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.