First try

[Arstavidios]

Initial offensive went quite well, though I feel it's possible to do better.
Now I'm mingling with winter defensive tactics.
An interesting question about the fortified zones.
When the hex is captured the unit is destroyed, but is all the equipment lost or does part of it get back to the pools or to the other units present?
Blizzard seems to be tricky. In the first few turns yout units can do pretty well especially when well fortified, but after a few turns they lose their combat value and once you lose your entrenchments it's hard to recover your balance.

I still need to experiment with reserves, find out how to set them up and how they will affect the outcome. Also maybe use the fortified zones to build a fall back position a few hexes behind the lines.

IMO the fortified zone can be a very useful tool, but I need to figure out how to use it best. Setting up a fortified position along the whole front will cost you between 400 and 500 AP and 200 000 to 250 000 men. so it can be worthwile

[Arstavidios]

So I wen on a few turn with the game; However I seriously modified the settings to 140 axis 60 soviets in order to stop the soviet offensive and allow the Germans time to recover.
Soviet offensive kept on for a couple of turns then came to a halt. Losses gradually fell too from 130 000 to 26 000, the German army started to recover a little bit to 2 700 000 men.
430 000 Axis KIA 93 000 POW 1 478 000 disabled. Ist it the total number of men disabled since the start of the campaign or the number of men currently disabled? How many of them will eventually come back?
4100 tanks lost since the begining of the campaign. This will hurt. soviets lost over 17000.

Soviet army now has 6 370 000 men and 3700 tanks.

Now that the situation is stabilised I'm gradually bringing the settings back to normal

[karonagames]

The disabled figure is the number currently disabled. 1% are returned to the manpower pool each turn.

edit: What turn are you on now?

[Arstavidios]

almost 1.5 million disabled coming back at 1% a turn. This is gonna hurt. looks like the German army is somewhat crippled for 1942.
around mid march now.

[karonagames]

I think this number is on the high side, Trey did some analysis which we presented to Joel. I will get Joel to look at this again.

You are not far from 13 turns of Mud, which should allow you to recover. In May you will get reinforcements that are free (i.e. not drawing from manpower and production pools, so this should top you up a bit.

[Arstavidios]

quite a lot of reinforcements coming. I'm reoganising the troops as it's a bit of a mess, with corps and armies mixed up. I also have to integrate all those reinforcements into the armies. Soviets have been seriously nerfed down with the settings so it's rather quiet. Many troops  arrived from Germany but they had to go straight to the front during the blizzard and had already lost 20 to 25% by the time they reached the front. I would need to check that on the autosaves. I thought the recovery rate was a bit higher so I did not really bother. I would have prefered to let them stay in Germany for the winter but with the centre of the front crumbling they were required.
Meanwhile the soviet army keeps growing. They will probably be around 7.5 to 8 million men by may while the german army should be back to around 3.5 million men by that time. So it's going to be a tough campaign.
Hopefully the panzerqs will still have the edge.

[karonagames]

The Axis start the historical 1942 Campaign with 3.2million, and the SU with just over 6m, so it looks like they recruited more guys from the cities you didn't capture and the cities they recaptured during the winter.

edit: SU recruitment levels are reduced in 1942 and each subsequent year

Big Pockets needed in 1942. Have fun[:)]

[Arstavidios]

Real life has struck so I'm back to work. No more full time witE playing vacation, moreover no more computer during the week for now.

Anyway I managed to reach May and the sun in now shining on the soviet steppes.
I gradually moved the settings back to normal.

[Arstavidios]

As you can see Axis forces are now heavily outnumbered by a massive red army.
The German Army is now 2 900 000 men strong. This is due to many reinforcements arriving. Many of the reinforcements had to go stright to the front to plug the holes and are very depleted. Many divisions are around half the infantry strength and also short of support.
 
Replacements have just been enough to cover attrition losses and the losses suffered in the few battles there were in late march and april. the number of men disabled remained constant around 1.5 million men. With heavy fighting coming it should increase fast again.
 
The Rumanians are quite depleted too. A hungarian army arrived on the front.
 
The Germans now have 8 infantry armies. i'm going to make them 16 divisions each which should leave two or three spare infantry divisions.
 
There are 8 panzer corps with 2 panzer and a motorised division each. 2 SS motorised corps with 2 divisions and a brigade each and an understrength panzercorp with a panzerdivision GD and Lehr motorised regiments.
 
I used two infantry corp HQs for the SS but I need them for the infantry. So there's going to be some reorganisation.
 
Tank strength is low. soviets outnumber me about 2 to 1. 

[Arstavidios]

Soviets suffered very little losses during the winter while axis forces lost about 1/3 of their strength
I think I lost about 2 or 3 to 1.

