High Command

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HIGH COMMAND
Grand tactical rules
for the second World War

Copyright 2006 Richard Affinati

Game Designer:
Richard Affinati (ITALY)

Graphics Wizard and Chief Playtester:
Mike Patton (USA)

Acknowledgments:

Norman MacKenzie
Kiss Rommel
Luca Mazzamuto
Alto Comando
Lorenzo Sartori
Dadi & Piombo
Andrew Carless
Translations
Historical Background
www.answers.com

QUESTIONS:

Please direct any questions or comments about the game to:

Riccardo Affinati: affinati@tin.it

CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION:


Dedication:
HIGH COMMAND is dedicated as a token of remembrance to the soldiers of the
Second World War.
3
HIGH COMMAND
Grand tactical rules
for the second World War

GAME PHILOPHY

For many years we played Napoleonic battles in
such a tactical way that wargamers would never
allow us to field more than a couple of Division
per side. Then we discovered methods that al-
lowed us to simulate entire battles without them
getting too complicated. However today that old
destructive mentality still ruins our Second World
War games, preventing us from recreating entire
battles. At the most, expert wargamers put a few
more tanks and platoons on immense tables and
worry about tactical problems and the thickness
of armour, without examining the strategic or
gaming aspects that are implicit in combats be-
tween infantry division and armoured brigades.
With HIGH COMMAND we can play the entire
Normandy landings, or even the battles on the
Russian Front or in Africa.

Richard Affinati

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Eastern Front of World War II was the thea-
tre of war covering the the conflict in eastern
Europe. Many sources include the German-Polish
War of 1939 in this World War II theatre but this
article concentrates on the much larger conflict
which was fought from June 1941 to May 1945 in
which the two principal belligerent nations were
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It resulted in
the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and in-
dustrial superpower, the Soviet occupation of
Eastern Europe, and the partition of Germany.
At 04:45 on 22 June 1941, four million German,
Italian, Romanian and other Axis troops burst
over the borders and stormed into the Soviet Un-
ion. For a month the three-pronged offensive was
completely unstoppable as the Panzer forces sur-
rounded hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops
in huge pockets that were then reduced by
slower-moving infantry divisions while the pan-
zers charged on. Army Group North's objective
was Leningrad via the Baltic States. Comprising
the 16th and 18th Armies and 4th Panzer Group,
this formation drove through Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia and the Russian cities of Pskov and Nov-
gorod. Army Group Centre comprised two Panzer
groups (2nd and 3rd), which rolled east from ei-
ther side of Brest-Litovsk and converged ahead of
Minsk, followed by 2nd, 4th and 9th Armies. The
combined Panzer force reached the Beresina
River in just six days, 650 km from their start
lines. The next objective was to cross the Dnieper
river, which was accomplished by 11 July. Follow-
ing that, their next target was Smolensk, which
fell on 16 July, but the engagement in the
Smolensk area blocked the German advance
until mid-September, effectively disrupting the
blitzkrieg. Army Group South, with 1st Panzer
Group, 6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked
with advancing through Galicia and into Ukraine.
Their progress, however, was rather slower, with
only the corridor towards Kiev secure by mid-July.
11th Army, aided by two Romanian armies,
fought its way through Bessarabia towards
Odessa. 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev
for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend.
When it joined up with the southern elements of
Army Group South at Uman, the group captured
100,000 Soviet prisoners in a huge pocket. As the
Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper and
Dvina rivers, the Soviet hierarchy turned its atten-
tion to moving as much of the region's heavy in-
dustry as it could, dismantled and packed onto
flatcars, away from the front line, re-establishing it
in more remote areas behind the Urals and in
Central Asia. Most civilians could not be evacu-
ated along with the equipment and were left be-
hind to die, which was a fate far more acceptable
than surrender (and one which would be remem-
bered when the time came). With the capture of
Smolensk and the advance to the Luga river,
Army Groups Centre and North had completed
their first major objective: to get across and hold
the "land bridge" between the Dvina and Dnieper.
The route to Moscow, now only 400 km away,
was wide open. The German generals argued for
an immediate drive towards Moscow, but Hitler
overruled them, citing the importance of Ukrainian
grain and heavy industry if under German pos-
session, not to mention the massing of Soviet
reserves in the Gomel area between Army Group
Centre's southern flanks and the bogged-down
Army Group South to the south.

4
The order was issued to 2nd Panzer Group to
turn south and advance towards Kiev. This took
the whole of August and into September, but
when 2nd Panzer Group joined up with 1st Pan-
zer Group at Lokhvitsa on 5 September, 665,000
Soviet prisoners were taken and Kiev fell on 19
September.

Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941

Now Hitler decided to resume the advance to
Moscow, renaming the Panzer Groups to Panzer
Armies for the occasion. Operation Typhoon,
which was set in motion on 30 September, saw
2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from
Orel (captured 7 October) to the Oka river at
Plavskoye, while the 4th Panzer Army
(transferred from Army Group North to Centre)
and 3rd Panzer Armies surrounded the Soviet
forces in two huge pockets at Vyazma and
Bryansk. Army Group North positioned itself in
front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the rail
link at Tikhvin to the east. Thus began the 900-
day Siege of Leningrad. North of the Arctic Circle,
a German-Finnish force set out for Murmansk but
could get no further than the Litsa river, where
they settled down. Army Group South pushed
down from the Dnieper to the Sea of Azov coast,
also advancing through Kharkov, Kursk and Sta-
lino. The 11th Army moved into the Crimea and
had taken control of all of the peninsula by au-
tumn (except Sevastopol, which held out until 3
July 1942). On 21 November the Germans took
Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus. However,
the German lines were over-extended and the
Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer
Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to
pull out of the city and behind the Mius River; the
first significant German withdrawal of the war.
Just as Operation Typhoon got going, the Rus-
sian weather struck. For the second half of Octo-
ber it rained solidly, turning what few roads there
were into endless mud that trapped German vehi-
cles, horses and men alike. With 160 km still to
go to Moscow, there was worse to come when
the temperature plunged and snow started falling.
The vehicles could move again, but the men
could not, freezing with no winter clothing. The
German leadership, expecting the campaign to
be over in a few months, had not equipped their
armies for winter fighting. One last lunge on 15
November saw the Germans attempting to throw
a ring around Moscow. On 27 November 4th Pan-
zer Army got within 30 km of the Kremlin when it
reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at
Khimki, while 2nd Panzer Army, try as it might,
could not take Tula, the last Russian city that
stood in its way of the capital. Furious rows
marked the difference in opinion between Hitler,
who insisted that the drive towards Moscow could
not be halted, and his generals, whose troops
were completely exhausted in the murderous
cold. As Hitler started sacking those commanders
who opposed him, it was at this point that the So-
viets struck back for the first time.

Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941

During the autumn, Zhukov had been transferring
fresh and well-equipped Soviet forces from Sibe-
ria and the far east to Moscow (these troops had
been stationed there in expectation of a Japa-
nese attack, but intelligence indicated that the
Japanese had decided to attack southeast Asia
and the Pacific instead). On 5 December 1941,
these reinforcements attacked the German lines
around Moscow, supported by new T-34 tanks
and Katyusha rocket launchers. The new Soviet
troops were prepared for winter warfare, and they
included several ski battalions. The exhausted
and freezing Germans were routed and driven
back between 100 and 250 km by 7 January
1942. A further Soviet attack was mounted in late
January, focusing on the junction between Army
Groups North and Centre between Lake Seliger
and Rzhev, and drove a gap between the two
German army groups. In concert with the ad-
vance from Kaluga to the south-west of Moscow,
it was intended that the two offensives converge
on Smolensk, but the Germans rallied and man-
aged to hold them apart, retaining a salient at
Rzhev. A Soviet parachute drop on German-held
Dorogobuzh was spectacularly unsuccessful, and
those paratroopers who survived had to escape
to the partisan-held areas beginning to swell be-
hind German lines. To the north, the Soviets sur-
rounded a German garrison in Demyansk, which
held out with air supply for four months, and es-
tablished themselves in front of Kholm, Velizh
and Velikie Luki. In the south the Red Army
crashed over the Donets River at Izyum and
drove a 100-km deep salient. The intent was to
pin Army Group South against the Sea of Azov,
but as the winter eased the Germans were able
to counter-attack and cut off the over-extended
Soviet troops in the Second Battle of Kharkov.
Soviet troops in winter camouflage
5
Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942

Although plans were made to attack Moscow
again, on 28 June 1942, the offensive re-opened
in a different direction. Army Group South took
the initiative, anchoring the front with the Battle of
Voronezh and then following the Don river south-
eastwards. The grand plan was to secure the Don
and Volga first and then drive into the Caucasus
towards the oilfields, but operational considera-
tions and Hitler's vanity made him order both ob-
jectives to be attempted simultaneously. Rostov
was recaptured on 24 July when 1st Panzer Army
joined in, and then that group drove south to-
wards Maikop. As part of this, Operation Shamil
was executed, a plan whereby a group of Bran-
denburger commandos dressed up as Soviet
NKVD troops to destabilise Maikop's defenses
and allow the 1st Panzer Army to enter the oil
town with little opposition. Meanwhile, 6th Army
was driving towards Stalingrad, for a long period
unsupported by 4th Panzer Army who had been
diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don.
By the time 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the
Stalingrad offensive, Soviet resistance
(comprising the 62nd Army under Chuikov) had
stiffened. A leap across the Don brought German
troops to the Volga on 23 August but for the next
three months the Wehrmacht would be fighting
the Battle of Stalingrad street-by-street. Towards
the south 1st Panzer Army had reached the Cau-
casian foothills and the Malka river. At the end of
August Romanian mountain troops joined the
Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd
and 4th Armies were redeployed from their suc-
cessful task of clearing the Azov littoral. They
took up position either side of Stalingrad to free
German troops for the proper fighting. Mindful of
the continuing antagonism between Axis allies
Romania and Hungary over Transylvania, the
Romanian army in the Don bend was separated
from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th
Army. Thus all of Hitler's allies were in it in-
cluding a Slovakian contingent with 1st Panzer
Army and a Croatian regiment attached to 6th
Army. The advance into the Caucasus bogged
down, with the Germans unable to fight their way
past Malgobek and to the main prize of Grozny.
Instead they switched the direction of their ad-
vance to come at it from the south, crossing the
Malka at the end of October and entering North
Ossetia. In the first week of November, on the
outskirts of Ordzhonikidze, the 13th Panzer Divi-
sion's spearhead was snipped off and the Panzer
troops had to fall back. The offensive into Russia
was over.

Stalingrad: Winter 1942

While the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army
had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet
armies had congregated on either side of the city,
specifically into the Don bridgeheads that the Ro-
manians had been unable to reduce, and it was
from these that they struck on 19 November
1942. In Operation Uranus, two Soviet fronts
punched through the Romanians and converged
at Kalach on 23 November, trapping 300,000 Axis
troops behind them. A simultaneous offensive on
the Rzhev sector known as Operation Mars was
supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a
failure, with German tactical flair winning the day.
The Germans rushed to transfer troops to Russia
for a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but
the offensive could not get going till 12 Decem-
ber, by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was
starving and too weak to break out towards it.
Operation Winter Storm, with three transferred
Panzer divisions, got going briskly from Kotelnik-
ovo towards the Aksai river but bogged down
65 km (40 miles) short of its goal. To divert the
rescue attempt the Soviets decided to smash the
Italians and come down behind the relief attempt
if they could, that operation starting on 16 De-
cember. What it did accomplish was to destroy
many of the aircraft that had been transporting
relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly limited
scope of the Soviet offensive, although still even-
tually targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time
to see sense and pull Army Group A out of the
Caucasus and back over the Don. On 31 January
1943, the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man
6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian
contingent had also been wiped out. The Soviets
advanced from the Don 500 km (300 miles) to the
west of Stalingrad, marching through Kursk
(taken 8 February 1943) and Kharkov (taken 16
February 1943). In order to save the position in
the south, the decision was taken in February to
abandon the Rzhev salient, freeing enough Ger-
man troops to make a successful riposte in east-
ern Ukraine. Manstein's counteroffensive, stiff-
ened by a specially trained SS Panzer Corps
equipped with Tiger tanks, opened on 20 Febru-
ary 1943, and fought its way from Poltava back
into Kharkov in the third week of March, upon
which the spring thaw intervened. This had left a
glaring bulge in the front centred on Kursk.

A Soviet T-34 tank towing a damaged armoured vehicle at the Battle of Kursk.
6
Kursk: Summer 1943

