...and no, I am not referring to the online media frenzies over all things related to pandemic relaxing, mid term European War or new excitement over collapsing / resurging / realigning governments and inflationary 'excitement' (delete as applicable - I'm sure there will be media 'reality checks' for us all, so that we don't have to do our own research on such things).
Indeed...I am referring to 'Operation Typhoon' the 1941 German drive on Moscow, which Norm recently played out (in terms of the GDW/Victory Point Games Army level game) over on his excellent blog - Battlefields & Warriors.
Now, since I am always interested in a smallish map that allows me to co-ordinate larger divisional sized campaign fights for 'Field of Battle ww2', I went hunting for the game on Boardgame Geek ...and found this link to a 'play on line' version: https://oberlabs.com/b4m/
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| The Drive on Moscow - a nice journey through light traffic...? |
Each turn is a week - and army units are Corps
Needless to say I was hooked - though of course ended up in defeat - twice!
It does give a great game, and since there are only 7 turns, and there is a bit of 'movement in the rasputitza' issue mid game, it's a tough ask for the Germans. I am now on the search for similar GDW programmed modules. Very impressive stuff here.
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| the intro screen - I did make the mistake a couple of times of playing against myself rather than selecting the AI - which will from here on be known as SKYNET ...grrr |
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| Rules and turn sequence is solid, like all GDW rules dna ...Soviets can use rail movement as a benefit; Germans get panzer advance as an extra move for armoured units. |
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| Prepping the thrust for armour is actually quite critical in the early turns...as I rapidly learned to my cost. |
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| It's still a long way to Moscow, and the Sovs (the damned SKYNET AI) will get reinforcements. |
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| A breakout, but not as exciting as it seems, as mud will hit soon. |
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| October 10th - Turn 2 - Germans hit and take first line of defences. |
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| Movement Phase on Nov 1st - and the mud hits. Highly mobile Wehrmacht units...not liking the mud. |
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| By November 23rd however, things are looking up - the problem is that it is now turn 6 - and the game ends on turn 7... Sovs (the damned SKYNET AI) still hold Tula and downtown Moscow. |
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| German's last movement phase. It wasn't going to end well at all... |
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| Red Army wins. A tough ask; I'll play the Soviets next time and watch what SKYNET does ;) |
A great version of a classic I think - certainly, the gameplay was very tense. Worth a look...
Addendum...Addendum ...Breaking News
I actually caught a break ...and beat the machine ;)
Darren thanks for the shout. The online game is a superb representation of the boardgame. I would heartily recommend playing the Soviets …. Twice! That way, unlucky / lucky die rolls should even out and at least one of the games will give you a good indication of what the Germans need to do on turn 1 to hopefully get a winning momentum going.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm, and thanks for bringing it to our attention. The pc version is very addictive, and yes, I must try the Soviet option to see how 'skynet' plays the German side :) I played a third time there, and lost Tula on the last game turn, while attacking Moscow at a 1:1 in turn 6 . So finely balanced, it hurts LOL
DeleteThanks for the game info. Now, I need not dig through the game closet in search of my copy.
DeleteBreaking news - I've been playing all afternoon and the Germans just captured Moscow - see the addendum hehe
DeleteCongratulations on taking Moscow! Now, can you repeat this feat?
Deletenot likely ... I need to have a long rest first HAHA
DeleteInteresting gamette covering a vast campaign in playable format.
ReplyDeletePretty abstract but with enough historical flavour to pull one in and satisfy.
Games that try to cover Ost Front with lots of detail or at low level become almost unplayable in my experience.
It definitely focuses the mind on cutting off ZOCs and supply routes, though I would say exploiting the 'panzer advance' advantage is critical, otherwise it become a slogging match the Soviets will inevitably win.
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