Introduction

Battle for Stalingrad is a battalion/company level simulation for two players of the critical World War II battle for the renowned Russian city on the Volga River. The conflict raged for seven weeks in late 1942. Elements of fourteen German divisions of the Sixth Army and Fourth Panzer Army engaged dozens of divisions and brigades of the Soviet 62nd Army in one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war.

Scale

The game scale is approximately 600 meters to the hex and each Game-Turn represents one-week of real time

Credits
Publisher: SPI, in 1980
Designer: John Hill
Developer: John Butterfield
Graphics: Redmond A. Simonsen

Components
1 22"x34" Standard map
600 die-cut counters
1 32-page rulebook
2 Deployment displays (German & Soviet)
1 Reinforcement display
1 cardboard box
1 six-sided die

Counter Manifest

Germans

1 Level Bomber marker
1 Dive Bomber Marker
5 6 5-4-12 Infantry Battalion
5 5-4-18 Motorized Infantry Battalions
10 4-3-18 Motorized Infantry Battalions
5 6-5-24 Panzer Grenadier Battalions
3 2-24 Heavy Recon Battalions
3 1-18 Recon Battalions
20 6-2-24 Panzer Companies
2 3-1-18 Flak Battalions
4 3-1-12 Flak Battalions
5 2-1-12 Antitank Companies
2 8-18-8 Artillery Batteries
1 12-12-6 Artillery Batteries
1 10-22-7 Artillery Batteries
1 16-3-12 Artillery Batteries
4 2-7-12 Artillery Batteries
5 10-7-12 Artillery Batteries
6 8-4-12 Artillery Batteries
5 8-10-18 Artillery Batteries
1 2 8-10-12 Artillery Batteries
1 9 1-12 Engineer Companies
1 5 2-16 Engineer Companies
4 2-18 Engineer Companies
8 3-18 Armored Engineer Companies

Russians

72 2-8 Infantry Battalions
2 2-8 Guard Infantry Battalions
26 3-8 Infantry Battalions
23 3-8 Guard Infantry Battalions
1 4-8 Guard Infantry Battalion
3 2-12 Motorized Infantry Battalions
3 3-12 Motorized Infantry Battalions
4 3-8 Marines Infantry Battalions
2 4-4 MG Infantry Battalions
3 1-8 Engineer Battalions
2 2-8 Engineer Battalions
4 3-12 Engineer Battalions
30 1-4 Militia Battalions
19 1-0-6 A T Companies
2 2-1-6 Flak platoons
2 2-1-10 Flak platoons
13-2-8 Heavy Tank Company
18 2-1-8 Tank Companies
18 1-0-10 Light Tank Companies
1 62 Army Chuikov HQ
2 Pontoons Units
1 2289 Ammo Dump Counter
5 1-0 Survivors Units
1 Level Bomber marker
1 Dive Bomber Marker
6 3-0 Workers Brigades
2 4-4-10 Artillery Battalions
2 10-4-6 Artillery Battalions
2 6-14-6 Artillery Battalions
4 6-8-6 Artillery Battalions
4 8-6-12 Artillery Battalions
10 8-4-6 Artillery Battalions
24 No Reaction Markers
6 Soviet Reaction Markers
28 TVA (Trans Volga Artillery) Units
1 Volga Flotilla Unit
General Markers
1 Game-Turn Counter
1 Burning Oil Marker
16 German Deployed Artillery markers

Player’s Value

Battle for Stalingrad is the final attempt of John Hill to develop his view of the biggest struggle over a city in all of WWII. The game mechanisms are not very complex, but sometimes quite strange and blurred, and the simulation is definitely more a painting of the battle than a real picture.

There are a lot of counters showing all of the infantry, armored, artillery, engineer and special units that fought in the slugfest. All combat units have two identical sides: one in black and one in white. When a unit is moved or used to fight, the counter is flipped over and cannot be used until the next turn. Some units have two combat strengths used depending on the defender’s terrain. Two scenarios are provided to simulate the struggle. The first one, given to learn the game, is the German opening of the Battle, the first week or game turn one.

The German has one turn to capture eight victory points or major locations in the city, such as: Kurgane Hill, Railway stations, ferry landing, the large department store, the different factories, etc. The second scenario takes seven turns and simulates the entire battle between the German opening and the November Russian counterattack. Here, 12 points are needed to win. For the Russian side, blocking the German’s victory is enough to win, sometimes frustrating but real.