After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalin-
grad, Hitler had deferred planning authority for
the upcoming campaign season to the German
Army High Command and reinstated Guderian to
a prominent role, this time as Inspector of Panzer
Troops. Debate among the general staff was po-
larised, with even Hitler nervous about any at-
tempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. He knew that
in the intervening six months the Russian position
at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with anti
tank guns, tank traps, mines, barbed wire,
trenches, pillboxes, artillery and mortars. But if
one last great blitzkrieg offensive could be
mounted, just maybe the Soviets would ease off
and attention could then be turned to the Allied
threat to the Western Front. The advance would
be executed from the Orel salient to the north of
Kursk and from Belgorod to the south. Both wings
would converge on Tim, and by that means re-
store the lines of Army Group South to the exact
points that it held over the winter of 19411942.
Although the Germans knew that the Red Army's
massive reserves of manpower had been bled
dry in the summer of 1941 and 1942, the Soviets
were still re-equipping, simply by drafting the men
from the regions recaptured. Under pressure from
his generals, Hitler bit the bullet and agreed to the
attack on Kursk, little realising that the Abwehr's
intelligence on the Soviet position there had been
undermined by a concerted Stavka misinforma-
tion and counter-intelligence campaign mounted
by the Lucy spy ring in Switzerland. When the
Germans began the operation, it was after
months of delays waiting for new tanks and
equipment, by which time the Soviets had rein-
forced the Kursk salient with more anti-tank fire-
power than had ever been assembled in one
place before or since. In the north, the entire 9th
Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev sali-
ent into the Orel salient and was to advance from
Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could
not even get past the first objective at
Olkhovatka, just 8 km (5 miles) into the advance.
The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the
Soviet minefields, frustratingly so considering that
the high ground there was the only natural barrier
between them and flat tank country all the way to
Kursk. The direction of advance was then
switched to Ponyri, to the west of Olkhovatka, but
the 9th Army could not break through here either
and went over to the defensive. The Soviets sim-
ply soaked up the German punishment and then
struck back. On 12 July the Red Army ploughed
through the demarcation line between the 211th
and 293rd Divisions on the Zhizdra river and
steamed towards Karachev, right behind them
and behind Orel. The southern offensive, spear-
headed by 4th Panzer Army, made more head-
way. Advancing on ei-
ther side of the upper
Donets on a narrow cor-
ridor, the SS Panzer
Corps and the Gross-
deutschland Panzer-
grenadier Divisions bat-
tled its way through
minefields and over
comparatively high
ground towards Oboyan.
Stiff resistance caused a
change of direction from
east to west of the front,
but the Tigers and Pan-
thers got 25 km (15 miles)
before encountering the reserves of the Soviet
5th Tank Army outside Prokhorovka. Battle was
joined on 12 July, with thousands of tanks doing
battle. At the end of the day both sides had
fought each other to a standstill. The Soviets
could absorb the fearful losses of men and equip-
ment that they did, but the Germans could not,
and that was what won the day. Also worried by
the Allies landing in Sicily on 10 July, Hitler took
fright and withdrew the SS Panzer Corps from the
southern face of the Kursk salient, and that was
the end of the Germans' final attack in Russia.
The Battle of Kursk represented a scaled-up ver-
sion of the battles of World War I infantry ad-
vancing under machine gun fire, and tanks ad-
vancing on batteries of anti-tank guns. Much of
the German equipment was new and untested,
with undertrained crews. The new tank hunter
units, though sporting a highly effective 88mm
cannon, had no hull mounted machine gun to
protect against infantry, and were quickly targeted
by the Soviet anti tank guns, which were posi-
tioned in hemispherical concave bulges, forming
semicircles of high velocity crossfire. Moreover,
these positions were protected by small two-man
foxholes armed with limpet tank mines, machine
gun nests, and mortar fire, ensuring than the
Wehrmacht infantry could not effectively defend
the tanks. The Kursk offensive was the last on the
scale of 1940 and 1941 the Wehrmacht was able
to launch, and subsequent offensives would rep-
resent only a shadow of previous German offen-
sive might. Following the defeat, Hitler would not
trust his generals to the same extent again, and
as his own mental condition deteriorated the qual-
ity of German strategic decision fell correspond-
ingly.

Ukraine: Autumn and Winter 1943

The Soviet juggernaut got rolling in earnest with
the advance into the Germans' Orel salient. The
diversion of Hitler's favourite Grossdeutschland
Division from Belgorod to Karachev could not halt
Heinz Guderian
7
the tide, and a strategic decision was made to
abandon Orel (taken by the Red Army on 5 Au-
gust 1943) and fall back to the Hagen line in front
of Bryansk. To the south, the Soviets blasted
through Army Group South's Belgorod positions
and headed for Kharkov once again. Though in-
tense battles of movement throughout late July
and into August 1943 saw the Tigers blunting
Soviet tanks on one axis, they were soon out-
flanked on another line to the west as the Soviets
advanced down the Psel, and Kharkov had to be
evacuated for the final time on 22 August. The
German forces on the Mius, now constituting the
1st Panzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army,
were by August too weak to sustain a Soviet on-
slaught on their own front, and when the Soviets
hit them they had to fall back all the way through
the Donbass industrial region to the Dnieper, los-
ing the industrial resources and half the farmland
that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union to
exploit. At this time Hitler agreed to a general
withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was
meant to be the Ostwall, a line of defence similar
to the Westwall of fortifications along the West
German frontier. Trouble was, it hadn't been built
yet, and by the time Army Group South had
evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdraw-
ing across the Dnieper during September, the
Soviets were hard behind them. Tenaciously,
small units paddled their way across the 3-km (2-
mile) wide river and established bridgeheads. A
second attempt by the Soviets to gain land using
parachutists, mounted at Kanev on 24 Septem-
ber, proved as luckless as at Dorogobuzh eight-
een months previously, and the paratroopers
were soon repelled but not before still more
Red Army troops had used the cover they pro-
vided to get themselves over the Dnieper and
securely dug in. As September proceeded into
October, the Germans found the Dnieper line im-
possible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew
and grew, and important Dnieper towns started to
fall, with Zaporozhye the first to go, followed by
Dnepropetrovsk. In January 1944 ten German
divisions trapped near Cherkassy managed to
break out but with terrible losses. Then, in March,
20 German divisions of Generaloberst Hube's 1st
Panzer Army were encircled in what was to be
known as Hube's Pocket near Kamenets-
Podolskiy. After two weeks hard fighting, the 1st
Panzer managed to escape the pocket, suffering
only light to moderate casualties. Further to the
north, Army Group Centre was pushed back from
the Hagen line slowly, losing comparatively little
territory, but losing Bryansk and more importantly,
Smolensk, on 25 September. The town was the
keystone of the entire German defensive system,
but the 4th and 9th Armies and 3rd Panzer Ar-
mies still held their own east of the upper
Dnieper. On Army Group North's front, there was
barely any fighting at all until January 1944 when
Novgorod was recaptured; by February the Red
Army had reached Estonia.
In the south, they reached the Romanian border
in March, captured Odessa in April, and Sevasto-
pol in May.

Belarus: Summer 1944

On the central front, a massive Soviet attack, Op-
eration Bagration, starting on June 22 1944, led
eventually to the destruction of the German Army
Group Centre. The Germans had transferred
units to France to meet the invasion of Normandy
two weeks before. Four Soviet army groups total-
ling over 120 divisions smashed into the thinly-
held German line. The Soviets achieved a ratio of
ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft
over their enemy. At the points of attack, the nu-
merical and quality advantages of the Soviets
were overwhelming. The Germans crumbled. The
capital of Belarus, Minsk, was taken on July 3,
trapping 50,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red
Army reached the pre-war Polish border. The
rapid progress cut off and isolated the German
units of Army Group North fighting in Courland.
The neighbouring Lvov-Sandomierz operation
was launched on 17 July 1944, rapidly routing the
German forces in the western Ukraine. The So-
viet advance in the south continued into Romania
and following a coup against Axis-allied govern-
ment of Romania on August 23, the Red army
occupied Bucharest on August 31. In Moscow on
September 12, Romania and the Soviet Union
signed an armistice on terms Moscow virtually
dictated. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in
the southern German Eastern Front causing the
loss of the whole of the Balkans. In Poland, as
the Red Army approached Warsaw in July, the
Polish Home Army launched the Warsaw Upris-
ing. However, the Soviet Army halted at the Vis-
tula River, unable or unwilling to come to the aid
of the Polish resistance. An attempt by the newly-
formed communist Polish People's Army to re-
lieve the city was thrown back in September with
heavy losses.

