defiant russia

The opening moves.

Game turn 1 - The armour from Army Group North (AGN) sets up in 3504 / 3605. Their objective is Riga and the Veliki Luki railtrack. The armour from Army Groupp Centre (AGC) sets ups in 3302 / 3403. Their objective is Minsk. The armour from Army Group South (AGS) sets up in 2601 / 2701. Their target is Kiev. The Rumanian front engage the enemy all along their front.

In the German combat phase, the Russian defenders have 7 of their hits on the Germans negated, due to the house rule. They only inflict 2 hits in total. Overall, the Germans do quite well and the Russians use their part of the turn to fall back and occupy a line that roughly follows a line from Riga, down the dotted line that forms the rear of the Soviet setup zones. This line is still quite strong, in 9 places, 2 units are stacked together, though the top counter in most of those is already on its reduced side.

These are just some replay notes from one of my recent games. In this game, I tested the following house rule. It is intended to ensure a little luck for the Germans in the opening turn - you may feel they need it.

During the German (only) combat phase of game turn 1, the number of hits scored by the Soviet DEFENDING units(s) in EACH battle is reduced by one.

Game turn 2 - The German armour is in three tight groups, so that they can do some leap-frogging through enemy zones of control, if a breakthrough occurs. In the south, the Lvov to Kiev railtrack is the all important route of advance as this opens up supply to sustain the Rumanian Front's operations around Odessa. The Germans make a lot of successful attacks this turn but suffer high casualties in return. In particular, the stack led by Guderian met stiff resistance when the defenders reply with 8 dice and roll 5 sixes. This is a serious setback for the Germans. Both German units (one being armour) were eliminated, though Guderian survives. [at this point, I am glad that I played with the houserule, otherwise German losses to this point would have been seriously high]. By the end of the turn, Axis forces have captured Riga and pushed on a further hex eastwards. AGC are in front of Minsk but AGS has made little headway. This does not help the Rumanian front, which is now in limbo until it's supply situation improves. German losses stand at 3 counters (1 being armour), while the Soviet losses are 16 units, including 6 being out of supply at the moment of removal.

Game turn 3 - Frustrations this turn in the south, a 1 step unit in Kiev survives, despite being surrounded. This will really hold the German advance up. The Russians scratch around to find enough units to draw a decent defensive line, which now runs along a Minsk / Kiev axis.

Game turn 4 - Random weather roll gives mud, this is bad for the Germans at this stage of the game because it deprives them of the much needed exploitation phase. The Germans spend 3 air points to attack the Black Sea Fleet, in the hope of preventing the fleet from bringing supply into Odessa. The air attacks have no effect. Kiev falls in the German part of the turn

Game turn 5 - Random Weather roll gives light mud. This also substantially effects exploitation activity. The Luftwaffe attack the Black Sea Fleet again and this time it works, Odessa is isolated and out of supply. To the south of Kiev, Zhukov gets involved in the fighting around Dnepropetrovsk. The Russians lose several units and Zhukov is killed in the fighting. In the centre, axis forces have moved beyond Minsk and had captured Smolensk. German losses are beginning to tell. A gap is opening in their line around Veliki Luki, as AGN move northwards and captured Talinn in preparartion for an advance to Leningrad. Soviet units counter - attack at Veliki Luki without much success but the distraction will effect the move towards Leningrad.

Game turn 6 - Random weather roll gives mud. Again the Germans are faced with the prospect of bad weather costing them the exploitation phase. The Fins attack Leningrad from the north and are given air support. They roll 13 dice and score 5 sixes - Leningrad falls.

AGN and AGC are pretty much exhausted, they manage to surround and remove the enemy units at Veliki Luki but other than this, they mainly go over to the defense.

AGS take Kharkov and then bloody counter attacks follow in the russian part of the turn but the city remains in German hands. For the first time, partisan activity starts to become effective and an axis unit is reduced to reflect the distraction of policing the rear areas. The Rumanian front has become bogged down at Odessa.

Game turn 7 - December and snow automatically arrives. First snow signals the Soviet winter offensive, which allows their units to score hits on rolls of 5 AND 6. Also, the first shock armies come into action. The soviet player is allowed to convert 4 armies into more powerful shock armies. Needless to say, the shock armies take up positions around Kharkov. The combined effect of rolling those 5's and 6's and the extra strength of the shock troops, secures the re-capture of Kharkov. The Soviet offensive is limited to this one battle as they are simply too weak everywhere else to risk an attack.

End of game - Both sides count up their victory points. this is based upon the capture of key cities, the death of Stalin and the level of casualties inflicted. Out of a total avaliable score of 11 points, the Russians win with 7 points to 4. There are 19 units in the German deadpile and both side have virtually fought each other to a standstill.