You know what I mean. 2 guys a couple of cokes, and good old fashioned wargame. What more can you ask…?

What you can ask for is ass whipping!

The Russia Campaign is a game I have not played on a physical board for 20 years. I finally get it to the table, replete with old memories and fanciful notions of Schwerpunkt running thru my mind. This is the L2 version, with updated counter graphics, stunning map, and big pieces. It looks great. As a young teen I played this a lot! It was possibly the second game I owned after Avalon Hills Waterloo. Jedko came out with this baby and we all (the cool guys at school) flocked to it.

As most of you know this is the Operation Barbarossa conflict at the Corp, Army level. Grand stuff. Let’s see where dreams and hopes were shattered.

Turn 1.

Things start out fair to middling. This is The Russian Campaign after all. The Germans must invest a lot of time upfront planning that first set of attacks to maximise Soviet losses and territory gain, whilst minimizing their own loses.

It was a bad sign when I said..”ahh and these guys will just hang out….” Did we have a few bad rolls? sure. But not enough to “blame the dice”. But hey! It is Turn 1. Lets get cranking here.

This hole above looks ok, I’m sure we can do something with it. AGC on the other hand did not move the needle.

End of Turn 1

The Soviets move this turn and block up the gaping hole towards Moscow and clog up the situation with lots of ZOCS.

Here you can see the end result of thier movement. Nice job. But in turn 2 I bring Stukas out confident that we will be in Moscow before the mud sets in.

In the mean time I really need to kill some worker units, capture Rostov and get cracking across those plains.

Turn 3…things will get better!

wow..what a slog. Brady is drying up movement opportunities and has units every where. Why the hell didn’t I kill these guys or surround them in Turn 1 and 2?

Looking for a miracle!! We inch towards Smolensk. Guderian is NOT HAPPY.

ughh…soooo close.  Well, 2 1:1 attacks fail and bounce the Axis away with AR’s. I would have settled for exchanges even! A third attack the next turn offers the same result. 3 Attacker Retreat.

Mud sets in. Kiev holds! This is not good.

As units pour North the Axis flank is terribly exposed. Now I know why Hitler swung forces towards Kiev.  Look at those open fields!

If the push for Moscow fails the Germans are hosed. As they have taken huge casualties to try to  force an early victory.

General Snow Arrives……

Germans rush to towns for safety.

This is gunna hurt!

The snow continues to fall!

Notice the lack of units in the North…Yep 6 corps were wiped out.

Axis player resigns.

Monster losses, for the Axis in a poorly executed campaign. While we got to Moscow we were there with too little. We left waaaay too many Soviet units alive and kicking. The Soviets played super smart and kept clogging up the supply, the attack avenues and any breakthrus with zones of control.

I enjoyed the game, however, it was fun, tense and we both felt like we were about to lose it all each turn. It amazes me how well this simple game plays after nearly 50 years in existence.