The 1943 Scenario published in The Urals is a major role reversal from earlier scenarios for the Germans. Any German player who goes into this scenario with the attitude that he is there to take names and kick some butt is going to end up with T-34 treadmarks all over his face. The Germans have many problems in that they have a very long front to hold and not much with which to hold it and are facing a vastly more dangerous Red Army than the one that wiped out the 6th Army three months previously.

The Soviets can annihilate any non-mech hex that they can attack from three hexsides, almost regardless of terrain. I've seen them take Dnepropetrovsk from a 15-point infantry corps across a major river in a full city hex that had also been fortified. The combination of artillery divisions and the Red Air Force is truly lethal. Not to mention the swarms of tank and mechanized corps that cause much grief to any infantry formations deployed in ordinary terrain.

All is not entirely doom and gloom, however, since the summer upgrades give the Germans some panzer units that are enough to make any would-be Guderian salivate. I've killed a 54-point stack of Soviets with them by attacking from three hexes.

How do you do such a thing, you might ask? Well, take 3 maximal panzer stacks, averaging some 65 points apiece, and add in most of the Luftwaffe for 80 to 100 additional points, and make sure that the Soviets are in clear terrain.

Don't forget to add a major dash of luck since this is a somewhat risky attack at odds of 5-or-6:1 and -1 to the roll. I destroyed 3 Guards mechanized corps, a 9-6 artillery division, three c/m nondivisional units, and two motorized rocket brigades, thus delivering a little doom of my own.

The panzers are all well and very good, but Germany will live and die by its infantry in this scenario. This is a major problem for the Axis since German unit density averages between 15 to 20 defense points per hex frontwide, making the Germans vulnerable just about everywhere the panzers aren't, excepting in swamp and forest hexes. The Soviets will have some problems if they can't attack from 3 hexes--they can still attack if they want to, but it takes more in terms of the best Soviet units.

On the other hand, a Soviet attack from 3 hexes pretty well guarantees that the hex will fall, barring extraordinary German defensive measures and/or terrain. The solution to this problem is to make a major effort to straighten out the line so that it follows the hexgrain. This means abandoning all salients, unless there is beautiful defensive terrain there (e.g., the area south of Leningrad), and positioning all bends in the line on the best defensive terrain available, such as city, forest, or swamp hexes. Now for some more specific advice and warnings regarding Axis operations on der Ostfront.

Initial required losses should be satisfied by eliminating units with low mobility such as static divisions and ones that are replaced for free like the penal regiments. Don't kill off too many security troops as there are lots of partisans around. Generally, forts should be placed along the line that you intend to hold.

Don't bother to fortify places like the Oranienbaum Pocket that you will quickly capture. Army Group North's (AGN's) front line should be fortified from the Baltic down to Army Group Center's (AGC's) boundary, including as many swamps as possible, with the exception of the corner hex (2A:1228) on the Volkhov River which probably can't be held. AGC's fort line should bend around the Velikie Luki salient southeastwards through the forest hex (2A:3530) east of Smolensk to the woods around Bryansk. Bryansk southeastwards to the boundary with Army Group South (AGS) can be fortified as needed later.

The paltry number of forts given to AGS should still suffice to start the KharkovMariupol fort line. Army Group A's (AGA's) forts should be placed to protect your withdrawal here, but do fortify the Kerch straits crossing point. Unfortunately, you will be doing many such withdrawals, so you might as well get used to it. All initial resource points should be spent in AGS finishing the Kharkov-Mariupol fort line and starting the intermediate fort line between the Dnepr and the Don Rivers.

The Arctic is a lost cause no matter what you do. If the Soviet player wants to knock Finland out of the war a year early, there's not a thing you can do about it. The strategic initiative lies with him and he can easily spare the troops to make it happen. Indeed, I've seen Soviet ski brigades within a couple of hexes of Narvik and a tank army 2 hexes from Helsinki by the end of August.

AGN is a different case entirely since it has the best ratio of troops to frontage of any Army Group. That can even be improved if the Oranienbaum pocket, including Kronshtadt, can be taken. This is made possible by transferring all the railroad guns and siege artillery to AGN, then positioning them so that they threaten both the protruding hex of Leningrad (2A:1031) and Kronshtadt itself (i.e., within one or two hexes of the German lines adjacent to these targets).

On April I, reduce the Oranienbaum pocket to just the hex of Kronshtadt (it is rarely defended heavily by the Soviets who prefer to concentrate their forces in more critical positions like Leningrad itself). On the other hand, if the Soviets have been somewhat careless in garrisoning Leningrad and the allocation of the fleet's gunfire, you might attempt to storm the protruding hex of Leningrad since you can attack it from 4 hexes. You can easily generate more than 100 attack points from readily available assets in AGN and AGC. That, plus plentiful Luftwaffe support, can give you an attack force of over 150 points, thus posing a serious threat to his garrison.

However, the formal, system-wide adoption of the -2 modifier for mud is imminent and will render the Leningrad option impracticable against almost any Soviet defense. Regarding other units, your c/m units, with the exception of the flak units, should be railed south since there is little scope for panzer operations in the swamps of AGN. At the same time, all siege and railroad artillery units should be sent to aid in the assaults on Leningrad and Kronshtadt, or at least threaten those areas.

