Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

The Soviets are getting powerful in late July - early August. The Axis player must pick areas for the four panzer groups to attack at this time. The Soviets then go into their 41 Reorg and are weakened quickly which allows the Axis to develop their panzer attacks before mud hits. By the time mud ends, the Soviets have finished their reorg and are now lucky to have divisions with CV > 1. The snow turns are now important for the Axis to do their final 41 push to get as much territory as possible. The mild winter allows the Soviets to push back some of the Axis advances in December and make a bit of headway in January but the Axis are able to start counter attacking or holding in January and even start some limited push backs in February and March. Which sets up the 42 season where it seems to be pretty competitive these days.

The Soviets have to use their period of 41 strength wisely. This is the true opportunity in 41 for producing Guards units - but it only works if the Soviet player is aware of this opportunity and does it wisely (i.e. attack and then remove the successful divisions from the front before they get counter smacked down by the Axis at the end of the offensive).

I strongly suggest playing a few games of Barbarossa before committing to a campaign game because 41 has been the largest change since you were playing last. The Axis cannot continue to just plunge ahead anymore, they have to stop and recover before continuing on when the Soviets become weak. If the Soviet player does not do some counter offensives in this time period, they will not see units become Guards very easily.

The above is just emphasized even more in version 1.8.