8
Eastern Europe: JanuaryMarch 1945

The Soviet Union finally captured Warsaw in
January 1945. Over three days, on a broad front
incorporating four army Fronts, the Red Army
began an offensive across the Narew River and
from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Ger-
mans on average by nine to one in troops, ten to
one in artillery, and ten to one in tanks and self-
propelled artillery. After four days the Red Army
broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilo-
metres a day, taking the Baltic states, Danzig,
East Prussia, Poznan, and drawing up on a line
sixty kilometres east of Berlin along the Oder
River. On 25 January 1945, Hitler renamed three
army groups. Army Group North became Army
Group Courland; Army Group Centre became
Army Group North and Army Group A became
Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army
Group Centre) was driven into an ever smaller
pocket around Knigsberg in East Prussia. A
counterattack by the newly created Army Group
Vistula, under the command of Himmler, had
failed by February 24, and the Soviets drove on
to Pomerania and cleared the right bank of the
Oder River. In the south, three German attempts
to relieve the encircled Budapest failed and the
city fell on February 13 to the Soviets. Again the
Germans counterattacked, Hitler insisting on the
impossible task of regaining the Danube River.
By March 16 the attack had failed and the Red
Army counterattacked the same day. On March
30 they entered Austria and captured Vienna on
April 13. On April 9, 1945, Knigsberg finally fell
to the Red Army, although the shattered rem-
nants of Army Group North continued to resist on
the Heiligenbeil and Danzig beachheads until the
end of the war in Europe. This freed up General
Rokossovsky's 2nd Belarusian Front (2BF) to
move west to the east bank of the Oder river.
During the first two weeks of April the Soviets
performed their fastest front redeployment of the
war. General Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belaru-
sian Front which had been deployed along the
Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Bal-
tic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights.
The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated
by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While
this redeployment was in progress gaps were left
in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd
Army which had been bottled up in a pocket near
Danzig managed to escape across the Oder. To
the south General Konev shifted the main weight
of the 1st Ukrainian Front out of Upper Silesia
north-west to the Neisse River. The three Soviet
fronts had altogether 2.5 million men; 6,250
tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 artillery pieces and
mortars; 3,255 truck-mounted Katyushas rockets,
(nicknamed "Stalin Organs"); and 95,383 motor
vehicles, many manufactured in the USA.

Berlin: April 1945

All that was left for the Soviets to do was to
launch an offensive to capture what was to be-
come East Germany. The Soviet offensive had
two objectives. Because of Stalin's suspicions
about the intentions of the Western Allies to hand
over territory occupied by them in the post war
Soviet zone of occupation, the offensive was to
be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly
as possible to the west, to meet the Western Al-
lies as far west as possible. But the overriding
objective was to capture Berlin. The two were
complementary because possession of the zone
could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken.
Another consideration was that Berlin itself held
strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the
German atomic bomb programme. The offensive
to capture East Germany and Berlin started on
April 16 with an assault on the German front lines
on the Oder and Neisse rivers. After several days
of heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF had
punched holes through the German front line and
were fanning out across East Germany. By the
April 24 elements of the 1BF and 1UF had com-
pleted the encirclement of Berlin and the Battle of
Berlin entered its final stages. On April 25 the
2BF broke through the German 3rd Panzer
Army's line south of Stettin. They were now free
to move west towards the British 21st Army
Group and north towards the Baltic port of Stral-
sund. The Soviet 58th Guards Division of the 5th
Guards Army made contact with the US 69th In-
fantry Division of the First Army near Torgau,
Germany on the Elbe river. On April 30, as the
Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of
Berlin, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and then
committed suicide by taking cyanide and shooting
himself. Weidling, defence commandant of Berlin,
surrendered the city to the Soviets on May 2. On
May 7, 1945, at the SHAEF headquarters, Ger-
man Chief-of-Staff General Jodl signed the un-
conditional surrender documents for all German
forces to the Allies. It included the phrase All
forces under German control to cease active op-
erations at 2301 hours Central European time on
8th May 1945.
www.answers.com
9
BASING

We play with units (HQ, Artillery, Recon,
Infantry, Tank, Motorised Infantry) on
base (measuring 3cm x 3cm for 6mm
miniatures; 6cm/12cm for 20mm or plas-
tic 1/72), upon which we then place the
right sort of soldier or vehicles. A base
represent a battalion, more or less. If you
have troops that are already based for
another system you wont have to
change the basing as they are all the
same. If you have to start from scratch
then try to create some small dioramas,
using your creativity and modelling abil-
ity.
A truck and 3 or 4 soldiers will be enough
to represent a Motorised Infantry unit, a
Recon unit could be represented by an
armoured car and a couple of motorbike;
and for a tank unit, one tank will do.

IRREGULAR MINIATURE
3 Apollo Street, York YO10 5AP, UK
Tel/Fax: (in UK) 01904 671101
Tel/Fax: (overseas)+44 1904 671101 Email :
email@irregularmin.fsnet.co.uk
www.irregularminiatures.co.uk

6mm World War II - Armoured Divisions

40 Tanks and Vehicles and 20 Infantry strips (80
figures) Armoured Division Packs, for any Nation,
Year and Theatre. Made up to our own realistic
and balanced composition.

CONTENTS

FIGURES
German British Russian French Italian Ameri-
can Japanese Other Nations

TANKS, VEHICLES & GUNS
German Italian Japanese Polish French British
& Commonwealth American Russian

AIRCRAFT
German British Polish French Italian Rus-
sian American Japanese

PACKS
Armoured Divisions Battlepacks

SOVIET GUARDS RIFLE DIVISION

GERMAN
PANZER
DIVISION

HQ
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
ARTILLERY ARTILLERY

HQ
TANK

TANK
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY

HEAVY TANK

MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY

RECON

ARTILLERY 88 MM

RECON

MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
MOTORISED
INFANTRY
10
BATTLE SET-UP

1. The table is divided into Zones a foot square.
2. Select forces using the Force Cards
3. Deploy Soviet minefields followed by Axis ones
4. Deploy Soviet forces and lastly the Germans

Defences indicate minefields and dug-in positions with minefields being placed right
up to the centre line if wished.

Troops must be at least 6" - 15cm from the centre line. You need not put a Division's
troops near their HQ but this could be risky!

A Supply base (use a tent or supply truck model) is placed in the centre of each
"Supply" Zone. For a bigger table you might add other Supply bases.
Axis Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Defences
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet Supply
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Axis
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
Soviet
30cm x 30cm
12 x 12
11
TURN SEQUENCE

1. The Axis player may replace a
Dispersed unit (one for the entire army).
2. The Axis player may move his units
(including the replacements) and place
aircraft units.
3. The Axis units may fire.
4. The Soviet player may replace a
Dispersed unit (one for the entire army).
5. The Soviet player may move his units
(including the replacements) and place
aircraft units.
6. The Soviet units may fire.

