Barbarossa Army Group Center, 1941

by

GMT Games

 On July 22nd, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Barbarossa (Red Beard) was the nickname of Frederick I Hohenstaufen the Holy Roman Emperor. He is supposed to be in a cave somewhere in Germany waiting until the country really needs him (much like King Arthur). It seems when we look back, it was an insane move made by a lunatic. However, at the time it wouldn't have looked like a bad decision. The Soviet Union had just finished the Winter war against Finland. This had not gone well at all for the Soviets. It was only because of the tremendous size difference between both countries' armed forces that Finland was finally defeated. The German officers also remembered how in World War I the German forces were able to consistently beat the Russian horde. So, how were they to know that the Soviet Union had made such strides in a little over twenty years.

 The plan to attack the Soviet Union had three German Army Groups attacking at the same time. These would be Army Groups North, Center, and South. The high command's plan always envisioned Army Group Center and its attack straight to Moscow as the biggest and most important part of Operation Barbarossa. It was given two Panzer Groups (while the others only had one). These were Panzer Group II under Guderian, and Panzer Group III under Hoth. The first six months of this titanic struggle saw another struggle in the German High Command over which Army Group was the most important. The High Command really wanted to conquer Moscow. Was this hubris because of Napoleon's capture of the city, or was it based on definable reasons? Hitler was more interested in the Ukraine and Leningrad.

Half of the Scenario 3 Map

 These are the game's components and features:

Four 22x34 inch full-color maps (Series Maps C, D, H, and I)

One 22x8.5 inch map (Map WA) (in 2nd edition only)

1400 multi-colored die-cut ½ inch counters

Rule Book

Play Book

4 - 22" X 17" Double-Sided Scenario Setup Cards (Axis and Soviet)

1 - 8 1/2" X 14 " Soviet Setup Card

1 - 22 X 17" Double-Sided Hard Stock Map (Scenarios 3 and 6)

1 - 8 1/2" X 11" Hard Stock Double-Sided Card (One side is the map for Scenario 1, the other side is the Axis Super-Heavy Artillery Effects Table)

2 - 22" X 17" Hard Stock Double-Sided Player Aids (Identical)

2 - 22" X 17" Hard Stock Double-Sided Player Aids (Identical, with the Expanded Sequence of Play)

1 - 8 1/2" X 11" Hard Stock Turn Record Track (One-sided)

1 - 8 1/2" X 11" Hard Stock Step Reduction Organization Card (One-sided)

2 - 8 1/2" X 11" Hard Stock Player Aids (One-sided, one for each side)

2 - 22" X 17" Hard Stock Double-Sided Player Aids (Numerous tables and charts)

TIME SCALE 2 days per turn

MAP SCALE 5 miles per hex

GROUND UNIT SCALE Division/Regiment

AIR UNIT SCALE 40-80 aircraft per counter

NUMBER OF PLAYERS One to four

 Can you say plethora! I thought I was handed instructions to build a small Ikea house. Yes, the game has tons of players aids and is extremely large all by itself. However, the designer Vance von Borries has been working on the Eastern Front The Russo-German War Series since the late 1990s. The idea is to have the games and maps complement each other so that someone with an unused room in their house could have the entire Eastern Front sprawled out in front of them. You can see above that the map scale is five mile per hex! You might think that this is a game that you might want to wait until you are retired to dive into. This is not the case. The game and scenarios are designed for the grognard to get into the pool slowly without getting overwhelmed. If you look at some of the earlier games in the series right now you would definitely suffer sticker shock. These are:

Typhoon: The Drive on Moscow, 1941

Barbarossa: Kiev to Rostov, 1941

 Fortunately for we grognards, it looks like GMT is reissuing the series. Barbarossa Army Group North and Army Group North are on GMT's P500 right now. Do yourself a favor and pick them up now instead of when they are priced like hen's teeth.

Information from GMT about the game:

"Eight scenarios allow players to vary their level of involvement, complexity, and starting point, from introductory to full campaign

An asymmetrical sequence of play that highlights Axis armored breakthroughs and Soviet difficulties in combined arms warfare. This includes a “non-op” Soviet HQ system to simulate the rigid, yet fragile, Soviet Command structure. Detailed air rules which integrate with land combat and weather rules. Incredibly detailed Order of Battle, including special coverage of artillery, rocket artillery, engineers, bridge units, armored trains, and much more

Modifications to the proven “EFS” include many revised rules and procedures, as well as new Order of Battle information

Extensive bibliography and design/historical notes"

