This is the campaign that decided the outcome of the greatest war in history. All that came before it was prologue. All that came after was anticlimax. In these decisive 29 weeks, the fate of the world was determined. In the actual event the Axis fell just short, suffering, in game terms, a marginal defeat, thereby losing World War II.

The surprise of the Axis attack inflicts a 25% shock penalty on the Soviets for turn 1. This lessens to 10% on turns 2-3, to 5% on turns 4-8, and ends on turn 9. Similarly, the Soviets suffer an 85% air shock penalty on turn 1, lessening to 25% on turn 2, to 10% on turns 3-4, to 5% on turns 5-8, ending on turn 9. Both sides suffer 67% shock penalties during the mud phase (turns 17-20). The Axis then suffer a 5% shock penalty on turns 21-24, and a 25% shock penalty from turn 25 on. Finally, from turn 25 on, the Axis forces suffer a 3% pestilence penalty due to frostbite.

All Soviet units are unsupplied on turn one (they have no supply points). This makes all losses those units suffer that turn permanent (except for air units) and prevents escapes via disbandments. A number of supply points are placed by event on turn 2.

The Soviets receive a 250 VP award on turn 1 for balancing.

Storms occur continuously from turn 11 on. It warms up in July, but steadily cools after that, all the way to Frozen 3 everywhere.

The Axis supply radius is 5 until turn 17 when it drops to 3. The Soviet supply radius is 3 for the duration.

All rail repair units are withdrawn on turns 21-24 for winter. Northern units first, southern ones last.

The game lasts exactly 29 turns, even if scenario variability is in use.

The Slovak and Hungarian expeditions are withdrawn and the Romanians go into garrison mode late in the game. Slovak, Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian ground units (not air units) are ineligible for reconstitution.

House rule 1: Of the Axis forces, only Romanian units are permitted to attack Odessa.

House rule 2: Slovak, Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian units may not move or attack further north than the line of asterisks running along the 40 hex-row (through Kursk). If forced north of it by combat, they must move back into compliance ASAP.

House rule 3: Finnish units may not attack any unit beyond the line of asterisks just beyond their national border. Viipuri is part of this line, as is the Finnish border north of the Arctic Circle. Note that there is no restriction on Finnish units MOVING across this line, they just can't attack beyond it. So the Soviet player must border the line with units strong enough not to be overrun, if he wants to stop the Finns. The German Brandenburg division operating in Finland is under no such limits. If it, or other Axis units clear a path for the Finns, they can move (but not attack) anywhere. But for practical purposes, let's limit them to no further south than the 40 hex-row line of asterisks. Finnish air units may never leave Finland or attack beyond the same limits. The Baltic Fleet may only be attacked if next to a Finnish hex. German air units may never be transferred to Finland.

House rule 4: Only units that start north of the Arctic Circle (the 07 hex-row) may operate there. Note that these units have movement allowances of only one point, to model the extreme conditions that far north. Regular units moving north of it would lack this condition and are therefore prohibited from it. Similarly, Arctic Circle units should stay north of it. Luftflotte 5 may never move below the Arctic Circle.

If the Axis capture the Lagoda supply terminal hex [20,21] the Leningrad supply point is removed after a four-turn delay. This supply point is also removed if the Axis capture Leningrad. There is an Axis supply point in Leningrad if they capture it.

If the Axis capture Sevastopol the Odessa supply point is removed.

Finally, if the Axis capture Moscow the Moscow supply point is removed.

The eleven Soviet Armies that start next to the frontier (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 18th, and 26th) do not reconstitute, but instead are replaced by new armies that have an updated TOE, and also a small cadre unit in the Axis rear (canceled if PO plays Axis). These new units arrive from 2-4 turns after the date of the parent army's historical destruction. The cadres represent bypassed Soviet elements that plagued the Axis throughout Barbarossa, not true partisans.

None of the three Soviet fleet units can reconstitute. The Soviet Northern Fleet is withdrawn on turn 8 to model its being reassigned to convoy duty.

