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Russia, December 11, 1942, Axis army of 617 units opposed to Russian army of 629 units for a battle of complexity 1.86 at Regiment(III) level on a 5 Km/Hex map for 41 turns of Full Day each. by Pelle Holmén submited on 11-10-2004 Rugged-Defense Playing Statistics
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WINTERGEWITTER 42Germany's desperate rescue operation to save the 6th army at Stalingrad in December 42.Best played in PBEM. This scenario is inspired of the game Stalingrad in the World at War series from Avalon Hill/Atomic games. This is second best operational game after TOAW! The map was made by John Schettler (from his South Front 42 Scenario). I have made changes to the original map. 1. UNIT COLOURS 1.1. AXIS
1.2. SOVIET UNION
2. BACKGROUND At 5.15 on the morning of Dec 12th, 1942, the panzers of 57th Panzerkorps started their advance on the Stalingrad pocket. The resistance was light but the terrain and the weather was terrible. The 6th Panzer division managed to advance only 30 km in two days. After Dec 14th, the Soviet resistance began to harden and the German attack was ultimately stopped on the 20th of December at the river Myshkova. The 6th Armee couldn't be saved and was destroyed in early February 1943. There were plans for a breakout attempt by the 6th Army called Operation Thunderclap. This operation was ultimately cancelled because von Paulus didn?t want to disobey Hitlers orders to fight to the death. The supply situation in the pocket was so severe that the few Panzers available had fuel for only half the distance to the river Myshkova. This fact didn?t make von Paulus more prone to order a breakout attempt. On the other side Stalin made great plans for trapping the German armies in the Caucasus by reaching Rostov before their withdrawal. This plan was originally called Operation Saturn. When the German relief attempt struck the weak southern front South West of Stalingrad the Soviets were surprised. They sent the whole bulk of 2nd Guards Army to stop the attack. The great plan of Operation Saturn was not feasible and Little Saturn was implemented. 3. VICTORY CONDITIONS To challenge both players I have made the following distribution of the VPs.
Destruction of HQ von Paulus 5 VP (Soviets) and other Corps HQ in the Pocket 1 VP each (total 5 VP) (Soviets) After operation Koltso begins, the Axis player receives 1 VP per turn until the occupation of Stalingrad by the Red Army. If the German pocket at Stalingrad holds out for the duration of the scenario a total of approx.10 VPs is awarded. 4. SIGNIFICANT EVENTS The Scenario begins with a cease fire of one turn (turn 1) and the players activate the TOs for the scenario during this turn. No changes to the setup of the units is allowed. The German rescue attempt, called Wintergewitter, begins on turn 2 (12th of December) and ends historically on turn 13 (24th of December). There is a rail line connecting the village of Zimovinki to Rostov. When the 44A is activated the supply to Zimovinki will be cut. No side is allowed the enter the railway connection. During the first three turns the Axis benefits from small shock bonus, on turn 2 110%, on turn 3 105% and on turn 4 101%. On turn 5 the shock effect disappears. In a historical version of the scenario 1st Panzer Army will enter the map South and South East of Rostov on 27th of December and onwards. There are 5 events coupled with each other with a 5 turn range each which decides when the units arrive. The O.O.B. of the 1st Panzer Army is: 3rd Panzer Division, 16th Motorized Division, 111th Infantry Division, 5th Motorized SS Division ?Wiking? and 7th Panzer Division. The units enter the scenario in the order in which they are written here. Units of the Soviet 44th Army enter the scenario at the same time as the last units of 1st Panzer army enter the map. The railroad supply to Zimovinki is cut when 44 Army enters the map. Tank Corps and major units of 1st Gds-, 3rd Gds- and 6th Armies will be released for duty on turn 4. The German air supply too the encircled 6th Army is modelled as a distant hex at the supply point at Gumrak airport. All HQ units in the Stalingrad pocket have very low levels of support squads that will create a low supply recovery rate. As the Soviets advance and the Stalingrad pocket gets smaller each corps in the pocket will form Battle Groups (KG) of the rear area personnel within the pocket. On Turn 9 Axis forces will suffer from a pestilence effect of 2% for the duration of the game. Replacements will go up by 10%. The Italian and Romanian will suffer the most and to a