With imminent release of Red Thunder, I was going to run another Cross of Iron Campaign -- but decided to hold off on that until CMx2 Ostfront expands into other parts of the front and into 1943 etc.
So, I am developing this: taking much of the very successful Heraklion Campaign concept to the Eastern Front.
It'll be a fictional, narrative campaign covering several days of fighting, which will put perhaps 5 or 6 players in command of various sub-units of a Kampfgruppe from veteran 5th Panzer Division to the north east of Borisov, trying to put the breaks on the advance units of the Russian steamroller that has bypassed and surrounded Vitebsk.
The Kampfgruppe's orders are to keep open the railway junction town of Rkinovo east of the Berezina river by holding a bridgehead east of the small river Solchi which runs through Rkonovo, to allow the evacuation of wounded and retreating columns struggling to get back to Minsk and westwards and keep the railways and town out of range of Russian artillery fire.
After detraining at Borisov, your unit is rushed to Rikonovo by road, suffering some delays due to Russian air attacks ... intel is scarce, air recon non-existent at this point ... there are reports of ad hoc battlegroups fighting in front of you, but until you have boots and armoured recon units probing forward, you have no idea how far west the Russians have advanced ... all you know is that you'll be probably facing the spearheads of the 5th Guards Tank Army.
The way I envisioning this to be played, is that I will pre-write a script as to Russian plans and intentions and will role-play the German Divisional Command and the Russians and be in charge of throwing curve-balls at the German Kampfgruppe commanders.
I will build the scenarios and play the Russian side in the battles -- if they get to much to handle, I'll conscripts some Russian battle commanders to help out.
Each counter represents a company-sized battle-group usually centered around a core of infantry. (can be pure tanks too -- will work out details) ... losses will be tracked in a very similar fashion to Heraklion (inf squads rounded up and vehicles and guns tracked one on one.
Battles will be all on medium maps based on terrain and the units present in each battle group-- we'll see what's available map-wise once RT gets released.
I want to enhance the role-playing aspect as much as possible ... so some battles might not be conventional battles ... defenders or attackers can retreat or call of an attack at any time... I migth want to re-use the same map for battles covering the same hex (hexes at this stage projected at 1 - 1,5 km across. A commander might find himself struggling to advance along a crowded road under air attack, we may have to play out a Russian unit trying to cross a river while under pre-registered German artillery fire.
The rules will be quite loose -- the point of this is to make this challenging and fun and co-operative.
Intel will be provided by the gamesmaster and also your battle commanders ... if you don't hold the field of battle at the end of a fight, all you have what you could observe during the fighting.
The Fog of War will be dense indeed... the campaign may be fictional, but the tactical and operational dilemmas facing the commanders will be as real as we can make them.
(map still a prototype)
So, I am developing this: taking much of the very successful Heraklion Campaign concept to the Eastern Front.
It'll be a fictional, narrative campaign covering several days of fighting, which will put perhaps 5 or 6 players in command of various sub-units of a Kampfgruppe from veteran 5th Panzer Division to the north east of Borisov, trying to put the breaks on the advance units of the Russian steamroller that has bypassed and surrounded Vitebsk.
The Kampfgruppe's orders are to keep open the railway junction town of Rkinovo east of the Berezina river by holding a bridgehead east of the small river Solchi which runs through Rkonovo, to allow the evacuation of wounded and retreating columns struggling to get back to Minsk and westwards and keep the railways and town out of range of Russian artillery fire.
After detraining at Borisov, your unit is rushed to Rikonovo by road, suffering some delays due to Russian air attacks ... intel is scarce, air recon non-existent at this point ... there are reports of ad hoc battlegroups fighting in front of you, but until you have boots and armoured recon units probing forward, you have no idea how far west the Russians have advanced ... all you know is that you'll be probably facing the spearheads of the 5th Guards Tank Army.
The way I envisioning this to be played, is that I will pre-write a script as to Russian plans and intentions and will role-play the German Divisional Command and the Russians and be in charge of throwing curve-balls at the German Kampfgruppe commanders.
I will build the scenarios and play the Russian side in the battles -- if they get to much to handle, I'll conscripts some Russian battle commanders to help out.
Each counter represents a company-sized battle-group usually centered around a core of infantry. (can be pure tanks too -- will work out details) ... losses will be tracked in a very similar fashion to Heraklion (inf squads rounded up and vehicles and guns tracked one on one.
Battles will be all on medium maps based on terrain and the units present in each battle group-- we'll see what's available map-wise once RT gets released.
I want to enhance the role-playing aspect as much as possible ... so some battles might not be conventional battles ... defenders or attackers can retreat or call of an attack at any time... I migth want to re-use the same map for battles covering the same hex (hexes at this stage projected at 1 - 1,5 km across. A commander might find himself struggling to advance along a crowded road under air attack, we may have to play out a Russian unit trying to cross a river while under pre-registered German artillery fire.
The rules will be quite loose -- the point of this is to make this challenging and fun and co-operative.
Intel will be provided by the gamesmaster and also your battle commanders ... if you don't hold the field of battle at the end of a fight, all you have what you could observe during the fighting.
The Fog of War will be dense indeed... the campaign may be fictional, but the tactical and operational dilemmas facing the commanders will be as real as we can make them.
(map still a prototype)
