Thread: Hopefully Helpful Notes on Play

apurcell — 2005-03-03T22:04:14+00:00

I was motivated to write this article, partly because I'm captivated by this game, and partly because there is still not much written that I can find. I must also confess to not yet having played EATG or DAKII despite owning them. For all I know, I'll like them even better.

I may never be able to afford the time to play this game over the board with anybody, but I am fortunate enough to have a household where I can leave the game set up, in safety, for weeks at a time. Although the three small maps overlap the end of my table by about two inches, I decided to start at the beginning and solitaire for as long as I could. The following paragraphs interleave observations about the game GB II, the game system (OCS), general strategy, and tactics. My goal is both to help and to learn from other players. This article should be read as a work in progress. This article will content itself with a consideration of the first three turns of a solitaire game. I have actually solitaired considerably beyond that point, but found that my comments were increasingly reflecting the actual situation on the map. The last thing I want to do is spoil a less experienced player's discovery of the tactical pleasures of the game or bias that player towards my limited sense of what constitutes good strategy for either side!

I started by playing the small scenarios. These helped me gain fluency in the game system and to choreograph opening moves, effective tactics, the game logistics, and to gain a sense of just how scary an advancing panzer army really is. But something was missing. At some point the vacuum to the north or to the south where the rest of the map should have been begins to distort what happens on the playing surface.

So I set up the whole thing. Other reviewers have noted how long this takes. I've tried to find a way of sorting the pieces for storage which accelerates this process (mostly resulting in the game taking nearly as long to dismantle as it does to set up) with some success. The last time I set up the whole game, it took me about three hours.

My primary historical interest is the Typhoon campaign of 1941. Earlier efforts with the original Guderian's Blitzkrieg edition had convinced me that The Gamers were on the right track for creating a great simulation of this pivotal campaign. So there I was with hundreds of kilometers of Eastern Front and two gigantic armies to manage.

Preparation: Mostly everything is nailed down. The interesting exceptions are: the placement of the airforces for both sides, a nice chunk of supply for the Soviets (along with some RR arty and a Katy), and a sprinkling of non-divisionals for the Germans. In a multiperson game, the Germans would not know the placement of the Soviet supply, but they can probably assume that these will be deployed to sustain pockets astride railroad lines or roads. The Germans get to see something of the Soviet airforce deployment before making their own decisions regarding airforce placement. One German motorized division has a choice of where it starts (within a one-hex radius of a target hex.)

The Russians have a number of minor airbases near the front line which are easily overrun in the early hellbent for leather panzer drives. They also have a number of decent (level two) airbases a bit further back which are a bit safer. The bulk of the Russian fighter force is constrained to defend the capital from bases near Moscow. What to do? It seems a shame to hide the whole airforce all the way back. I've found myself choosing to place the unconstrained Russian fighters in somewhat forward bases, while keeping the bombers a bit farther back.

I've found that even though some of these fighters get overrun or suppressed by German fighter power, that this provides just a little bit of extra friction for the German offensive. The Germans need to remember to deal with the fighter bases at a time not necessarily of their ideal choosing, or risk awkward interceptions or bad flak results. With a little luck, the Soviet first turn will begin with fewer "blue meanies" to restrict Red Army sky control. You also have to get pretty unlucky to take serious losses. With the exception of the I-16 fighters (which cannot be rebuilt) the losses you do take are often made good relatively quickly on the replacement die roll.

The German airforce will usually be configured to maximize the number of short-range hip-shoot sorties which can be done from the forward airbases. Further back, it seems wise to place the bulk of the fighters and the longer range bomber/transports. This will allow: massed fighter sorties against forward Soviet fighter bases (if necessary) and massed longer range tactical bombing if some targets fail to succumb to hip shoots.

