Five men gathered to play Fall Blau last weekend.

We drew for sides:

Mr. Redshirt (Austin pulled 2nd Hun. 2nd Army and 4th Pzr Grp.

Mr. Blackshirt (Pete) pulled 6th Army and Paulus I took 17th and 6 Pzr. Gary scored Stavka and the Caucaus;s plus the 9,12th,18th,37th and 56th Armies. Cisco the ever loving Commie scored the rest – basically everything North of Stalingrad.

What follows is a pictorial representation of the two teams efforts across the course of the battle that was played.

There were detailed notes for the first 9 turns. Then it got intense and the not taking was restricted to my own area. The upshot is Soviets struggle to create good odds against the Wehrmacht and failed in attacks 5/6 times prior to Winter Offensive special rules. The Germans when attacking at 4:1 or better smacked the Soviets around and also bumped weaker units with Mobile Assaults once we got the hang of them also.

At Start

Turn 2:

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

In the North the combined arms and lack of Mobile Assaults hindered the Axis, but they were wiping out 2-4 Soviet units a turn, perhaps more if you believe the General.

The center took a while to get going until Paulus (Pete) started using Mobile Assaults. 17th blew a big hole through the rough terrain and went for an encirclement. But the enemy slunk away too quickly.

In the South due to some solid luck and being able to get into the rear with an HQ supporting we cleared out the area in front of Rostov and drove for it quickly.

 

Turn 7

Turn 8

You may note at this point we are massively behind the time line the Axis achieved. But the Soviets are dying fast!

Turn 9

Turn 10

Turn 11

Turn 13

As the game spreads out each turn is represented by shots from North to South.

Turn 15

Turn 16

Turn 17

See the video for my impressions. the team liked the game. I’d say overall its a winner. But it is a LONG game and really well suited for team play.

The system is clean and we intend to really rev it up right in the next playing.