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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,

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

..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.

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.

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.