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1.0 INTRODUCTION into again during Wintergewitter, the 61st tanks, and were fighting for their homeland, 2.0 GAME EQUIPMENT taking 65% losses. These two divisions were while the Rumanians were too few, poorly 2.1 Unit Counters augmented by the 149th Antitank Regi- equipped, and far from home. 2.2 Game Markers CAVALRY ment, along with corps artillery assets and Both divisions were sent to the rear to 2.3 Map and Charts two corps-level armored regiments. Each become fully motorized. The new divisions 2.4 Game Scale 14.3 Organic Supply Status by Andy Nunez division had three cavalry regiments and would have over 11,000 men, 86 tanks and 2.5 Rounding Convention DESIGN each regiment four squadrons, otherwise 22 self-propelled guns each. The 5th Divi- 14.4 Out of Supply Status known as “sabers”. The corps was wrecked sion never received its tanks, due to events 3.0 GAME SEQUENCE 14.5 Effects of Supply Status MARK E. STILLE 3.1 Sequence of Play by the German counter-offensive, taken out elsewhere and the 8th Division was partially 15.0 ENTRENCHMENTS DEVELOPMENT Nobody thinks much about cavalry of line in late December, and withdrawn to under conversion to the 2nd Armored Divi- 4.0 AIR OPERATIONS 15.1 Entrenchment Construction PAUL ROHRBAUGH in World War II. The casual viewer of the be rebuilt in February 1943. Supposedly it sion when the Soviets overran most of Ruma- 4.1 Air Missions 15.2 Entrenchment Effects History Channel sees the lumbering tanks, was disbanded in May 1943, a fine thank nia. The 4th Rosiori was to be converted, GAME GRAPHICS & RULES LAYOUT 4.2 Air Allocation Segment 15.3 Removal of Entrenchments sheets of flame from artillery barrages and you for what the corps went through both but its tanks were crewed by Germans, who 4.3 Air Combat Segment CRAIG GRANDO aircraft winging over and down to strike at offensively and defensively to break the Nazi used the tanks to help cover the Nazi retreat 16.0 SPECIAL UNITS 4.4 Air Interdiction Segment EDITING targets. However, the German army alone grip on Stalingrad. into Moldavia. Rumania surrendered and 16.1 Antiaircraft Units 4.5 Air Bombardment Segment fielded nearly 3 million horses and lost them Rumania started the war with six cavalry the 5th division was disbanded, along with 16.2 Engineer Units JACK BECKMAN, WARREN KINGSLEY 4.6 Air Unit Recovery Procedure at a rate of nearly 900 a day. 52,000 of them brigades. These were divided into three regi- other divisions. The 8th, renamed a Motor- 16.3 German Relief Convoy PRODUCTION COORDINATION perished in the Stalingrad encirclement. In ments apiece, 12 Rosiori and 6 Călăraşi regi- ized Cavalry Division, was part of the new 5.0 STALINGRAD POCKET PHASE 17.0 RECOVERY AND REPLACEMENT C. RAWLING the savage Russian winters, horses provided ments total. The former were considered ter- Rumanian army that went to war against its 5.1 Operation Thunderclap PHASE a certain mobility that vehicles sometimes ritorial regiments while the latter were Impe- former Axis ally in October 1944, but was so 5.2 Operation Thunderclap Initiation Table PLAYTESTING 17.1 Disruption Removal could not. By Stalingrad, Germany had dis- rial Horse Guard regiments. There were seven under-equipped that it was little more than 5.3 Soviet Ring Forces DAVE BOE, BRIAN BRENNAN, solved its only cavalry division, turning it other Călăraşi regiments that did reconnais- an infantry unit. ♦ 17.2 Replacements 6.0 INITIATIVE PHASE DAVE DEITCH, WARREN KINGSLEY, into the 24th Armored Cavalry Division, sance work for other units. The differences 18.0 FOG OF WAR HENRY ROBINETTE, PAUL 6.1 Initiative Determination which retained its horseman symbol and in the types of cavalry were holdovers from 18.1 Limited Intelligence ROHRBAUGH, DALE WOODS yellow uniform insignia. Ironically, this unit, the previous century and by World War II, 6.2 Initiative Requirements 19.0 SCENARIOS attached to the German Sixth Army, was the differences had disappeared. 6.3 Initiative Effects RUSSIAN LANGUAGE PROOFING 19.1 We Are Coming! destroyed in the Stalingrad pocket. The lone The Rumanians started modernization 7.0 FIRST PLAYER PHASE KEVIN CALDWELL 19.2 Hoth’s Last Gasp German cavalry unit was the 57th Cavalry of the cavalry force in 1941. Their goal was 7.1 Player Phase Segments 19.3 Operation Winter Storm Battalion, part of Group Bischof. to have one of the three regiments in each 7.2 Mechanized Activation Soviet cavalry rushed in to seal the pocket brigade be motorized. This motorized regi- 20.0 OPERATION GROSS 8.0 MOVEMENT from both sides. The 4th Cavalry Corps ment would have two three-tank platoons of WINTERGEWITTER: GERMAN blasted into the Rumanians holding the R-1 light tanks. The R-1 was a Czech design 8.1 Movement Procedure MAXIMUM EFFORT VARIANT flank of the Sixth Army, and other Russian from 1932. It was solely an export model. 