So the three hour setup is now complete! The German attack is about to begin. A few guidelines which may help the German player lay the groundwork for a sustainable offensive through the early turns:

Supply
1)Think very carefully where to place your 5 truck or 5 wagon extender concentrations. The exact hexes of placement should be kept obscure from the Soviets through deception.
2)The extenders become the focus for the placement of forward headquarters units. Forward HQ units should be placed in a way which doesn't make the exact location of the extender too obvious.
3)Maximize the amount of supply in the forward dumps. This will stand you in good stead when the weather starts to change. Resist the temptation to put these dumps in the same hex as the extenders. It makes the location easier for the Soviets to spot and it makes for a juicier strategic bombing target.
4)Try to preserve as many loaded organic trucks as possible. This will enable the German to take advantage of opportunities to perform deep operations. When an organic truck expends its supply, it should immediately return to base to queue up for a refill.
5)Avoid the temptation to disperse multiunit divisions. The added expense in trace supply is almost never worth it. A sudden change in the weather can make it very difficult to coordinate the efforts of a suddenly sluggish set of units. 6)Carefully evaluate the situation before moving units beyond the range of the extenders. A back to back pair of Soviet turns or an unexpected offensive could put those units in a world of pain AND prove costly in terms of on map supply expenditure. However, if those units were in possession of a VP city with an airbase...
7)If there is a good opportunity to capture Soviet supply, do it. A smart Soviet player will not give you too many chances to do this after turn 1.
8)If you really need to crush a Soviet pocket, do not allow any forest hexes to the defenders. For pockets which really don't impair your offensive, let the Soviets hand over Tree Bark Soup tokens. You'll need them in the dead of Winter...
9)Avoid expending supplies to attack hopelessly pocketed Soviets unless you absolutely need to clear a road or a railway. These pockets will wither on the vine, but some of them will take an annoyingly long time!

Mode
1)There is nearly no downside to starting most German units in Movement Mode. This allows them to transition to Fast Reserve, Strategic, or Combat Mode as the need arises on the first turn. Remember that only one such voluntary mode change is permitted each unit per movement phase. A unit starting in Combat mode would be unable to transition to Strategic Move Mode and would only be able to transition into slow reserve. The one clear exception to this is when Reserve Mode is being used to delay the movement of a unit beyond the supply net until after the supply phase and when that unit is going to need its full combat strength in its ending position.
2)The ability of infantry divisions to breakdown and to reabsorb regiments in multiple modes gives some flexibility. I've interpreted this rule to mean that an absorbing combat mode division can integrate even strategic movement mode regiments. The clear exception is DG regiments: The rules explicitly state that absorption of a DG mode unit makes the parent DG as well.

Air Power
1)Keep elements of the airforce in forward bases. Short range tactical bombers for hipshoots are nice, but fighter cover is essential lest you find your prize panzers DG'ed. This forces the Soviets to do their best to sweep your fighters, something they are not always lucky enough to do.
2)Make full use of the ability of German planes to sortie during all German movement phases.
3)Use your long range tactical/transport to pump just a little more supply forward, weather permitting.
4)If you have extra tactical bombers, consider using them to blunt the attacking strength of big Soviet stacks. DG'ed units have their movement and combat strengths halved, plus they cannot overrun.
5)This really applies to both players. Make sure that you leave enough Supply available so that next turn you can refit your inactive planes. Try to ensure that you won't be left with more inactive planes at a particular base than can be refit. I typically hold back a small amount of rail capacity until the end of the movement phase so that I can redistribute supply as needed to the bases. I have chosen to interpret the rule around refitting to mean that the supply used must be in throw or draw range of the base being refitted.

