Saturday 10th April 2010 game: Ostfront 1944

[Martin]

Mark Jarvis and I will be running an eastern front game in April. This will be an operational level game (ie each side will have several divisions or equivalent sized units).

Turns will probably be daily, and we will be dealing with a campaign over a wide area of the front, possibly lasting some weeks.

Players will operate within a heirarchy, as in a traditional kriegsspiel, but will be dealing with new challenges, such as maintaining a frontline, managing reserves, and dealing with intelligence. Logistics will, of necessity, be included, but in a relatively easy fashion. Senior commanders will have a chief of staff to assist them.

To make this work, we will need quite a few players. Ideally about 15. Our new venue can accommodate this very well.

More details will be available nearer the time, but I would like to get an indication of interest in the meantime. Please let me know if you are thinking of coming, and whether you have any preference for role - eg senior commander, chief of staff, subordinate commander, umpire.

Regards

Martin

[hammurabi70]

Soviet Front Command would do nicely!

[Martin]

If you're a definite, I reckon we can manage that.

Martin

[hammurabi70]

I have made the booking in my diary so as definite as can be.

In the 1990s I had a one-day system for doing summer 42 (Stalingrad) to summer 43 (Kursk) for the entire Eastfront. You are not aiming for anything quite so grand?

[Martin]

Not quite so grand, but we're still talking pretty large forces over a wide area of front.

The situation is hypothetical, but the capabilities of both sides will be based on their strengths & weaknesses at this point in 1944.

Scenario is fairly close to completion. Mark & I will be discussing it next week, subject to weather of course. How very eastern front!

I will post a synopsis of the general situation (together with a map) here at some point after that.

Full briefings will be sent out well before the game, and both teams will have an opportunity to discuss the strategic situation between themselves by email, if they wish. Communication during the game will be slightly more restricted, but still somewhat better than in most k/spiels, given radio communications etc.

Martin

[MJ1]

Just spent several hours with Martin discussing this and I am in awe at his level of research and how well it is all hanging together at this early stage. If there was one game this year I would want to play it would be this. We are doing are best to ensure that it plays quickly (players willing) and Martin will be posting more details to explain. It will be a tough game for both sides and should have plenty for all players to cope with. I have even come away with a reading list so that I can catch up with Martin's research...

[Martin]

Yes. Excellent session Mark, and thanks for putting in the time. Quite excited abouyt this game.

Martin

[Martin]

Here is the General Idea for April's WW2 game.....

It is March 1944. A series of Russian winter offensives have forced the German army out of most of the Ukraine, and they are now approaching Poland and Rumania.

Strong Russian forces are advancing on Zhitomir, to the west of Kiev.

Further south, the Russians spearheads have outrun their supplies, and this has presented the German Army Group South with the opportunity to counter-attack. Using additional panzer divisions from France, the 4th and 1st Panzer Armies encircled Russian tank and mechanised troops at Vinnitsa almost two weeks ago.

Even further south, Russian forces have crossed the Bug river upstream from Nikolaiev and are advancing slowly towards Odessa. German troops in this sector are being reinforced with units of the 3rd Rumanian Army, which has been re-trained and re-equipped since Stalingrad.

Martin

[click on the map for a view of the front line]

[hammurabi70]

Just spent several hours with Martin discussing this and I am in awe at his level of research and how well it is all hanging together at this early stage. If there was one game this year I would want to play it would be this. We are doing are best to ensure that it plays quickly (players willing) and Martin will be posting more details to explain. It will be a tough game for both sides and should have plenty for all players to cope with. I have even come away with a reading list so that I can catch up with Martin's research...

I guess this will be on the list then:

Glantz D
Red Storm Over the Balkans: The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania, Spring 1944 (2006)
ISBN 0-7006-1465-6

[Martin]

'Red Storm Over the Balkans' is typical Glantz. Data-heavy and very dense narrative. If you like his normal stuff, you will like this. I would say it's towards the more detailed end of his spectrum - which means it's extremely detailed. I did find it interesting but, even for an OOB saddo like me, it was hard-going.

I'm afraid I could only recommend it on the basis that there is nothing else in English on that campaign.

I should say that our April game is a different and hypothetical situation.

Martin

[hammurabi70]

I am a keen Glantz reader so it should be exciting stuff for me.

Naturally I would expect differences from history in a scenario anyway. You can never be sure the exact nature of the OOB a designer has set for a situation, the capabilities of the units within the framework of the rules, the detailed objectives and the intelligence available.

[Martin]

Yes, I read a lot of his stuff too. Whether I do it keenly though, I'm not so sure. But so often he's the only game in town. At the moment I'm working through his 1942 trilogy, where the sheer extent of front has forced him up a level of detail.

I tend to think he's better when he works in tandem with Jonathan House.

[Martin]

Design of the scenario is nearing completion.

I have produced a guide to the armies involved, with an indication of how we will deal with them in the game (Word doc). I am trying to find a way of posting a link to that here, but in the meantime please email if you would like a copy.

Martin

[Martin]

And here, courtesy of Richard Madder, is a link to it.

Martin

http://www.kriegsspiel.org.uk/images/stories/Notes/Armies%20on%20the%20Eastern%20Front%201944.doc

[Richard]

I am definitely interested, possibly as a senior commander; my preference would be German but I am not fussy.

Where is the new venue?


Thanks ...

Richard