Now that I'm looking at how to respond to the Axis advance, I see that the shift to Rain and Storm everywhere the Soviets are trying to defend is more of a problem for them than it is for the Germans. In order to prevent the alignment of Turkey this turn (or at least to try to prevent it), the USSR has 2 options, as I see it:
Option #1 (in light blue): rail Timoshenko to the mountain hex closest to the Germans, creating a 10-factor stack and temporarily putting the 7-3 INF back into supply. The 4-3 INF moves into the clear hex along with the 5-3 white-print MIL (under the CAV). The MIL will get disorganized, but that creates a 7-factor stack and leaves two 6-factor stacks in the mountains. With the Rain, the Germans probably can't get better than 3:1 odds on the stacks leading to Turkey. But the line can't buy more than a few impulses, at best. This also leaves the 8-5 white-print MECH and 2-5 MECH Division OOS and waiting to be attacked, though it would be at low odds. The best they could do is pull back to the hex west and/or southwest of Timoshenko. They'll be disorganized, but they'll have supply from Tiflis.
Option #2 (in green and dark blue): move Timoshenko northwest to get the MECH stack back in supply (and to keep supply to the 6-4 INF), and then have that stack join him there. The GARR in Tiflis has to close up the mountain pass (he'll need to in Option #1, too). Yeremenko moves back onto the rail line and is replaced by the 7-6 MECH. The trouble here is that under that German FTR is HQ-A Rundstedt, and he can get into position to provide supply to the German troops that are now OOS, so all of the mountain passes need to be covered. With this option, I'm not sure yet what to do in the Persian mountains (
see edit), but the whole situation is based on a prayer that Yeremenko can rail to the Turkish border mountain hex in Armenia during the next Allied impulse. That means the North mountain line has to hold, which it should.
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Edit: In this situation, I think the 4-3 INF moves as shown and the 3-2 MIL under it moves northwest 1 hex. That should help the Soviets maintain the ability to create ZOCs so that the Germans can't go around Yeremenko to get to the Turkish border, even if they kill the 4-3 INF, the MIL should be safe. Fine weather in the Med next impulse puts the CAV and Astrakhan MIL back in supply from Baku, and the entire line shifts to the northwest. That buys yet another impulse. Germany will have to choose between going after Baku or trying to slide through the holes in the line. They might be able to do both, but it's the only chance the Russians have. If they are lucky, they might get to the end of the turn with most or all of their LND intact.
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With either option, the goal now is simply to prevent the alignment of Turkey this turn. Everyone here is going to die eventually, but if Turkey can be kept out of the war for one more turn, the invasion of France will force the Germans to pull back some of the troops in the North. To this end, I think Option #2 is the better choice.
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it!
-Lazarus Long, RAH