Game Mechanics
1)Bear in mind that even in the early game, back to back Soviet moves can make life very unpleasant for overly exposed German formations. As the game progresses, this danger becomes more acute. Plan either to use an early first turn choice to force the Soviets to take a first player turn, or to put the Soviets in an uncomfortable enough tactical position that they succumb to the temptation to take a first player turn themselves.
2)Your use of the Railroad Construction battalions is crucial to your success. Try to think at least two turns ahead. Place HQ units ahead of railroad conversion so that they can be in combat mode and therefore provide railhead service. If you see an opportunity to do so, don't forget that an RR Bn has a choice of moving by rail and then moving its full allowance (rather than converting rail hexes) in one movement phase. You can use this to set up a "double" construction turn where 10 consecutive rail hexes are converted in the next turn!
3)These remarks refer to the northern two thirds of the map. Think carefully before crossing the Hex Row 40 tripwire! This is not so much a problem on turn 1 as you would have to contrive to get that deep into Soviet territory. Beginning with turn 2 there will be temptations. If you see a clear chance to, say, race into Moscow in sufficient force to cripple the Soviet war effort, by all means - do it! It might even be worth doing it if you were able to take a couple of what should have been Soviet strong points without serious difficulty. But you would risk enabling the Soviet to withdraw strong forces from the far South and far North to more rapidly build up the defenses around Moscow.
4)The Germans usually receive a disappointing quantity of replacement troops. I find that I tend to hoard them. My rationale is that once the Germans start taking losses from frostbite and frozen engines that at least there will be hope of creating a big enough finger to stick in the dike. Priority should probably be given to rebuilding formations from mobile divisions or particularly strong non-divisionals.
5)The Germans have a profusion of artillery units in this game. They can't often afford to fire them due to supply shortages. What to do with them? I've found them to be very useful for "lining" routes and concealing the stuff with which they're stacked. The rules only call for disclosing the presence of an attack capable unit in the stack when there is an enemy attack capable unit adjacent.

German Turn 1 Play: The Germans get all or part of four motorized/armored divisions as reinforcements. I typically bring the balance of the 10th and 25th motorized divisions onto the South map (because elements of those divisions are already present there) while bringing the other two to Smolensk on the center map.

In deference to the fact that Guderian got started several days before the rest of his peers, I usually start on the South map. Because German units on the South map get a boost to their mobility for each movement phase in the first player turn, the power of both strategic and reserve modes is magnified. The task for the Germans in the South on turn one is to take Orel and Bryansk while providing flanking cover against the powerful Soviet Cavalry formations in the far south. This is doable, but frequently requires the expenditure of nearly all the resources at the German's disposal. The Germans have to keep their eye on the prize of Bryansk. I've found that with careful play, Bryansk usually falls on the first turn. If Bryansk does NOT fall on the first turn, the Soviets can make the chore of taking it quite tedious for the Germans. This is by no means fatal to the German plans, just inconvenient: Bryansk's status as a transportation hub and its donation of a train to the German cause are the benefits of a satisfying coup.

On the center map, the first turn goals are to create schwerpunkts along secondary roads and thrust most of the motorized formations and non-divisionals into the rear of the Soviet positions. One important decision is how close the siege of encircled Soviets should be.

I've experimented with the creation of grand pockets where substantial Soviet forces are nowhere near any Germans, but have found that these can prove to be more dangerous to the Germans (because the Soviets can move aggressively to disrupt German supply lines and because such an encirclement will be quite porous - allowing the Soviets to sneak supplies into the pocket.) Instead, I've found that a tighter envelopment of individual Soviet positions yields good results. Yes, an individual subpocket may get lucky and break through a German line, but in the process it expends any supply which might have been present in the pocket and probably hastens the surrender of the subpocket. Another argument in favor of a closer siege is the ability to deny forest hexes and therefore treebark soup to the defenders.

Whether or not you choose to create grand pockets or to slice the Russian position into smaller, more closely hemmed in subpockets, you really do need to play close attention to sealing off entry/exit routes. Nothing is more annoying to the Germans in the early going than an unexpected disruption of an important supply line or the import of substantial quantities of life-sustaining SPs to a critical roadblock.

At the end of the first turn in the center, the Germans should expect to have moved virtually all of their mobile divisions to forward positions. Reserve mode is less powerful on turn one in the center because the units cannot move. However, it is crucial because in the exploitation phase, the units can move beyond the limits of the trace supply net. The reserve units should seize this opportunity to flood through the schwerpunkts and to move to the limit of their abilities. Be careful to set up roadblocks on important escape routes and at rail junctions. At times, the swarm of advancing Germans looks like a big traffic jam along the secondary roads and railroads!

