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.