Introduction

By James F. Dunnigan
1st Edition, SPI, 1974
“War in the East is a simulation on a corps/division level of the Russo-German war of 1941-1945. Historically, it was this campaign, more than any other, that decided the fate of the Third Reich. The game covers the entire war from the Axis invasion of Russia to the final destruction of the Axis armies four years later. There are special rules to reflect the varying weather conditions that were so crucial in this campaign and those special conditions that existed in the far north.

The Axis Player has a fixed reinforcement rate, but the Russian Player must decide what type of units he wants to produce by allocating his resources. These production decisions are critical in the game, as they were in the war. In addition to the Campaign Game, which simulates the entire war, there are four scenarios which simulate the situation at key times during the campaign.”

When it was released in the spring of 1974, War in the East (WITE) was advertised as the “biggest game ever produced”. While this claim was debatable (GDW’s Drang Nach Osten released the previous year had five similarly-sized map sheets to WITE’s four, but 300 fewer counters), it was certainly the largest from a major war game publisher, and at twenty dollars, one of the most expensive. SPI had been working on this monster for several years, beginning with their work on Stalingrad II and III, and WITE was even given a probable release for the summer of 1971 in the Outgoing Mail section of S&T 27. After much delay, it was slated for release at the end of 1973 (the normally simultaneous support article was included in the Nov/Dec 1973 issue of S&T), announced for sale two months later in S&T 42 (Jan/Feb 1974), and finally shipped March 20, 1974. It was pretty much what everyone had been waiting for: a four map, 2000 counter, 200+ turn monster packed into two boxes.

Components

(Note: the review copy was printed some time after the first print run, as the maps have been corrected from the initial errata.)

2 SPI flat plastic four-piece game boxes with paper cover sheet (some copies include paper advertisement cover sheet for second box lid)
4 22" x 28" unmounted mapsheets (43¼" x 55 1/2" when assembled); cream-colored stock with blue and brown printing
1 roadmap-style rulebook (23" x 35" sheet folded to 8 3/4 " x 11 1/2")
2 identical Scenario/Turn Record/ Reinforcement sheets (22" x 28", perforated to make four at 14" x 22")
1 cream-colored Combat Results Table card (6 3/4 " x 22")
2 cream-colored Russian Production Center cards (6 3/4 " x 22" each)
1 cream-colored Production Cost card (7 1/2" x 6 1/2")
2 cream-colored Air Power cards; one Russian and one German (7 1/2" x 6 1/2" each)
1 small SPI-style white six-sided die

Counters

5 identical 400-piece die-cut counter sheets (slightly thinner than most SPI games)

Unit Manifest

(Also included on the Reinforcement Chart include with the game)

Axis Forces (550 total)

German units (black on field gray)

210 Infantry division 6-5/1-5
15 Security division 6-3/1-5
40 Armored division 10-8/2-8
15 Mechanized division 8-8/2-8
10 Mechanized brigade 3-8

Finnish units (olive on light blue)

25 Infantry division 4-5/1-5
25 Partisan division/cadre [1]-1/[5]-0

Rumanian units (gray on light blue)

45 Infantry division 2-4
5 Armored brigade 1-6

Hungarian units (light blue on dark gray)

20 Infantry division 2-4
10 Armored brigade 1-6

Italian units (black on light green)

15 Infantry division 2-4
5 Armored brigade 1-6

Slovakian units (green on light green)

5 Infantry division 2-4
5 Armored brigade 1-6

Ukrainian units (black on dark gray)

10 Infantry division 6-5/1-5

General Axis units (black on field gray)

10 RR repair unit [1]-1
30 Railhead/junction
10 Entrained marker
20 Air point marker
20 Air interdiction marker

Soviet forces (black on olive) (1390 total)

100 Guards infantry corps 5-5/1-5
75 Infantry corps 4-4/1-4
300 Rifle infantry division 1-4
60 Mechanized corps 9-6/2-6
60 Tank corps 8-6/1-6
125 Mechanized brigade 3-5
75 Tank brigade 2-5
20 Cavalry corps 2-3/1-3
15 Cavalry division 1-3
60 Artillery brigade 10-1-10/1-1-10
100 Anti-tank brigade 0-1-10
150 Partisan divisions [1]-1/[5]-0
20 RR repair unit [1]-1
30 Railhead/junction
15 Entrained marker
100 Air point marker
30 Air interdiction marker
20 Training center 0-10-0
35 Arms center 0-0-0

Neutral units (60 total)

50 RR hex/line cut (lt. blue on black)
5 Game turn marker (black on olive)
5 Blanks (olive)

Player’s value

WITE was the distillation of the SPI WW2 division-level system developed in the early 1970’s. The turn sequence for this system consisted of a movement phase, combat phase, and mechanized movement phase. WITE added a combined air power phase and a rail and sea movement phase. The mechanics are virtually indistinguishable from the other games in the system, although the air rules have dispensed with the ground crew counters, and an overrun rule was included to help recreate the blitzkrieg advances of the first two summers. The major addition, which was revolutionary for its time, was the Soviet production system (Campaign scenario only).