In the North, especially near Lake Ilmen, the Germans should expect to be on the defensive. Since the German player should strive not to expend SPs in the North except when absolutely necessary, the play here will be to ensure that the Soviets don't have an easy time outflanking and enveloping German positions. I typically do not devote much air force to the North unless I see a scary concentration of Soviet air there, and then I limit it to fighter cover. In the Southern part of the Northern map, the early goal is to secure Nelidovo and especially Rzhev. The Soviets can put up a stout defense of Rzhev, but every unit and SP they send there is one which is not being sent to Tula or Kaluga. In any case, the Germans are only at Rzhev's distant approaches by the end of turn 1.

What of the Soviets? During the German player turn of turn 1, there is not much they can do. During setup, they will have hidden 10 SPs amongst troops soon to be pocketed. They will have placed fighters in positions which compel the Germans to divert just a smidgeon of their mighty forces. And they will have watched in horror as hole after hole is opened up in their lines, SPs and HQ units are captured and slaughtered, airbases overrun, and important VP positions seized.

During the Soviet Reaction phase of Turn 1, they may have seen fit to place a handful of Workers Alert Brigades in important blocking positions. This turns out to be useful because a Workers Alert Brigade can erect level 1 hedgehogs. But they won't have any reserve mode units until after they receive their first six markers during their first turn reinforcement phase. As the Soviets survey the devastation after the German turn is over here are some of the things they should ponder:

Supply
1)Your most important subpockets should be set to ride out the initial good weather turns by relying on the clever placement of those 10 SPs. You can keep the Germans guessing about how those 10 SPs were allocated - at least for a turn or two.
2)Expect to spend significant numbers of SPs building hedgehogs. I typically confine my initial hedgehog construction to VP cities and towns.
3)Use all available transport to move SPs into forward roadblocks. But don't leave those transports anywhere in which they can be easily captured by the Germans!
4)Remember that Tree Bark Soup can't preserve units with track or truck movement. If you can, evacuate these units from the forward areas before the pockets close.
5)Inside of pockets, think long and hard before you try to break out. At best, you will create a headache for the Germans, but in so doing, you will expend supply, take losses yourself, and hasten the collapse of the pocket. At worst, you will not even dent the Germans due to the differential in unit quality levels. Especially if the pocket blocks a railroad route, hunker down for the longest possible haul. The German will be unable to sustain an offensive without converted railroads - especially once the weather begins to turn muddy.
6)Outside of the pockets, look for any opportunity to raid German supply lines. A successful strike could cripple an entire Panzer Group's offensive!

Mode
1)Unlike the Germans, the Soviets should be careful about setting up their units in Movement mode, especially if those units are any where near the front. The lamentable feature of Soviet tank brigades is that their unit quality suffers a step down in movement mode. For units which are clearly too far behind the lines to be assaulted, Movement mode is a good choice. This allows you to more usefully deploy those reserve mode counters which you receive as reinforcements.
2)Be very careful about placing units in Strategic Movement Mode unless you are quite sure that they are out of German reach.

Airforce
1)You start with a huge constraint: The bulk of your fighters are tied down defending the capital. They are not going to see much action until the actual battle for Moscow! But they are useful for making it unpalatable for the Germans to contemplate anything like strategic bombing near the city. This is a good place to base your longer range bombers. They can reach anywhere on the map, but are protected by nasty concentrations of defending fighters while refitting.
2)Make sure you position enough supply (from that initial 10 SP allowance) to refit escaping fighters on turn 1!
3)Try to position bombers where they can deal a strong blow to panzer spearheads.
4)Don't worry too much if you lose a few planes in turn 1. You'll get them back fairly quickly over the first few turns.
5)I've been disappointed trying to hunt down supply dumps and extenders to bomb. A good German player will keep the location of these resources obscure. A good German player will make it look like FLAK hell to try.
6)Its wise to use deception to keep the German guessing just how deep your fighter stacks are. If the German suspects you are massing 3 or 4 fighters at a base, they might be tempted to deepen their own stacks, thus thinning their ability to cover wider areas.
7)If the German spreads fighter coverage too thin, you will find it easier to clear it and win local air superiority.
8)Try to avoid surrendering airbases to the German. This will force him to accept poor basing in the forward areas or cause him to expend precious supply on constructing new or better bases.
9)If a decent airbase looks like its about to fall, weaken it if you can.

