The end of the campaign was already in sight after the last two turns. There was little to no progress in either AG. There are some harsh penalties for Axis units fighting in Snow and away from cities (they are treated as OOS and use a worse CRT). Although a few attacks were made at 3:1 odds, die rolls resulted often in NE — no effect results.

Soviet counter-attacks were successful in the center and even succeeded in encircling some Armies. Stavka HQ plus its reserve was able to break through in the center:

In the end, I counted 20VP for the Axis, way short of the 30VPs required for a victory (and just a paltry 6VP made from the starting positions).

I’ll gather my thoughts on the system in another post but here are the observations of this game:

AG North was making steady progress and was the closest to the historical result as they advanced continuously. AG Center started well but ran into problems with terrain. There are lots of woods on the way and the armored units of 2nd and 3rd Pz Army might have been better used further in the south. Two big encirclements were initially achieved early but lucky chit draws allowed the Soviets to withdraw most of their troops without issue. This was the most force-on-force push-and-shove theater. I’m not sure how to do better next time though — the area of operations feels cramped on all sides.

Stavka HQ was able to breach the Axis line in later Winter in the center. Similarly, the Pripyat Marshes were No-Go zones for the Axis which resulted in two Soviet cavalry raids on the supply depots and lines.

The South saw the wholesale destruction of almost all Axis allied forces. Missing the Odessa-front special activation rule completely resulted in zero progress towards Odessa (the Romanian units are maybe 2 hexes from their starting line). I’m also still not sure whether the Soviet units in the Carpathian mountains should last that look. While they’re OOS, they’re not isolated which means they don’t get removed from play.

What becomes apparent at this point in time is that the game is (already) over for the Axis. The Soviets get a minimum of 25 strength points to rebuild this turn as no industrial center was captured yet. This means that every turn five 5-2 Soviet armies are built in addition to the normal reinforcements. The Axis, on the other hand, get little to no reinforcements or replacement points.

I’ll play a couple more turns but the writing is already on the wall for the Axis side.

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

Turn 3 and 4 (August and September ’41) of the Barbarossa play through. The game is still chugging along but progress is getting slower and harder to attain for the Germans. And we haven’t even encountered mud yet.

Rule questions and confusions

I keep tripping over rules such as Pz Army activation and tracing supply. Overall, the rules are still straight-forward but you have to read them carefully 😉 As I’m playing solitaire I fix smaller rule mistakes immediately but chalk up bigger ones as ‘friction’ or ‘fog of war’.

For example, both Soviet and German have different permissible Line-of-Supply lengths; that is the distance from the unit to a supply source. Supply sources are any railway hexes connected to the eastern map edge for the Soviets. Easy enough. However, for the Axis, it’s worded in a very round-about way. Supply sources can be either supply depots, cities, Pz Army HQs but then also railway hexes? I’m still a bit confused by what counts as valid supply line and what not. The way I’m playing now is that cities, depots and Pz HQs are supply sources with supply to them traced along railway lines.

The turns

Turn three was mostly used to straighten out the lines. Soviets got massive amounts of reinforcements and while the Axis side still had their attack bonuses this turn it, they ended up bloodying their nose against the determined Soviet defenses in key towns (Minsk and Vinnitsa). Unstoppable force vs immovable object.

The Axis lost their attack bonuses on turn four. finally saw some progress in the key towns of Minsk and Vinnetsa. Although full air support was used when available, many attacks have been made at lowish odds (1:1 and 2:1) due to the increased Soviet strength combined with defense bonuses. Both towns were taken with the help of lucky die rolls in the end.

A highlight of this turn was certainly the bold Kossak raid out of the Pripyet Marshes, displacing the supply depot and cutting the supply line to the 1st and 2nd Pz Armies. All Axis units are still in supply, as the logistics chit was drawn previously. However, that action will tie down some rear guard troops.

Another result of the supply rules and lack of ZOCs are the (for the last 3 turns) OOS supply Soviet troops on the Hungarian border. Although OOS, they are not isolated, as a LOC of any length can still be drawn to the eastern map border. These troops have been slowly making their way to the east during counter attack movement rounds. Let’s see if a breakthrough is possible next round.

Looking at the map made me realize how far the Axis still has to go to hit the Scenario 2: Case Blue starting line. Coming up will be the first two mud turns followed by the Soviet counter attack during the winter turns.