1941 Eastern Front Campaign - First and Last

 

The campaign started in March 2020 to  occupy me during the first UK lockdown.  It lasted 21 months and finished with multiplayer games with my wargaming friends.

 

This was Turn 2.  Five Soviet Platoons - mostly small  ones - face off against five Axis Platoons.  I bought both Tank platoons and both Soviet Machinegun Artillery platoons specifically for this campaign.  The fortified area is several bunkers and huge amounts of fortifications.  In the campaign the Axis never attacked it.  Sensibly they went around it, just the Germans did in reality in WWII.

This was the de-faco end of the campaign, although I played a few more turns.  Axis forces have grown to five infantry platoons, one armoured car platoon, one Engineer platoon and one motorbike platoon.  The Soviets have 6 infantry platoons, one armoured car platoon and one infantry reconnaissance platoon.  This did mean a huge expansion in my armies too, giving me many hours of fun assembling and painting units.

I also built a huge amount of terrain.

This is a ruined city I built to represent eastern Gordinische.  Again, it was fun to build and paint.  It did mean I had to buy a 140 litre box to store it in.

This is the 28mm railway I built for Western Gordinische.  It includes a station admin building (the red-brick building), a station, a goods shed, two platforms, a water tank and a signal box.  The houses are cuctom built by Blotz with Charlie Foxtrot roofs.

The best part of the campaign were the multi-player battles and games against my wargames friends.

This is what happens when friends provide a lot of buildings.  We had enough to cover around 8' by 6' but this table was deliberatly 4' by 4'.  Fighting in built up areas absorbs a lot of troops in a small area. Four large Platoons went toe to toe in this area.

So overall it has been great fun.  Lots of painting, lots of assembling troops and terrain, and 14 fun battles.  The early battles were solo, then when Support Bubbles arrived I played the battles with my youngest daughter, then with my wargame friends.  Thanks to Bob for many games, and to Phil and Andy for the multi-player games.

Although the Axis started off with 4,350 points to the Soviet's 2,500 points, the replacements and reserves were fairly even, reducing the Axis advantage over time.  The Axis had to win quickly or not at all, just like in 1941.  In the campaign the Axis got drawn into a long campaign of attrition which they could not afford.  Again, just like in 1941.  Finally the Soviets had the advantage of shorter supply lines, which meant they could get replacements and reserves to the front quickly whilst the Germans struggled with the distances involved.  Just like in 1941.

The campaign rules were only written down half-way through the campaign, and evolved continously.  Just as the campaign ends I am finally happy with the rules.