First try

[karonagames]

Sorry that I forgot to mention in my email, that I think you should consider disbanding the fortified zones that are likely to be retreated so that you can get the men and equipment into "proper" fighting units, and I also forgot to say that I would recommend putting every unit in refit mode apart from garrisons and partisan chasers so you get the men from the fortified zones into the combat units ASAP.

More haste; less speed.

[Arstavidios]

I disbanded the fortified zones that were left.
so far i changed my strategy a bit.

He who runs and flies away lives to fight an other day. Fighting strength is low but many of the men are just disabled. real losses are still moderate although the fortified zones experiment cost me somewhat.

So I'm giving groung to preserve my army so that I'll have a good offensive capacity in 1942.

After the Von Fubar defensive line, I'm testing the Von Fubarblizzard withdrawal strategy

One of the advantages is that I'm shortening my lines.

[Arstavidios]

Mein Fuhrer this is not a retreat.
This is a carefully devised plot to lure the red army into a cunning trap where it will be anihitated.
So between running and dying I chose the running, which significantly reduced losses this turn.

I don't know how far I'll run but it will likeky last a few turns

[Arstavidios]

In the centre 2 divisions were gobled around Orel, falling back too but more slowly.
The aim is not to have units isolated.

[Arstavidios]

North is holding. I left the fortified zones here so far, but i'll start disbanding some soon.

[Arstavidios]

losses are still ugly but better than the almost 300 000 of previous turns.

[Arstavidios]

With the red army on steroids and the german army wearing thin the coming turns look unpromising.
Hopefully Soviet tank losses in the early turns help somewhat. A 6000 or 7000 tank strong red army would be an ugly sight.

[Tokugawa]

Ty for the screens. Impressive on how bad the winter really hit you. [X(]

[Arstavidios]

And the red army keeps growing. hopefully if I manage to avoid having units cut off and destroyed and avoit too much soviet pounding i should be able to come back hard in 1942. hopefully i'll be able to cut large slices of the red army. unless they run east until the next winter.

[Arstavidios]

[:D]

[Erik Rutins]

Well, the good news I suppose is that as you get into February and March the first winter penalties become a bit less severe, but ouch! The first time I played against the Soviet AI on Challenging I had a very similar first winter experience.

Regards,

- Erik

[Arstavidios]

first winter blizzard experience [:D]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCPCMCceNMY&feature=related

[kfmiller41]

this is making me wonder why I am trying a campaign against a real person, I must be crazy[&o]

[Arstavidios]

Well the AI made a big push at the joint between AGC and AGS. Partisans disrupted my rail lines which did not help for supplies and sending reinforcements.
So my reinforcements did not make it in time to shore up the line.

Casualties are about 420 000 men kIA or prisoner swith 1 000 000 disabled, this must includes a number of axis allies as the rumanians are takind a pounding in the south. German army is down to 2 500 000 men with 2 200 000 ready.

21 st of January so far. So plenty of turns of blizzard still to go. So far 3 german infantry divisios have been destroyed and a handful of support units.
But with this big hole it may be mounting soon. I have to figure out how to get the army through the blizzard in decent shape.

So that makes me a 20 hex gap in my front to fill up with a dozen divisions half of them almost isolated to cover it. I think I can forget about runing wild into russia in the 1942 campaigning season
restoring my lines will be good enough

[Arstavidios]

So I have to stabilize the situation so that I can pocket all that when good weather comes back.

[karonagames]

Balancing the first winter was an interesting project and nearly "fun". As Arstavidious found, if you lose line cohesion, GAIA will jump on any crack with everything she has. The more times I tested it, the more I saw the importance of the rail grid, firstly for getting bashed up units back into action quickly (refitting at a railhead is much quicker) and for moving reinforcements to threatened areas, and to this end I would try to build some north/south "spur" lines to help move reinforcements laterally.

Arstavidious was also a little late in getting his garrisons in place, so the rail grid got bashed.

If the pressure gets too much you can always use the "chicken" switch and change the settings to easy. I have not tested the final, final version, but I think "Challenging" may be slightly OTT in favour of the SU and would not have a problem in telling players to switch back to "normal" for the Blizzard turns.

In my pbem test with Trey, the retreat went pretty historically, so we were happy to sign off on the first winter, but Joel and Gary subsequently made changes that made the Axis' life a little easier.

[Arstavidios]

Some planning of the rail grid and more attention to garrison seem to imprtant for sure.
Running through that first winter a couple of times will help getting ready for what's up in store. Good preparation should help.

[Arstavidios]

Do fortified zones protect from partisan attacks?
Protecting a few critical railway segment could be a good idea a would help keeping the front supplied.

[karonagames]

Not 100% certain on this, but I think Fortified zones are brigade sized units, which have weaker ZOCs than divisions, and I am not sure how strong the partisan ZOCs are.

I will investigate.

Pieter may know.

[Arstavidios]

Puting a few static defensive zones in the pripet marshes for exemple would help keep the partisans at bay.