Roads to Leningrad Review (Intermediate)

It is hard for me to say anything about this game, without sounding like
some kind of nut. Roads to Leningrad is one of those games...this is why
I came into this hobby. If I had purchased a game like this years ago,
then I would have led an unhappy life. Titles like this one are so hard
to find, and I'd rather have gotten it now, than to have faced 30+ years
of disappointment waiting for lightning to strike again. 

If you have read some of my earlier posts you might be familiar with
some of the things that I like in a game. Things which might stand apart
from any considerations of gameplay, but they certainly don't have
anything to do with subject matter. 

I have come to like big counters. Now big thick counters, like those old
Yaquinto things, no longer hold the same appeal for me. I don't mind if
they're not double thick, but I do like them to be bigger. My eyes are
getting older, and it is just easier to see and appreciate the
information on a big old counter. 

I also like big hexes to go along with these big counters. At various
conventions I have seen people use tweezers, and those things that
people used to hold the burning ends of their dope with, but I just like
to use my fingers. And as clumsy as I am, it is slightly less easy to
knock things around when the hexes are slightly too big, than when they
are slightly too small. 

Another thing, which I have grown fond of, is the mechanic of step
reduction. I do like seeing units take a licking and keep on ticking.
Maybe its the tactile sensation of turning counters over...maybe its the
fact that losses are no longer all or nothing...but I have come to like
this mechanic in games. If I mess up and lose a battle there may be a
bit of grace in the losses. 

Now it must also be noted that I do not like Russian Front battles. Both
sides set standards of evil that will be hard for any human being to
ever exceed. Its hard for me to find a side that I'd really like to win,
though the Soviets definitely come in at the lesser of two evils side in
comparison to the Nazi people whose parents weren't married when they
were conceived. I've also felt that in many of the games that I have
played the Soviet forces have been consistently maligned. Maybe National
Socialism is just sexier. You can imagine women in vinyl catsuits with
SS insignia. No game that I have ever played modeled the Soviet Union's
utter incompetence at the start of the war, versus their almost
frightening operational prowess which they demonstrated at the end of
the war. The Russian Campaign has a double impulse system, which favors
the Germans and their units throughout the war. The Germans can usually
move faster and further. I feel that this chart gives a little too much
to those Soviet units struggling at the beginning of the war, while
taking way too much away from the Soviet Army that ended the war. 

That being said...I love how the Soviet Army is modeled in this game.
They move in slow motion. The Germans are like scalpels...able to make
deep cuts and penetrations, but they tend to lack the sheer numbers to
widen these various gaps. The Soviets are slow like zombies, but once
they get a hold of you they will never let go. These are Soviet units
from 1941, when they are getting beat up all over the place...and they
can be very scary. Both of these armies feel and move slightly
differently. Rather than having a mass of combat factors and similar
units...both of the sides in this game are different, with asymetrical
weaknesses and strengths. 

Oh...and the game does have big counters, big hexes, and step
reduction...I already liked it. The box just looks normal and cool...it
should have a pair of sunglasses on it, as if to say, "You have no idea
what is included on the inside of this box. If we put that on the cover
people's eyeballs would explode and juicy stuff would run out of their
eye sockets onto their cheeks." 

One of the nice things (though it is hard to remember the various
different unit capabilities...defined by silhouette, red boxes around
the MP, a red attack strength, etc.)..is that these units feel distinct,
and you can sometimes do different things depending on how you stack/use
them. Do you put together a couple of stacks for overrunning different
units...leaving your artillery unprotected? Do you protect everything,
and not worry about overrunning the enemy? Putting different units
together allows you to perform certain missions with ease, and how you
stack will be determined by whether or not you are in a hurry...whether
you are attacking or defending...whether you are trying to catch someone
by surprise, or are wanting to pund them into submission? You are
constantly reorganizing your units for the accomplishment of various
operational objectives. 

This choice is further enhanced through an activation mechanic, whereby
after you have pulled a chit, with your division upon it, you have to
assign it an operations sequence. Mobile (good for traveling and
overrunning), Assault (good for chewing someone up and preparing tooth
breaking defenses), or you can pass (which can give you a chance to do
things later). 

There is another bonus in that both sides in this game can attack and
defend at different times in each scenario. The Germans attack and then
defend in Soltsy, while the Soviets attack and then defend in Starya.
There are more armored units and mobility in the Soltsy scenarios, while
the Starya scenarios have some armor...but what you mostly have are some
infantry and mobile divisions crunching each other to bits. This is a
contrast to the many games where the German runs wild, and the Soviet
player has to keep taking body blows like Rocky. 

After getting this game I also picked up Kasserine, and this is only a
preliminary assessment, but I don't think that the different sides in
that game are offered as many opportunities to both attack and defend.
Most games seem to have one guy scrambling to defend, while the other
guy chuckles and gets to attack. The tables turn in Roads to Leningrad,
and both players have a chance to be scary good. 

The errata is...well its pretty serious for the big Starya battle. The
information about the number of certain support planes was left off of
the German order of battle chart. That's a fairly serious error, but can
be easily fixed, if you are able to go online. 

I was able to read through the rules and understood them before I even
got the game. This helped immeasurably. I commend GMT for producing
Living Rules documents before the games have even shipped. This drums up
interest, and I have P500d more than one game after checking the rules
out on line. I also like being able to set the game up as soon as it
arrives, because I already know the rules...and because a countersheet
manifest was included in one of the rulebooks (I'm one of those guys who
won't punch until he's got a copy of what he is punching). 

The rules are lengthy, but they feel mature. This is a further
development of a system that Vance Von Borries has been working on for a
number of years, and has been seen in Kasserine. It isn't necessarily
earthshaking...but it is well thought out and well put together. This
system could feel fiddly, but I feel that it gives a lot of power for
decision making to the player. 

I rated this game on BoardGameGeek and gave it a 10. I've only rated
Guilford Courthouse and Saratoga that high. Roads to Leningrad...that's
why I got into the hobby...and it is is either the culmination of a
wonderful year in gaming, or it is a stunning start to the new year! I'm
very happy with this purchase! Thank you Vance Von Borries and GMT for
producing this most wonderful game. 


Scott Shafer <faithfulpreacher@mac.com>