Ted Raicer - 10:20pm Jun 7, 2000 PST (#545 of 552) 
Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch! Die Zahne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

While Kos and Andy are getting Marne/Tannenberg into shape, I'm working
on getting WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin ready for its public debut in 10
days at the monthly Chitkickers meeting Strategist in NYC. Which seems
like a good excuse to say a few words about it. 

WWII:BtoB uses the PoG system to cover WWII from June 41 to September 45
(if the Germans last that long). There are 17 full 6 round turns, plus 1
1 round turn (June 41, the opening of Barbarossa). 

The map does not include Spain (or England) but does include North
Africa west to Oran and the Middle East to Basra, and the rest of
Europe. To give an idea of scale it is 8 boxes from Warsaw to Moscow. 

Units are front/army (the Soviets) and army/corps (everybody else). The
front/army are the 5/8" counters and act just like their counterparts in
PoG. (I'm also using the same PoG CRT.) 

Major differences in combat are that mechanized units can move and
attack, and they can advance up to 3 spaces after combat (terrain
allowing) and don't have to follow the path of retreat. Units OOS can be
activated at increased OPS cost (and decreased combat effectiveness). 

The OB looks like this: Germans have 6 5-3-5 Panzer Armies and 1 5-2-5
Panzer army (the PAA), 1 5-3-1 Parachute Army (cannot attack), and a
total of 17 5-3-3 infantry armies. There are also 20 2-1-2 infantry
corps, 8 3-2-5 panzer corps, and 2 4-2-5 SS panzer corps. Axis armies
are generally 1-2-3s. 

The Soviets have 15 3-3-3 fronts, 10 of which can be upgraded to 5-5-4
mechanized fronts, 30 2-1-3 armies, 5 4-1-2 shock armies, and 6 3-2-4
tank armies. They also have one non-replaceable 5-3-4 front at the start
(the Southwest Front). 

The Brits have 2 3-3-3 armies (Desert and 1st) and 3 5-3-4 armies (2nd,
8th, 1st CND) and 12 2-2-3 corps. The US has Patton's 3rd (a 6-3-5) and
5 5-3-4 armies, plus the Free French 3-3-3, along with 10 2-2-4 corps. 

(All units with a ma of 4 or higher are mechanized.) 

continued... 

Ted 

Ted Raicer - 10:35pm Jun 7, 2000 PST (#546 of 552) 
Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch! Die Zahne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

As in PoG, only the Germans track Victory Points. He starts at +7-if he
gets to 20 he wins (historically the high water mark-in fall 42, is 18,
dropping rapidly and continously thereafter). At any point (once he has
the card) the German player can play Total War and add 20 VP to his
total (flip the VP marker to its plus 20 side) but then he can no longer
win an automatic victory-he has to survive through summer 45. The Allies
win if the German VP level reaches zero or he controls the Ruhr, Breslau
and Berlin. Historically the Germans are at +4 in winter 45, dropping to
-4 (and losing) the following turn. 

Unlike PoG the size of your hand can be affected by events in the game.
There are two Iron spaces-one in Norway and one in Sweden (the one in
Norway actually represents the transport of Swedish ore). If the Germans
control neither they lose 1 card from their maximum hand size. 

Likewise there are 3 oil spaces on the map (Ploesti, Baku and Mosul). If
the Germans control none they lose 1 card from their hand size. If they
gain control of 1 additional they add 1 to their hand size. If the
Allies control none they lose 1 from their hand size. Hand size is also
affected by the U-boat War and Allied Strategic bombing, and by play of
the Autumn Mist event (which adds 1 to the German hand size the turn
following its play). 

Allied invasions are handled somewhat like the MEF in PoG-there are
invasion beach spaces at Athens, Oran, Algiers, Sicily, Salerno, Rome,
Northern Europe, Norway, Greece, Southern France etc. Invasion cards
include Roundup, Bolero, Huskey, Avalanche, Shingle, Anvil-Dragoon and
Torch. Up to 3 beaches-1 US, 1 British, 1 Allied may be on the map at
one time. 

The Allies pay extra OPS costs in northern Europe more than 2 spaces
from their beaches until they have Antwerp AND play card to clear the
approaches to open the port. Likewise the Germans pay extra OPS costs in
Russia in winter 41 unless they played the winter preperation card
earlier. 

Anyway, hopefully that is enough to spark some interest. See some of you
(I hope) at the Strat. 

Ted 

Ted Raicer - 09:40am Jun 10, 2000 PST (#635 of 660)
Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch! Die Zahne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

One more WWII:BtoB note-having learned a lot from wayching gamers take
apart PoG the last year, I'm trying to eliminate as many special rule
situations as possible. Supply, which could have been a nightmare, has
turned out (I think) fairly simple.

Basically supply for the is traced to a supply center or beach head over
regular connections or SR connections. If traced over an SR connection
or more than 2 spaces from an active invasion beach units are OOS for
activation costs (only)-meaning 1 OPS per unit rather than space.

Here is where the map tweaking solved a lot of problems-the Germans have
only SR connections to North Africa unless they take Malta (so, except
when playing a couple of special events, they always pay by the unit in
Africa unless Malta is taken).

The Allies have supply centers in the Urals, at Basra (the Soviet
Caucasus can use this when cut off from the Urals), Alexandria and
Cairo/Suez. Because of this the 8th Army has no such restriction in
North Africa. But Allied units landing for Torch will outrun their beach
heads once in Tunis, and until they link up with the 8th Army they will
suffer the 1 OPS per turn cost.

The other Allied supply centers are at Antwerp (which can't be used
until the Approaches Cleared card is played after capture) and Syracuse
in Sicily-which has a regular connection to mainland Italy. If the
Allies land in Italy without taking Sicily they will be stuck with beach
supply only. The same is true for invasions of Norway and Greece-and
with only 3 beach markers available, a campaign in either Norway or the
Balkans will severely limit other invasion options.

So Axis North African supply and Allied invasion supply are all handled
with the same basic rules with only the Malta and Antwerp events as
exceptions.

Ted

Ted Raicer - 12:36pm Jun 12, 2000 PST (#695 of 713)

Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch! Die Zahne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

Well I played the first turn of the Fall 1942 scenario of WWII BtoB and
it was much too bloody (34 steps lost in three rounds). The reason was
that in my most recent changes I took the leash off the mech units, so
they could move and then fight anywhere.

This upped the tempo of combat temendously. So the solution was to
backtrack and put the tanks back on a leash. I was trying to reflect an
operational/tactical effect (the ability of tanks to move and attack)in
a strategic game, and the scales simply didn't match.

Now combat works as in PoG in that you place move and attack markers, so
you can only attack units you are already adjacent to, slowing the pace
of carnage to more historical levels. BUT the tanks can still move into
a space with an attack marker and take part in the attack (which no unit
can do in PoG) AND advance (up to 3 spaces) without regard to the
defenders path of retreat, so the panzers are still more than fast
infantry.

And combined with a Hitler/Stalin "no withdrawal" defensive MO effect,
and the fact you can only activate part of your army each round (plus a
couple of Events that allow limited armored second combat by US Third
Army and Panzergruppe Guderian)the rules prevent a simple Defender Runs
Away defense.

Trying this out on the same turn the results were much more to my
liking-6th Arny cut off at Stalingrad, the Russians taking Velikye Luki,
and Rommel smashed at El Alamein as opposed to half the Russian and
German armies destroyed in the last version. Looking forward to Saturday
at the Strat!

Ted