Game Mechanics
1)It will be sorely tempting to take a back to back turn after turn 1. The turn 1 reinforcements are simply too skimpy to cover the exposed ground. Efforts to establish strong roadblocks and fortresses look much stronger after two Soviet turns.
2)I interpret the errata version of rule 1.8 to give the surrendering player a certain amount of discretion in the decision about which units can still trace supply. Lets say that a pocket contains enough SPs to support many units for one player turn and that, through movement, many units could be placed close enough to the supply to trace. The pocket would now burn through far more supply. I have chosen to interpret the rule to give the owning player complete leeway to "find" that certain units cannot trace supply, even if they can. I would be very interested if other players have interpreted this otherwise!
3)The Soviets acquire a small stack of NKVD border regiments in the course of the first few turns. These units are very powerful in the defense - but what to defend? If they are used to defend strong points - especially fortified strong points - they can compel the Germans to conduct bloody and expensive assaults. Their '4' quality level gives them a huge advantage for attrition survival. But when they finally die, they cannot be rebuilt. Their red color makes them easy to spot in a stack. This gives the Soviet an opportunity to trick the German by putting some '0' rated NKVD security regiments in stacks.
4)There is a huge penalty to be paid for unit stacking. As soon as the stack is more than three REs, it begins to suffer from adverse barrage shifts. As soon as the stack is more than 4 REs, it is punished during Attrition rolls. At least for barrages, this problem is partially offset by terrain and hedgehog shifting.
5)The Soviet is doomed to see many strong points and VP landmarks isolated and besieged. The Germans have little choice but to try to take these positions. A feverish hedgehog construction program, accelerated by temporary positioning of HQ units dramatically improves the ability of the defenders to prolong the siege.
6)The Soviet should consider using his Railroad Construction regiments to wreck rail lines whenever it becomes apparent that that stretch of line will be lost to the Germans. This has the effect of slowing down the German effort to convert the railnet to European gauge.

The Soviet First Turn: The Soviet gets some decent reinforcements on turn 1. Unless you are a gambler, place them as though they would have to face a turn 2 German first player turn. As previously discussed, the Germans and the Soviets have a joint interest in allowing the Soviets back to back player turns, sloppy play in turn 1 might tempt the Germans otherwise! Your real task in turn 1 is to set up strong roadblocks along the major avenues of approach to Moscow. There is no way you'll be able to establish a solid line.

Some tough decisions await on the extent to which to surrender units in pockets. Hopefully, your initial placement of the 10 bonus SPs will help sustain the most important forward pockets in the early going. If a pocket is not astride a transportation route, it should be "cashed in" for divisions and replacements to give you a better reinforcement picture in turn 2. Even if you have enough SPs to keep more units alive, you should be pretty hardnosed and keep only those units which can most ably assist in the defense of the actual roadblock.

On the Southern map you have three major tasks: establish an effective defensive perimeter for the Bryansk pocket; Withdraw the strong southern cavalry force to L'Gov and Kursk in good order; Establish the beginnings of a solid roadblock at Mtsensk. If Bryansk has not fallen, consider building a hedgehog in it and rushing one of your '3' rated infantry to help defend it. Be careful how and how much you send to Mtsensk. This is a highly exposed and open position which the Germans could easily isolate. The strong southern cavalry force is a real threat to the German position. Resist the temptation to fritter it away in easily destroyed piecemeal raids. Keeping it intact and in a position to threaten the German flank will act as a brake on an overly aggressive German - forcing him to detail important mobile formations in blocking positions. Don't worry too much yet about protecting more remote VP sites (such as Voronezh.) If the Germans decide to send some of their scarce mobile formations to such far flung locations in the early going, you may not have to worry about a threat from Guderian's panzers.

In the center, you have to block the roads to Moscow and begin constructing strongpoints in the major VP landmarks. You should consider constructing a series of roadblocks along the Smolensk - Moscow road leveraging the existing hedgehogs. To this end, be prepared to truck in significant SPs. Vyazma itself, if the German didn't manage to take it on turn 1, should be strongly defended. Be careful not to leave trucks or wagons in these forward areas as the Germans may end up pocketing these as well! Should you withdraw forward units which have not yet been pocketed? For surviving mobile formations, I believe the answer should be "Run like hell!" Unfortunately for the infantry, it can't hope to outrun the panzers. I advise making a virtue of necessity and use the infantry to set up strongpoints. This will slow down the advance of German infantry and slow down the conversion of the rail net to European gauge.

