Kelblau (Soviet) vs 2ndACR (German) GC 41

[Kel]

This AAR will be quite short. 2ndACR surrendered at turn 33, at the end of January 1942.

Here are 3 screenshots to give you an idea of what can be achieved against a good German player with a strong soviet winter offensive.

Basically, during the first part of the campaign, he managed to reach a line running roughly from the Luga river to the Crimean isthmus (south of the Dnepr bend) via a Rzhev-Poltava-D-Petrovsk line.

After 2 months of winter counteroffensive by 46 soviet regular and 4 shock armies, the following cities have been retaken :
In the north: Pskov, Velykie Luki,

[Kel]

...in the center, the front has progressed westward by 20 hexes. The red army captured Vitebsk, Smolensk and Mogilev

[Kel]

..and in the south, Zhitomir, Cherkassy, Kirovograd have fallen.
Kiev is well fortified but threatened by an army coming out from the marshes and a front-level effort emerging from the Cherkassy bridgehead.

[Kel]

Each regular army has 9 infantry divisions, 3 tank brigades or 1 cavalry corps and 1 tank bde, 2 sappers regiments and 2 arty rgts.
Each shock army has 9 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry corps, 3 tank brigades, 2 tank bns, 2 ski bns, 2 sappers rgts,2 arty rgts, 2 howitzer rgts, 2 AA rgts and 1 rocket launcher rgt.

At this point of the game, the fighting capabilities of the soviet armies are still real (most armies have 75%+ of their divisions in ready state and a majority of front line units TOE is more than 75% full).

Our opponent doesn't "think the German's can come back from the butt kicking. [His] average German div has 5500 men in it"

Both players share the same conclusions :
1/the blizzard penalty is ridiculously high for the German player
2/ the Soviet are bizarrely immune to extreme weather penalties.

I do not see how the 1941 Red Army would have been able to conduct such a massive and continuous advance from the Baltic to the Black Sea in harsh weather. Even in 1944 offensives of this magnitude were only possible during the Summer season.

[2ndACR]

Hated to do it too. But there is no way a German player can come back from a 2 month long front wide 50 army offensive. Just no way. Okay, they might recover some strength, but they are going no where in 1942.