Slitherine

Turn 39. September 30, 1941

The problem with not taking Rostov is that you are giving your opponent an opportunity to make a counter-attack during winter. You will have to withdraw behind the Dnieper River quickly, as Kharkov, Stalino etc. will be virtually indefensible. That's why I think that going for Crimea instead of Rostov was a mistake.

Turn 40. October 20, 1941

Soviet can bring or build significant forces in Crimea

It's relatively easy to block the Soviets there and the number of hexes is very limited. Also, when Crimea is cut off from the rest of the SU, can you rail units there? Anyway, I've never faced a dangerous attack from that direction. In many games, I ignore Crimea entirely.

Turn 43. December 19, 1941

Turn 44. January 8, 1942

Turn 45. January 28, 1942

As expected, a strong Soviet attack in the South. I told you - by not taking Rostov you were asking for trouble. It's best to withdraw behind the Dnieper during winter in such case. IMO the Axis should avoid exposed positions during the winter counter-offensive in order to limit casualties. You can lose some cities and it's not a big deal, but losing units in 1941 is bad.

Turn 46. February 17, 1942

Turn 47. March 9, 1942

Turn 48. March 29, 1942

The Soviets are clearly preparing their defence lines for 1942 spring offensive. Anyway, you should decide what you want to do soon.

It may be already too late to take Leningrad, seeing as you have no heavies in Finland.

I see only 5 Axis ARMs and they are not concentrated in one place. That's not good - with 5 ARMs only and no SS ARMs or MECHs, you need to go for maximum force concentration. Pick 1 major objective and go for it. Don't be too focused on cities, though. Destroying units is more important. Even when you take Stalingrad, for example, that's only 6 PPs*war effort per turn lost for the Soviets, so with 140% war effort that's ~58 PPs in 7 turns. You don't gain that much from the city itself, either - 3 PPs*war effort, and the city will be at low PP level for several turns... On the other hand, ONE destroyed MECH is 55 PPs and ONE destroyed ARM is 85 PPs.

Turn 49. April 18, 1942

Turn 50. May 8, 1942

Turn 51. May 28, 1942