The Northern map has some interesting challenges for the Soviets. Rzhev, is an early target for the Germans, but can be converted rapidly into a formidable position. A large region to the west of Rzhev is easily cut off from supply and has to be managed carefully. In the far North, the Russians should immediately take the offensive. Here, the Germans lack many strong formations and cannot afford to casually initiate attacks. Plus, the Soviets have an opportunity to threaten the flank of the German position by moving North towards Demyansk and West towards Kholm. This is the most fun the Soviets are likely to have in the early going. A careless German could actually be losing VP landmarks, not to mention unit losses and the Soviet will get practice in using the Red Army in offensive mode!

If the German has been aggressive (which he should be!) about placing fighters on the newly captured airbases, the Soviets should do their utmost to sweep these fighters. This can be frustrating as whole stacks of Soviet fighters abort while a lone German fighter sneers. But if you want to use your bombers to disrupt the German spearheads, you need to suppress the German fighters. If you end up with a pair of back to back turns, you may be able to badly impair the Germans chances for more cheap early victories.

If you see opportunities to use your six Reserve Mode markers to allow a unit to stay in combat mode while reaching a good defensive position, you may find this to be the best use you'll be able to make of these markers at this point in the game. Another use I like is to place an artillery unit in reserve in a position which you believe the Germans may attack. This is a particularly good use of deception.

The over-all Soviet goal for the end of the first turn is to ensure that, should the German go first in the second turn, that there are no really juicy targets just hanging there (like highways into Moscow, easily over-run SP dumps, open VP landmarks, large number of forces in strategic mode easily reached by a flying motorcycle battalion, etc.)

Turn 1 takes a long time to play. I find that in the early going, the German turns take approximately twice as long to play (4 hrs) as the Soviet turn. Interestingly, I tracked how much supply was being expended by both sides and on turn 1, both spent or lost roughly the same number of SPs - more than 30 each!

Turn 2: The weather is still fine. Most likely, air operations are unaffected. Who goes first? If the first turn is well handled by both sides, I believe both sides will decide that it makes most sense for the Soviets to go first. From the German perspective, Soviet pockets burn SPs during Soviet supply phases. If the Soviets start expending Tree Bark Soup or rolling for attrition, the Germans gain valuable intelligence. From the Soviet perspective, another turn allows: retreating units another turn to reach safe, defensible positions; inextricable units which have not yet been tightly pocketed to receive more supplies; budding defensive positions to grow stronger; another turn to strengthen hedgehogs; the first turn surrenders to reappear as reinforcements; the Soviet airforce a second chance to sweep German fighters and to DG German spearheads; a second turn to envelope the German position at Demyansk in the North.

Possible reasons the Germans might want to take the first player turn include opportunites to: grab extremely valuable real estate at very low cost; seal off pockets before they become well supplied; disrupt those budding defensive positions before they become formidable. Possible reasons the Soviets might want to allow the Germans to go first include: denying the Germans the intelligence on poorly SP'ed forward pockets; tempting the Germans into placing their spearheads in harms way or into crossing the Hex Row 40 tripwire.

The following notes assume that the Soviets move first in turn 2. Your chief tactical goals should be to: Continue building stronger hedgehogs in the most exposed VP landmarks; Strengthen roadblocks on the key avenues of approach to Moscow; Broaden your offensive effort in the Demyansk/Lake Seliger area; Sweep German fighters from the skies in the forward areas; Insert supply into incompletely pocketed forces (but not if the act will strand transport units in the pockets!); Destroy railroad hexes; DG Panzer spearheads; Look for opportunities to disrupt German logistics; Try to ensure that strong forces are not vulnerable to pocketing.

