Welcome to "The Abuse Continues," the second of three episodes in the "What I Learned As An Abused Soviet Playtester" saga. The purpose of this article is to bring you up-to-date on the OCS and Guderian's Blitzkrieg through the Spring of 1992. However, most of the detailed hints and suggestions for future Soviet players will have to wait until the third and final article. It will not be written until the rules booklets have gone to the printer. That is the only way to be sure that our humble game designer does not make any more changes.

December and January were busy months in Homer, where Dean and I completed an abbreviated fourth in-house playtest game, a two-day fifth playtest, and a half-day playtest of all six teaching scenarios.

Up to now, we have compiled well over eighty hours of actual playing time, and further playtesting has been done by several outside groups. Dean is presently revising the maps and rules based on information from various sources, so additional playtesting is planned.

In the previous article, I outlined the Soviet set-up plan used for the fourth playtest. The major elements of that plan are, for the most part, still valid. However, it will be extensively revised to incorporate lessons learned. One important lesson is that the German player, given time, will find the best way to crack your carefully planned, but very fragile, front line. Therefore, some surprises early in the game are needed to keep him guessing.

While a solid plan for the beginning of the game is essential, you must be willing and able to improvise when your thoughtless German opponent refuses to cooperate. There are several key elements in my plan that must be carried out, but how they unfold will depend very much on what the German player does.

A good plan can also help avoid falling for the type of "smoke and mirrors" feints that a good German player will use (see Dean Essig's articles), but must allow you to react to sudden and unexpected threats to your existence.

What follows is a narrative of the fourth playtest, written from a Soviet point of view. Hopefully this will counter some of the pro-German propaganda previously published [Ed. Note: Hey!], and give you an idea of what happens during a playtest session.

Playtest Game Four

The Time: 0800 30 Dec to 1930 31 Dec 91

The Place: The recendy remodeled playtest room at The Gamers, a spacious, well-lit, comfortable room with extensive table space, a good stereo system and devoid of both pets and children.

The Players: Dean Essig, the series and game designer, commanded the German forces. The Soviets were controlled by Owen Fuller, an experienced playtester. Both players were intense, experienced and highly skilled. A nasty, no-holds-barred game was anticipated.

0800 Day 1: Owen arrived in Homer, pulled out his multipage coded set-up plan (including color-coded copies of the playtest maps) and deployed his Soviet units. Dean followed with the German units. At this point, Dean and Owen were still civil. Set up for a campaign game will require no more than two hours, if both players are well organized and use unit types rather than historical unit designations.

1045 Day 1: The Weekly Over-Phase of Game Turn One began. It included the start of the Soviet Scorched Earth campaign, along with the first upgrade of the Vyazma air base and an effort to build a record number of hedgehogs. Many complicated operations on both sides were set in motion during those first two Player Tums, and neither player wanted to make a game-losing mistake.

The Germans, as always, began the First Player Turn. In the north, 4th Army remained essentially stationary. Further south, 2nd Panzer Group punched through the Soviet 13th Army. Even though the 13th Army was deployed in a sound and relatively strong manner, it delayed the Panzers only because a large number of posthumous Heros of dhe Soviet Union and their equipment acted as speed bumps.

Dean avoided combat by driving around defenders where possible, and no pressure was put on the Soviet 40th Army to the south. This avoided the heavy German losses experienced in previous games, but left many Soviet units alive behind the Panzer spearhead. A German motorcycle battalion (wimps on wheels) entered Kursk, and trucks captured Orel, while a real unit had to end movement just outside the city.

The Luftwaffe began its successful campaign against Soviet air bases and rail lines. IL-2s at Vyazma, the best tactical units in the Red Air Force, were grounded before they could even be used. Several rail lines were broken, which meant that Soviet rail repair units would be very busy. Owen cursed Bf1O9s and He111s.

Larger version of map at right (slower download: 78K).

As was planned, Owen withdrew to more defensible positions all along the front. In the south, a 40th Army tank brigade recaptured Kursk from the wimps, and the rest of the army rushed back by every means possible to defend the town. Cavalry brigades from 5th Cavalry Corps bashed those nasty German trucks in Orel.

The Front Reserve established a strong position around the Karachev air base. This upset Dean, who expected Owen to leave the back door to Bryansk wide open for his panzers. Defensive preparations at Kaluga, Tula and Voronezh proceeded as planned. Strategic and tactical air units hit exposed Gemman elements with little success, and transports flew supplies in from off-map. Both players pushed supply forward by truck, rail and air.

Dean began the Second Player Turn by moving units towards Spas-Demansk in the north. In the south, a machine gun battalion took the undefended city of Yelets, 17th Panzer Division swung wide behind Kursk, and the bulk of 2nd Panzer Group captured Orel. The Luftwaffe continued their campaign of rail line and air base destruction.

Owen continued to consolidate and strengthenhis positions. The movement of mobile units, rail repair units and spare HQs back from the front was to become very important in later weeks. Again, the only air units that were effective were the transports. Owen heaped abuse on both the dice and the Red Air Force. Dean chuckled.

1535 Day 1: Dean and Owen headed to nearby Urbana for a well-deserved burrito break. At this point, they were still marginally civil to each other. It is not recommended, however, that these two be allowed to play within hearing of the general public.

1710 Day 1: The Over-Phase of Game Turn Two began. Owen built or upgraded more hedgehogs (especially in victory point cities), rebuilt a cavalry brigade in Moscow, and upgraded the Vyazma air base.

