it as soon as the freeze hit. I am trying to connect my two fronts - the handful of Finns in the north and the Germans and Finns to the west - but the Soviets have bunched up a solid mass of troops in that area even as units withdraw thanks to their historical schedule.
Here I'm doing fine. It's a slog but the terrain dictates a slog.
Army Group North and Center. Here I'm slowly, grudgingly giving ground. I'm trying to hold on to a city or two but I lost a few valuable ones as the Soviets pour troops in north of Moscow. I had to deploy two of my Panzer divisions from winter quarters to stem the tide - and cut off a tank brigade and a cavalry brigade in the process. I'll liquidate them shortly but I can't seem to hold that area . . . and I had to deploy my reserves south of Moscow to deal with an even more serious hole in my lines.
Moscow. I took it when the computer inexplicably weakened its defenses a bit. Well, maybe not so inexplicable. I deployed a number of solid units there, kept some out of the front lines a reserves, and systematically ground up any Soviet units south of the city. So when they reinforced that area . . . I levered the others out of the city. I have a nice hole I punched through the lines but I can't secure the flanks over a large salient and the terrain dictates a slog.
Lipesk and Voronesh. This is a pocket in the making. I was stubborn about losing those cities, both of which anchored the sides of a flank and held some defensible terrain. Now I'm clawing to rescue the units there. It's getting ugly and it's taken a lot of reserve units moving up to salvage the situation . . . and I'm not sure how much it'll cost to get my panzers out of there.
Voroshilovgrad. The Soviets have pushed me back. I finished my high water mark of the original offensive at Boguchar and on the Don river. Hah. I've been steadily been pushed back since, mostly by so many units that I have to withdraw to avoid getting cut off.
Rostov. I narrowly missed taking Rostov. Now, my few non-smashed Romanian units are holding flanks in the hopes that the Soviets don't make a real push. A mixed panzer/motorized/cavalry force of Germans holds a major city and a few minor ones I can't afford to lose without unhinging the whole south. I ran rails to the city but partisans cut them off and the computer hasn't seen fit to bother deploying units to fix them - so I've been forced to slowly move back one of the larger rail repair divisions to try and fix that.
I did re-deploy von Manstein and I Corps - probably my best overall commander and my best all-infantry formations - to bolster the area in general. We'll see if that works.
Crimea. The Soviets are pushing out of Crimea. Not easy to see on this map, but I deployed some panzers in winter quarters north and west of here, so they eventually are setting themselves up for a Spring decapitation. I'm not sorry I didn't push into the Crimea back in the spring.
Random notes:
- it's interesting to see how multi-national Operation Barbarossa was. As the Axis, it's not the Germans vs. the Russians. On the Axis side are Germans, Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovakians, Spanish (the 250th Infantry Division), French, Russians, and others I'm forgetting.
- nothing you do can really stem the Soviet tide. You can maul it but there are always more of them. And "pull back and use mobility against them!" sounds great until you actually have to do it, deplete a lot of strength as you lose tanks, artillery, trucks, and men to breakdowns and injury, and burn up supplies on the pull back, and then have insufficient fuel arriving to maneuver. But it's not unwinnable - it's just so damn bloody.
- changing to "Reduced Blizzard Effects" was a major decision. It really did allow me to seize Moscow and hold on a little better. I was getting totally, demoralizingly gutted under the harsh rules. I'd have lost about twice as many men and least twice as much ground had I left it alone. I was getting utterly destroyed, although the Finns were a death machine. I think the revised rules are more likely.
- Overall, as much as I like how air power can be used to hammer specific units before an offensive, I suspect I'll like the War in the East 2 "air phase" approach so I don't need to micro-manage my air power so much. The Soviets have been such a non-issue that I stopped bombing their airfields and just concentrate on ground combat support and air recon and we're doing just fine.
- You can compare with my Turn 18 situation, half of the game ago.
Good game. Takes a long time, but it's fun.
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