The weather for the middle of December remains overcast.
Low odds attacks can produce some surprises.
The Soviets get VPs for capturing cities behind the original start line.
The elite defenders of Stalingrad have been eliminated,
but the Soviets keep up reinforcements to this area.
Soviet counterattack in the Caucasus,
It looked promising.
The Axis try and free the trapped 6th Panzer Division.
Stalingrad.
Desperate defence can lead to heavy casualties.
The Axis finally take this city.
The Soviet counterattack is shut down.
North
Centre
South
Then the weather clears...
Destruction of 6th Panzer.
Hungarian armoured division that was rushed back from Stalingrad
to stem the Soviet offensive in the west
is about to be annihilated.
The Soviets almost reach Stalingrad.
The Romanians are trying to do their part.
The clear weather lets the Luftwaffe lend a hand.
Stalingrad falls.
The whole map at the end of the penultimate turn.
Whoops I forgot to roll for weather until after the Soviet turn - it should have been snow :-(
The Soviets drive the Axis off the north west corner of the map.
After this the focus is on creating ZoC bonds along the map edge to keep the Axis out.
In the centre the Soviets are now driving east,
both sides having been able to create a new defensive line in the south west.
While Stalingrad may be in Axis hands,
the Soviets maintain the pressure
and the casualty rate
on this front.
While their forces are significantly depleted,
the Axis still have the strength to now launch a counterattack against the Soviets.
The fighting for Stalingrad had tied down a number of German formations.
They are now free to attack!
The offensive on the Black Sea coast peters out.
However the Romanians are able to finally take Pyatigorsk.
The big, big picture at the end of December and the end of the game.
PHEW!
In the north west the Soviets have a very strong position.
They receive VPs for being adjacent to the Axis entry areas.
(-3VPs for each area: -9 in total.)
In the south west the Axis have been able to from a front,
although there is still a hole in the centre.
The Soviets have picked up VPs for capturing cities that were initially behind the start line.
(Six in total)
In the east the Axis capture of Stalingrad has freed up troops to counterattack the Soviets.
Axis losses have been severe, but they still pack a punch.
The surprise capture of Pyatigorsk means this front is still active.
It would be an interesting balance of resource allocation by each side to see what developed here.
In the end the Axis have 23 VPs plus the transitory 2 for scaling Mt Elbrus. The Soviets hold 23 VPs plus the 3 that the Axis would have got if they had been able to exit to Baku. However the Axis lose 9 VPs for the Soviets reaching entry Areas X, Y and Z plus the loss of another 6 for the minor cities that the Soviet captured. This means that the Axis ended up with 8 VPs. If I'm understanding things correctly historically they had 21 at the end of December 1942.
While I know I made a few mistakes (missing the odd weather roll, incorrectly or missing allocation of replacements and who knows how many minor unit misplacements) I think these probably balanced out. One tricky thing was the Desperate Defence procedure for cities. I might have got that wrong a few times (but again it would have been either the Soviets taking too many or not enough casualties).
However the failing in strategy was halting the Axis at the xx40 hex line in the south. This was to avoid triggering the early release of some Soviet units. This was at the end of August. While the mopping up strategy seemed a good idea, a mad rush for VP locations might have worked better.
Fabulous game. It really recreates the campaign in all its phases and grittiness.