 So, the blurb about the maps is not really accurate. The game actually comes with five laminated paper maps and three hard stock ones of various sizes. The three hard stock are for small learning scenarios. The maps are gorgeous, in a subdued manner. They are uncluttered and you are able to distinguish all the terrain in the hexes. The counters are all 1/2" in size. They have to be, or the game would be twice as large and twice as costly. They are color coded to help the player see which belongs to what units, etc. The counters are not crowded or too busy looking. However, just because of their size I can see some people needing their specs to see the different formation information on them. As mentioned, the Player Aids are made of hard stock. If you took the time to add them up, you will see that there is an astonishing seventeen of them! Every one of them is also in full color. For your first few playthroughs it does take a bit of time to find the exact table or chart you are looking for. Soon you will become an old hand at it. The Rule Book is sixty-four pages long. It has some parts of it in color but is mostly black and white. Each page has two columns of type that is large enough for easy reading. It has both a Table of Contents and an Index. These will both come in handy when you will be starting out with the game. The Playbook is fifty-two pages long. It is printed out the same as the Rulebook. The first twenty-five pages start with some information about setting up the scenarios and the scenarios themselves. Pages twenty-six to thirty-nine are full of play examples. The next four pages are called the Designer's Section. These include the Designer's Historical Notes and Second Edition Notes. Next, we have the Counter Manifests. The last few pages are the Expanded Sequence of Play. All of the components are produced at a level that we have come to expect from GMT.

 These are the map/size needs for the scenarios:

Scenarios One, Three, Five and Six use only one map or the smaller maps.

Scenarios Two and Four use two maps.

Scenario Seven uses three maps.

Scenario Eight uses all of the five larger maps.

 This is a game that is not really meant for the tyro or neophyte entering our wargaming hobby. While it is true that there are smaller and simpler scenarios, you will not get the full panoply of the game until you have played some of the larger ones. It is a large game and has a rule book that is sixty pages long. 

This is a list of some the units:

Ground Unit Type Symbols:

Armored (motorized) units

Armor

Armored anti-tank

Armored engineer

Assault gun

Motorized Units

Reconnaissance (Recon)

Motorcycle infantry

Motorized infantry

Motorized engineer

Motorized anti-aircraft

Motorized anti-tank

Non-Motorized Units

Infantry

Mountain infantry

Airborne infantry

Parachute infantry

Security infantry

Border guard

Ski infantry

Engineer

Cavalry

Base unit

Headquarters

Anti-aircraft

Anti-tank

Special Units

Armored train

Flotilla

Artillery Units

Field artillery

Coast defense artillery

Rocket artillery

Railroad artillery

Super-Heavy Artillery (mobile mode)

(range value is blank)

Super-Heavy Artillery (firing mode) (silhouettes

vary) (includes an attack DRM and range)

 To this list you would need to add Air Units and Ground non-combat Units.

 The game has two types of Supply. They are General Supply and Attack Supply. Supply should always be a part of deeper wargames. A unit is in General Supply if it can show an unbroken supply line of seven hexes, not including the unit itself. This is subject to Zone of Control and terrain in the hexes that make up the supply line. Attack Supply is shown on the map by MSUs (Mobile Supply Unit). These can also be turned into Supply Dumps. Units also have to make a seven hex supply line to Attack Supply (both MSU and Supply Dumps). A unit can attack without Attack Supply, but it will suffer various negative effects during the attack and in losses that might happen when deciding the attack.

 The game also gives the player a large amount of historical detail in the rules. Take for example, the difference in plans on the German side. Most scenarios start with the German player using the OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres) Plan. On game turn sixteen the German player is forced to change it to the Hitler Plan. He can try to change it back to the OKH plan on turns seventeen to nineteen (the player loses two victory points and rolls one die), then checks on the table. If it is moved back to the OKH Plan, it automatically goes back to the Hitler Plan on turn twenty-six. 

 To help you with the record keeping these are also in the game:

Player Aid Markers:

Activated

Ammo Level - S-HA

Axis Logistics Pause

Bridge (completed)

Bridge (under construction)

Bridge Destroyed

Citadel Destroyed

Declared Attack

Declared Attack - Mandated Attack

Do Not Move GT 1 (front)

Do Not Move GT 2 (back)

Emergency Supply

Ferry (completed)

Ferry (under construction)

Fired

Fortified Belt Destroyed

Fortified Line Destroyed

Fuel Shortage

Game Turn

Garrison Hex

Interdiction Level (Axis and Soviet)

Mandated Attacks Not Yet Made

Naval Evacuation [use only with Naval Module]

Number marker

 These are only about half of all of the markers used in the game.

 This is a game for a grognard to sink his teeth into. There is so much put into the game including:

Soviet Armored Trains

NKVD Units

Soviet Militia

Garrisons

Engineers

Bridges

Ferrys

Flotillas

 If you wanted to, a player could get lost in the minutia. However, the original rules were printed in 1998 and have been repeatedly revised over that twenty-five-year span. This is some statements about the series two rules:

"

Without a doubt this area presented the greatest challenge.

