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Against a human player there can be a worry of a panzer corps whoop whoop whooping around with it's 50 MPs, and perhaps a human player will be pulling back lines, such as you are doing now.  The computer ( as Axis ) does not do so much whooping.

Here's the T16 front lines before any Soviet movement

I finished moving all the Soviet units, railed some troops in from the east and thought this might be a good time to evacuate all the Armaments industry and the vehicle industry out of West Moscow.

Here's my moves such as they are:

Here's the front lines in T17 before any Soviet movement

Hmmm, nice job with the flashing maps, but somewhat disconcerting. I think I prefer regular non-flashing maps, but that might just be me being old-fashioned...

Here's the OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production

Here's a close-up of Leningrad before I've moved anything

Another troublesome spot is the Moscow area

Another place where the front lines are getting thin is in the Tula / Orel area

There is a breakthrough in the works in the Kursk area

An area where the Axis is hitting hard is near Cherkassy

It looks like you have NO TROOPS digging in in Moscow proper, is that true?  Fix it, immediately!  Last thing you want is the German to weasel an armored unit through and snatch that city undefended.  Pull some divisions to start digging.  They'll entrench quickly with help from the city populace.

I can't see if you have any entrenchments before Moscow, but it is past time to have guys digging in behind the rivers (Lama, Nara, and even the Moskva-Volga canal to try and prevent the encirclement of Moscow).

Same problem in Leningrad, you need to be entrenching before the Germans are on top of you.  Early on you should put some units in charge of creating the fortifications your armies can fall back on (the Russians dug over 400 miles of anti-tank ditches around Moscow alone!)  You can just built fortified zones on the Finnish border and free up the sentries you have in place now for digging elsewhere unless you see German units in Finland.  My suggestion as the Russian is to build fortified zones in the 3 hexes on the north side of Lake Ladoga and move at least 6 divisions up there (not as many needed if you can fall back in decent order after the Finns finally attack).  That will prevent you trying to man a much longer line on the eastern side of Ladoga (too late now, but for future reference).

Since you are at Turn 17, you have succeeded in spades in the first part of the war. I can guarantee that the Axis are sunk now. All your major cities (Leningrad, Moscow, Stalino, K and K) are safe. You have even managed to hold D-town and Z-town comfortably. My last three games as Axis I was pressing towards Rostov and Tula and had easily taken Leningrad, and I was comprehensively defeated in the blizzard or 1942 after major offensives got nowhere. bravo to you!

ORIGINAL: majeloz
Since you are at Turn 17, you have succeeded in spades in the first part of the war....

Well, thanks. Now I want to see if I can construct a giant salent in the front lines of the Axis somewhere and maybe make a pocket to bust open a giant hole in the Axis front lines to see how the AI handles it.

Here's the T18 front lines before I've moved any Soviet stuff:

Here's the OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production

Well, thanks. Now I want to see if I can construct a giant salent in the front lines of the Axis somewhere and maybe make a pocket to bust open a giant hole in the Axis front lines to see how the AI handles it.

Once you make a hole for your armor take your lessons from Bruce Lee:

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.  Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."
Once you make it free of the main line of resistance the AI will try to allocate blocking forces - don't fight them with your armor, run around and past them.  You should have more unit counters on the map than the Germans at all times, so short of breaking down all their divisions they'll have a hard time re-establishing a line until your own supply lines call a halt to the advance.  Brigades are fantastic for exploitation because of their mobility, so keep them handy to fill in the tracks of your armored spearheads.

Most importantly, make sure your HQs are participating in the advance.  They can't move through enemy ZOC alone, so keep that in mind and ensure a path for them into the breakout and your armored formations will maintain their mobility.

nice post Seminole dude.  Thanks.  I like that anology about water in attacking your enemy.  I can see the exploitation of opportunities as they arise, and the path of least resistance to be really good ideals.

T18 is a mud turn

Here's a close-up of the Leningrad area now after Soviet moves