Be wary of Soviet attacks in the clear terrain south of Lake Ilmen and be sure to garrison hex 2A:1831 because river flotillas can provide some very nasty surprises. Similarly, be sure to protect your railroad guns with one non-artillery unit to prevent marauding river flotillas and partisans from destroying them (very expensive!). The hex between Leningrad and Kronshtadt (2A:0932) is locked in Soviet ZOCs and needs to be very strong to make the chance of a DR result from a Soviet attack negligible.

As the only hex adjacent to both cities, it is an extremely handy assembly point when concentrating siege forces, threatening both Kronshtadt and Leningrad without tipping your hand. Also, be prepared to see some large tank units in Leningrad itself because the Soviets may attempt to keep you off balance by attacking you with a tank army in a place they think you won't expect. However, in one game where they tried that, the one panzer corps summoned north ended up overrunning its way into the central hex of Leningrad before being crushed the next Soviet turn when the VVS darkened the skies over the city.

As the game progresses, it will be necessary to shorten your line to release troops for other fronts and to replace your own losses. In fact, I often call AGN the Bank of the Wehrmacht as it is the only army group that is able to do this without suffering unduly. The easiest and best place to do this is between Leningrad and the Volkhov River where you are blessed with numerous swamp and forest hexes to aid in your defense. You will need to have your construction troops building forts in the woods and clear hexes behind your front line from the first turns of the game to prepare for the inevitable.

I do not recommend fortifying the swamp and forest hexes since construction engineers and resource points are needed much more desperately down south with all that horrible clear and open terrain.

AGC has lots of troops but so much frontage to cover that it is difficult to give any concrete advice. The Soviets can attack nearly everywhere along the front. However, experience has shown that there are four main axes of Soviet attacks. The bad news is that these run nearly the entire length of the front, but it is usually difficult for the Soviets to attack along all four. The most dangerous is the attack west or south westwards out of the Velikie Luki salient. This is problematic because it stretches the thin German line even thinner and the terrain is not very defensible. Next is the area northeast of Smolensk, which is of limited value because of the defensible terrain close behind the front line, but dangles the attractive plum of Smolensk.

Next is the area east of Roslavi, which I feel is a very dangerous axis because the terrain behind the front line is merely woods or clear and, in combination with a thrust from Velikie Luki, offers the chance of pocketing a decent portion of AGC.

Lastly, there is the drive on Bryansk. This is pretty much a side show because the defensive terrain is pretty decent and in such depth that it is difficult to perform any sort of envelopment.

This area is often used by the Soviets to distract attention from other, more dangerous, threats. The area south of the Bryansk woods to Surny should be ceded to AGS since all that clear terrain should logically be defended under unified command.

The deployment of the panzers really depends on what the Soviets are up to, but I recommend that at least two panzer corps be deployed between Bryansk and Velikie Luki. Any remaining c/m units should be transferred to AGS because they need them more than AGC does. You can console yourself with the knowledge that while you have at least some defensive terrain available, AGS lacks even that. Concentrate a strong force around Velikie Luki because they will be seeing a lot of action.

Hopefully you will be able to stack 2 divisions per hex, except in swamp and forest hexes where you will have to go with smaller stacks. You can't stack two high everywhere. You can amuse yourself at the start of the game by occupying every hex of the corner of the Moscow Military District, thus wiping out 2 dice plus of partisans since they won't have a hex to set up in.

Evacuate the Orel salient the first turn. You'll probably lose the units on the point of the bulge, but it's much better to run early; before the Soviets can envelope the whole thing.. I tend to park worthless divisions in the furthest reaches of the Orel bulge, such as security types, but not too many since they'll quickly get crunched by the Soviets. You could put in your most mud-mobile units, but I'm not sure they'd escape. However, it is imperative to demolish all air fields and rail lines that you possibly can, and this could cost you some units. The majority of the units in the bulge should be railed to safety around Bryansk on April I to give them time to reach their positions along the river south of Bryansk on April II.

The Soviets also have supply troubles around the SmolenskVyazma railroad and possibly around the tip of the Kursk bulge. If mud is rolled on April II, they will be at U-2 with their defense strengths halved, which offers the Germans the possibility of causing some mischief.

AGS has the most to do with the fewest units and is in the most open terrain of any army group. It had been pretty well shattered by the Soviet offensives after Stalingrad and you have the remnants. Fortunately, you've got a decent amount of armor, particularly after AGC transfers most of its panzers to you along with some extra territory. The panzers should be concentrated in a line from the river north of Surny to just north of Kharkov. Alternately, they could be deployed in two groups; one around Surny and the other between Stalino and the Don. The reinforcements from the Crimea should go to the Mius River line (4A:2722-2220).