The whole rules book has been rewritten, reorganized, added

to and trimmed of excess, and it includes more clarifications.

In our discussions we determined the original rules also needed

clarity and to be more accessible. Accordingly, we made more

use of bullet points, brief examples, and references to related

rules sections. The old rules had too many instances of critical

points scattered over the length of the rules. We prioritized

bringing these points together as opposed to a strict following

of the sequence of play. The Expanded Sequence of Play should

answer most of your questions on sequencing of functions. We

also provide a rules index to facilitate finding a rule. Then here

in the Playbook you can find several comprehensive examples

of play to illustrate important concepts."

 When I first opened the box this phrase popped into my mind "To drool or not to drool, that is the question". My love of large deep wargames goes back probably to 1976 or so. That means that for almost fifty years I have been overawed by games like this. 

As far as the gameplay goes there is not much to say. When it was first released, the series captured a large amount of grognard fans. This is the beginning of the Russo-German War brought forth in all of its glory for wargamers. The German player is placed on a knife edge of two disparate thoughts. The first is how much damage can I inflict on my opponent while using my Panzer Groups to slice through the Soviet lines and surrounding them. The second is how the devil am I supposed to keep my units supplied? In the rules, there is a separate section for Axis Fuel Shortage. The Soviet player must have a mindset of Marshal Zhukov. Throw everything at the invaders including the entire contents of the kitchen and not just the sink. You must always try and save what you can from the pockets that will be created while also building defense lines farther back. Be prepared to see your opponent break through your carefully made defense lines time and time again. The game length is fifty turns, from June 22nd until September 29th. Some players will doubtless say that one side or the other has an easier time of it. Others will look like Sherlock Holmes while examining the rules. My take on the game is just enjoy it for what it is, a grognard's dream come true. Either side can win the campaign or the separate scenarios. I believe Mr. von Borries and GMT have created an excellent and deep game of the first part of the first campaign in the war. Thank you GMT for allowing me to review this game.

Robert

GMT Games:

GMT Games

Barbarossa Army Group Center, 1941:

GMT Games - Barbarossa: Army Group Center, 1941, 2nd Edition

 

 The Last Stand

The Battle for Moscow 1941-42

by

Multi-Man Publishing

 This game allows the players to simulate the last part of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, or the Russian counterattack at the end of the year into the beginning of 1942. Moscow was not seen as an important goal for Operation Barbarossa by Hitler. It was, however, always seen as an integral part of the invasion of the Soviet Union by the OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres) the German Army's High Command. Indeed, Army Group Center under field Marshal von Bock was poised to strike at the city much earlier. However, Hitler had forced Army Group Center to release Guiderian's Second Panzer Group (later upgraded to the Second Panzer Army) to aid in the vast encirclement of 600,000 + Soviet troops around Kiev. But now at the end of September, the OKH had finally dragged Hitler into the idea of an attack on Moscow. This was to be called Operation Typhoon. Three Panzer Armies (Hoth's Third, Hoepner's Fourth, and Guiderian's Second), along with the rest of Army Group Center are to be unleashed toward the city of Moscow. Multi-Man Publishing is putting you in command of either the German or Soviet Armies in this last do or die struggle of 1941. The Germans were able to see the spires of Moscow before being pushed back. Can you do better than von Bock or Zhukov?

 The game was designed by Masahiro Yamazaki, who has also designed 'Stalingrad Pocket', and 'Red Star Rising', among many others. This is what comes with the game:

One 34" x 22" map

560 ½" counters

32 page full color rulebook

2 player aids

 This is the blurb from Multi-Man Publishing about the game:

Solitaire Rating: very good to excellent

Complexity: Medium

Playing Time: 3-10 hours

Scenarios: 3

Game scale: Units are divisions, turns are ten days, and hexes are 17.2 kilometers across.

 This is a straight up old school hex-and-counter wargame that someone in 1978 would be able to sit down and play. It is not card driven, or has blocks for the units. The map is very well done, and has many of the charts and tables needed for play on it. There are no ambiguous hexes, as far as terrain, and rivers are all on their appropriate hex sides. All of the different Soviet defense positions around Moscow are on the map and easy to see. The Rulebook is twenty-seven pages long, with an abbreviated sequence of play on the back cover. The Rulebook is in full color. It is also printed in very large print. This makes it very easy on us old grognard eyes. The rules are setup very well, and are easy to follow. There are three Player's Aid cards. Two are the same and have the CRT and the weather die roll (this is optional) etc. on them. The other Player's Aid card has the setup for Scenario Two on one side (The First Scenario Setup is on the map), and the reinforcements for all three scenarios on the other. The counters are well done and not too 'busy'. You can easily read the information on them. The Soviet counters come with both historical and unknown strength sides. This allows the players to start with the historical Soviet strengths or unknown. While not a work of art, the game is up to the usual standards I have seen in my other MMP products. The cover of the game and Rules Booklet is another story. This is a picture right off a Soviet propaganda picture from the Second World War. 

