Ring of Fire (1994)

Covers the climactic Fourth Battle for Kharkov in August 1943. The Russians are on the offensive, driving against dug-in German forces to try to take as much of the map as possible and to exit forces in a breakthrough, while the Germans must race fire brigades of panzers and infantry to plug the holes in their lines and cut off the Russian advances.

Turns are one day apiece, units are division/brigade/regiments, map scale is 2km to the hex and there are two scenarios (a short 4-turn one and a longer 14-turn campaign scenario).

Perhaps the most noteworthy feature are the tank combat rules, which allow adjacent armored forces to trade fire before the more traditional odds-based CRT combat phase. This favors the Germans, provided that the Russians do not bring too much armor against them at once.

The other key feature are the reserve rules, which allow a player to both react to the opponent's attacks and to exploit holes punched by his units. Airpower can be used to interdict reserves - and doing so can be important to winning the game.

Republished in Command Magazine Japan #14 in 1997, and also in Separate Volume #18 of Command Magazine Japan.