The Soviet player has a TO to mothball the Baltic Fleet (it is withdrawn) in return for a dump of squads into the pools. If Leningrad falls the option is removed. If the Baltic Fleet is destroyed in combat, the dump of squads still occurs, unless Leningrad has already fallen.

If Sevastopol falls, the Black Sea Fleet is mothballed (withdrawn), Soviet Sea transport is zeroed, restriction zone 2 is removed (releasing the Romanian fleet unit), and a dump of squads is made into the pools from that fleet. If the Black Sea Fleet unit is destroyed in combat, a dump of squads from that fleet still occurs no matter what.

The Soviet player has a TO to release the Stalin unit. There is a 10 VP penalty for exercising it, but if the Stalin unit is destroyed there is a 100 VP penalty.

If the Axis forces approach to within 14 hexes of Baku, the Caucasus Reserve is released.

Axis capture of Soviet oil fields increases their force supply level by one-third of the VPs in the oil field hex. For Baku, that's 23%, for Grozny that's 3%, for Molotov that's 3%, for Majkop that's 2%, and for Toljatti that's 2%. Even though such oil would be unrefined, there would still be some benefit.

Soviet destruction of Romanian refineries drops Axis supply 6% for each refinery. No provision has been made for Soviet capture of Romanian oil fields since that is unimaginable. Note that there is a dedicated air defense unit for the refineries. This serves both the purpose of defending against air attack, but also ensures the refineries stay visible to the enemy, allowing such air attacks. Note that since this is loss of refined oil, its impact is proportionately greater than the benefit of capturing Soviet oil fields. Note that neither gain nor loss of oil impacts Axis production. That had plenty of slack in it. But fuel for supplies was tight so there is a supply effect.

In contrast, Soviet supplies had plenty of reserve whereas their production was operating all out. While they had other Siberian sources of oil the loss of access to the giant Baku field would have had an impact on their production. The game represents this by dropping Soviet production if loss of access to the Baku field occurs. Loss of access can happen in any of three different ways.

Note that the first two ways are equal to loss of all 5 refineries. Also note that there cannot be any duplication of production loss. Lose Baku, Astrakhan, and all five refineries and the production drop will still be only 30%.

Critical to the scenario is how Soviet production is modeled. Arms production is modeled via the factories and their effect on the replacement tracks. Squad and horse-teams, however, are modeled via the manpower levy units.

The manpower levy units arrive continuously in 68 different locations all over the map. It is the Soviet player's responsibility to disband each of them into the pools as they arrive. They have been expressly designed so that they can serve no other purpose but to be so disbanded. They have no supply, proficiency, or formation supply efficiency. And they are indefinitely in reserve, only being released by enemy action. Even if so released, only in the most desperate pinch could any Soviet player justify using them directly as combat units and the results would be prohibitively costly. These are literally raw recruits waiting to be assigned to combat units. There is a separate ".SAL" file included to show players where the manpower centers are and their relative sizes. Note that for the largest centers such units arrive every turn, the mid-sized centers' units arrive every third turn, and the smallest arrive every 9th turn. Also, the earliest units are the largest, decreasing exponentially to a steady-state level after the initial burst. Horse teams are also received by this method, but only the southern provinces provide them.

Note that Axis capture of manpower centers will cause those levy units for that center that haven't yet arrived on map to backlog in the reinforcement tracks. They therefore will not be disbanded and Soviet manpower will be reduced by that amount. But Soviet recapture of any such center will cause the backlog to arrive en mass. Therefore, possession of the manpower centers is critical to success in the scenario. The designed size of the units represents 20% more manpower than was historically received, because historically, the Soviets received about 17% less than the maximum they could have, due to Axis conquests. Therefore, slower than historical advances will reward the Soviet with more than historical manpower levels, while faster will penalize him with less.

Note that if the PO plays the Soviets it will not disband these units. So the Axis player is advised to interrupt the PO's action to do the disbanding for it, if he wants any sort of serious Soviet PO opposition. (The Soviet PO may need help with factories and off-map reinforcements, as well).

Note that the sizes of the manpower units were based upon the population of the province, not the city itself.

