BitE, Dortmund Campaign

Here is a little look at the play from Blocks in the East.
This is from Emanuele Santandrea himself. I hope to have my own play thru documented and done by early Feb, but I thought this deserved some attention prior to then. There appears to be many choices to make, lots of considerations to take into account and no lack of theme here to evoke the Eastern Front!
The Codeword Dortmund Campaign: Simple in system, needs a deep planning and calculation.

After the coming up of the new boxed editions, the heavy XMAS days and the winter break, it is time for some relax.

The best way? A Codeword Dortmund Campaign!

I have received some comments from some German players facing an almost invincible Red Army.

So, as I have only played the Soviets in the last 3 Campaigns, this time I decided to take over the Axis vs the head of Alpha Testers.
He is a very aggressive player (same as I am).

We are playing with the new 2.2 Rules which are in devlopment.
Nothing serious is changed, just some clarifications and some more MALI have been added to… the Axis!

So the first question could be: why penalize the Axis as it seems it is already in a bad position?

Because sometimes things appear different…

New rules: Some Axis units (Parà and Hungarian Tankettes removed, will be specified later) and some clarification about hex control and German interceptors.

So… let’s start!

In this game I decided to try a new strategy.

• Usual Strategy: Leningrad first.
• Usual 1st turn tactics: destroy the VVS by airstriking with LW. Encircle bulk of enemy forces to use them as manpower.

• This time Strategy: Moscow first.


• This time 1st turn tactics: LW will concentrate to destroy enemy HQ to reduce enemy mobility. The Heer will attack everything, without encircling too much. I will keep 4 Infantry corps in Reserve mode, so I can move them in the exploitation phase.
• In the exploitation phase my tanks will put their tracks on the 3 key rails, yellow circled.

STRATEGIC GOAL:  Get a win in 1941. 
I have only 4 months of good weather, and not only I want to seize the line from Rostov to Archangelsk, taking Moscow and Leningrad, but I also want to keep some ground eastward this cities, in case I would fail to roll a 1 in the Victory phase for too many turns.

The main important I have to keep in mind is: DO NOT CHANGE THE STRATEGY, but get some spare good tactical opportunities, if they come.

Please note that all the pics have been taken by my fierce Soviet opponent. [Edit The BigBoard supplemented images above also]

JUNE 1941

So… after the Soviet player has finished the setup, I did the same with the Axis powers.
Then the surprise attack comes…
I claim for the LW Total Air Supremacy, so I roll double dice, but my LW HQ will get reduced twice at the end of the turn.
Blitzing will be concentrated on few critical points, black lightning.
Note that the attack on Brest-Litovsk hex (red circle) was done with the five black blocks (black circled) positioned in the Pripet Marsch.
Also, I have activated ALL 4 my Armor HQ for 16 actions: 11 armor sent to battles, and five infantry units put in Reserve Mode.

To the south, the Don and Voronezh were abandoned by the Soviets, who pulled back to the Tsna-Khoper river line.

Here comes the situation after the Eploitation:
Again, I want to use all the forces I have, so I activated again ALL my Armor HQ (blue cubes).
I put a yellow cube over every unit moved: the 5 infantry corps as described above, and the 12 Panzer Corps.
Then in the picture I have marked the out of supply Soviet units with a white arrow.
Note the German ZOCs marked with a yellow circle.

Results: 29 Soviet Units destroyed, 10 units out of supply.

JULY 1941

In this month I have 3 mandatory objectives: Minsk, Kiev and Smolensk.
With only 9 oil points available (after mandatory FHQ replacement), and ALL my 8 HQ at 2 steps, I had to take some decisions…
I need movement instead of air power, so Manstein, Kleist, hoth and Guderian will come before Kesserling, Lohr and Richtofen.

Here you can see the 3 mandatory objectives seized by my forward panzers and some more Soviet units encircled in the south and in the center (white drum)
German ZOCs, highlited with a red circle, stop enemy supply lines.

Since now, I will use blue cubes for Army Group North exploiting panzers, Yellow for AG Center exploiting panzers and Red for AG South exploiting panzers.

Note that I have put a AGN Panzer Corps in Reserve Mode (black drum).

So, the situation seems very interesting for the Axis and very problematic for the Soviets…
But I’m sure it’s too early to party…Next:

SOVIET COUNTERATTACKS!