The Moscow Option: Guderian's Gambit (1996)

A game published in the Command magazine Issue #37, May 1996, along with Mukden : Climax of the Russo-Japanese War.

From the introduction :

The Moscow Option: Guderian's Gambit is a simulation of the fighting that could have taken place between Smolensk and Moscow during the first half of August 1941 if Hitler had decided to concentrate his eastern armies' supply in order to allow the mechanized forces of Army Group Center to make the 150 miles to the Soviet capital city. Historically, of course, the German dictator chose instead to halt the AGC, temporarily de-emphasizing Moscow as a target while diverting his forces' strength on the front's northern and southern sectors. Here we assume he chose instead to reorganize the mobile divisions of Panzer Groups 2 and 3 and ad hoc Panzer Army Guderian, putting that general in charge of a daring effort to take Moscow, thereby winning the war by plunging the entire Soviet Union into strategic paralysis.

This is a two-player, operational-level, alternative history wargame of low complexity. In it, the German player controls all Panzer Army Guderian units and is opposed by the Soviet player who controls all the Red Army units.

The situation is inescapably such that the German player controls the strategic initiative and sets the overall tempo of play. We therefore recommend opponents who share a particularly competitive relationship should play a series of matches, switching sides each time, before deciding who between them owns bragging rights to the game.

1 hex : 9 miles
GT : 1 day
Units : divisions and brigades (3000-12000 men and/or about 50 to 180 armored vehicles)

Republished in Command Magazine Japan #29 in 1999, together with Gettysburg: Lee's Greatest Gamble.