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I'm playing the Germans and now it's Winter of 41 and all my divisions are being beaten back and shattered. I can't seem to throw up any sort of defense, all my units throw in like 1/10th of their strength in the battle, even though I did nothing for 2 consecutive rain turns, now it's blizzard... and the Russians are rolling over my forces and pushing me back and kesselschlacting my ass... What do I do? Up until now I've done everything right, very low losses in troops and had high readiness...

Did you capture Leningrad or Moscow or both?
Did you inflict high losses to the russians in the summer?
Capture Leningrad and Moscow as soon as possible, then stop and dig in. (Leningrad in September, Moscow in October or November)
Bomb HQs (interdict) and high value units. Kill as many tanks as possible.

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No I didn't capture either Moscow or Leningrad. The Finns were bloody useless, and there were too many new Armies in my way when I was about 10 hexes away from Moscow. But yeah, I destroyed more than 6000 enemy aircraft in the very first week and shattered numerous enemy armies in the first month. Then the blizzard hits and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. Anyway I can avoid this or is there anyway to salvage this?

Originally posted by Oberst_Streiger:
No I didn't capture either Moscow or Leningrad. The Finns were bloody useless, and there were too many new Armies in my way when I was about 10 hexes away from Moscow. But yeah, I destroyed more than 6000 enemy aircraft in the very first week and shattered numerous enemy armies in the first month. Then the blizzard hits and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. Anyway I can avoid this or is there anyway to salvage this?

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And people say that WiR isn't historically correct

It is important that you let many units surrender not only shatter them, only if necessary.
If units shatter a part of the equipment and men are returned to the pool depending on the readiness. If a unit surrenders, everything is lost.
Try if you can capture Leningrad first. Use the 40th Pz Corps as help.
The aim of the 41 campaign is the destruction of the factories in Leningrad and Moscow. Due to game limitations, once factories are destroyed they will never appear again. Therefore it is not necessaryly important to hold Leningrad and Moscow in 41, but the destruction of the factories is.
After the fall of Leningrad concentrate all your efforts to capture Moscow. When you survive the winter in relative good shape, you will win in 42.
Remember: If you capture Leningrad, there is no need to go more east there. Only slight corretions of the frontline, then dig in and go for Moscow.
Ok, it is not as easy as it is read here, but possible. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

Cut off all the main rail-lines to Leningrad and laugh as they desperately try to break out of the pocket, ramming severely understrength and unready units against your units which are already entrenching... Then force them to surrender at a leisurely pace. Works like a charm most of the time.

Hehe, yes. The finns are a bit useless if you don't know how to employ them. My bet: post them at the very east part of the replacement level 5 line, try to attract the soviets and let them n run into your troops. not that it would change the war but it adds to the soviet lossees a bit. Note that everywhere but in Finland you get blitzkrieg supply in the very first weeks of the game, that means max supply level of a hex is 8, not 5. it also raises the level of supply in a rail hex needed for repair of damaged rail. Thus during the blitzkrieg phase the finns get no rail conversion. I strongly urge you not to do a serious push before that time. They would run low of supply and be beaten to hell. Once supply has caught up the finns show they are valuabel fighters. Historic gameplay would require you not to use them to attack leningrad. Most gamers agree though that you can use the finn korps a bit south of leningrad once the Germans have seized it. You will really notice their value in the "blizzard" turns where they are the only units that do not suffer as hard as others. try to get defensible positions before the winter ( bushes and mountains near own rail lines) and entrench ( stay there for a while) before the hard action takes place. do no attacks in winter other than local drives to re-gain an important position or "static" attacks. static means the unit attacks but does not move. you should use attacks really rarely because supply is bad and attacks consume both manpower and supplies [readiness]