Weather
At the beginning of each turn the computer will advise the player what the weather conditions are – either snow or mud. During a snow turn movement capabilities are unchanged. During a mud turn, all units have their movement allowance halved.
Movement
Units are moved from hex to adjoining hex, expending movement points for each hex entered and certain types of hex sides crossed. The computer will show the allowable hexes a unit can move to by highlighting the hexes with a yellow outline.
Zones of Control
All units project a zone of control (ZOC) into the 6 adjacent hexes. All units must cease movement when entering an enemy ZOC. There is no movement point cost to enter or exit an enemy ZOC. Units may retreat through enemy ZOC, but lose strength points for doing so. Units may never move directly from one enemy ZOC to another (exception Advance after Combat).
Stacking
The term ‘stack’ in this game refers to all the units in a given hex. The Soviet player may stack units as follows:
One Division, or
Three brigades of the same Corps, or
Any two brigades
The German player may stack units as follows:
Any two regiments, or
All units of the same division
Combat
Combat is performed in the following sequence:
- Attacker selects the hex to be attacked and designates which of his adjacent stacks will fire.
- Defensive Fire: the defender will automatically select an attacking stack to be fired upon and the results of combat applied.
- The remaining attackers fire.
- If all defenders are eliminated or retreat, the attackers may advance after combat.
Fire Strength Calculation
The computer will use the follow calculations when working our Fire Strength:
- If the target stack consists entirely of infantry units, the stack is considered non-armored, If the target stack contains at least one armored unit, the stack is considered armored.
- Non-armored units firing at an armored stack have their strength halved.
Defensive bonuses
Bonuses beneficial to the target are for a defending unit in a village, city or rough hex and for heavy armor units.
Units defending behind a river receive a bonus, if all the units attacking are firing across a river hex side. During mud turns, units defending behind a river receive double the bonus. If any attackers are not firing across a river hex side, the shift does not apply.
Offensive Bonus
The only bonus beneficial to firing units is for German Fire Superiority. The German player gets a bonus on all fire. This represents German tactical superiority.
The computer will automatically apply all bonuses when calculating combat results.
Multi-stack Combat
The attacking player may move as many stacks adjacent to a hex as he is able to, before attacking. He may attack only one hex at a time. He may not move units into a hex containing units which have already attacked that turn.
Combat Results
A single number in the above table means a step loss or hexes to retreat. If the results are 2 numbers, the first number is the step loss or retreat. The second number is a
mandatory step loss. The computer will automatically apply losses or retreats and update the unit’s strength (Steps).
Step losses: Units may suffer step losses in combat. If there are armored units attacking they will take losses first. The Russians were historically prepared to take
more losses, so where the option is to take losses or retreat, the Russians are slightly more likely to take losses rather than retreat compared to the Germans.
Retreats: As mentioned above, Units may be forced to retreat as a result of combat. The computer will automatically retreat units.
Steps
Strength is expressed in steps. Each unit steps equals its printed strength. So an Infantry unit with strength 5 has 5 steps losses it can take before being destroyed.
Infantry steps go down by 1 for each combat loss. Armor units go down by 2 for each combat loss.
Advance after Combat
If the defending units in the hex under attack all retreat or are eliminated, all attacking units participating in that combat may advance after combat. Advances may be made in any direction. The computer will highlight the hexes a unit can move to once selected.
Turn 1 Special Rules
The 2nd Ukrainian Front opened its offensive before the 1st Ukrainian Front. On turn 1, no German or Soviet units along the west front may move or fire. On turn 2 these units may all move and fire normally.
Reinforcements
Reinforcements for both sides are listed on the Reinforcements Chart. They are listed by turn of entry and by the map area they enter.
Victory Conditions
The players receive 1 Victory Point for each 10 enemy strength points eliminated. At the end of the game, units that cannot trace a path of hexes free of enemy units and their ZOC to a friendly map edge are considered eliminated. Friendly units occupying a hex do not negate enemy ZOC for this purpose. The southern map edge is considered friendly to the Germans. All other map edge hexes are considered friendly to the Soviets.