There are 9 to 12 turns in a day. Throw
before each turn from 10 to 12 with a 5+
indicating the game has ended.

HEADQUARTERS (HQ)

Once per turn for the whole army the
Headquarters (HQ) can bring back to the
battlefield any unit from its own Division
that was previously Dispersed (i.e.
placed in the Replacements box). This
means that the player must decide which
Headquarters (HQ) will use the available
replacement that turn. If a unit that
comes back into play is Dispersed
again it can be replaced afterwards. The
HQ is one of the most important units as
it can bring Dispersed units removed
from the game back into play. You can
move units to anywhere on the battlefield
but the may be Destroyed and not
Dispersed if they are too far from the
HQ.
It is also assumed that the HQ is where
the batteries of light artillery and anti-craft
units are located. The HQ cannot be
Destroyed, unless there are no other
units in its Division left on the table. In
this case it is considered Destroyed.
The Dispersed HQ is not removed from
the battlefield, but in the next turn it re-
places itself, without being able to re-
place other units in its Division. The unit
that is replaced is placed next to its
Headquarters (HQ).

The Dispersed HQ immediately moves
15cm/6 directly to its rear (distant by
enemy), and it cannot move or fire and
no unit in its Division can be replaced un-
til the HQ is back in action. In any case a
Dispersed HQ has a command radium
of 30cm or 12" for its Division, impeding
the Destruction of units in the Division
within 30cm or 12" if they are hit during
combat, but not their Dispersion. If the
HQ is shot again must go back 15cm/6.

Zukhov

MOVEMENT

Units have a 360 frontage and their
movement is always straight in any direc-
tion. They may not move closet than 5cm
or 2" from an enemy unit. Units can only
leave the battlefield from their set-up
side. They are considered Dispersed.
You can measure anything during the
game. Units on road +5cm or 2.

FIRING

You can only fire on a unit that is within
firing range and sighting range. If a unit
in the Division manages to see an enemy
unit, it is assumed that the whole Division
can see it. A Division may not spot on
behalf of other Divisions. You may fire at
one unit at a time and you need to roll a
5+. Units will fire at the closet enemy unit
except for artillery that can fire at any tar-
get (Artillery move or fire). Units do not
block line of sight.
12
SAVING THROW

Every time a unit is hit it must make a
saving throw or be removed as Dis-
persed (removed from the battlefield and
put in a box labelled Replacements),
and then may be return later during the
battle (see HQ). Those units that are not
within 30 cm or 12 of their Division HQ
are classified as Destroyed and removed
from the battle (without the possibility of
being replaced).
Tanks and Recon automatically fail the
Saving Throw if hit by a 88mm (Tiger or
Artillery).

TERRAIN

Only Artillery can fire over hills, woods or
villages. If a unit is on top of a hill or
within woods or villages the spotting
range for enemies that want to sight
them is reduced by 8cm or 3", and units
in woods, hills or villages get a +1 modi-
fier on their Saving Throw (except for
tanks). Villages, woods and hills have a
standard size of 12cm/5" x 12 cm.

GERMAN STUKAS & SOVIET AIR
FORCE

Each side is allowed up to two air-strikes
per turn that can be used against any en-
emy unit. Roll a dice:
5 6 = the target must make a saving
Throw or become Dispersed (Destroyed
if not within 30cm or 12" from the HQ).
2 4 = no effect.
1 = if the attack is within 30cm or 12" of
an enemy HQ, the attacking aircraft is
Destroyed. From that moment onwards
you have one less air attack per turn for
the rest of the battle.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Each player gets 3 Victory Point (VPs)
for every Heavy Tank unit destroyed; 2
Victory Points for each Tank or Artillery
(88mm) destroyed; each Supply base
destroyed counts as five VP's; and one
Victory Point for every other type of en-
emy unit destroyed. If there are less than
5 VP difference between the totals then
the game is a DRAW; between 5 and 9 is
a VICTORY and a difference greater
than 10 is a DECISIVE VICTORY. All the
Dispersed units that were waiting to
come back as Replacements are consid-
ered automatically Destroyed, i.e. all
units that have not been replaced at the
end of the established number of turns
and are still Dispersed are considered
Destroyed.

If you destroy all three enemy Supply
Bases you may opt to end the game and
claim an immediate Major Victory!

German Recon
13
MINEFIELDS

Each side can have up to 60cm or 24" of
minefields (a base depth deep). To cross
an enemy minefield dice per unit that
tries:

5-6 = Get through OK, stopping on other
side;
2-4 = unit stopped in front of minefield;
1 = the unit is Scattered (or Destroyed if
not near the HQ)!

To clear a one base wide Gap (allowing
up to six units to pass through each turn),
get an infantry unit adjacent to the mine-
field and throw with a 5 or 6 to create a
Gap. Note that only one infantry unit per
Division may try this per turn
(representing the Divisional engineers /
pioneers; count the Free French
"Brigade" as a Division for this rule).

DUG IN

Up to 16 units may begin as Dug-in (in
substantial trenches, protected by barbed
wire, suitable model bases being re-
quired).
Infantry, artillery, 88mm's, and HQ's im-
prove their saving throw to 4+ and allows
them to Spot 7,5cm or 3" further, as well
as allowing them shooting in the Dug-in
phase. Note: troops Dug-in on a Hilltop
only increase Spotting by 7,5cm or 3"
maximum. Tanks and Recon can be "in"
the trenches but get no benefit from
them. Troops in captured positions do
not get the Spotting bonus as the
trenches probably face the wrong way!
Alternatively you may simply remove
captured positions.

