Thunder in the east - New beginning

After our attempt at Barbarossa was aborted due to German shyness, we decided to relaunch a game and while we were at it, the whole campaign. 

Having published on the forum of https://www.watchword.biz/eto-support about this game, I received a lot of interesting information from American grunts. And finally, Mr. Gerald Johnson and Mr. Alan Emrich have offered to attend our game live. 

After adjusting our watches (we mix a lot of time zones, from Los Angeles to Limoges), we present our beginner's deployment. 

With a lot of tact and courtesy, our teachers give us precious advice. 

Something that doesn't appear in the scenario booklet but that we learn by carefully reading the rules: it is possible to concentrate your corps to obtain armies counters. Given the density of the starting German front, and the impossibility of attacking with more than one counter per hexside, this is very effective.

You get the Schwerpunkt dear to Guderian. The monstrous armored fists crush the Russian counters that block the way (with a bit of success with the die on my part). The infantry then penetrates into the breaches thus created. During combat, the ratios are immediately more favorable to the germans. 

And finest part of it: during the normal movement phase, it is possible to divide the armored counters into their corps component to exploit from all sides. This is really very well done. Rather than giving shabby values to the Russian to simulate the initial blitkrieg of 41, players are asked to show technical skill when facing solid Soviets. It is intellectually stimulating and one of the best finds in the field I have had the pleasure of playing. 

The results are conclusive. The Baltic front and the Minsk front explode. In the south, Lwow fell at the first assault. Only Brest Litovsk holds, but we are used to it... In the exploitation phase, the German  is heading north and boldly penetrating the Baltic States. In Belarus, it encircles Minsk.

In Ukraine, the Soviets are numerous so i stay close to my starting lines.  

In  his turn, Angel contemplates the disaster. In the North, he withdraws all that remains to him, restoring the supply of Riga. Minsk, Grodno and Kaunas are left to their sad fate. An army tries to breaktrough near the Baltic but  fails, broken by the stukas.

 In the Ukraine, more Soviet troops make it possible to re-establish a line. 

Finally, in Romania, in spite of Alan's advice, Angel chooses to remain close to the Romanians. 

Now, a small tour of the novelties. Since the game was released and with the development of the Mediterranean and Western Front modules, the authors have modified some rules. 

Air reinforcements are available only during the first week of each month, to avoid a too quick resurgence of Soviet aviation. With its oil reserves, it was too easy for the Russian to rebuild its entire aviation. 

A new card named "Trumpets of Jericho" allows to obtain the 2 bonus columns during a tactical support of stukas against a country attacked by surprise. The effect lasts for three weeks and seems to fit with what happened historically. As we saw in our first game, an intercepted stuka is often a downed plane. 

There is a new air combat table that we were unable to test because of a lack of Soviet airpower, as it was crushed as it should have been. We will talk about it in a future article. 

Ditto, only 8 reinforcement points per turn for the Russian to avoid him to reappear like in a zombie holocaust . 

Next report is coming soon, we should play the first week of July tomorrow night, still in the company of our American mentors.