The Germans need to move aggressively in turn 2 to: Seal off and strengthen the perimeters around pocketed Soviet forces; Advance and consolidate mobile divisions; Crush vulnerable pockets to establish open roads and rail lines; Establish sensible extender positions to ensure that on-map SPs are not wasted on trace supply; Create scary looking threats to conduct deep advances; Bring up the infantry using Strategic Mode; Guard against really dangerous penetrations in the Demyansk area.

Both sides will expend large quantities of on-map supply during turn 2. At the end of the turn: The Soviet positions on the road between Vyazma and Smolensk will be thoroughly cut off; The Bryansk pocket will have assumed its shape; The battle lines for the battle of Rzhev will be forming; The Germans will be hunkering down for the defensive battles near Lake Ilmen and Demyansk; The Soviets will be doing their best to keep their strong cavalry force in the South in a position from which it can threaten the German flank without excessive risk of envelopment. The Germans will be trying to establish good jump off points for another stage of their offensive. The Soviets will be trying to use a combination of hedgehogs, deception, and durable pockets to delay the onset of that offensive until the advent of atrocious weather.

Turn 3: The weather is still fine. By now, both sides have few SPs in reserve. The Germans may have a stack of organic trucks which need to be refilled and sent back to the front lines. Hopefully they've kept caches of SPs available near the front lines with which to conduct opportunistic attacks and to make minor adjustments. The Soviets may have level 3 (or even 4) hedgehogs in the key strongpoints and have created several 3 or 4 RE deep stacks covering the most important roadblocks.

Although the pockets seem flimsy, the Germans can ill afford the SPs it would cost to crush them. Nor can the Germans fling themselves forward with impunity. Crossing the Hex Row 40 tripwire has a downside. Air operations in the vicinity of Moscow attract the attention of the MRO. There's too much swampy, forested terrain to confidently encircle wary defending Soviets. The Germans no longer always know what they're attacking. It might have a combat quality of '4'! There might be a Katyusha lurking to lay waste to the unwary! The infantry is still rushing to catch up with the panzers and strong as the panzers are, massed Soviet infantry attacks can shatter tank battalions.

The Soviets cannot afford to get too comfortable behind Hex Row 40. Besides, they have to defend every route into Moscow from Rzhev south to Tula. Their reinforcements seem meager to this task. The situation around Demyansk is promising, but the Soviets must carefully measure out what they can afford to commit there against the risk that with only a few more hedgehogs, a few more divisions, they might have been able to preserve Moscow. From a gamesmanship perspective, they must begin to direct the occasional reinforcement to occupy VP landmarks to the south and east of the main force concentrations. At some point, the Germans may start to look for easy pickings. As the Germans move deeper into Soviet territory, their air forces are not as well based to inflict harm or defend. The German trace supply situation becomes over extended. But the German offensive has not yet run its course!

Who goes first in turn 3? This and subsequent turns become harder to predict. I believe that the Soviets should keep the Germans on second player turn until the first bad weather turn if they can. Moving second, the Germans can afford to play a slightly more aggressive game knowing that they may get a second consecutive turn to press home an attack. I believe that the Germans will want to keep using the second player turn until, at a time preferably of their choosing, preferably during fine weather, they get a back to back. Allowing the Soviets to go second again may give them the opportunity to strike a staggering blow in the north. It may allow them to successfully counter a promising German advance, or even dispatch treebark nourished cavalry deep behind German lines. Another disadvantage of a Soviet second player turn is that a pocket reaching the end of its SPs will have one more turn to hold out at full supply.

At this point, so much will now depend on how you've played the first few turns. Any subsequent comments I might make would reflect the situations and positions which characterize my own games and would not necessarily prove helpful to you, the patient reader! Let me end by offering a few suggestions for playing which have stood me in good stead:

Tips and Tricks:
1)I can rarely find the four hours it may take to complete a player turn in one stretch. To keep track of my progress, I have found myself rotating the pieces 90 degrees back and forth. The Germans are either all facing east or facing north at the end of any turn. The Soviets are either all facing west or south. In addition, I use damage markers or spare SP markers to track how much of my rail cap I've used thus far. This way, when I'm able to return from whatever distracted me, I'm able easily to resume play where I left off.
2) Keeping track: I've found that I've been able to improve my game play by writing down statistics: how many SPs expended on activation, overrun, combat, trace; how many losses.
3)Solitaire practices: Maybe its my old age, but if I allow time to pass, I'm unable to remember at a detailed level what's in each stack. I honor the rules about limited intelligence because this comes close to giving me an over the board feel. When I attack a stack, I'm often surprised by how stupid or clever I was to have placed those units in that stack. Another advantage of letting time pass, especially between player turns, is that it tends to erode willful blindness about your alter ego's intentions. If I make an unsound unit placement as one side, I might have overlooked it if I'd gone right ahead and played the other side's turn. A day later, I'll take full advantage of my own stupity!

Rule interpretations: I mentioned a few of these earlier. As well written as the rules for GBII are, there are a few points open to interpretation. I would be overjoyed to discuss and defend my interpretations!
1)In order for 5 transportation units to become an extender, they must begin the turn stacked in the same hex.
2)An infantry division may shed breakdown regiments which are one mode transition away from the parent formation's mode at turn start. This means that a combat mode infantry division could give off: a combat mode rgmt, a movement mode rgmt, or a reserve combat rgmt, not a reserve movement mode rgmt or a strategic mode rgmt. This breakdown flexibility applies only in the movement phase. In other phases, shed regiments must conform to the parent's mode.
3)An infantry division may absorb breakdown units of any mode during any movement phase. The divisional mode is retained, except when a DG rgmt is absorbed. Then the division becomes DG.
4)Although it doesn't say so in the rules, I insist that SPs used for refit must be in draw or throw range of the refitting air base.
5)A further elaboration of rule 1.8 on unit surrender (based on the errata version of the rule) The owner has discretion as to which units are "found" to be unable to trace supply. Lets say you have 3 SPs and 24 REs in a pocket. All the REs are in range of SPs. If the rule is interpreted to mean that all 24 REs can draw, and that therefore they should not surrender, then all the SPs in the pocket are expended in one player turn. Further, if the rule is interpreted to mean that even if the units begin the player turn out of range of SPs, but could move to a hex where they would be in range... well, you get the point: Game lawyering would ensue! By giving the owning player full discretion, now sensible decisions can be made about how to manage a rather dismal situation.
6)In the rules about RR construction units, it is stipulated that an RR unit may either move along rail-lines with the intention of converting, repairing, or damaging rail hexes - in which case that unit cannot travel along rail hexes which were damaged or adversely gauged - or of just traveling. I have interpreted this to mean that an RR unit may move along just converted or repaired lines right until the railhead and from there move normally. The consequence of this is that under the right circumstances two or more RR units can repair or convert phenomenal stretches of rail by planning a turn or two ahead!
7)RR units seem to me an almost unlimited flexibility to move within a railnet. For example, they can move by rail to a rail hex, destroy it, rail to another hex, destroy it too, etc. I decrement rail cap for a moving RR unit for each distinct use of rail movement in a movement phase. This, means that a Soviet RR unit used to move to three separate hexes, destroying each, and then moving by rail again after each destruction would be charged 3 REs of Rail Cap.
8)In the rules, an HQ unit in combat mode (and therefore with bridging) can convert to Movement mode and cross its own bridge, even though the bridge is disappearing with the mode change. I have chosen to interpret this as allowing by analogy the HQ unit which had in combat mode served as a rail depot change to movement mode and then move by rail, despite the fact that the rail depot is disappearing with the mode change.

Optional Rules I Use: I really like two of the optional rules:
1)If a bombing mission utilizes planes flying more than half their range, the ensuing barrage suffers an adverse shift.
2)If non-divisionals are used as point in an attacking force, they incur twice the SP cost as would a divisional component.

Conclusion: I enjoyed writing this article and hope that any who read it find it interesting and useful. I look forward to any feedback which it inspires or provokes in other players. To those who feel that this game is too big or too hard, I urge you to have another look. The game system itself is rich and deep and I have the most profound admiration for its authors. I really do hope that Case Blue is forthcoming, because now that I've played with the 3rd edition rules, I'm convinced that the OCS platform has come of age!

Game: Guderian's Blitzkrieg II

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