Almost a game itself, the production system required the Soviet player to build all of his units using Arms, Personnel and Training Centers. How he managed his production was a deciding factor in the outcome of the game. A great deal of effort was put into developing this system and the design notes even provide details on how the player may write his own computer program. Read today, the comments on computer-assisted design and development seem incredibly archaic, but they are also very enlightening for their glimpse of people embracing an exciting technology.

Since it was the end product of an extensively developed game system, playability is superb. There are virtually no problems in rules interpretation, and the streamlined sequence of play combined with standardized unit values makes for fast play even with the game’s large size. Combat is extremely attritional at any but the highest-odds attacks in the most advantageous circumstances. To reflect the changing capabilities of the two armies as the war progressed, there are four separate Combat Results Tables (the Germans begin using the best table and degrade over time, the Soviets vice versa). Attacking while out of supply is almost suicidal.

There are four shorter scenarios: Barbarossa (20 turns), Stalingrad (30 turns), Kursk (18 turns), Destruction of Army Group Center (20 turns); and the Campaign game (208 turns). Victory in the short scenarios is based on control of Personnel Centers (cities) but because of their truncated lengths, they induce unrealistic tactics on the part of the players. The go-for-broke mentality combined with the bloody CRTs results in outcomes which are quite unlike the actual events. In the Barbarossa scenario for example, the German must capture eight cities, only four of which could be placed within German supply range by the end of the scenario. Since units attacking out of supply must suffer an automatic loss equal to the defender’s strength even before any results are applied, the Germans are forced to completely burn out their army without any thought to the future. The Campaign game results in a more historical ebb and flow, although operations are more conservative (mainly as a result of rail net limitations). As Soviet production kicks in, the momentum shifts and the Germans are almost surely driven out. To win a marginal victory, the Germans need only have one supplied unit remaining on the map!

Collector’s value

Boone lists low, high and average prices of 15/50/35.00 at auction and 15/80/ 49.94 for sale (first edition). The second edition, in comparison, is listed at 38/80/55.63 and 75/175/113.00 respectively.

Support material

F&M 5 contained a comparative review of East Front tiles by Friedrich Helfferich. F&M 63 contained a WW2 Anthology of Eastern Front games, in which the review of WITE appears to have been cribbed from the review in F&M 5.

Moves 17 contained almost two pages of errata (as of September 1974), along with suggestions for storing 2,000 counters in two SPI z-paks.

Moves 20 contained a detailed profile of WITE with three articles (one by the mysterious Oktay Ozuntali) and an extensive OOB for Barbarossa. Moves 71contained a short review of WITE, which was selected by editor Joe Miranda as the best example of a complex game of WW2 in Europe, for one’s basic wargame library.

He summed it up best with his leading comment: “The designer notes to this one warns: ‘In the original campaign, Hitler went mad and Stalin fared little better!’ A fitting introduction to what was one of the most anticipated games of the 1970s.”

Other games of this type

Other games of similar size (division level, larger than one map) on the Eastern Front in WW2 include GDW/GRD’s Drang Nach Osten/Unentscheiden (Fire in the East/Scorched Earth), and XTR’s Proud Monster/Death and Destruction. As stated above, WITE was the last in the line of SPI’s WW2 division-level system. The other games in this system were Kursk, France 1940, Turning Point, Moscow Campaign, and Destruction of Army Group Center.

Other SPI games at the time that used a similar system included Breakout and Pursuit, East is Red and NATO. The first edition of WITE was later followed by War in the West and War in Europe which used the same basic rules set and added production for Germany and strategic warfare, and contained nine full map sheets. Three of the maps, and Axis and Soviet units from WITW/WIE were made available as the second edition of WITE, which made use of newly improved color production capabilities for maps and counters.

Other games by this designer

If you have to ask, you shouldn’t be collecting wargames. All SPI games in the preceding paragraph, for starters.

Etcetera

In 1977, SPI published their Staff Study Nr. 1, called War in the East [ISBN: 0- 917852-00-1]. This 186-page hardcover book contains seven sections, as follows: I the Russo-German Conflict by Stephen B. Patrick II the Course of the Battle by Edward McCarthy III an Analysis of the War by Trevor N. Dupuy IV Organization of the Soviet Ground Forces by James F. Dunnigan V Organization of German Ground Forces by James F. Dunnigan VI Soviet and German Tactics and Weapons by James F. Dunnigan VII the Air and Sea War in the East by David C. Isby

As is to be expected, the book is replete with tables, charts and maps, and constitutes a most useful one-volume compendium of data. If you can find a copy for a reasonable price, by all means buy it. If the price is unreasonable, you may wish to consider that it can only get worse.

Soviet Wins WWII