Really high level Axis play on display here for Barbarossa. Green are positions the Soviets would like to hold but pink are the positions that Axis manuevers have basically forced the Soviets to take.
At face value it would seem that this terrible weather (snow arctic, storm N Temp) would be great for Allies. However the Germans have managed to twist this into an advantage for the Axis. Through very clever air rebases they have put Red Army defensive lines in the north under fighter coverage as well as ground strike risk to prevent the Soviets from holding a forward line this impulse. By forcing the Reds back in the north the Germans put more time pressure on fact rail-outs and gain another hexrow without the bulk of their slower troops arriving at the line.
The kill of the CAV in the swamp also leaves the Soviets short of units to hold the Narva river and the presence of Axis units in the swamp north of Riga make it urgent for the Soviets to defend the Narva river immediately and an ooze threat will be present unless 2 units man the river in the following impulse.
In the south the 6 range FTR and 3 range FTR along with several Stukas makes it extremely dangerous for the Red Army to try to hold open the Odessa rail line. Without such strong Axis fighter and Stuka presence forward the green X could have been held and the Odessa fact could escape, but with the air units in these exact positions it is too dangerous to hold the green X hex - thus forcing USSR to leave the Odessa fact to be cut off.
The Soviets have to take up the pink positions instead of the green positions, allowing very few Wermacht units to push toward the Dnieper effectively. The 5-3 in Kiev can't escape due to storm so will be trapped there unless it rails out which would leave 1 less faceup unit in the south - and SU really needs faceup units if the turn continues for 3 more Axis impulses.
Also note that no Soviet fact can be railed yet because the Axis cleverly placed all units in Russia out of supply and fact can't be railed until there is an in-supply unit in Russia.
This is really perfect Axis play. Kudos! [&o]