lesser extent the German units who have a minimum of a normal replacement rate. When the airfields at Millerovo, Tatsynskaya and Morozovsk are captured by the Soviets the redeployment of Luftwaffe units affects the Luftwaffe performance as a small air shock of 95% for the first airfield and then 90% and 85%. This will last for the duration of the game. On turn 15 Stalingrad front receives a supply unit for support of 62nd Army. This simulates the increased supply transported over the Volga when the ice finally froze and supply transport once again was possible. On turn 10 a general regrouping of soviet army supply centres increases the soviet player supply radius from 5 to 7. During the game it will increase every 10 turns by 1 to a maximum of 9. Operation Koltso begins on turn 30 (10th of January). To support the final assault on Stalingrad a supply point is placed in Kalach on turn 30 and the Soviet player gets substantial artillery and armoured reinforcements to crush the Stalingrad pocket. 5. COMMENTS ON THE FORCES This is winter war. The two opposing forces that fight this battle have different characteristics. To be able to master this type of warfare and prevail in the battles it?s good to know the strong and weak sides of the Axis and Soviet Forces. 5.1. The Axis 6th Armee is beginning to starve to death. Supply is low. The cold and harsh winter condition is simulated with a pestilence effect of 1% after turn 8. Do not attack if you can avoid it. The units of 6th Armee do not reconstitutes. The Italians are very weak. They have a low replacement and supply rate. The Italian units do not reconstitute. Romanian units are generally in better condition than the Italian. But those units that have participated in battles of late November and early December are depleted in both men and supply. The two Romanian Cavalry divisions in the South are in somewhat better shape. Do not expect miracles of them. The German army quality is very shifting. Generally panzer units have good replacement, profiency and supply levels and infantry units a bit lower. But be careful, you have both green units and veterans here. Check each unit out before you use it. The Axis have automatic rail repair of one. Germany and her allies lack infantry and the replacements for them are rather low (0,50%) during the game. I have lowered the replacement rate on all other equipment, because lost equipment in the pocket will enter the Axis replacement pool. Heavy equipment (artillery/tanks) for the Italians and Romanians is set to zero. 5.2. The Soviets As always for the Soviets supply is a great problem. The units of the Don Front are starving and have very little staying power in continued fighting. It's probably wise to rest them and wait for the promised reinforcements for Operation Koltso. But you should keep making probing attacks on 6th Army to deplete its units from re supplying. If you are lucky you might breakthrough in some sectors. Your greatest assets are the artillery. The soviets have high replacement rate for infantry, 2%, and 1 % for other equipment. The Soviets have a rail repair capacity of two. Some engineer brigades have railroad repair capacity. The Armies in the north are prepared for attack on the Italian and German forces defending the Upper Don. Supply and equipment levels are good. You should consider holding off the main attack until operation Little Saturn begins because of the small shock bonus the Axis side have the first 3 turns due to the surprise attack in the south by the German Panzer Divisions of 57th Pzkorps. The Italian and German units defending the Upper Don area is frozen until turn 4 (exception below). The Italian Army were not under Wehrmacht command and will not move until the situation calls for a general retreat. Exception below in the section on the Theatre Options. The 5th Tank army, 5th Shock army, 51st army are low on supply and equipment levels after the intense fighting to surround 6th army. Before 2nd Guards Army arrives it's a defensive fight to deny the Germans a breakthrough to the 6th Armee. 6. HOUSE RULES Player enforced. The players are not allowed to move, dig-in, alter loss-settings or by any mean change the set up of the units during the cease fire on turn one. The scenario starts on turn 2. The German player is not allowed to airlift any ground units into or out of the Stalingrad pocket. The German player is not allowed to disband any units inside the Stalingrad pocket. Units of 6th Armee outside (not in a hex marked ?