8.2 Movement Restrictions 20.1 German Optional Units cavalry and mounted partisan bands hunted The Rumanians bought 35 of these vehicles, 8.3 Administrative Movement 20.2 Compensatory Soviet Air Units 8.4 Hasty Attacks LPS PART #CS2007R PRINTED IN THE USA down fleeing Axis troops and ambushed armed with two 7.92 mm machine guns. 20.3 Soviet Army Release COPYRIGHT © 2007 MARK E. STILLE reinforcements and supply convoys, tighten- They were badly outdated by 1941. 9.0 STACKING 20.4 Victory Conditions ing the grip on the trapped Germans. Hitler The organization of the regiments under- 9.1 Stacking Limits ordered a relief effort, which stalled, and the went further changes during the first winter 21.0 DESIGNER NOTES Soviets counterattacked in Operation Little on the Russian Front, adding more firepower 10.0 ZONES OF CONTROL 22.0 WHAT IF? Saturn. Besides Soviet cavalry, the Italians in machine guns and artillery, ironically part 10.1 Zone of Control Limits and Rumanians fielded several cavalry divi- of their inventory being captured 45 mm 10.2 Movement and Supply Effects sions. Dr. John Prados has admirably dealt Soviet anti-tank guns, which they retained 11.0 COMBAT with the Italian cavalry elsewhere. My focus as their standard anti-tank weapon for the 11.1 Types of Combat here is on the Soviet 4th Cavalry Corps and rest of the war (which became handy when 11.2 Combat Sequence two Rumanian divisions, the 8th and 5th. they switched sides and could get Soviet 11.3 Lead Units We’ll start with the Soviets. Sources con- ammunition). 11.4 Combat Resolution flict on the exact makeup of this corps, but These up-gunned brigades were changed 11.5 Combat Results its Wintergewitter time frame lists only two to divisions in March of 1942. In support divisions, the 61st and 81st Cavalry Divi- of the German drive to break the Soviet 11.6 Loss Priorities sions, created in September 1941, which encirclement of Stalingrad, they held too 11.7 Retreats were introduced into battle as part of a rede- large a frontage and were hit hard during 11.8 Advance After Combat signed 4th Cavalry Corps in the fall of 1942. Operation Little Saturn. During Winterge- 12.0 ARTILLERY Sources disagree on the presence of a third witter the Rumanians, already battered from 12.1 Artillery Attacks or even fourth division, and these are likely Operation Uranus, simply had too few men. 12.2 Fired Artillery based on German wartime sources. The The 8th Cavalry managed 7600 men, but 12.3 Artillery Missions definitive source is the 12-volume work by the 5th was down to only two regiments in Charles Sharp published by George Nafziger. size. Considering their mission, the units 13.0 DISRUPTION The 4th Cavalry Corps, badly understrength performed a Herculean task, but in the 13.1 Disruption Effects after mauling the Rumanians, was smashed end, the Russians had too many men, better 14.0 SUPPLY 14.1 Supply Status 14.2 Regular Supply Status 28 AGAINST THE ODDS Campaign Study Nº 1 2 WINTERGEWITTER rules WINTERGEWITTER rules 3 READ THIS FIRST 1.0 INTRODUCTION SAMPLE LAND UNIT MECHANIZED UNITS UNIT SIZES General Abbreviations Wintergewitter We’ve organized the overall structure of the (Winter Storm) simulates the Front Normal B Bomber rules of this LPS simulation game to follow attack by the German 57th Panzer Corps to Bh Heavy Bomber this game’s sequence of play in introducing open a corridor to the German Sixth Army Unit Size Stacking concepts. The rules themselves are written trapped in the Stalingrad Pocket. Fought (see right) Value DB Dive bomber (Ju-87 Stuka) in a format known as the Case System. This between the 12th and 23rd of December, Tank Assault Gun Heavy Tank Army Corps Division approach divides the rules into Modules (each 1942, the battle sealed the fate of the twenty F Fighter Combat Strength Movement Allowance of which deals with a major important aspect German divisions in the Pocket. The loss of GA Ground attack of play). Modules are numbered sequentially the entire Sixth Army marked what is gener- Back Reduced as well as possessing a title. Each Module is ally considered the turning point of the war Soviet Abbreviations divided into Sections (that deal with a major in the East, if not the Second World War. Unit Type sub-topic inside the Module) which are also Reconnaissance Mech. Inf. Regiment Brigade Battalion BADS Bomber Air Division Wintergewitter is played in a number of game (see right) Proficiency numbered sequentially. Modules and Sec- turns, each with several player phases. The Rating IAD Fighter Air Division tions are introduced by some text that briefly German player must use his initial combat MOTORIZED UNITS describes the subject covered by that particu- Unit ID SADS Mixed Air Division advantage to quickly open a corridor to the lar Module or Section.