 The three scenarios are:

The German Attack - This is ten turns long.

The Winter Counteroffensive - This is six turns long.

The extended Game - This is twelve turns long.

 This is an abbreviated sequence of play:

A.) German Player Turn

 1.) Supply Phase

  a.) Weather

  b.) Reinforcement/Supply Placement

  c.) Receive Air Points

  d.) Combat Unit Supply Check

  e.) Isolated Attrition Check

  f.) Supply Unit Removal (Snow Turns)

  g.) Soviet Morale Chit Pull (if applicable)

 2.) Movement Phase

  a.) Unit Movement/Overrun

  b.) Supply Unit Consumption

 3.) Combat Phase

  a.) Resolve Combat

  b.) Remove Supply Units in Expend Mode

 4.) Soviet Reaction Phase (The Soviet Player is allowed to move  and overrun with eligible Mechanized units)

 5.) Exploitation Movement (all German units may move again with one half of their movement allowance)

B.) Soviet Player Turn

 1.) Supply Phase

  a.) Reinforcement HQ and Combat Unit Placement

  b.) Receive Air Points

  c.) Combat Unit Supply Check

  d.) Isolated Attrition Check

  e.) Red Army Morale Check

 2.) Katyusha Gun Phase

  a.) Katyusha movement

  b.) Katyusha Fire

 3.) Movement Phase

 4.) German Reaction Phase (Like the Soviets in his reaction phase, but with different parameters, the German player may conduct reaction move with his eligible Mechanized units).

 5.) Combat Phase

  a.) Ski Unit placement

  b.) Resolve Attacks

 6.) Exploitation Movement (identical to the German Phase)

 You can see by the above picture that both sides receive air points, and there are special rules for the Soviet Katyusha rocket weapons (Stalin's organs). As the German player, you have to strike hard and fast to have any chance of gaining victory. The German player is not going to be able to make up lost time and space in the latter part of the game. The Soviet player has to be ready to have his lines torn open again and again by the German Player. He then must throw everything available to try and stem the German tide, and pray for winter. The game can be played with the historical weather for each turn, or optionally by deciding the weather by a die roll before each turn. This makes a big difference in the game. If the German player is lucky on his die rolls the game is much easier because some of the various modifiers for Rain, Snow, or Frozen weather conditions will not hamper him. Supply for both sides is dealt with entirely differently. A German unit is in supply if it is eight hexes from a friendly map edge. Farther than that, it depends totally on its parent unit's German Supply Unit. For example, a Fourth Panzer Army unit cannot use a Supply Unit from the Second Panzer Army. This is an easy elegant way to show how tenuous the German supply lines became during the battle. The Soviet Units have to be five hexes from a friendly map edge, or within five, (or four for mechanized), hexes of a Headquarters Unit that has an unbroken line to a friendly edge. The German player can also use the Supply Unit to help with odds shifts in two combat situations. However, once he has done that he loses the Supply Unit and must build it up again. 

The Defenses Around Moscow

 The game does a great job at giving the German player the idea that it is now or never. He must bust through the line and get going to get to Moscow before his tank's oil freezes. He also must face what seems like a zombie apocalypse of Soviet Units. Time and time again, he must break through Soviets' defensive lines. The Soviet player is also faced with deja vu. He must carefully construct defensive lines one turn to see them torn to ribbons by the German Units the next. As the Soviet player you must get ahold of the idea of sacrificing units. You must play to save the units that you can to fight again, whilst also knowing which ones to use as speed bumps against the German advance. I believe the game puts both players in their historic commanders seats. As the German you get to see how easy with clear weather and just a month earlier it could have gone. Playing as the Soviet the player can visualize just how close the Soviets came to losing this battle. When the Soviet counterattacks kick in, both players get to change their respective strategic roles. The German player has to try and hang on by the skin of his teeth while the Soviet gets to try and wipe him out. The only thing you can ask for in a wargame is that it replicates history for the players, without being ugly as hell. Judging by those criteria the game definitely passes muster. Thank you Multi-man Publishing for allowing me to review this very good game. 

Robert

Multi-man Publishing:

https://www.multimanpublishing.com/

Last Stand: The Battle for Moscow 1941-42:

https://www.multimanpublishing.com/Products/tabid/58/ProductID/96/Default.aspx