The Soviet team hard at work: (left to right) Maurice Buttazoni, Joseph Vanden Borre, Bill Quoss, John Kisner, and Jeff Behan (photo by Chip Pharr)

The anticipated new edition of the game that started the OCS is definitely not your father's Guderian's Blitzkrieg. Yes, the drive for Moscow is here, with the Germans stretching their supply lines as they race against the weather and the Soviet reinforcements. But this new game offers much more. The map area is more than double that of the original GB, and the game's broadened scope includes not only the entire Typhoon operation but all the campaigning on that part of the East Front up to May 1943. Of course, the game's engine is the version 3.0 series rules set, which keeps things humming along.

A Hefty Package

GBII uses six maps. Three full-sized maps cover the area of GBI with another map further north, up to the south shore of Lake Illmen. The north two maps are shifted some hexes to the west to give more room for the Soviet counteroffensives. Three half-sized maps extend play east well beyond Moscow. The whole thing links with the north edge of the EatG maps, except for the area north of the right half of Map C in EatG. Those of you who have been to Homer may remember seeing the big map of Russia on the playtesting room wall, with the area to be covered by each game map sheet laid out on it. The master plan has everything connecting, with the long axis of each full-sized map sheet running east-west (Hube's Pocket makes a slight departure from the rule). But even before you see Army Group North, Case Blue, or Army Group South, you'll still have plenty of elbow room, especially when you link GBII and EatG.

The game covers from 1 October 1941 until May '43. It not only covers Typhoon, but also the Russian '41 counteroffensive, the Demyansk Pocket, the potential 1942 German summer offensive toward Moscow, and Operation Mars. Yes, that's right: you'll be getting units and scenarios to cover more than a year and a half's worth of campaigning on the Russian Front.

A New Look

A lot of progress has gone on, both in the OCS system design and in the available historical data, since the original GB came out eight years ago. Certainly materials from the Soviet archives are more accessible, and East Front scholarship has not stood still. (By the way, keep in mind the studies by David Glantz, available through The Gamers, to help fill your need for copious and detailed historical data.) Players familiar with GBI will find much additional material and fresh thinking in the new edition.

The Soviet OoB work is extensive and has been drawn from original Soviet sources. Lynn Brower and H. Kurt Gullies were instrumental in getting this enormous job done. Because of their efforts, this game presents a complete (and very large) OoB of all the Soviet units in this area through this significant time period. The Russians get a more substantial air force than in GBI and somewhat better units (as a whole) than before. They get NKVD to force the others to fight better, ski battalions, some rather bizarre tank units, including left-overs from the tank divisions, light tank guys, and even a battalion of Matilclas! They have airborne troops and the transports to use them. The Russians have Worker alert units they can generate for point defense (well, sort of) as well as to construct their own Moscow defenses. While the playtest map omitted the printed fortification seen in GBI, Dean is considering putting some map printed forts on the map. The Russians had some of these completed by the time the offensive began. Still, it's good to see the effect of the Russians running around like crazy building hedgehogs during the game. The German OoB is Dean's work and comes from Niehorster, Tessin, and German microfilms. The assorted reorganizations of the panzer troops are shown literally, as are the sometimes strange organizations of the battalions themselves. Units conform to the series standards set forth in EatG. The Germans get two companies of Brandenburger commandos (with special abilities) and even a company of captured T-34s.

The 1 October '41 start date shows Guderian as already having launched his offensive, but a variant will allow the German player to execute those moves for himself. The campaign setup also puts the bulk of 3 and 4 Pz Group in position to launch, rather than have them enter as reinforcements. The Germans will have an already critical supply/transport situation when the game begins and will have to launch the offensive on a shoestring. The progress of Army Group South along the southern map edge is identified by a marker, which shows where railroad is cut off for Russians use. The Germans have more options as the campaign progresses, including the ability to upgrade some of his PG regiments to halftrack status as the game goes along. He may also choose to rescind Hitler's decision to withhold armor production in the fall of 1941 from the Eastern Front. In 1942, the German offensive may be undertaken toward Moscow or Stalingrad. The choice may be up to the player, or perhaps Hitler will make is will known through a random event.

The Russians must supply nominal fire direction centers (FDCs) to execute artillery fires as spotted. These are projected by army HQ and each one can only make one such FDC allotment per turn. The Aerosans are available for short range supply portage. Partisans can be created by the surrender of Soviet Army HQs and the units nearby. If the Russian player lets them starve to death (by attrition) he doesn't get any partisans to use; he must surrender the army to get them. The dilemma, therefore, is whether to make the army go away faster for the sake of getting the desired partisans.

Both players can decide to disband units to create Repls to use. The success of each attempt depends on the AR of the unit (5 = automatic, 0 = you must be kidding).

Successful Testing

The playtest of Guderian's Blitzkrieg II at HomerCon was a big success as a test, though as a competitive game it lacked some tension, as things went too easily for the German players. Given what Dean learned from this play-through, this is not going to be a problem in the published version, which is due out for Origins 2001.

Our game concluded in November when, as the Germans surrounded the central seven hexes of Moscow, the Soviets capitulated. How did this happen? Well, we were lucky on the weather rolls and the mud held off a good three game-turns longer than we could realistically expect. Also, the German supply allowance and the rail capacity to move it were too generous. Most importantly, perhaps, some of the terrain, especially on the north map, was too easy to move through. As we watched the action unfold turn by turn, Dean and several other players cracked open various books and map sets from The Gamers library, comparing unit positions, terrain, and roads in the game with the historical record. You can feel confident that whatever adjustments Dean makes in the game will have solid historical justifications (rather than being cheap game-balancing tricks).

The German team lounging in the sun: (left to right) Rod Miller, Dean Essig, Dave Demko, Keith Fortner, and Chris Volny (photo by Chip Pharr)

Looking at the German team of Dean Essig, Rod Miller, Keith Fortner, Dave Demko, and Chris Volny, you might think that this "murderers' row" of OCS players tipped the balance. Not so. We were up against Maurice Buttazoni, Bill Quoss, Joseph Vanden Borre, Jeff Behan, and John Kisner, strong players who managed the Soviets well and gave us the hardest possible time. John was particularly clever managing the starvation of the Bryansk pocket. Once Chris had cut him off, John resisted the temptation to break out, husbanded his supplies, and selectively fed stacks with different Action Ratings from his supply dumps in order to survive the most attrition rolls he could. Resistance in both Vyazma and Bryansk held us up long enough so that, if the mud had hit, we'd have been too far from Moscow. Maurice kept the good citizens of Moscow, including the kindly old babushkas, hard at work building fortifications. In the south Bill was poised to hammer Dean's open flank. Nope, there was no players' skills gap.

Some turns before we put the death-grip on Moscow, Dave suggested restarting the game to test some of the adjustments the test had suggested. Dean prudently decided to play on rather than toss in new ideas before he had a chance to think them through. This testing experience illustrates what players can expect when the game is published: not a dressed-up reprint of the original, but a well-thought-out, carefully researched, and thoroughly reworked treatment of the Moscow campaign, plus a lot more. In other words, the revised edition contains a good deal of original material. This is a great big game, with scads of scenarios. It promises to be the best look at the '41 Typhoon offensive and actions in Army Group Center for the entire pivotal period of the war in the east available anywhere. The logistical implications of supply failure in Barbarossa will be loud and clear.