German Commentary

The Germans face a difficult task since the Soviets have attacked first. Once they have weathered the first blow they must regroup and attempt to smash the Soviets. How easy this may be depends on how the Soviets actually structured their assault. If they have not involved Hungary, there will be two separate fronts. This poses a completely different set of strategic problems than if they have attacked Hungary as well. I will confine my commentary to the two-front situation faced in this game.

From the German point of view, the only real questions are how to deploy your armor and how much to send to Romania. The panzers should operate in mutually supporting pairs of corps to take advantage of adjacent holes in the Soviet line. This minimizes the probability of a successful counterattack.

As Flavio has mentioned, the Soviets retain beaucoup counterattack capabilities since their c/m units don't die in droves like they normally do in FitE/SE. In this game, the Soviets chose to counterattack panzer spearheads by pinching off the stem and isolating the point of the penetration and hoping for a DR with no units to fall back on to. It worked once because the stem was only 1/7th ATEC-and 2 panzer divisions bit the dust as a result. It should have worked another couple of times, but good luck intervened on the side of the Germans.

The point is that you must be very cautious when exploiting to lever the Soviets out of their line. You should also count on Soviet counterattacks at 3-1 (-1) aimed at exchanging against your panzers, a trade any Red Army tank-man will take. With this in mind, you must destroy as much Soviet armor as possible to deny him the ability to do this.

When exploiting, it is best to have two routes of retreat. It may very well be advisable not to exploit any further than the hex gained during combat, unless there is something juicy out there with your name on it and no Soviet c/m units nearby. "Nearby" includes within easy rail distance.

The Romanian front is very constricted by the Carpathians and the two rivers around Galati. It would be very easy to hold onto a line from the Carpathians to the Danube, but you are supposed to be on the offensive, albeit one somewhat delayed by the Soviet attack. Sending the two panzer divisions and a motorized division south will get something started down there. But more would be very handy.

I ended up with two full panzer corps in Bessarabia, including the Romanians, and may not have had enough. 11th Army needs help and can get it directly if the rail line into Hungary is not owned by the Soviets as it was in our game. This stretches the Soviets out more, as they have two micro-fronts to deal with. This is a problem since the mountains provide a refuge for those Axis troops that the Soviets cannot attack initially.

A strong attack must be made on the flanks of the Lwow salient as it offers opportunities that are only equaled by the Bialystok salient in the AGC area. In addition it offers the possibility of dislocating any Soviet thrusts into Romania or Hungary, by cutting them off at the base. Mind you, don't expect much in the way of exploitation in any of these areas-the only major German breakthrough resulted from bad luck on one of Flavio's attacks. I concentrated lots of tanks down here to do this and it worked, or at any rate I got Flavio worried about the idea.

Forget the Pripet. I had the little- known German security corps of 3 security divisions and 3 security regiments in this region so the good stuff could go somewhere useful (no partisan activity in their rear areas). Enough said.

Crush the Bialystok pocket. Shouldn't be hard to do, but don't actually expect to pocket much. However, you'll kill a lot of Russians while forcing them back. Again, don't expect to go anywhere in a hurry. I never did. You should probably move some of your panzers north once you've cleared the salient. But keep some panzers in the area to threaten the Soviets in this sector.

AGN needs reinforcements since it will be well hammered by the Soviets due to the relatively open terrain there. However, that same terrain is nice to counterattack through since it allows for unencumbered panzer movements.

The poor rail network could possibly be profitably bombed at Riga and Wilno if you're inclined to risk aircraft on chancy die rolls, which I wasn't. In retrospect, maybe I should have been. Be sure to send some panzers up here, since Riga is the only worthwhile objective north of the Pripet and a more cohesive armored force than I managed might have been able to take it before mud.

The air game is very annoying for the Germans because they often have to fly into the teeth of Soviet fighters and they are often outnumbered. It is not advisable to fly Stukas on a mission if they can be intercepted directly. I tried it once and the I-16s took on the Messerschmitts while the MiG-3s shot down 3 Stukas in one air battle.

The large numbers of Soviet fighters, crummy or not, inhibit German air operations because most of the ground support aircraft will not penetrate past the 1-16s. In our game there were 16 fighters in the Lwow area, and I only flew one air mission there. I couldn't deal with the possibility that they might decide to intercept the more weakly escorted mission. An unanticipated effect of the lack of the Luftwaffe surprise air strike was that many, many I-16s survived to be shot down with attendant GA losses. The Soviets had about 20 GA extra by the end of Sep II and nothing to activate except transports.

Soviet Commentary

The Soviets possess three possible strategic options. The first is the one I chose--the conservative "small" solution. The idea behind this option is to reinforce all the MDs relatively equally, with more going into Odessa than the others. It necessarily ignores taking Bucharesti/Ploesti, since the forces required will be spread along the front. I assume, however, that even if the forces are available, the Soviets cannot take Romania out since the Germans will: a) react with sufficient forces to prevent this, and b) crush the denuded central front.