Soviet arms production is via the replacement tracks. Those tracks are affected by the status of the Soviet factories. The Soviet player has a series of TOs to individually release each of his 21 factories. Exercising the option releases the specific factory for movement east, but also awards the Axis player VPs equal to the factory's production and drops Soviet production by that amount. That production is never to be recovered within the time frame of this scenario (the only value in releasing a factory is to avoid the VP penalty of having it destroyed). If the factory is destroyed instead, the production is still lost just the same, but the VP award is multiplied by 10. Also, deactivation of a factory reduces Soviet force supply by one-quarter of the factory's production (effected by random chance if that production is less than 4%). Note that factories must move by rail due to the "rail-gun" icon. Don't wait until the rail path has been cut before releasing the factory.

Soviet track production levels start 20% higher than historical (because the historical Soviet production was 17% less than maximum possible due to Axis conquest) and must be reduced by Axis advances or Soviet production will exceed historical levels. But faster than historical advances will correspondingly reduce cumulative production below historical levels. So, like with the manpower centers, the status of factories is critical to success in the scenario.

The Leningrad factory has been split, to give the Soviet player the option to hedge his bets on it. He can remove none, 3%, 7%, or all 10% of that factory's production as he sees fit. Historically, the 7% factory was moved out.

There aren't enough TO slots to show all 21 options at once, so some of the far eastern factories don't appear on the list until some of the western options have been exorcised.

Factories, manpower units, and refineries do not reconstitute.

All dense urban hexes that start under Soviet control are continuously toggled to Soviet control between turns. To maintain control of these hexes, the Axis player must maintain an occupying unit in them.

House rule 5: that occupying force must be division sized or larger, except for Leningrad and Moscow, in which case it must be Corps sized or larger. (This rule is not imposed until the turn after the hex was captured, to allow the occupying units to catch up to the spearheads.) Note that for two piece units (ones with a "RES" part) both parts must be in occupation to satisfy this rule. Obviously, if such a hex toggles back to Soviet control any backlogged manpower units would arrive. Note that the toggling is disabled if the PO plays the Axis.

The Soviets also receive Lend-Lease disbandment units. These come by two routes - North Atlantic and Pacific. Pacific shipments may not be interrupted. But North Atlantic shipments may be canceled if the Axis capture Archangel. In that event, Atlantic shipments will no longer be automatically disbanded by the event system, but will remain scheduled for arrival either in Archangel (if Ground-type) or Murmansk (if Air-type). Obviously, the Soviet player would have to regain control of Archangel to get the Ground equipment and maintain control of Murmansk to get the Air equipment. If he can, then he will need to manually disband the unit upon its arrival. Note that the shipments are spaced 4 weeks apart.

New Soviet Armies arrive as unpopulated shells. They must wait a turn or two to receive their manpower and arms from the pools. They also need to wait to allow their readiness and supply levels to recover. This represents time training.

The Shock armies are the exception to this. They arrive ready for action from the Far East. Also, when they arrive, their parent armies are disbanded. For 1st Shock it's 19th Army, for 2nd Shock it's 26th Army, for 3rd Shock it's 60th Army, and for 4th Shock it's 27th Army.

On-map victory points were determined based upon the population of the city or the value of the mineral resource. Also, Murmansk and Archangel have their VPs tripled due to their importance to the Northern Lend-Lease route. One quarter of the VPs for Swedish iron ore were shifted to Narvik due to its necessity in winter. Moscow has a small political bonus.

Restriction zone 1 covering Sweden and Turkey can never be removed.

Most units are split into separate frontline and rear-area elements. (Rear-area parts have the "RES" icon.) Axis rear-area parts have very limited transport. If used in combat, they may find their movement allowances reduced to one, due to loss of transport.

The Attrition Divider is 2.

This is the first corps/army @ 50km/hex Barbarossa design. And it is the only one to separate Soviet arms production from manpower production. The design included a thorough analysis of Soviet 1941 demographics.

I designed the map from scratch again using the same "latlong" technique I've used in "CFNA", "France 1944, "Okinawa 1945", and "Germany 1945". If ever there was a scenario that would benefit from a sinusoidal projection this has to be it. The map covers 65 degrees of longitude at the top but only 29 degrees at the bottom - more than a two to one change.