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The last turn of mud. The pocket south of Gorkiy is relieved.

Our attempts to close a large bag around the panzers at Saransk fails utterly. Despite the mud the Germans remain proficient at counter-attacking.

We will have three weeks of frost before General Winter arrives. The German are not familiar with him, but we have long experience of what he can do to an army in the field, as our forbears showed that last great invader, Napoleon. If we survive the frost, we can teach this invader his folly.

All up and down the line they hammer us again. Casualties are heavy wherever we attempted to form pockets. Yet in the critical sector, Gorkiy, he does not even bother to occupy the ground he takes. Can it be we have drawn his attention away successfully?

Cherepovets finally falls, and elsewhere our armies are scattered like wind.

The Fascist forces drive in toward Gorkiy from the West and South. Yet often they are unable or unwilling to occupy all the ground they take. What is more is seems that they are reduced to 60 tanks in their panzer divisions. Can it be that the constant attacking has actually worn down their strength? Could they be over-extended? We would need a very good winter indeed to believe we could survive their summer campaign next year.

All that is a week away. It might as well be a lifetime. If they choose to, they can still take Gorkiy, and with ease. But they must drive a spearhead into it, when they have so far chosen to slash at our entire line instead.

Blessed relief - the Fascists halt their drive ten miles from Gorkiy and victory. The last week of merely cold weather, and they have failed to take the opportunity to end the war early.

We have lost many men to the invader, and inflicted little enough damage on him. That must change.

We still have 4.5m men under arms. They are poorly equipped with tanks and artillery, and our aircraft are of very poor quality. Too many armaments factories were lost, unable to be evacuated in time. Still, they must do all the damage they can with the aid of General Winter. Even if we cannot launch full scale attacks we will hold the enemy's belt close, force his men to suffer the full force of the cold. We must cripple his fighting strength or suffer certain loss next summer.

For the first time we are able to form a coherent line all along the front. The enemy are truly shocked by the severity of the winter - we estimate nearly a third of his strength will be frostbite cases in these initial weeks.

We launch successful attacks at weak points on the line - invariably these areoccupied by Rumanian allied divisions, and they suffer heavy losess to our great satisfaction. The Germans launch counter-attacks to try and prevent pockets, but already over-confidence has doomed an enemy motorised division near Saratov.

In the last days of their offensive the Germans reached the outskirts of Rostov, but failed to attack, being in insufficient strength. They tried to retain their toehold there, but did not support their advanced formations. As a result we trap the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler division, and assorted Rumanians and Slovakians in a pocket. The destruction of this unit will have great symbolic and moral significance.

This is a real nail-biter! Stupid question: you are playing this agains the AI, or against your kid sister? The opposition seems a bit un-decisive.

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

This is a real nail-biter! Stupid question: you are playing this agains the AI, or against your kid sister? The opposition seems a bit un-decisive.

It's the AI. I suspect even a kid sister would have been a bit more decisive at Gorkiy. And less inclined to leave SS and motorised divisions hanging in the wind in the blizzard. Nevertheless it remains very much in the balance - I have to do enormous damage during the winter just to get the enemy strength to a level where I can survive the '42 offensive. Indeed more than survive - having been driven so far back, to aim at an actual victory I need to be able to go on the offensive myself in winter '42.

The Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler division marches into the gulag, and we add its banner to that of the 1st Rumanian Armoured Division in the Kremlin.

Up and down the line we now find German as well as Rumanian and Security divisions that are weak enough to drive back, and that we can withstand their counter-attacks.

A single Finnish division is surrounded in the North. However one division totally destroyed each week is insufficient. We must quicken the pace, even as we know that the initial shock will not last all winter.

Our new Cavalry Corps and Tank Brigades work in cooperation to isolate two more German divisions in the South. A motorised division is added to "the bag" near Saransk.

Reduced to desperation, the Fascists employ weakened Panzer divisions on the front line, and we hammer at them whenever we can.

The New Year dawns to find the Fascists forming a more coherent line that doesn't give us much opportunity to make encirclements. However all his divisions are now very weak, and any army sized attack can be successful and drive his divisions back, with casualties usually in our favour. We estimate his total casualties to now top 1 million men.

The Northern Front commander reports a possible breakthrough in front of Cherepovets that could lead to the most significant encirclement of the winter by far. We throw in what reserves we have immediately.

At the opposite end of our front line Cherevichenko of the Caucasus Front suggests a smaller but significant opportunity to trap more divisions. Both commanders are angling for the Order of Lenin and I can only encourage them.

Popov of the Northern Front completes his pocket, trapping four German divisions, three Finnish and three regiments. His Order of Lenin is well deserved.

The last week of January and Cherevichenko still struggles to link up his drives from Kerch and Sevastopol despite heavy reinforcement.

Constant attacks bring the enemy casualties up to a total 1.25m, but we only force him back tens of miles over the month. His line stays intact.

Kirponos of the Western Front seems closer to an encirclement at this point.

Kirponos's attempt fails, due to the arrival of a rested 2nd Panzer division, and the enemy's willingness to give up untenable ground...

...but Cherevichenko succeeds, relieving the Crimea in a campaign that started from bridgeheads at Kerch and Sevastopol. Only four brigades are trapped initially, but he threatens to cut off a similar number of divisions, and open up a wide new front in the enemy rear.

As expected we trap four divisions in Crimea, and find the gateways off the peninsula weakly guarded. With the weather expected to improve in March a sudden sortie into the enemy rear areas would be a welcome distraction for him.

This is fun, I guess because it is so different! Please keep it up!