TOI-Fotb-Rules.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 Fury of the Bear In the summer of 1941, Hitler’s military efforts in Western Germany, now on the defensive, executed a counteroffensive Europe consumed vast amounts of resources, particularly oil, helmed by renowned strategist Erich von Manstein. With the and more would be needed to prevent Germany’s war machine support of a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped with from grinding to a halt. The Soviet Union possessed an abun- Tiger tanks, his troops fought their way back into Kharkov. dance of these resources. All Hitler would have to do is take it. Germany now concluded that a decisive victory at Kursk would keep the Soviet armies at bay while they tended to matters on On June 22, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, an the Western Front. invasion of the Soviet Union that spanned an 1,800 mile front. Employing over 4.5 million troops, the attack targeted the terri- However, the Soviets were regularly building up defensive tory up to Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan. If taken, the line between measures. In the face of depleted troop counts, the Soviets these two Soviet cities would mark the eastern border of the new drafted soldiers from territory liberated from Nazi control. Reich. The Germans would not only gain the territory’s resourc- es, they would also secure a safe border to the East. Not only did the Germans have to wait months for new equipment and troops, the Germans’ intelligence regarding the The Germans secured several major economic centers, defenses at Kursk was poisoned by a misinformation campaign. including the Ukraine, and in October of 1941, they launched When their offense was finally mounted, they found the Soviets Operation Typhoon, the military offensive that targeted Moscow. had reinforced the city with the largest amount of anti-tank But the Soviets would not go quietly. And by then, Germany’s firepower ever assembled. The Germans launched attacks from supplies began to run low and the notoriously brutal Soviet multiple sides, but the Soviet defenses held. At Prokhorovka, winter took a devastating toll. almost 1,000 tanks clashed until the Soviets, despite heavy losses, fought the Germans to a standstill. Furthermore, Soviet master spy, Richard Sorge informed Stalin that Japan was focused on Southeast Asia and the Pacific and In retaliation, the Soviet army mounted a large offensive in the had no plans to attack the Soviets. Soviet troops from Siberia north and broke through on the flank of the German 9th army. and the Far East who had been prepared to repel the Japanese Kursk cost Hitler 500,000 men and 1,000 tanks – a crippling were reassigned. These reinforcements made it possible for the loss for Germany’s military operations on the Eastern Front. Soviets to launch counteroffensives to force the withdrawal of German forces. This attack on Germany’s 9th army ignited the Soviet juggernaut. The Germans were forced to make a tactical retreat By December of 1941, Soviet forces had acquired fresh troops, to the Dnieper line, giving up the industrial resources and half including several ski battalions. Armed with the new T-34 tank of the farmland that had made the region such an appealing and Katyusha rocket launchers, they launched an attack that target. The Germans had hoped to build a defensive wall at drove the Germans back over 150 miles. the Dnieper, but there was no time. By the time they evacuated eastern Ukraine, Stalin’s forces were right behind them. In the summer 1942, a new plan to ransack the Soviets’ natural resources was taking shape. This time, Hitler targeted the Don Once the Soviets crossed the Dnieper line, they dug in. Constant River and the Volga River, and the oilfields in the Caucasus that fortification of the bridgeheads made retaking the line an lay beyond them. impossibility for the Germans. And one by one, the towns near the line started to fall to the Soviets. Instead of a single unified attack, however, Hitler ordered the taking of multiple objectives simultaneously. As a result of The following summer, Hitler moved troops from the center this order, Germany’s troops advanced without the necessary of the Eastern Front to defend a strategic point to the south, support, even as Soviet defenses were being bolstered. the most direct route to Berlin. However, in an operation codenamed Bagration, the Soviets struck the now depleted Meanwhile, the Soviets launched two offensives, one to the center of the front in Belorussia instead of marching straight city of Kalach and one to Smolensk. The Kalach offensive to Germany’s capital city. The Soviet army outnumbered the successfully trapped 300,000 Axis troops behind the Soviets. German troops almost three to one and attacked with seven And in Smolensk, the Soviet army