WWII eastern front operational and strategic wargames
Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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I'm a long time fan of Eastern Front. In my opinion everything happened outside this theatre is secondary or at least overshadowed by the titanic struggle between Axis and Soviet Union. This is the campaign that decided WWII.
This geeklist goal is try to show all wargames ever made to cover battles, operations and the full campaign.
Feel free to add missing and new games
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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Operational/tactical level wargame covering the Soviet encirclement of the German First Panzer Army at Cherkassky on the Dnieper River in 1944
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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The Dark Valley is Ted Raicer’s two-map 1941-45 East Front game. The map (at approximately 20 miles to the hex) runs from Berlin to Stalingrad and Leningrad to Grozny. Units are division, corps, and armies.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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Baltic Gap depicts the Soviet drive into Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania during the summer of 1944
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Skip Franklin
United States
Oklahoma City
OK
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I'm only 1 of 3 owners?
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Charlie Sheppard
United States
Seattle
Washington
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I know it hasn't been released yet, but *how* is it possible that this one's not been added?
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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No Retreat: The Russian Front is a new deluxe edition of the two-player Victory Point Games 2008 CSR Award Nominee wargame that retells the story of the titanic struggle between the invading armies of Nazi Germany versus Communist Russia.
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Skip Franklin
United States
Oklahoma City
OK
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An update I guess. OCS
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Michael Gustavsson
Sweden
Hofors
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This game should be added as well on the list. Haven´t played it yet but one day I will.
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Skip Franklin
United States
Oklahoma City
OK
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Supposedly a great game.
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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A solid and well tested game, Eastfront, litterally expanded. If block games have a core of devoted players, eastfront success is one of the main reasons.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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The Barbarossa Campaign recalls the titanic struggle on the Russian Front of World War II, using a new solitaire gaming system that puts you, the Axis Player, in command.
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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I'm glad to see these three games so highly rated for they deserve it. They simulate the opening stage of the russian campaign. Rules are very detailed, as the OB.
The full game need space and time. It's a rewarding experience and also a learning tool, much more than many books on Barbarossa.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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"Roads to Stalingrad" is the first volume of the Campaign Commander Series and depicts the campaign in southern Russia from the summer of 1942 to the end of the winter of 1943.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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GMT's fifth epic game in its award-winning series of east front games, Barbarossa: Kiev to Rostov
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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Skip Franklin
United States
Oklahoma City
OK
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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The fourth game of Panzer Korps series, covering Soviet counter attack in 1942 January.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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PANZER KORPS The Strong Right Hook, that deals with the struggles at Kotelnikovo and between the Rivers Aksay and Mishkova.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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The third game of Panzer Korps series. This game covers the Operation Typhoon from October to December in 1941 around Moscow.
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Wes Ware
United States
Prairieville
Louisiana
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Just couldn't resist.
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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This game is a gem but is very very difficult to play, it needs an huge amount of space
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Lorenzo Mele
Italy
Milano
Unspecified
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This the game redone by Compass. The new version has made this old except for collectors.
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Andy
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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Mark Simonitch covering slightly less common ground.
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Englewood
Colorado
Granted the Eastern Front was enormously important but what about the titantic struggle between USA and Japan in the PTO as a campaign that also decided WWII?
Unspecified
Unspecified
I have not seen a game on the massive partisan war in the Eastern Front.
The partisan war in the Eastern front was one of the largest in the world.
The other two were: China and Yugoslavia.
The Partisan war was very important to a Soviet victory during ww2.
No specific games maybe, but Edelweiss includes specific rules for partisans and rear area security (almost a separate game) while the much-maligned Tito covers Yugoslavia.
Denver
Colorado
I agree with those stating that the Russo-German conflict was the center of gravity of World War II. A lot of interesting "what-ifs" revolve around this conflict, such as...
* What if the Germans attempt Sea Lion first, and only attack Russia after England is conquered, avoiding a two front war?
* What if the Germans are able to start Barbarossa 6 weeks earlier as planned had they not had to bail out their erstwhile Italian allies in the Balkans?
* What if Hitler does not switch gears and go south in 1942, but instead focuses on taking out Moscow?
* What if Hitler allows Paulus to attempt to break out of Stalingrad, thereby saving 6th Army and its 250,000 men?
* What if the Germans accept the help and support of the Ukranians and other anti-communist Russians, who initially welcomed the Germans as liberators? (of course, I always discount this one - Hitler always had only one use for Russia - a colony for Germans - the indiginous people were to be killed or used as slaves. For the Germans to treat these people otherwise in a what-if scenario would mean someone other than Hitler was leading Germany, and if that's the case, the Germans probably don't invade in the first place!)
And there's one "what if" that is actually centered on the Japanese. What if the Japanese army had won its debate with the Navy, and instead of Pearl Harbor and war with the US, the Japanese invaded Pacific Russia? Those Siberian divisions do not travel to the Moscow front in November 1941 to stave off the German advance, Moscow falls, and, given not only Moscow's obvious symbolic value as capital, but its practical value as primary transportation hub for European Russian, the Soviets very possibly capitulate.
These are not true what if's. Germany was not ever really in a position to invade England and the moment they invaded Russia their fate was sealed. Invading earlier would not have helped due to mud conditions from a late spring, and if they had conquered Moscow at any point, Hitler would not have had the presence of mind to offer a conditional peace to the Soviets which is the only think they might have accepted. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to sell copy or make a wargamer happy.
Lørenskog
Lørenskog
Yes, the Soviets tied down 80% of German troops and lost 27 MILLION men, women and children and until the last 20 years received insufficient credit for their fundamental contribution to Allied Victory, but the other theaters were no less important. Churchill may have been wrong about the soft underbelly of Europe, but Western Europe was just as fatal a dagger as the east.
As to the Japanese, Russia would have been finished, if the Japanese had attacked again in December 1941 instead of striking the Western Allies. And any one battle against the Japanese was just as tough and savage as Stalingrad.
Here are the Western Allies' fronts:
The Atlantic, against the u-boats and raiders, including the convoys to Russia.
North Africa and Southern Europe.
East Africa - which turned out to be easy and is overlooked, but was strategically crucial.
Mesopotamia and Iran - which turned out to be easy and are overlooked, but were strategically crucial.
The bomber offensive!
The North Pacific - sideshow but again vital.
The Central Pacific
The South Pacific
The U.S. submarine offensive (wherein my Uncle John served, on the USS Moray, SS300).
The Indian Ocean and China-Burma-India (where my dad served in the USAAF).
By contrast to these, the Russian Front was a basic, less technological head-to-head land war with the war's greatest tank battles/mobile "deep battle" operations which make it - along with the initial skilled-vs.-mass forces image - so popular.
Allied Victory was very much a multi-front, team effort, and anyone who denigrates any theater reveals an ignorant bias discrediting himself.
Nantwich
Cheshire
"Churchill may have been wrong about the soft underbelly of Europe", yes, and I'm not knocking Churchill - very much a case of cometh the hour cometh the man for Britain - but to get such a thing wrong twice in two separate world wars smacks of Tobermoray's finest
"Mesopotamia and Iran - which turned out to be easy" - not actually so easy, if you factor in the knife-edge the British found themselves on with the Golden Square Coup in Iraq. Churchill himself declared that if Hitler's eye had not been largely elsewhere the Allies might well have lost the middle east!