24 PLAYERS NOTES TRAVEL NOTES For Driving on Stalingrad by Dave Robertson Drive on Sialingrad is one of tt10se games, Rules Errala to the South to take these cities before the the opt im um opera ti onal plan for which will Before discussing the game, it is Soviet can reinforce the area. This sou th ern always ramam somewhat elusive . Because necessary to note that the original version of shift also dovetails with some aspects of the of its untri ed unit system and Hitl er Directive the game is nawed. The nature of the flaw is Hitler Directives. ru les, each playing is essent ia lly a new game. not obvious because the naw is not so much a Hiller Directh'es There are, nevertheless, some poin ters well question of "realism" as it is a question of The most fru strating problem faced by worth kee ping in mind as one drives acro ss ··playability." Most players considered it so the German player arc the Hitler Directives the deceptively open-seeming te rrain of th e weighted in favor of the Soviets that SPI has that randomly create chaos in any consistent, ma p. Dave parti Cipated in mu ch of the test­ publi shed a post-publication errata to correct developing plan. These directives constrain ing on th e game and herewith gives you this. These errata arc published in this issuc geographical thrusts (tending to force ar­ so~e of the benefit of his experie nce. - RAS of MOVES. The events leading to the for­ mored units to take the Caucasus and to keep mulat ion 0 I' the erra t a could well form the the Germans from crossing the Don), troop SPI has recently produced another east basis of an article di . cu ssing the strategic allocations, and territory that /TIUS{ be cap­ front game called Drive on Sta/il/grad, which situation of Drive and it s reflection of reality tu red. Generally. t he supreme commander simulates the German summer offensive of in the light of playability. requires the seizure of Stalingrad. Unfor· 1942 known :15 Operation Blue. Subtitled tunately, the capture of Stalingrad may be Sel-Up "Road to Ruin," the game is designcd on a mandated without allowing the Axis player From the standpoint of playability. "grand operational" level with 600 counters to usc armor in allempting to grab it. Since Drive is relatively easy to setup - the front is representing Soviet divi sions, Axi s Infantry the directives may change, the German printed on the map and there is no "this unit divisions and Axis armored and mechanized player may find himself shifting his forces up must go there" rule . Both player. arc free regiment s. The playing surface is two and down the front without sufl'icient time to frol11 the hair pulling experience of cross­ "regular" size (34 " x 22 ") maps representing capture any cities. referencing hex numbers with unit strengths the southern portion of the Soviet Union Axis Strategy for an hour. The set-up rules arc not a roughly bounded by Voronezh and Stratov burden on the eye or patience. Choosing the cities for capture and try­ in the North to Tuapse and Gros,,),y in the ing to garner the bonus points available for SOlit h. It s sixteen pages of rules arc based on Victory Conditions and firsl nHI\'e some of the cities will dictate the direction tltc Pal/::.ergruppe Guderian sy tem with Before the German player starts tearing and pace of the Axi s st rategy. For example, if modifications pertinent to t he situation. through the Soviet line, he has to consult the the Axis player i to win without bonus Anyone familiar with the Pall'l.ergmppe victory conditions to sec where he has to go. points, he mu st take cities worth 140 of the system will quickly pick up tricks of Drive. Victory is in term of captured cities with 2 10 victory points (i.e., 140 vs 70). The Ru s­ The four major features of the parent system various point values printed on the map. The sian player c'ln win by merely holding every· are t he core of t his game: cities, victory points, and hex numbers arc thing north of the Don except Voronezh and a. Soviet infantry units are "untried" summarized in a separate chart with the holding Astrakhan, Elista, and tbe - i.e., their actual strengths are unknown to game. "Bonus" points are garnered by the Georgiyevsk and "east southern" cities. In either player until the instant of the first COI11- Axis for taking particular cities by a given t he face of a sluggish Axis Drive, t he Russian bat in which the units engage; game turn. player can just wait - he cannot lose. b. Non-infantry units have a second The Axis player must study carefully the If, though, the Axis player is aggressive, movement (or impulse) phase after combat; map and the victory point values of the cities he can get a 2-1 ratio of victory points in a and - he has to be cunning. The cities have a beller way . Kalach, Maykop, Novorossiysk, c. Axis mechanized units (i.e., armor IOtal va lue of 210 points. To win, the Ger­ Nevinnomyssk, Rostov, and Stalingrad offer and mechanized infantry) benefit from a man needs twice as many points as the Soviet 60 bonus points, thus, the Ru ssians can hold "doubled" combat strength when all player has at t he end of t he game. I I' t he Ger­ three or four more ci ties and sti ll lose. This regiments of a division arc tacked in the man player ever gets three times the Soviet analysis must be made, if the Axi s player same hex; player's point s, the game stops and the Ger­ hopes to win. d. Soviet units "coordinate" supply man player automatically wins. The German Soyiet Stralegy from headquarters units that have a given player can also get a small number of victory The Soviet player docs not have to make supply or command range. points if the Soviet player elects to make a close calculations in this game. He pulls back The new gimmicks added in Drive are "strategic withdrawal" - move from Axis and waits for his army to build up to for­ these: zones of cont rol - or t he German player can midable size. He covers the Don in the North a. Axis alli es (Hungarians. Rumanians, interdict the Volga. The key to victory, and slows the German drive to Stalingrad and It alians) arc untried andmu t coordinate t hough, is tak ing t he cit ie . while holding stronger units in reserve to be their supply from their own headquarters The difficult task of controlling a large used in the Russian counter-attack. units in a manner much like the Soviets. number of cities is made somewhat easier for Although the "real" Ru ssian offensiye oc· b. The extension of Axis supply net · the German player by the "Bonus point" curred on November 19 (Game-Turn 21), works through trucked pipelines and rail rule which grants double point value for tak­ many Soviet players will not wait that long in conversion is simulated in a way like that of ing a city by a given game turn. For example, the game. Since the game "ends" after 25 War in {i1e East and Breakoul and Pllrsllil; Stalingrad's capture can generate bonus turns (correspondin g to December 19), there c. A "Hitler directive" phase that points if it is captured by Game-Turn 12, cor­ is no real reason for the Ru ssian player to simulates the ruehrer's rulings from back responding 10 September 12, 1942. delay his big push past Game-Turn 15 (Oc­ home and ti ghtly limit s the freedom of action Many points lie in the Caucasus, and the tober 10), or even to avoid trapping loose, for the Axis pl aye r. German player must quickly shift hi s armor unsupplied Axi s panzer divisions. 25 Combat and Overruns Panzergruppe. In Drive, three whole mech same number of turns that the Axis player The combat system in Drive is similar to divisions can stack and both sides have plen­ has to receive the bonus points). The Don in the system in Panzergruppe in the respect ty of armor to throw around. Some care is re­ front of Stalingrad is the natural place for the that the same type of combat results table is quired in effecting an overrun, though, to Russian player to stand to force the Axis used with the owning player's option of avoid wearing the armor out too soon. When player to pause for his supply to arrive via retreat or taking a step reduction. The con­ possible, armor should be stacked with in­ repair of the Russian rail net. siderations of whether to engage in combat fantry so that the infantry can absorb losses. In the South, neither side is troubled by differ somewhat from the considerations in­ Three stacked armored divisions make the having to consider frontage or extensive sup­ volved in Panzergruppe because the Russian strongest force for overruns, and can literally ply problems - the Axis player has a tough depth-per-hex is greater in Drive. Certain romp all over the map (a stack of three un­ time of it. Russian activity in the southern Russian units have two steps, and the Rus­ supplied panzer divisions is stronger than one map depends on a strong point defense plan.