AXIS ALLIES and SOVIET PROBLEMS

Count the Axis Allies and Soviet HQ dis-
tance as 22,5cm or 9" rather than 30cm
or 12". Axis Allies Foot Infantry is short of
AT weapons, so require a 6 to hit Tanks.
Waffen-SS Panzergrenadiers of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division "Totenkopf" at the start of the Battle of Kursk.
14
ORGANIZATION
FORCE HQ Recon
Heavy
Tank
Tank Motorised Infantry Artillery 88mm
AXIS
Panzer Division 1 2 1 2 6 3 1
Infanterie Division 1 2 - - 7 2 -
Panzer Grenadier Division 1 2 - 1 6 3 1
Gross Deutschland Panzer 1 2 1 2 8 3 1
Luftwaffe Field Division 1 1 - - 6 2 1
Gebirgjager Division 1 1 - - 6 3 -
Italian (Alpini Julia), Spanish (Azul)
or Romanian Infanterie Division
1 - - - 6 2 -
Artillery Kommand 1 - - - - 4 1
FORCE HQ Recon
Heavy
Tank
Tank Motorised Infantry Artillery 88mm
SOVIET
Tank Corps 1 1 - 3 4 3 -
Tank Guards Tank Corps 1 1 1 2 4 3 -
Tank Guards Corps 1943-45 1 1 3 3 6 3 -
Motorised Division 1 1 - 2 6 3 -
Rifle Division 1 - - - 6 2 -
Guards Rifle Division 1 - - - 9 2 -
Tank Brigade 1 - - 2 - - -
Artillery Division 1 1 - - - 6 -
Joseph Stalin bore the greatest responsibility for the disasters of the first
two years of the war.
The Great Purge of the Red Army in the 1930s on Stalin's orders had kil-
led or imprisoned the majority of the senior command, including Mikhail
Tukhachevsky, the brilliant proponent of armoured blitzkrieg. Stalin promo-
ted obscurantists like Grigory Kulik, who opposed the mechanization of the
army and the production of tanks. Distrust of the military led to a system of
"dual command", in which every high-ranking officer was paired with a po-
litical commissar, a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
who ensured that the officer was loyal and implemented Party orders.
Fallschirmjgergewehr 42 MP38- MP40 Gewehr 98
GERMAN ARMIES
Luger
15
UNITS
Nationality Battalion type Spotting Range Saving throw Speed
All nations Head Quarters (HQ) 15cm or 6 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6"
Reconnaissance (Recon) 22,5cm or 9" 15cm or 6" 5+ 22,5cm or 9"
Foot Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 7,5cm or 3"
Motorised Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6"
Artillery (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 45cm or 18 6 15cm or 6"
Supply Base - - 6 -
Light Anti-tank gun 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6"
German Tanks 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 4+ 15cm or 6"
Artillery 88mm (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 30cm or 12" 6 15cm or 6"
Heavy Tank (Tigre) 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 3+ 10cm or 4"
Soviet Tanks 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6"
Heavy Tank (KV1) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 4+ 15cm or 6"
Self Propelled Gun (Fire and move). 15cm or 6" 30cm or 12 5+ 15cm or 6"
Regimental Mortar (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 6 7,5cm or 3"
Cavalry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 22,5cm or 9"
KV-1 T-34/43 T-34/85
Tiger VI Jagdpanzer IV Panzerkampfwagen IV
Panther V Tiger VI-II Panzerkampfwagen III
SOVIET TANK
GERMAN TANK
16
EASTERN FRONT CAMPAIGN.

At the time of the Nazi assault on the USSR in
June 1941, the Red Army numbered around 1.5
million men, but political cleansing of its ranks
had weakened it. The German invasion took the
Red Army cadres by surprise. The first weeks of
the War saw the annihilation of virtually the entire
Soviet Air Force on the ground, and major Soviet
defeats as German forces trapped hundreds of
thousands of Red Army soldiers in vast pockets.
However, a generation of brilliant commanders,
most notably Zhukov learned from the defeats
and Soviet victories in the Battle of Moscow, at
Stalingrad, Kursk and later in Operation Bagration
proved decisive in what was known as the Great
Patriotic War.

FORCE CARDS. Each side may chooses one card and then randomly deal three more. This is their
strength for the oncoming battle. For a quicker battle have four rather than five cards. Allow inexperi-
enced players to choose two of their deal. Once you have got used to the system, you can add other
forces as you wish, and feel free to have your favourite Divisions rather than those noted. We are not
doing an exact recreation of the campaign, but will aim at its feel from the post of a high-ranking
leader.

THE CAMPAIGN

The aim is, in a series of battles, to push the enemy back until Soviet Union is cleared. Note that we
start at Koluch. A Victory pushes the enemy back one area; a Major Victory pushes two spaces.
Losing their "last stand" area means total defeat! You should rename the Soviet commander after
any Major Defeat as they were constantly replaced!
Divisions that suffered half their bases Destroyed (ignore Dispersed), are left out of the Force Card
pack for the next game. All formations return to strength for their next use. Soviet player is allowed
up to two air-strikes (German one air-strike) per turn that can be used against any enemy unit.
AXIS CARDS
6 Romanian
Infanterie
Division
250 Spanish
Infanterie
Division
3 Italian
Infanterie
Division
254 Infanterie
Division
5 Panzer
Grenadier
Div. Wiking
26 Infanterie
Division
251 Infanterie
Division
Gebirgjager
Division
SOVIET CARDS
170 Rifle
Division
186 Rifle
Division
183 Rifle
Division
295 Rifle
Division
3 Tank Corp
181 Rifle
Division
61 Rifle
Division
174 Rifle
Division
13 Guards
Rifle
Division
32 Tank
Corp
16 Motorised
Division
170 Rifle
Division
117 Rifle
Division
76 Rifle
Division
8 Tank
Corp
18 Tank
Corp
Panzegrenadier
Division
3 Panzer
Division
Totenkopf
2SS Panzer
Divivision
DasReich
GrossDeu-
tschland Panzer
Gren. Div

262
Infanterie
Division
62 Infanterie
Division
Blank! Troops
diverted to
Western front
Blank! Troops
diverted to
Western front
Scenarios 1
Berlino Prague Warsaw Odessa Kiev Smolensk Kharkov Stalingrad Moscow Urals
17
EASTERN FRONT:
STALINGRAD 1943.

The battle was fought in the winter of 1942-
1943 and ended with the surrender of an entire
German army. The battle was marked by the
brutality and disregard for civilian casualties on
both sides. The battle is taken to include the
German siege of the southern Russian city of
Stalingrad (today Volgograd), the battle inside
the city, and the Soviet counter-offensive which
eventually trapped and destroyed the German
and other Axis forces in and around the city.
Total casualties are estimated at between 1
and 3 million. The Axis powers lost about a
quarter of their total manpower on the Eastern Front, and never recovered from the defeat. For the
Soviets, who lost well over one million soldiers and civilians during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad
marked the start of the liberation of the Soviet Union, leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany
in 1945.

FORCE CARDS. Each side may chooses one card and then randomly deal three more. This is their
strength for the oncoming battle. For a quicker battle have four rather than five cards. Allow inexpe-
rienced players to choose two of their deal. Once you have got used to the system, you can add o-
ther forces as you wish, and feel free to have your favourite Divisions rather than those noted. We
are not doing an exact recreation of the campaign, but will aim at its feel from the post of a high-
ranking leader.
THE CAMPAIGN

The aim is, in a series of battles, to push the enemy back until Soviet Union is cleared. Note that we
start at Koluch. A Victory pushes the enemy back one area; a Major Victory pushes two spaces. Lo-
sing their "last stand" area means total defeat! You should rename the Soviet commander after any
Major Defeat as they were constantly replaced!
Divisions that suffered half their bases Destroyed (ignore Dispersed), are left out of the Force Card
pack for the next game. All formations return to strength for their next use. Soviet player is allowed
up to two air-strikes (German one air-strike) per turn that can be used against any enemy unit.
AXIS CARDS
Gebirgjager
Division
XIV Panzer
Division
71 Infanterie
Division
79 Infanterie
Division
305 Infanterie
Division
76 Infanterie
Division
295 Infanterie
Division
XXII
Panzer
Division
SOVIET CARDS
170 Rifle
Division
186 Rifle
Division
183 Rifle
Division
295 Rifle
Division
3 Tank
Corp
181 Rifle
Division
61 Rifle
Division
174 Rifle
Division
13 Guards
Rifle
Division
32 Tank
Corp
16 Motorised
Division
170 Rifle
Division
117 Rifle
Division
76 Rifle
Division
8 Tank
Corp
154 Rifle
Division
Koluch Stalingrad
Volga
Soviet last stand
Morozvsk
Axis last stand
Scenarios 2
18
EASTERN FRONT: OPERATION TITAN.