[Arstavidios]

In the North the lines held.
The soviets made a few breakthroughs but were repulsed.
The main objective of the 1942 campaign is to link with the Finns and isolate leningrad.
Some reinforcements have been sent to AGN. Two panzer amies have been concentrated as a speahead for this drive. One of the infantry armies of AGC will also help.

[Arstavidios]

In the centre the soviets made a big breakthrough at the joint between AGC and AGS, which widened as several divisions were swallowed.
I cut off the gas of the Soviet offensive in March by modifying the settings.

Smolensk and Kharkow held. German reinforcements were rushed to the front to plug the gap. and the the lines were progressively reorganised. The soviets have retreated a few hexes in april. There are Panzer concentrations arouns Smolensk and Kharkov. The aim is to reduce this salient in order to shorten the lines.

[Arstavidios]

In the South the Rumanians are reorganising along the lower Dnepr. There are still some soviet units across the river. They are slowly pushed back. Rumanian forces did suffer during the winter so they won't be able to do much except digging alond the Dnepr.

The Hungarian 2ng army is reaching the front. The 11th army is waiting for its reinforcmements as well as the 17th army. the divisions were used to close the gaps of the salient. That's about a dozen divisions that should get there if I manage to reduce the salient. A panzer korp and a SS motorized corp also help on the the Dnepr. Many of the Rumanian divisions are still unready.

[Arstavidios]

Moscow is now very far away.

[randallw]

The only Germans who will see it are the ones paraded around as POWs.

[Arstavidios]

I only have computer during the week end.
I'vre replayed the winter to make some experiments.
Basically instead of trying to hold the line i retreated the whole army towards germany and Rumania, when the weather turned to mud.
I used train and a lot of naval transport. AGN was evacuated by sea through Tallin. Rumanians through Odessa. Some divisions were caught up as the partisans cut the rail lines. Motorised units HQs and airbases moved back normally.

About a dozen infantry divisions were destroyed and a Rumanian fortress brigade. The rest of of the troops reached the border safely. Losses were light during the winter. Attrition losses were low. The divisions that were caught up had mostly melted away due to blizzard and fighting.

At the end of the blizzard axis losses were about 700 000 men.

And the army was safely reorganised and rested in Germany.

Meanwhile the sovied advanced but with rail lines broken their supply line got over extended when they reached the German border by the end of the blizzard.
In Ukraine Lvov and a couple of border towns remained in my hands. Rumanian mountain troops in Odessa.

March saw a devasting German offensive starting with the units being in prime condition and everything well organised .
Basically 8 16 divisions german infantry armies, 4 panzer armies concentrated in the North and centre, Rumanians in the South.

Soviet forces suffered heavily with several large pockets being made in the north of centre. The offensive continued in the mud with great success, many soviet divisions surrendered to infantry deliberate attacks or panzer attacks, even when not isolated.

The 12 panzer corps are stacked 3 divisions per hex. Infantry is mostly 2 divisions stacks. In two months the soviet army lost about 1 500 000 men against about 300 000 Germans.

I've just reachead the first Good weather tun. The German army is about 3 800 000 strong. rumanians are also in good shape. In the North , I went from the border to Riga. In the centre I'm between the border and Minsk. In the south as there are almost no mobile units I'm slowly pushing east. Rumanian cavalry went to expand the Odessa bridgehead but additionnal soviet units are reaching the area.

The two Rumanian armies have been put under the command of Army group Antonescu. I'm thinking about adding some german divisions to stiffen them up and also possibly  mix them with the 11th army to make a combined German - Rumanian army group of 3 armies.

I'm going for a hard push in the centre an North, with 6 infantry armies and 4 panzer armies towards Moscow and leningrad.
New reinforcements will go South.

In the South I have 2 german armies 2 rumanian 1 hungarian, the Italians and Slovaks.
Axis allies provide a few mobile units. Germans have a panzer division and a motorised unit.

hungarians 2 armored division, rumanians 1 armored division, Italians 1 motorised division and slovakians 1 motorised division.

Axis allies are quite efficient against the soviets. These did not have time to dig in and their rail heads must be very far away, and they camre all the way by foot in the Blizzard while axis forces were resting on their railheads in their country.

So basically this "Barbarossa Reloaded" strategy worked fairly well against the AI. I gave up a lot of groung but i enter the 1942 campaigning season in a very good position, while the Soviets suffered heavily and see their army stuck in an area with destroyed railways, which means their reinforcements have to come by foot, and they can not escape by train. 

[Arstavidios]

So time for an update.
I'm now at the begining of december 1942.
In the north I'm now nearing Leningrad again.

[Arstavidios]

In the centre The panzers made a breakthrough up to Viazma but but the corridor was too narrow to push deeper
The infantry was stuck holding the flanks of the breakthrough. I've been widening the front in september and october.
I'm still short of infantry there. I have a few divisions on their way.

[Arstavidios]

rest of the front is straightening and is pretty solid

[Arstavidios]

and the southern Sector