The history of this game (Stalingrad Pocket, to be released June, 1992) is interesting in and of itself. After I came back from my first hospital stay back in J uly 1990, there it wassitting in a huge pile of unopened company mail which had been accumulating while I was "indisposed" for the previous five weeks.

It was an essentially finished game, with a beautiful hand drawn map, a complete set of counters, its own little rule book- something that could almost be released as is. In my crippled condition, as I could not give the game a fair look, I sent off a letter to its designer, Masahiro Yamazaki in Japan explaining my plight and giving my word to check it out as soon as I was able. Getting out from the backlog of work that had been piled up while I was enjoying my restful hospital stay and putting out Objective: Schmidt took up the next few months. When the dust started to settle, and I had enough time before my next rendezvous with a Mayo Clinic surgeon waving a knife, I set the little game up and gave it a shot.

While the play revealed a number of flaws in the original system, it showed the research to be good and that the game had a lot of merit if it had its system revamped. I wrote Masahiro and asked his permission to reformat the thing into the Standard Combat Series rules I had cobbled together some time back. The design of those rules had been the easiest project I had undertaken in years-the hardest part was naming the series. We dug out our Roget's and looked up every possible version of the word "simple" so as to come up with something which conveyed the right idea-simple, yet not simplistic and not having the bad karma associated with the term introductory. Standard was our best bet, but my favorite is still "Undeveloped." I could just see us releasing the "Undeveloped Combat Series" and guys would be rolling in the aisles at game stores world wide! Cooler heads, however, prevailed.

Masahiro agreed with my idea and signed a release form which entitled me to do reconstructive surgery on his baby. Glimmers of Doc Frankenstein... Actually, the process went very rapidly and without complication. The patient actually survived.

Playtesting began in earnest. Two things became immediately apparent. The game and its system were very smooth and required little tinkering, and the game's victory conditions were its most important part. The victory conditions had to be carefully tailored to the situation at the time. The pure military solution (run for the hills to save the German Army) could not be viewed in isolation. The political solution (hold Stalingrad if it costs a million men), while irrational and self-destructive, must be taken into account. As in the case of the real commanders, players must be forced to balance the needs of these two diametrically opposed concerns. The German player must attempt to placate the Fuhrer (by holding all or some of Stalingrad) and must keep an eye toward the military concerns of 1943 by saving as much of the German army as possible for future campaigns. The final set of conditions is the best melding of these concerns I can think of, but I'd welcome further debate after the game is released.

The game's system is the straight-forward "you can play it right now" Move-Fight-Mech Move type. It has all of 6 pages of rules. It is easily understood by veteran gamers who will probably find it an interesting diversion from our more complex games. Its simplicity is intentional as it was designed with broadening our product line in mind. Lest you think that game play is trivial because the system is so simple to use, it isn't. Play of this game requires a level of skill rarely seen in games this simple. Both players must use their forces in an extremely intelligent manner or they will not Stalingrad Con'd from page 26 win. Swirling tank battles are the norm as the Soviet army attempts to wrap its pincers around Stalingrad and the Germans attempt to counterattack everywhere to slow them down or destroy them as they try. I've seen the game be played from one end of the spectrum to the other and know that no one can win this game by dragging halfheartedly through it. Unless their opponent hands it to them on a silver platter.

Play begins at the beginning of the Soviet Counteroffensive in November. Each cum represents two days (there are 16 turns) and the hexes are 5.5 kilometers. Most Soviet units are divisions, mostGermans are regiments. Both sides have enough unit types andsizes to keep things interesting.

On the first turn, the Soviets invariably appear to be a juggernaut. They will crush the Romanian frontline with barrages and overruns. The German (if he doesn't panic and quit the game) will strive to develop some sort of mobilereserve and will startpulling his line back to somewhere more defensible. The Sovietplayer will soon find outhow fragile his spearheads are and how easy it is for him to outrun his supply lines. Usually, the alert German will strike a few Crippling blows at this point which may cause one or both of the Sovietpincers to slow or falter. Both sides will then know that winning is possible for each side but skilled play will be required to pull it off.The game, although simple in nature, packs more action and tenseness than I've seen in a long time.

The thing that drags me back to play this game time after time is the nature of the strategic decisions being made. As theGerman, you'll learn all about mobile reserves, efficient counterattacks, and keeping your forces free to fight. I generally set up a couple of powerful mobile counterattack forces for the Germans. These, during the Movement Phase, strike some weak link in the Soviet line.

The Combat Phase will see them blow away their target and free themselves formovement in the e Exploitation Phase. (Units in ZOC's can't exploit, regardless of type.) During that phase, the units move back to their "safe" holding area-to await the next turns activities. Any lack of skill in performing these surgical operations will show up rapidly as the mobile reserve gets locked into the front line, or worse, wasted in holding chunks of line. Either way, a player would soon find himself sans reserve and at the mercy of the Soviet player, who, by this time will have none.

For the Soviets, their powerful offensive tends to be very sluggish due to the supply responsibility and slow movement of their HQ's. Also, because these HQ's are Lied to roads, the choice of line of advance is critical and keeps the Soviet from engaging in the type of gunfighting the German must engage in to win. I find the Soviet spearheads to be very fragile (it's easy to out run the HQ's, a practice which a good German player will shove down your throat) and if they are not handled with great care, the offensive will grind to a halt. This is a difficult concept for many Soviet players to accept since their force seems so strong and they have seen what can be done on turn one (against Romanians, truth be known, Germans are a bit tougher nut to crack!) The problem is that the Soviet forces have neither the resiliency (fewer steps per unit size) nor the mobility of the Germans and a few key losses will cripple the "invincible" offensive. THE weak link in the Soviet offensive is the HQ's. If a German is handed an opportunity to take out one ormore Soviet HQ's (especially the good ones!), he will be happy to take it and may even say "thank you" as he hands you your head.

I encourage you to check out this game when it is released at your favorite game store. I don't think you'll be disappointed.