The game mechanisms are not very classical. Each game turn begins with air and artillery bombardment phases. Both sides will use their killing machines to blow stacks and create vacuums in the opposing lines. The German will use the two phases to destroy Russian artillery and open holes in the defense lines, direct to the victory objectives. The Russian will use the scarce artillery, mainly Trans-Volga Artillery after the first turn, and the few airplanes, to obliterate powerful attacking stacks or soften Teutonic spearheads.

The next big segment is the action phase, which is global for both players, with a mixed move and fight sequence. Both players will alternate moving stacks, bringing support and committing attacks. The German begins to move and attack until the Russian draws a reaction marker. Markers are drawn after each attack; they can be blank or reaction. The Russian can move some units depending on a die roll or the proximity of Zhuikov. A six on an attacking die or the end of all possible moves returns the initiative to the German, and so on until all units are flipped. There are some subtleties in the combat: the German can overrun units in open terrain, both sides can launch instant counterattacks to block moving units, and lastly, all the assaults begin with a surprise die roll to see if one camp is surprised or ambushed by the other, making the losses harder to him.

Combat is very bloody because the table calls for many losses and every unit has only one step. So the players lose a lot of units each turn. The result seems odd until you realize that the timeframe is a week, so the global result is correct. Hopefully, each turn the players can replace losses with a die roll against the strength of the dead unit possibly returning all or nothing, depending on his luck. Thus the units will die and revive quickly.

Globally, the game is interesting to play, perhaps more to understand the way John Hill saw the battle, than to see the historical event. The weekly turns with operational and tactical details seem often strange, providing global historical results but in a weird way. Sure you will fight for a lot of historical rubble with tremendous losses and desperate feelings in a relatively short time, but forget the historical feel of the 395th Infantry taking the Red Barricade room by room in many days of tenuous strains!

Collector’s Value

As one of the last major products of SPI and a game from the famous John Hill, this game is sought after by collectors. Boone quotes low, high and average prices of 10/54/29.35 at auction and 5/ 125/37.44 for sale.

Support Material

Two main articles have appeared. The first in F&M 23 is more of a critique; the second in Moves 56 is more technical. A capsule review appeared in F&M 63.

“John Hill’s games are designed not as detailed models of an era or event, but to capture what the designer perceives as the ultimate driving force or rationale behind the event, the historical ‘lesson’, and they should be judged accordingly. That is not to say that Hill and his emulators have license to play fast and loose with details, to create a history as it might or should have happened, but that accuracy of detail takes second place to overall representation. ... [H]ow well the game manages to capture the essence of the struggle and to express John Hill’s view of it as a ‘splendid German fighting machine’ being stopped in its tracks by Chuikov’s ‘armed mob’. This it does very well indeed.” --Friedrich Helfferich in F&M 23

“The game has a unique development; both sides can radically affect the outcome by one or two coups, and yet steady patient play yields great advantages. Two armies are wholly dissimilar, yet they are relatively balanced. The game moves well, tests planning and patience, yet has constant tension. All in all, I like it!” --Jerrold Thomas in Moves 56.

“Battle for Stalingrad is an exciting, highly playable simulation of one of World War II’s most critical battles. ... Like many of Hill’s designs, Battle for Stalingrad emphasizes playability over rigid historicity, and some mat be put off by Hill’s admittedly eccentric approach. Still, there’s no denying that the game is terrific fun and does an admirable job of simulating the tension of the conflict, if not the actual nuts and bolts.” -- F&M 63 Eastern Front Anthology

Other Games of This Type

There are some games about the street fighting for Stalingrad. On the entire battle for the city (August to November): Streets of Stalingrad (and Fire on the Volga, Battle for the Factories); Struggle for Stalingrad in The Wargamer 47; and Turning Point: Stalingrad (AH). More tactical was Red Barricades, a large historical module for ASL.

The release of SPI’s Battle for Stalingrad was nearly simultaneous with that of Dana Lombardy’s Streets of Stalingrad, the Kesselschlact project. The two games are quite different, with similarities limited to the area involved, the simplicity and bloodiness of the CRTs, and the huge losses falling on both armies.

Other Games by This Designer

Jerusalem, Bar Lev, Battle for Hue, Verdun, Yalu, Overlord, Kasserine Pass, Squad Leader.