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The killer is the number of guns you have on the field. Once they drop below 25k your cv's are really poor.

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

ORIGINAL: Zebedee
How's your strategic reserve looking in terms of what you've got to smack about any breakthroughs? Being able to start building up a significant reserve might well be a good reason to start considering front length and passing the strategic initiative over to the Soviet player. Tough choices ahead for summer 1943.

There is no strategic reserve as such. What I do have is most of the mobile units in a second and sometimes third line behind the front, to prevent breakthroughs and dig fall back positions. I can concentrate and push back most Soviet penetrations if I want to, but I usually don't want to, as even a successful rout of a couple of penetrating Soviet corps will only yield a 2-1 loss ratio, and that is not good enough. In fact, attacking at such a ratio will probably only hasten the German collapse, so I tend to refrain from counterattacks. The main reason I do the relatively few counterattacks I perform is to slow down the hex loss ratio, so that I can finish the fortifications in the next line.

Comment: It might be obvious but to me this feels unhistorical. The German army excelled in counterattacks to the point of being almost addicted to them, and the majority were very successful in inflicting losses on the enemy.

The problem is that I have no really good options for small withdrawals to shorten the front. To shorten the front to any meaningful extent in the north I would have to withdraw to the Ilmen line, or even to Riga, and that would be a rather considerable withdrawal, which would also expose Leningrad and the Finns.

In the south, the next feasible line is Cherkassy - Kirovograd - Nikolaev. I will probably have to fall back to that line, but I want to delay it till spring mud, as the rivers will not offer any advantages in winter.

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

If I tell you that guns have a CV weight factor of 0, you can either accept that, maybe even read the appendix regarding CV weight factors in the manual and think "ah, I was wrong, guns don't really have much of a CV" or you can be a total bitch and ramble some incoherent response together. Of course, you being Pelton, you chose the latter option.

The attacker's guns might reduce defender CV through casualties and disruption, and thus increase the relative CV of attacking forces compared to the defender, but they don't have much of a CV of their own (it's not literally 0, it's just very, very small). Otherwise you could win battles with just on-map artillery units, if they would have much of a CV value.

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

I rush down a panzer corps to shore up the defenses down south. My CVs are not really healthy, while Soviet CVs are awe inspiring...

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Not sure how the Germans are supposed to defend the Soviet Army, or what the best tactics are. The way forts work, it pays to stay and die deep in Russia, rather than retreat gradually. What happens then is that the Soviets don't take much territory, until the Wehrmacht is cooked, and then the floodgates open,

ORIGINAL: majeloz

A suggestion, based on how I am playing a game where I have had to retreat slightly further than you in late 1942, but have held him really well since:

It may seem risky, but get some weak Inf divisions back behind the lines, broken down into regts along with italians digging your next line - Rumanians too. The question is: where? If you do this along the Dnepr, the risk is you will get out flanked from around Nikolaev. So, I'd probably say, go back deeper and have longer to dig and then asically defend this line through mid-late 1943. The best line is just east of Odessa, maybe, so long as you can hold there now. Then head west-north towards Kiev, using the small river, but rejoining the Dnepr south of the Pripyat marshes.  I've found that the Rumanians and ITalians add little defensively  - you can't rely on them alone, and if stacked with Germans, rarely make the difference. You will thank me when there's a line of Fort 3s ready .

But, to be honest, I reckon you are doing well here... only that sourthern area is a risk