Red Vengeance - turns 1 & 2

Red Vengeance - turn 2 (or: Where's that army group gone?)


Since the spare bedroom is occupied, and this little game arrived recently, I've taken over the kitchen table. First impressions: a not unattractive game (map is bland but counters are nice), simple rules, fast game.

A straightforward beast, this one. Generic counters at corps (for the Axis) and army (for the Soviets) level, monthly turns. Igo-ugo structure (move, fight, exploit-move, exploit-fight). ZOCs are sticky for infantry, retarding for armour, but can be carpeted by friendly units. Six to hit system, most units have two steps. In the Soviet turn, every Axis stack adjacent to a Soviet stack must be attacked. The Axis don't have to attack in their turn, but if they do, must also attack all adjacent stacks. Some units (basically, everything that isn't bog-standard infantry) may exploit move and attack, where the above restrictions are lifted.

The game kicks off with the Red Army in position to launch Bagration. Although the Axis player must set up his infantry first, his armour gets to be placed after Soviet set up, so the Soviet player can expect to see a large number of Panzer corps facing the bulge in Ukraine. The wristage in the first turn is very high, since the Soviets are likely to be attacking all along the line; I estimate around 500 dice rolled in the course of turn 1. As can be seen from the picture, most of Army Groups Centre and North had still disappeared within two turns. The Soviets aren't in great shape, but of course they have far more steps to lose.