Turns 5 and 6 saw the first Rasputitsa. All offensives ground pretty much to a halt with only little gain. The Kossak raid on the rear Guard unit this turn saw the attacking unit destroyed but forced the axis player to withdraw units to guard the previously undefended flank of the Prypiet Marshes.

The biggest change right now is that the Soviets can rebuild 20 strength factors a turn, which I’ve been putting into 4 full-strength 5-4 infantry armies (which also have ZOC). By now, the Soviets are in a position of already place solid secondary lines of defenses, while the Axis is still at least one turn away from either Leningrad’s or Kiev’s defenses and not even close to Moscow’s outermost defense ring.

It’s pretty clear now that the A is will not reach this scenario’s finish line — the starting position for Case Blue, let alone Moscow. I’m already trying to figure out where and what went wrong but this scenario still has some turns to go. On to the winter turns in which Axis forces distant from city hexes fight as if OOS and fresh Soviet shock armies have arrived