was successful in preventing times the aircraft of the Germans and ten times as many tanks. the arrival of fresh troops and supplies to relieve the exhausted Hitler’s forces would never recover from this devastating blow. German armies in Stalingrad, which had been surrounded by German forces in September of 1941 in one of the longest and Afterwards, the Soviet army pressed forward, capturing eastern bloodiest sieges in history. Germany and finally turning their attention to Berlin. Using a broad front, the Soviets punched holes in the German defenses Finally, in January of 1943, the German armies in Stalingrad and surrounded the city. The Soviets had come to deliver a surrendered, and the door westward opened for the Soviets as fierce retribution for the attack on their nation, and in the face they pushed to take back Kursk and Kharkov. of Berlin’s impending capture, Hitler committed suicide. 2 Game Overview Component Overview The Fury of the Bear expansion augments the already epic Below you will find illustrations and brief descriptions of all the Tide of Iron (“TOI”) game experience by adding the forces of components found in this expansion. an entirely new nation (the Soviets), new Soviet and German vehicles, winter terrain, new scenarios, and more. All of these Soviet Plastic Figures new components can be used to play the included scenarios, as These 90 detailed plastic well as future scenarios, both official and player-made, which figures represent the Soviet will be available online at www.FantasyFlightGames.com. military personnel and vehicles Detailed descriptions of these new components, as well as how that Tide of Iron players can they are used, are included on the following pages. command. Also included are 14 Soviet squad bases in two Components different shades of brown. German Plastic Figures • This Rules and Scenario Book These German figures represent • 90 Soviet Plastic Figures, consisting of: the German Panther tank and the o 36 Standard Infantry German PaK 40 anti-tank gun. o 8 Elite Infantry o 4 Officers o 4 Mortar Crews 4 Machine Gun Crews o Unit Reference Sheets o 4 KV-1 Tanks 14 T-34/76 Tanks These sheets provide players with the o combat values and special abilities for o 4 SU-122 Self-propelled Guns each of the new plastic units. o 4 GMC CCKW 353 Transport Trucks (Soviet color) o 4 M3A1 Half-Tracks (Soviet color) o 4 ZiS-3 76.2mm Anti-tank Guns • 14 Squad Bases, consisting of: Soviet Tokens o 7 Light Brown Soviet Bases o 7 Dark Brown Soviet Bases • 12 German Plastic Figures, consisting of: o 8 Panther Tanks o 4 PaK 40 75mm Anti-tank Guns • 2 Unit Reference Sheets • 8 Soviet Control Markers • 3 Soviet Concealed Squad Markers • 8 Soviet Transport Markers • 8 Soviet Off-board Indicator Tokens A variety of Soviet tokens are provided. These include Soviet • 8 Soviet Command Objectives (various values) control markers, concealed squad markers, command objec- • 1 Soviet Victory Point Token tive markers, transport markers, off-board indicator tokens, and • 7 Trench Tokens a victory point token. These tokens function exactly as their • 6 Instant Mines Tokens American and German counterparts. • 7 Entrenchment/Pillbox Winter Tokens • 6 Tank Trap/Barbed Wire Winter Tokens • 10 Map Overlay Tiles • 8 Specialization Tokens • 20 Munitions Specialization Tokens • 55 Cards, consisting of: o 36 Strategy Cards, consisting of: . 1 Soviet Reinforcements Deck I (10 cards) . 1 Winter Tactics Deck I (10 cards) . 1 Combined Air Support Deck I (16 Eastern Front Map Boards cards) o 11 Operations Cards These nine thick, double-sided map boards are used to build o 1 Soviet Initiative Card the game board for each Fury of the Bear scenario. Rules o 7 Sabotage Cards governing new terrain features can be found on pages 4–6 • 9 Eastern Front Map Boards (and a summary of such can be found on the back of this rules booklet). There are two types of boards represented: winter (snow) and summer (grass). 3 Map Overlay Tiles Operations Cards The new Operations cards provide a variety of rules to their assigned scenarios, mostly pertaining to the Eastern Front theater of war. Soviet Initiative Card The Soviet initiative card functions exactly the New map overlay tiles are provided for use in the Fury of the same as its American and German counterparts. Bear scenarios. These overlays include a large variety of different terrain. As with the overlay tiles provided in the main game, these new overlays are placed on top of the map boards, adding to or altering their terrain features. Sabotage Cards Fortification and Obstacle Tokens The new Sabotage cards allow nations with a saboteur unit to play cards that hamper their opponent’s operations and units. New entrenchment/pillbox tokens and tank trap/barbed wire tokens are included for aesthetically appropriate use on the win- Game Additions ter map boards.