*?) the Boundary marked with "*" can be disbanded except HQs of 6th Armee. Units of DON Front are not allowed to participate in battles outside the Stalingrad pocket. The boundary is marked with a "*". The exception is described below and under the section Theatre Options. Units of Don Front are not allowed to end their turn outside the boundary, except to redeploy to another area within the boundary. No delays is accepted. The German player is not allowed to airdrop any units other than the Brandenburg unit. HQs can be airlifted from airport to airport. The German player is allowed to have only one ground unit in the Gumrak airfield hex at any given time. This house rule expires when Soviet units enters a border hex next to the airfield. Soviet player can use the DON front Armies freely if the German player successfully enter a boundary marked hex ,?*?, with units of Army Group DON and make contact with 6th Army. Historically the armies of DON front were sent northwest to participate in the battles of Kursk and Charkov after the destruction of the 6th Armee. 7. THEATRE OPTIONS One great advantage of computer games is the ability to answer the question: What if...? In this scenario I have made it possible to save the 6th Armee with the forces from the 1st Panzer Armee. What if OKH/OKW realized the threat to the 6th Armee early in November and begun the withdrawal of the Caucasus forces much earlier? 1st Panzer Armee will enter the battle within the first turns of action in the Rostov and Zimovinki area. You have the option to try to fight it out with historically correct forces and see if you can reach Stalingrad and the 6th Armee before the Red army counterattacks or? as the soviet player reach Rostov before 1st Panzer Armee gets out of Caucasus. 7.1. THE THEATRE OPTIONS If the players decide to go for the historical version, TOs labelled historical must be used and all others ignored. It should be noted that this scenario have been play tested in historical version. The TO little Saturn is considered historical if it is activated on turn 4 in an historical game. The players? can choose one type of deployment and two other TOs (a total maximum of three) can be chosen. Some TOs are active during the whole game. If a player have chosen three TOs on turn one and there are still TOs active during the game they are considered cancelled even if they still are shown in the TO menu. The players can agree on activating two TOs each. One TO must always be an deployment for 2 Guards Army or 57 PzK. 7.2. AXIS THEATRE OPTIONS TO Early Release of 1st Panzer Armee (active on turn one) On turn one the German player has a theatre option for releasing the 1st Panzer Armee in Caucasus early in the game. The units arrive on the South edge of the map around Rostov from turn two and onwards (some randomness and delays is build into the events as described above for the historical version). This TO simulate the forced withdrawal of 1st Pz Armee just after the encirclement of the 6th Armee. The German high command realizes that major forces are needed to save the 6th Armee at Stalingrad immediately. The 44th Army is in hot pursuit and will appear in the 44th Army deployment area just after 1st Panzer Armee enters the map. Axis units is not allowed to enter this area. The boundary is shown with (+) on the map. Axis units may not enter hexs with (+). TO Operation Thunderclap (active during the whole game) This is the time for a difficult decision for the Axis commander. If this TO is activated all Pz Regiments and StuG Abteilungen, 53rd Werfer Rgt and 603rd Pio Rgt inside the pocket is disbanded together with the Panzer Grenadier Regiments of 14th-, 16th- and 24th Panzer Divisions. Luftwaffe commits the units I/KG1, I/KG3 and III/KG3 for the air supply effort. These units will be permanently withdrawn. KG Thunderclap enters as reinforcements inside the pocket at Pitomnik. This formation has normal supply profiency. A supply point will be placed at Pitmonik airfield. This will give the units in the pocket normal supply levels for 6 turns after which it is removed together with the supply point at Gumrak airfield. At the same time a total of 2000 support squads are dumped into the replacement pool. It will eventually give 6th Armee better supply profiency but don?t expect miracles because the reinforcement priorities are very low for the units of 6th Armee. 6 turns after Operation Thunderclap is activated all resources inside the pocket are depleted. This is a make or brake decision for the axis commander. von Paulus didn?t go against Hitlers stand fast orders and the planned breakout attempt never occurred. TO 57th Pzkorps South (Historical) (active on turn one) The units of 57th Pz Korps (6th Pz and 23rd Pz division) are deployed NE of Kotelniko. 