GERMAN PLAYER

GERMAN BRIEFING

In the aftermath of the Battle of Stalingrad you have been forced to withdraw westward into new de-
fensive positions. The Soviet forces facing you are part of the Front that surrounded and destroyed
6th Army at Stalingrad, and it is believed that they were seriously weakened during the battle. It is
expected that they will mount an all-out attack on your front-line positions in the very near future.

Orders:

Using the forces at your disposal you are to:

1. Hold your front-line positions.
2. Destroy any Soviet attacks.
3. Ensure that no enemy troops threaten the occupied city of Norwosygorsk.

Forces

You have the following forces at your disposal:

384. Infanterie-Division
389. Infanterie-Division
15. Luftwaffe Field-Division
Panzer Grenadier Division (Reinforcement second day).
Panzer Division (Reinforcement third day).

German player is allowed up to one air-strikes per turn that can be used against any enemy unit.

Enemy intentions and forces:

It is understood that the Soviet forces facing you are mostly new recruits brought in to replace the
massive losses suffered during the battles around Stalingrad. They will be inexperienced but also
very aggressive, and you can expect that they will fight to the last man.
15. Luftwaffe
Field-Division
384. Infanterie
Division
389. Infanterie
Division
66 Army
Front Line
M
i
n
e
f
i
e
l
d
s

M
i
n
e
f
i
e
l
d
s

Scenarios 3a
Norwosygorsk
19
EASTERN FRONT: OPERATION TITAN.

SOVIET PLAYER

Soviet Briefing

In the aftermath of the Battle of Stalingrad the German forces facing you have been forced to wi-
thdraw westward into new defensive positions. They are demoralised and have little fight left in them.
STAVKA has decided to mount a series of co-ordinated attacks along a wide front to push them fur-
ther back and to break through the defensive barrier so that the enemys front-line units can be sur-
rounded and destroyed. Your own troops are battle -hardened and have been re-equipped since ta-
king part in the battles around Stalingrad.

Orders:

Using the forces at your disposal you are to:

1. Break through the German front-line by the end of Day 1.
2. Exploit the breach and surround and destroy the German front-line units by the end of Day 2.
3. Recapture the city of Norwosygorsk by the end of Day 3.

Forces

You have the following forces at your disposal:

66 Army:

91
st
Tank Brigade, 121
st
Tank Brigade, 64
th
Rifle Division, 99
th
Rifle Division, 116
th
Rifle Division, 22-
6
th
Rifle Division (rinforzo al 2 giorno), 299
th
Rifle Division (Reinforcement second day), 343
rd
Rifle
Division (Reinforcement third day), 7 Artillery Division (Reinforcement third day).

Soviet player is allowed up to two air-strikes per turn that can be used against any enemy unit.

Enemy intentions and forces:

It is understood that the German forces facing you are mostly new recruits and untried in battle, but
you can expect that they will fight to the bitter end. They have constructed a series of defensive posi-
tions that are protected by minefields.
15. Luftwaffe
Field-Division
384. Infanterie
Division
389. Infanterie
Division
66 Army
Front Line
M
i
n
e
f
i
e
l
d
s

M
i
n
e
f
i
e
l
d
s

Scenarios 3b
Norwosygorsk
20
BATTLE OF PROKOROVKA,
1943.

Background

The German invasion of Russia ground to a halt
after the harsh winter of 1941. By 1943 the Ger-
man Army was on the brink of disaster. The Rus-
sians had stopped the German at Stalingrad and
the Russian Army was ready for an offensive.
Hitler decided to initiate a massive armoured as-
sault before the Allies could open a new front to
the West. The Russians double-guessed the Ger-
man attack at Kursk and prepared the battlefield,
organising a huge reserve force. When the ger-
man attack against the Russians petered out, the
Russians were immediately ready to counter-
attack and begin an advance that was to end with
the taking of Berlin. The Battle of Prokhorovka,
towards the end of the Kursk campaign (5th-13th
July 1943), was the largest tank battle in history.

German order of battle

II SS Panzer Corps

1st SS Panzer Division (Leibstandarte Adolph
Hitler): 1 HQ, 2 Recon, 2 Tank, 1 Heavy Tank
(Tigre), 4 Motorised Infanterie, 1 Artillery, 1 Artil-
lery (88mm) 1 Self Propelled Gun (Artillery).

2nd SS Panzer Divison (Das Reich):
1 HQ, 2 Recon, 2 Tank, 1 Heavy Tank (Tigre), 4
Motorised Infanterie, 1 Artillery, 1 Artillery
(88mm), 1 Self Propelled Gun (Artillery).

Soviet order of battle

5 Guard Tank Army

Guards Tank Corps: 1 HQ, 1 Recon, 2 Tank, 1 Heavy
Tank, 4 Motorised Infanterie, 2 Artillery, 1 Self Propel-
led Gun (Artillery).

18th Tank Corps: 1 HQ, 1 Recon, 3 Tank, 4 Foot Infan-
terie, 3 Artillery.

29th Tank Corps: 1 HQ, 1 Recon, 3 Tank, 4 Foot Infan-
terie, 3 Artillery.

Scenario basis and terrain

The game length is 15 turns starting with German
turn 1 and ending with Soviet turn 15. Terrain
features are as per scenario map (60 X 36
150cm X 90cm). Woods and village provide soft
cover to infantry.

Victory Conditions

Each player gets 3 Victory Point (VPs) for every
Heavy Tank unit destroyed; 2 Victory Points for
each Tank or Artillery (88mm) destroyed; and one
Victory Point for every other type of enemy unit
destroyed. If there are less than ten VP difference
between the totals then the game is a DRAW;
between 5 and 9 is a VICTORY and a difference
greater than 10 is a DECISIVE VICTORY. All the
Dispersed units that were waiting to come back
as Replacements are considered automatically
Destroyed, i.e. all units that have not been repla-
ced at the end of the established number of turns
and are still Dispersed are considered Destroyed.

Deployment
and
Scenario
Map
Scenarios 4
Woods
VillageSupply base
Hill
21
JSBUSCHENSKI, 24th August
1942.
Background

The Savoia Cavalleria was one of two Italian cav-
alry regiments committed to the defence of the
Don River line as the Axis advance into Russia
reached its limits in the late summer of 1942.
When the town of Jsbuschenski was threatened
by Soviet troops in regimental strength the Savoia
was ordered to attack, and as a consequence,
launched the last great cavalry charge in the his-
tory of warfare.


