This design by Tetsuya Nakamura (A Victory Lost, Fire in the Sky) is a simpler Turning Point: Stalingrad, using essentially the same system, but with less counters and fewer zones.

The cover appropriately shows the Barmaley fountain as buildings behind it are in flames, in fact the picture here (from Wikipedia):



What is in the box



Opening the box, you see two red dice (a pro-Savyet bias, finally? :-) ), a rule book and a sealed deck of 55 cards (one is a proof of purchase).



The rule book is thin, 8 pages WITH illustrations and examples. Lifting it up, we see a single counter sheet, with counters which are larger than usual, 176 counters in all with 25 being markers, so 151 being combat units.



The map is divided into two halves, as it must rest lengthwise, representing as in TP:S, the west bank of the Volga on one side.

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Broadly speaking

The game is played in six turns, which, I suspected upon receiving it, is why MMP states that it is playable in 2-3 hours. One essential difference between this game and previous games of this system is that the cards give players choices, a novelty for this system that was in the past simply a Ugo-Igo in alternating impulses.

I played it twice at our recent game day. Players bid for the number of +3 zones the Savyet will hold at the end of the game. The player who bids the highest plays the Savyet. The first time, the Savyet won with exactly the bid that was made (3 zones). The second time, the German player won as the bid of three zones was not met.

How it went

The first game was a learning experience for myself and Cory, but we got at least 90% of the rules right. I think we fudged on the terrain protection for groups that had fired. At any rate, I saw early on that the Savyet should play a cunning game of withdrawal and consolidation, so other than Mamayev Kurgan (the holding of which gives the player an extra card...four is a nice thing on turn one), I considered all +1 and +2 areas to be expendable, but at a cost.

One way to maximize that cost is to spread out the 0 attack value units as much as possible, as they are excellent cannon fodder. Also use cards whenever possible although the Russian Ammo Shortage (odd name as not everybody on the Savyet side were actually Russian [1]) and the Sniper cards the German holds will quite often frustrate the best laid plans.

As the game advances, the defensive fire cards are more important to the Savyet player, providing a definite advantage as he can often mass more fire strength than the German player by moving around units arriving from the east shore of the Volga. The fact that they remain fresh (can fire two or even three times) is an immense help in achieving the objectives.

Dead Savyet units were piling up early on, but pretty soon (after turn 3), German units started joining them in greater numbers. I didn't do the math, but it was definitely a close run thing. Only on the last turn did Cory realize he wasn't going to make it. I must say that the Chuikov card saved my bacon, as it were, giving me four fresh full strength units in a crucial area that i might have lost otherwise.

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The second game, I stepped in for Andrew playing against Jack, around the end of turn 3. Andrew had been playing cautiously and probably had not tried to parcel out his losses.

This one the Savyet lost, but I could see the situation was fairly desperate as the units were fairly thinned out already. Still, even with such a handicap, it wasn't until turn 6 that the outcome was definitely written in stone.

Overall

A great little game from MMP. The simpler system really works well and the cards add a choice of actions even in the face of desperation. It is possible to pull a rabbit out of a hat with this one. Yes, there is a certain amount of luck, but given that there are only 27 cards to a side, the options are fairly limited, and the difference between the card sets reflects the differences between the combatants in the actual struggle to save the Motherland from the fascist hordes.

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[1] Zhukov wrote in his memoirs: "That was a long-awaited-for victory not only for the army but also for the whole of the Soviet people. Loyal sons of Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan and Central Asia displayed staunchness and heroism, they are worthy of their undying glory."