Originally Posted by Doppleganger

IMO Barbarossa would have worked best as a 2 season campaign, with the schwerpunkt though through Army Group South. I don't have enough time to expand on this atm but the idea would be to reach and hold the Dneiper River and hold that general defensive line until spring 1942. What would happen then would depend obviously on the actual results of the first season. The Red Army would have to be caught off guard as they were historically, which is why 'Case Blau', the German codename for the 1942 summer offensive, went initially so well.

The whole point of a 2 season campaign is twofold:

1) To allow the proper refit, recycle and resupply of German front line formations, allowing amongst other things winter clothing to reach the front line troops in good time for winter.

2) To attack in the summer which maximizes German mobility and tactical strength and defend in the winter where Soviet strength is at its greatest.