During the First Player Turn, Dean sent units to within ten hexes (50 miles) of Moscow and Voronezh, in his perpetual and all-too-successful attempt to keep Owen off-balance and upset. The only good news for Owen was that fast German units tend to be weak. Kursk was cut off from Voronezh, but a quick Soviet counterattack reopened the road, although the rail line remained blocked.

The major Wehrmacht concentration at Orel moved north toward Kaluga and the northern map edge, and northeast towards Tula. Mobile units of 4th Army, including 10th Panzer Division, moved south of Spas-Demansk and north of Vyazma.

Owen transferred his few spare infantry divisions (maybe ten) back from Vyazma and Spas-Demansk to defend Moscow and the northern map edge from Vyazma to the outer Moscow defense zone.

Dean's plan was now obvious: Pocket the entire Soviet front line. Owen hoped Dean was outrunning his supply, but was worried. Transports and strategic bombers flew supply into Karachev, again the most useful effort made by the Red Air Force. Dean later stationed interceptors around Bryansk, making resupply by air much more difficult.

The Second Player Turn almost depressed Owen enough to throw in the towel. Dean pushed hard at Kaluga and Tula. Owen, in amajorblunder, left aroad unguarded justoutside Kalugathrough the outer Moscow defense zone. Dean, in an uncharacteristic gesture, thankedvOwen. Owen !@#$9toA&*(). Other events became insignificant as three panzer divisions swarmed Kaluga, which was, by now, a level 4 hedgehog with a full stack of combat units and a large supply dump. The Luftwaffe clobbered Kaluga and disorganized the stack. Dean barraged with artillery and caused a single step loss. He then attacked with three panzer divisions, and failed miserably. He couldn't get good odds, failed to roll attacker surprise, and then rolled very low. Owen thanked Dean. Dean !@#$%A&*(). The remainder of the German turn was overshadowed by the nightmare of the Battle for Kaluga.

Larger version of map at right (slower download: 98K).

Owen consolidated positions and moved supply over the few routes that the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe had left open.

2045 Day 1: Dean and Owen completed the Weekly OverPhase for Game Turn Three, up to the First Player Determination Segment.

2110 Day 1: Dean and Owen gave up for the evening, retiring to the Essig home. Neither slept well. Dean formed a new strategy in his head as he tossed and turned. Owen awoke at 0200 to jot down his new plan on scrap paper. There was a lot of growling at breakfast. It is a good thing that no other human being was anywhere near the playtest room that second morning. Did we mention that this game gets intense?

0805 Day 2: Game Turn Three continued. Both Dean and Owen needed to move first. Owen won the die roll. Dean pouted.

During the First Player Turn, Owen abandoned some front line units to reduce supply usage in pocketed victory point cities. However, he committed another blunder by moving out of SpasDemansk without a fight.

The defense of Vyazma unfolded as planned, although pressure was mounting. Two infantry divisions from Bryansk moved to Karachev, allowing a cavalry brigade to raid nearby Gemman units with some success. Tula and Kaluga were strengthened against inevitable German assaults. In the Kursk area, including the air base, a small counterattack and minor adjustments in positions were required. Supply continued forward by rail, truck and air.

Dean sent German units to the north map edge, cutting off Moscow from the rest of the map as part of his plan to starve the Soviet front line into surrender. Since Owen pushed a lot of supply up to the front, this would have taken several weeks to show results. Dean may have been closer to his goal than he thought, if he could keep the supply lines blocked.

However, he had problems of his own. His supply lines were stretched thin, his mobile elements were in the forests of the northern mapsheet, and his slow but powerful infantry divisions, who needed to hold ground that the panzers had grabbed, were back near Orel. The Luftwaffe continued to experience success.

Owen attacked several small German units in an attempt to reopen supply lines. He destroyed a couple, which further depressed Dean, but supply movement was still a serious problem.

Dean attacked Karachev and Tula with marginal results, killing a cavalry brigade and an infantry division, but not without loss.

1140 Day 2: Dean and Owen knew from experience where the game was headed, and that there were some fairly serious rules problems, so the decision was made not to continue. The traditional burrito break was declared.

Summary:

The Germans had three weeks of excellent weather and a lot of good die rolls, including at least two excellent supply rolls. Owen had helped with two significant blunders. Except for Kursk Karachev and Voronezh, Dean owned the southern mapsheet, and had pushed a spearhead through Kaluga to the northem map edge.

However, the weather would soon worsen. If the game had continued, Dean would have had serious problems supplying his far-flung units. It would have been difficult, but not impossible, for him to have retained what he had captured until the end of the game.

For the most part, Owen used his set-up plan as it was previously described. The plan succeeded in absorbing a very aggressive German assault, while keeping the Red Army alive (barely) for the first three weeks. However, the Soviet Army was left with the ominous task of retaining or recapturing several victory point cities.

Afterwards, Dean and Owen spent the afternoon eating 'burritos as big as your head', while debating several critical rules. These included overruns, barrage attacks, stacking, rail capacity, off map airlift supply, combat supply, flak ratings, rail line destruction, Soviet mass surrender, and the last-man last-bullet defense. This session resulted in several important rules changes which were tested during the next playtest later the same week.

Playtest Game Five

Rather than discuss the fifth in-house playtest session in detail, let me make a few quick comments before launching off in a new direction.

First, the rules changes mentioned above greatly improved the play of the game. This playtest went much smoother than previous sessions.

Second, Dean also showed up with a multipage plan for the Germans. A brutal and effective initial German assault emphasized that planning does pay off in GB. Third, mistakes can bury an unwary player. There are many subtle interactions contained in the OCS that must be considered, and the quality of play on both sides is very important.

A campaign game between evenly matched players seems to be balanced, but a strong player on either side should be able to soundly defeat a weaker player.

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