17th Pz is on the way to the front and can reach it within a turn or two. This is the historical deployment for the Korps. 306th Infanterie division enters early at Rostov. TO 57th Pzkorps Centre (active on turn one) The units of 57th Pzkorps deploys around Lissinki and Nitzky Chirskaya. This is the closest approach to the pocket, but you will face a large amount of Soviet units and the river Don is in the way. 17th Pz division is on the way to the front and can reach it within a turn or two. 306th Infanterie division covers the front NE of Kotelnikovo. TO 57th Pzkorps North (active on turn one) The units of 57th Pzkorps deploys around Sovetskaya. This opens up the possibility to pocket a large number of Soviet units of 5th Tk army if you can coordinate it with 11th Pz division in the centre. 17th Pz division is on the way to the front and can reach it within a turn or two. 306th Infanterie division covers the front NE of Kotelnikovo. TO early release of 19 Pz division (active on turn one) 19th Pz division is released form duty in the Heeresgruppe Mitte two weeks early. It enters on the rail line on the map edge in the area of Artemvosk. This TO will also place the Italian 8th Army under German control from the beginning of the battle. You will have the option to withdrawal and defend in depth. 7.3. SOVIET THEATRE OPTIONS TO Little Saturn (active during the whole game) When operation Little Saturn is launched on (historically on turn 5, 16th of December) the Soviet player receives a supply point east of the village of Chern and have small positive chock bonus for four turns. This TO should not be used before turn 4 as it would counter the German chock bonus applied during the first four turns. Off course the players can ignore this if they agree. If this TO is chosen the 1st and 3rd Gds Army will get one supply unit each to strengthen the offensive. This TO is considered historical if it is activated on turn 4 in an historical version of the scenario. TO Release DON front reinforcements elsewhere (active on turn one) This gives the Soviet player the intended reinforcements for Operation Koltso 27 days earlier to be used anywhere on the map. It can still be used as a bone cracker on the 6th Armee. This is a very powerful option and the reinforcements are: 111th, 318th Hvy Art Rgt; 406th Hvy Art Bn; 56th, 496th, 536th, 1243rd AT Rgts; 14th, 15th, 47th Gds Tk Rgts; 2nd and 3rd Gds Mortar Divisions (750 tubes of rocket artillery per division). TO Use DON Front outside the pocket (active on turn one) If this option is selected the units of the DON Front can be used anywhere on the map from the start of the game.. The draw back is STAVKAs decision to use the reinforcements intended for operation Koltso on the central front for the Operation Mars. If both this and the ?TO Release DON front reinforcement elsewhere? is chosen in conjunction the reinforcements arrive early anyway. TO 2nd Guards Army deployment North(Historical) (active on turn one) This TO deploys 2nd Gds army between 1st Gds and 3rd Gds army. This was the historical deployment for 2nd Gds Army. TO 2nd Gds Army South (active on turn one) This TO deploys 2nd Gds army around the village of Shestakov. This can counter any historical attack made by the Germans. TO 2nd Gds Army Centre (active on turn one) This TO deploys 2nd Gds army around hex 58,25. An offensive against the airfield of Morozovsk can cripple any attacks on the pocket from the bulge around Verchne Solonov. The south and North front is not far away. 8. Scenario playtesters Jim Brady, Pavel Voylov, Holger Wilcks, Peter Szabo, Ben Turner, Colin Wright, Erik Nygaard, Curt Chambers, Jeremy Mac Donald, Laszlo Nemedi, Mensch, JL Beltin, Xandamere, Foggy, WestPointer and Southern Dandy. In addition I consider all participant of the WFHQ Wintergewitter tourney to have been playtesters. Thank you all. 9. Thanks to Pavel Voylov for his guidance in Soviet TOE and OOB and Jim Brady for information on parts of the German and Soviet OOB and comments on profiency and supply. Jarek Flis has contributed with additional info on map and units. Peter Szabo and Colin Wright have given me very valuable comments on play balance, supply and how to model the supply situation of 6th Army in the Stalingrad Pocket. Jeremy for the idea of several TOs to add uncertainty to the battle. Laszlo Nemedi for information about deployment/composition of the 1st gds, 3rd gds, 6th A, It 8th A, Armee Abt. Hollidt and Fretter-Pico. Manits for the coordination of the playtesting at WFHQ. This scenario has been developed in cooperation with the TOAW Design Group |