All right, time to get on to the Blizzard offensive!, we are playing on full Blizzard and it's my 1st time with out the +1, I must say, it was a dreadful summer, felling that the red army had no
TEETH what so ever, despite 1 or 2 successful attacks that actually made a difference... in the entire summer!
But those days are over! its reinvigorating to be on the offensive.
Let me show you my starting positions on 4-12-1941, the 1st turn of December(turn 25), I don't have detailed pictures on the South front, which is ironic since it would be my main blow.
North Moscow front - Turn 25
Interesting story, those impressive looking red rifle divisions are the 27th army under Zhukov himself, with 6 great rifle divisions, 2 of my best tank brigades, 1 (at the time) great tank division and 1 naval brigade.
During the summer I reason that if I fortified Moscow well, a wide encirclement would be the only option, thus, I plan to force the enemy to cross the MC canal river north of Moscow, effectively marked as my "NOT A STEP BACK" line.
I would make resistance in a way to avoid a small encirclement as much as possible, making it unfeasible to encircle the city before mud.
To my dismay, those 3 simple hexes North of the city would decide everything...
So, I was not sure if the 27th army should stay there, the area South-west was/is heavily fortified, the fact that my best offensive army would get to do little during December was insane![:-]
In the end, I decided that pressure was needed further North, where enemy fortification efforts came too little too late. If I can tie German divisions and attention in this area, making the job much easier for the cavalry and armies of the South,
it was already a victory I reason, besides, if I was going to mount an effective attack in this area. I would need a commander like Zhukov...
Last reason why I wanted to attack here, is because I wanted to keep the dam Germans away from my sweet Volga!!
for I am a jealous GO# hrr. I mean, Volga marks an important border, yea, that's it.
Far North - Turn 25
With such a thin line, no way I could ignore this area [;)], took some time, but the offensive hit hard by 2nd turn of Blizzard. The Fins would remain aggressive well in to the winter, astonish that GHC / FHC would think this is a good idea,
I'm fine with this attitude, with defensive battles, I have the best shot at causing causalities while receiving few in return (Soviet Standards). Need to keep a attentive guard in this theater...
Of the 18 Cavalry corps, the entire far North would receive just 2. all the others would be in the South of the Oka river.
I will talk about my set up of the cavalry corp for the winter, using a often overlook support unit, the sky battalion.
Its actually a very interesting and super efficient unit, with just under 700 men, it packs quite the CV for its size! thanks to the fact that its CV triples during the blizzard.
I will put 2 sky battalions and 1 sapper regiment per Cavalry Corps. I think this set up helps to give the Corps a needed punch in hasty attacks.
to summarize:
1 - Light on Manpower, light on armaments with only a few mortars.
2 - A battalion, so light on AP.
3 - Alternatives are few, Low light tank production means creating tank battalion is a bad idea, better to focus on tank brigades.
4 - When created in bulk, those that didn't went to the Cav corps can be distributed to Armies that lack Artillery.
I created about 60 of these units.
Let me show you a live performance!
the
ski battalion(14 CV) has more then 1/3 the CV of a
rifle brigade! imagine that, awesome for a 600ish men unit and this guy was in the 30sih experience.
To my mind, the only downside is that recruitment of said SU can only begin in November, thus only 3 or 4 effective turns of training, however the Urals M.D will help in that regard
Only those that reach 24 / 25 experience will move on to STAVKA.
In my opinion, it also has an interesting 2nd ToE, so it shouldn't be forgotten for the second winter.
KEEP IN MIND, these examples are for turn 33, NOT in December.
Time for the High lights of the Southern offensive, all of which happen about
turn 28 - 25-12-1941.
Every hex South of Tula was occupied by a single infantry regiment, so my cavalry supported by tank brigades stormed ahead with hasty attacks non stop.
the Germans use Mountain specialist spread along west of the Orel-Kharkov axis, much to my frustration! much harder to pull off hasty attacks against those bastards.
But, German stubbornness will cost then dearly! their souls are MINEEEEE!
the road to Orel looks open!
, however, unlike the historical Vyazma pocket, it did NOT prevent the fall of Moscow 
