The fabled Siu-King apparently has won on General without the base-rush, at least once, but I think that took a lot of luck, a lot of savegames, a commander with abilities that are no longer available, and German units that I think were much less nerfed against Russian units than they are now. There is a base-rush exploit (an immediate attack on the Russian base from the NW of the base area-watch out for mines) that still works sometimes, but it will end badly if the Russians get tanks in time, or if they cap the left VP and block your reinforcement route from your base. In short, there is no reliable path to a German victory, and since the match is so grossly and obviously unbalanced I assume the devs meant it to be that way-I have no idea why, though. If you hold a majority of the VPs, the Russians will start pumping out any available unit in huge quantities at a time (say, 10 vetted Zis guns), and will soon take any point they want with overwhelming force.

On General level, Faceoff at Rostov is more of a stress test than anything else, since the Russian side is given gigantic advantages in unit quality and quantity, and these advantages are magnified whenever the Russians start losing. Theater of War Mission Pack: Operation Barbarossa Not reliably winnable on General, but a solid challenge at Captain level