This front is the most freewheeling in the scenario with the Soviets inexorably demolishing infantry corps and the panzers counterattacking any Soviet penetrations. Nonetheless, the trend is that the Germans will be failing back. I've only seen one exception--when the "windshield wiper of death" staved off disaster in the south. The windshield wiper of death was a line of 7 full strength panzer corps around Surny that dealt out death, destruction and despair to all that ventured within reach, including reinforced tank armies. (Whoever says there aren't morale effects in Europa never saw that game.)

That only happened because the Soviet commander in the south was exceedingly cautious and didn't stress the Germans enough defensively to overload the Wehrmacht. Also, it was the first time we'd played the scenario and we hadn't yet worked out the proper techniques for the Soviets to counter the German armored juggernaut. Joe Hayes's article elsewhere in this issue will explain how this is done.

The latest innovation in German defensive techniques is the intermediate fort line between the Dnepr and the Don, some 3 or 4 hexes behind the Kharkov-Mariupol line. Much of it can be built initially with your starting resource points, but all available construction units should be poised to complete it as quickly as possible. It has a multitude of benefits in that it shortens the line, stretches the Soviet lines of communications, and moves the front line out of range of most VVS fighter patrols which allows you to fly unopposed defensive air support missions. Finally, it creates a mobile situation which will allow the Germans to exploit any mistakes the Soviets may make in their advance.

After constructing the intermediate fort line, the next projects are fortifying the Dnepr, the gap from 4A:2429 southwest to the swamp in 4A:2932, and the river due west of Poltava. The question of which should be built first depends on the threat to the particular area by the various Soviet offensives. I think that the area south of the Dnepr bend, except for the coastal area which they can't supply unless they've deployed their truck down there, and the easternmost portion of the Dnepr bend are the most important if the panzers are concentrated around Poltava as they often are. The only drawback is that when the time comes to evacuate, some units will not be able to reach their next positions in a single move and could be destroyed in the open by Soviet armor.

7-point rearguards must be left behind to prevent this from happening. One of the good things about these staged withdrawals is that they can badly hamper the short-ranged VVS, buying you a turn or two of respite while the Soviets are building new airfields and repairing/ regauging rail lines simultaneously.

The Soviets are actually somewhat weak on the ground in the south at the beginning of the scenario. This is because a large portion of the Soviet forces are out of supply on April I as a result of the extensive German destruction of the rail net as they retreated from Stalingrad and the game, such as withdrawing some when the Germans are on the Volga, I've decided that the best way of simulating this is to require an NKVD unit to garrison every major city of the 1941 Soviet Union that is liberated from German occupation.

Multihex cities would require a garrison if the Germans conquered more than half of that city's hexes, rounding down. For example, a six hex city would not require a garrison if one hex had been captured by the Germans. For the '43 scenario place one NKVD unit in Rostov, and others will be required for Kharkov, Stalino, Zaporozhe, etc. as they are liberated.

I fully agree with Charles Sharp who said tha the Soviets should only be able to stack tank or mechanized corps three high if they are in a tank army, otherwise they should only be able to stack 2 high. The Soviets had major problems finding generals capable of employing massed tank corps with effect and this rule would reflect this problem. Currently players ahistorically mass their armor into some dozen tank armies. The Soviets simply weren't capable -of doing so. I must emphasize that this reflects Soviet command and control problems and limitations and doesn't reflect an anti-Soviet bias on my part.

The only minor problem I see is that the formation of the various tank armies must be tracked on the OB, for example, 6th Tank Army isn't formed until January '44. For the '43 scenario the Soviets have 5 Tank Armies available at start and 1 is received on Jan I 44.

The Soviets may make amphibious landings outside the 1939 borders of the Soviet Union on coastal hexes adjacent to the Black Sea and Arctic Ocean. They may not make any such landings on any coastal hexes adjacent to the Baltic Sea. Amphibious landings inside the 1939 Soviet Union are not otherwise affected. German and Finnish coastal defenses prevented any landings of any major size in the Baltic. The Soviet forces did make one landing in Lake Ladoga, but it was only on former Soviet territory north of the Svir. I've been unpleasantly surprised a couple of times by Soviet descents deep into my rear by river flotillas that they were not historically capable of doing.

The Germans should be able to disband all c/m units regardless of size so they can incorporate the sturmgeschbtz battalions into the panzer divisions as they did during this time (see Bryan Perrett's Knights of the Black Cross). Also, some sources suggest that the Germans converted most of the divisions in AGN and AGC to the 5-7-6 organization during the spring of 1942 to bring the units of AGS up to strength for the '42 summer offensive. That may not be correct, but I think that the date for reorganization should be much earlier than Jul 1 43.

Lastly, you shouldn't be able to accumulate naval repair points.

I've seen three hits on the Marat repaired immediately after it was damaged. This doesn't make sense. It is no easy thing to repair a battleship- just ask the American or British Navies.

You may or may not agree with my rules suggestions, but I would be interested to find out how they change the game. Please write to me care of the magazine if you have any comments from your own play. I've not playtested them fully because I play this scenario using the rules as written with Task Force Johnson at the Europa Demo.

In summary, this scenario is the most fun for both sides of any scenario for FitE/SE. I think that it favors the Soviets somewhat, but I urge you to find out for yourself. I bought The Urals because of this scenario and I've not regretted it at all.