The small solution is to destroy the German 11th Army and as many Romanians as possible while fighting a fierce holding action in the center. The Kiev MD in particular must be held since a penetration here tends to dislocate your Romanian assault. The order of the day is attrition--kill, kill, kill.

Not much ground will be gained, but little will be lost, and for every hex gained by the Germans you must extract an exorbitant price.

The 1941 Soviets simply do not possess the quality (in my opinion) for a sustained offensive, but their counterattacking capability is immense and their numerous armored formations can pick and choose the time and place to make their presence felt.

Bucharesti/Ploesti can probably be dismissed as an El Dorado. The rail lines needed to logistically support a drive deep into Romania lie in the llth Army sector, and even under the best circumstances it takes 2-3 turns to destroy this army. By that time, the Germans will have reinforced Romania and can hole up behind the many rivers and mountains.

The second option is to massively reinforce Odessa even to the extent of diminishing the other MDs and go for a more fullblooded assault into Romania. This option forgoes doing much offensively in the center, and basically throws away the surprise turn except in Romania.

I don't think that this is a very good strategy because even an immense attack into Romania is not likely to gain needed objectives. It also largely abandons an active defense in the center, resulting in a quicker crumbling of your forces there. A static defense in Poland is insufficient-but a static defense is all you'll be able to prosecute if this option is chosen.

The third and riskiest option is the Grand Slam--attacking both Hungary and Romania. In theory, at least, you should be able to seize vital rail lines, smash the small Hungarian forces on the border, and gain a strong flank position against the Romanians before the Germans can respond. However, this type of mobile situation (at the tactical level, any way) tends to play into German hands. It also lengthens the front, thus lowering unit density, and requires a further weakening of the center. Failure to win a quick victory in Romania could prove disastrous. This situation requires further playtesting to be fully appreciated, and it certainly promises to yield a wild game.

Tactically, the Soviet player must husband his armor. It represents both the shield and the sword of the Red Army. During the surprise turn, every c/m unit on the board should be doing something useful. Those outside Romania should use their limited exploitation to retreat behind an infantry screen. After the first turn, the rules regarding Soviet mobility limitations go into effect, meaning that Soviet armor thrown into attacks must remain in place and will likely be annihilated in the following turn. So choose your attacks carefully.

Standard Europa East-Front play is to whittle away the Axis infantry and ignore the panzers. In Operation Groza it is much the reverse. First of all, the narrow frontage prevents any decisive whittling of Axis infantry. Secondly, Axis advances will consist of Panzer wedges aimed at dislocating your defensive lines. Frequently, the infantry will simply not be in places were they will be very vulnerable to counterattacks.

Thus, successfully waging an active defense means counterattacking the panzers. A careless or overconfident Axis player might only give himself a one-hex retreat route. If so, take that one hex and attempt to destroy the entire surrounded panzer stack, thus punishing him for his boldness. Do not be afraid of low-odds attacks. My standard attack was at 3-1 (-1), which has a two-thirds chance of success of some kind, and if you make many such attacks across the front, the odds are that you will severely maul the German somewhere. Time and again I forestalled an imminent German breakthrough with a well-placed counterattack, and was able to restore my initial defensive position.

Use the AEC/ATEC rules to your advantage. Make combined-arms attacks consisting of 1/7 armor so that you can lose the foot soldiers rather than the armor. This makes even more sense when attacking German panzer units, where at best all you can gain is a -1 anyway, so beefing up your armor proportion is unnecessary.

Losses will be severe. However, if you can make most of your losses infantry, you need not worry overmuch. I had a large infantry reserve in both units and RPs until the end of August. Just make sure that your rail lines are intact and keep the reinforcements flowing westward. Losing 200+ points a turn hurts, yes, but if you can dish out about 70 points in return, consider it a profitable exchange for the Soviets, who can well afford a 3-to-1 exchange rate. The Germans cannot.

Finally, a few words on the VVS. It stinks. But it is numerous, and as Lenin said, quantity has a quality of its own. This becomes important on the defense, where thick fighter cover can severely restrict the number of Luftwaffe missions. Even an 1-16 can shoot down a Stuka, after all. Offensively, however, expect small numbers of Luftwaffe fighters to frequently and successfully bypass your escorts and blow away your pretty and rare Pe-2s, Sturmoviks, and IL-4s. Don't worry too much though, because there's nothing you can do about it.

Conclusion

In our opinion, Operation Groza is a magnificent scenario. The tactical and strategic problems inherent in a 1941 Soviet offensive offer unique challenges to the Europa player, challenges demanding solutions often contrary to conventional wisdom about East Front operations. Jason and I are still arguing about the Grand Slam scenario, the attack on both Hungary and Romania: I'm dubious about it, he sees possibilities ' We'll have to switch sides and try it out for ourselves in the future, I suppose. In any case, play the scenario and enjoy yourselves as thoroughly as we did.

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