The game is played over fifteen turns. The Rus-
sian and Italian objectives are to gain control of
the Jsbuschenski road by physically holding more
of it than their adversaries at the end of the fifteen
turn. The initial start lines of the two sides are
represented by trenches (marked on the map). A
maximum of the two squadrons of Italian cavalry,
one Russian battalion and all guns may begin the
game dug in on these lines. No air force.
Terrain features are as per scenario map (60 X
36 150cm X 90cm). Woods and village provide
soft cover to infantry. Units on road +5cm or 2.

Italian order of battle

Savoia Cavalleria

2 HQ, 8 Cavalry, 1 Recon, 1 Self Propelled Gun
(Artillery), 2 Motorised Foot.

All Italian units (elite) have the saving throw: 5+.


812 Infantry Regiment

1 HQ, 16 Foot Infanterie, 1 Artillery (76,2mm)), 1
Regimental Mortar (81mm mortars).

All Soviet units (poor) have the saving throw: 6.

Victory Conditions

Each player gets 2 Victory Points for each Cav-
alry, Mortar or Artillery destroyed; each Supply
base destroyed counts as ten VP's; and one Vic-
tory Point for every other type of enemy unit de-
stroyed. If there are less than 5 VP difference
Destroyed, i.e. all units that have not been re-
placed at the end of the established number of
turns and are still Dispersed are considered De-
stroyed.

Scenarios 5
Italian Dug in
Road
Wood
Hill
Supply base
Jsbuschenski
Hill
Soviet Dug in
Supply base
Deployment and Scenario Map
22
KURSK, 1943.

Background

A Russian salient west of Kursk, wich the defend-
ers held against converging German attacks be-
tween July 5 and 13, 1943, in the largest tank
battle in history.


IX Army:
10 Panzergrenadier division, 12 Panzerdivision.

XLI Panzer Corps:
18 Panzerdivision, 86 Infanterie Division,.

XLVI Corps:
31 Infanterie Division, 102 Infanterie Division.

XLVII Panzerkorps:
6 Infanterie Division, 2 Panzerdivision.


2Army Corp:
16 Tank Corps, 3 Tank Corps, 7 Guards Rifle
Division.

13 Army
5 Artillery Division, 8 Rifle Division, 70 Guards
Rifle Division.

70 Army:
102 Rifle Division, 106 Rifle Division, 175 Rifle
Division.


cover to infantry.

Victory Conditions

base destroyed counts as five VP's; and one Vic-
stroyed.
Deployment
and
Scenario
Map

Supply base

Road

Rail
Scenarios 6
Soviets deploy here
Germans deploy here
23
UKRAINE, 1944.

Background

A Russian salient west of Kursk, wich the defend-
ers held against converging German attacks be-
tween July 5 and 13, 1943, in the largest tank
battle in history.


6 Romanian Infantry and German Panzerdivi-
sion.


571st Shock Army:

5 Guards Tank Corps, 27 Guards Rifle Corps,
48 Rifle Corps.


cover to infantry.

Victory Conditions

base destroyed counts as five VP's; and one Vic-
stroyed.
Deployment
and
Scenario
Map

Supply base

Road

Rail
Scenarios 7
Soviets deploy here
Germans deploy here
Woods
Supply base
Woods
German
Panzer
Division
24
GERMAN ARMY, EASTERN FRONT.
Troops Spotting Range Saving throw Speed Points
Head Quarters (HQ)
Command Range: 30cm or 12"
15cm or 6 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 100
Reconnaissance (Motocycle) 22,5cm or 9" 15cm or 6" 6 22,5cm or 9" 45
Reconnaissance (Sdkfz 231/232) 22,5cm or 9" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 55
Foot Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 7,5cm or 3" 20
Motorised Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 30
Support Unit (MG) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 7,5cm or 3" 25
Support Unit (Mortar) 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 5+ 7,5cm or 3" 40
Light Panzer (Pz II) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 50
Medium Panzer (Pz IV) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 4+ 15cm or 6" 100
Heavy Panzer (Tiger) 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 3+ 10cm or 4" 180
Artillery (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 45cm or 18 6 15cm or 6" 135
Artillery 88mm (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 30cm or 12" 6 15cm or 6" 150
Self Propelled Gun (Fire and move). 15cm or 6" 30cm or 12 5+ 15cm or 6" 140
Anti-tank gun (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 80
Dive Bomber, Stuka (max 3) Aircraft 150
RUSSIAN ARMY, EASTERN FRONT.
Troops Spotting Range Saving throw Speed Points
Head Quarters (HQ)
Command Range: 22,5cm or 9"
15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6" 50
Reconnaissance 22,5cm or 9" 15cm or 6" 6 22,5cm or 9" 45
Foot Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 7,5cm or 3" 15
Motorised Infantry 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6" 40
Support Unit (MG) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 7,5cm or 3" 20
Support Unit (Mortar) 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 6 7,5cm or 3" 30
Light Panzer (T-26) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6" 30
Medium Panzer (T-35) 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 5+ 15cm or 6" 80
Heavy Panzer (Kv-1) 15cm or 6" 22,5cm or 9" 4+ 10cm or 4" 150
Artillery (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 45cm or 18 6 15cm or 6" 135
Anti-tank gun (Fire or move). 15cm or 6" 15cm or 6" 6 15cm or 6" 70
Dive Bomber (max 3) 150 Aircraft
25
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
2
GAME PHILOPHY
3
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
3
MOSCOW AND ROSTOV: AUTUMN 1941
4
SOVIET COUNTER-OFFENSIVE: WINTER 1941 - 1941
4
BASING
9
MINIATURE
8
BATTLE SET-UP
10
TURN SEQUENCE
11
HEADQUARTERS (HQ)
11
MOVEMENT
11
FIRING
11
SAVING THROW
12
GERMAN STUKAS & BRITISH AIR FORCE
12
VICTORY CONDITIONS
12
MINEFIELDS
13
DUG IN
13
ITALIAN PROBLEMS
14
ORGANIZATION
14
UNITS
15
SCENARIO: EASTERN FRONT CAMPAIGN.
16
SCENARIO: STALINGRAD 1943.
17
SCENARIO: OPERATION TITAN. GERMAN PLAYER.
18
SCENARIO: OPERATION TITAN. SOVIET PLAYER.
19
SCENARIO: BATTLE OF PROKOROVKA, 1943.
20
SCENARIO: JSBUSCHENSKI, 24th August 1942.
21
SCENARIO: KURSK, 1943.
22
GERMAN ARMY AND SOVIET ARMY, EASTERN FRONT.
23

26

DESERT WAR, 1940 - 1943.

EASTERN FRONT, 1941 - 1945.

ITALIAN FRONT, 1943 - 1945.

WESTERN FRONT, 1944 - 1945.

PACIFIC, 1941 - 1945.


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