Black Turn Operation Barbarossa 1941

I start this campaign with Army Group Center on June 22, 1941 with Der Sterber Fedor von Bock. Theater assets consist of one Bridge and one Air Attack per turn, although the bridges go away after the first few turns. The forces are arrayed with a cluster of infantry and light armor in the north, infantry and medium armor in the south and a lightly protected gap in my center.

There are five objectives that must be secured and as usual they all begin to bleed Prestige (the lifeblood of moving forward in this game) after specific turns. The two nearest objectives are Bialystok (-25 after turn 3) and Brest-Litovsk (-25/2). The two center objectives are Baranovichi (-25/3) and Pinsk (-50/5) and the most remote are Minsk (-50/4) and Road to Bobruisk (-50/4).

Talk about a Cossack too Far…

You all my bitches...

Brest-Litovsk falls in the first turn although it did take some work and shuffling of units (this whole game is about maximizing the most damage in the least amount of movement while still pushing your units towards the next objective).

The Soviets are having none of this and aggressively push three armor units to my left flank right outside of the objective I just took. They also drop back some units to shore up the defenses around Baranovichi, Minsk and Road to Bobruisk.

I deploy the only Force Pool reserve available to me, that being the Lehr Motorized unit. These guys suck in combat in this game in this campaign scenario.

My bobble heads smack away the armor pressure being brought on Brest-Litovsk and I wheel an armor unit way out ahead of the main force towards the Pinsk Objective.

I briefly take Bialystok and cut deeper into the battlefield.

I should have destroyed the Soviet unit first in hindsight as it slips in unmolested and takes the objective right back from me.

Using the space bar liberally (to maximize the available steps) I push my Army Group Center forward, mowing over the intrepid Red that stole back Brest-Litovsk, taking Pinsk without mercy and staging for a blitz on Baranovichi.

The enemy is dropping back what units remaining they can in an effort to stall me from a weak victory.

Turn five of six with three objectives to go, I race everything forward for a Hail Mary play at the end.

You can sleep when you’re dead!!

The Soviets reposition some units but I have too many forces within available step striking distance to take all three remaining objectives on the last turn.

After-action Report

On the final turn I take Baranovichi, Minsk and Road to Bobruisk objectives for the win.

Although I won this scenario and can advance in the overall campaign, I have earned no additional prestige to add to the 800 I started with.

Post Mortem

This was a tough scenario for the first mission of a campaign. I played it three times prior failing in each attempt before finally achieving this victory. I hate to have to see what lies ahead for the Germans…