Well, first I feel the last plan is the best. Creating a small pocket to trap the Northern German Group sounds like a good idea and may work with the proper objectives set and if the AIs are given the units they want. It seems small enough to be doable and also the small distances mean it MIGHT be done fast enough to trap them before the Germans withdraw. AIs are bad at setting traps but good at sensing them.
Interesting, there was the suggestion of a straight dash for Königsberg, but the last plan definitely has more potential. 2ya Tankovaya Armiya is closing in on the front. I've re-estimated the time of arrival to 6-10 days from now. 11 Mot Armiya is lagging behind a bit, but they can always be thrown into the fight a bit later to plug back up the tanks.
Hopefully the Artificial Imbicility doesn't try too hard to live up to its name; I would much rather you take over than let it flush a good position down the toilet.
Well... I guess we'll see. There have been some questionable choices by the AI, but nothing particularly outrageous yet. (5 days in)
The first plan seems TOO big and the second one might allow them to cut YOU off and trap your units against the coast.
We do have transport ships, but only one Flotilla in the Baltic, withdrawing pocketed troops by sea will be near-impossible. If it's anything more than a couple Divisions.
As to the front, I think a more defensive mode is the way to go as Bullfilter suggested. It worked pretty well at Kursk - the best comp to the current situation given the Red Army is prepared and not surprised.
The defending isn't going too badly, if you take into account the disparity in firepower and experience. It's definitely not a series of big German breakthroughs... not yet anyway...
But, second, I do wonder where the German Air Force is? That's kind of scary.
Maybe the RAF /USAAF have been helpful lately?
I suspect that the Luftwaffe's fighter arm has it's hands full with the RAF, which is buoyed by a steady stream of lend-lease planes from the US. The RAF keeps flying deep into German Air space (more on that in the next 10-day report), Not only the industrial heartland is targeted, but there are also incursions into German-held Yugoslavia. I guess the choice is between protecting resources and Industry, or protecting their troops on the Eastern Front... The Luftwaffe did appear a few times in the first 5 days of the war (see next update and the 1st VVS report of the war), but not in force over the front, not yet anyway. That's the thing, even if the Japanese attack, in the air, we can concentrate the vast majority of our forces on the German front, the Germans don't have the same luxury, and that's a good thing...
The next updates will be on operations 'Thor' and 'Poseidon'. I don't know if I'll be able to finish either of them before I go on another, 4-day, holiday to the Ardennes.