Ron Campo
United States
Salem
Illinois
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My first review *gulp*
I've reposted this from mis-labeled, similar title.
The Second Kharkov arrrived as issue 275 from Strategy and Tactics. As the title and summary suggest, the game replicates the Russian offensive in May 1942 to take Kharkov, this was while the Germans were preparing their 'Case Blue' offensive for the drive on Stalingrad. Much to the Russian's surprise, the Germans were massing south of Kharkov and in a position to attack the Russian flank after the attack had begun. The Russians believed the main German assault would come once again toward Moscow.
Game Components
The pieces are relatively large and of the size normally associated with area games (Turning Point:Stalingrad). The print is quite large and easy to read. The Russian pieces (in Russian Red) are untried, in that they are placed face down with ?-? and a movement factor displayed (4 for infantry, 6 for armor). There are no dummy units so what is revealed is the units strength, which can vary greatly. Units are revealed once they either attack or defend in combat with the Germans...who don't have untried units.
I have to believe S and T had some printing issues as there is some errata within the rules changing start locations and the map set up is deficient of a couple of units..explained in the errata.
The German units are either gray, field gray, or black representing the 6th, 17th and 1st Panzer Army respectively. Personally those are the colors I want my German units to be. Since German unit loses are taken in steps (up to 4),the designers have printed what step the unit currently is by displaying it to the left of the unit marking..a clever idea which works great in game play. Russian units have only one step so all loses result in the elimination of the unit...and there are lots of units eliminated in this game.
The map is not cluttered and the prominant features are of course, Kharkov, the river Donets, and some forests. There is a army boundry indicating the 6th Army's line...any Russian attack south of that line during game turns 1 and 2 releases the mighty 1st Panzer Army early, not a good thing for the Russians.
CRT and terrain effects are printed for both opponents on their side of the map. I played my games solitaire and prefered a north/south facing rather than the east/west provided so I photocopied the CRT/TEC and played that way and it worked fine.
The rule book is well laid out, easy to read and reference. I love that S and T now prints the rules as a stand alone document and has them already stapled rather than having to pry them out of the magazine as in the past.
Game play:
The turn sequence is as follows:
-Soviet Player turn
a. German Air Interdiction Placement Phase (turn 3 and later)
b. Soviet Movement Phase
c. Soviet Combat Phase
d. German Air Interdiction removal phase
-German Player Turn
a. German movement or combat phase
b. German combat or movement phase
When you first read the German turn sequence, you might think 'what the heck'. Actually, this is pretty cool. Unlike many games, units are not required to attack or defend in enemy zones of control...so as the Russians press around Kharkov, the German freedom of movement is curtailed so they can choose to fight it out on a static line hoping to derail a subsequent attack, and then move to a more advantageous position if they prevail.
Another rule I found interesting is the 'fog of war' rule. This affects mostly the Germans as they have too few units to stack, however the Russians, not surprisedly, come in bunches. The rule prohibits players from examining the opponents stacks prior to combat. At first you wouldn't think this is too challenging but as the game gets to turns 6-8, there is lots of combat all over the board and it's easy to lose track of what stacks have what amount of combat factors in them.
Combat loses for the Russian result in a lost unit, the Germans can take a step(s) reductions and may mitigate one step loss by retreating a hex. This places the German in the uncomfortable position of choosing to either give up some ground, allowing the Russians to get closer to Kharkov or to let units with high combat factors be slowly ground down and reduced to nominal fighting strength.
The only thing saving the Germans from certain overun is airpower, which makes itself available beginning on the third game turn. Air units, of which there are 6, can help in combat by changing the CRT modifier to the advantage of the Germans either in offense or defense, or they can interdict movement. This is critical as they obstruct the hex they occupy AND the 6 hexes surrounding them. This increases Soviet movement by 1 per hex. In addition, if you interdict a major river crossing, movement across that crossing is prohibited forcing the Soviets cross up or down river using up entire movement turns.
Sudden death victory is achieved for the Soviets by taking any one of 3 Kharkov city hexes...the Germans win in sudden death by keeping the Russians not only out of Kharkov, but outside an outer perimeter line indicated on the map. In my plays so far, this is unlikely. Failing in those two situations, victory is awarded to the Germans if Soviet loses exceed his by 125%, step loses to eliminated units, anything less is a Soviet victory. In a rule quirk, the Russians could, I suppose, limit combat and sneak in under the 125% requirement by the end of the game, but that would violate the spirit of the game.
In my games played, the Soviets drive toward Kharkov in the north east and punched a hole in the German line south of the city in a blitzkrieg like pincer movement (the strike). The German's are hard pressed to mount any sort of attack in the north, although once released, the 1st Panzer Army reeks havoc on the southern wing of the Soviet forces (this would be the counterstrike part of the game).
Historically, this game is spot on...really gives you an idea of what the Russian achieved. The game does provide extra units for the 'what if' scenario, that being the Soviets having 24 extra division to carry out the attack, an idea rejected by Stalin. I haven't played that yet but I would think it would not be a good thing for the Germans if that occurred.
If you have played Panzergruppe Guederian, you could breeze through the Kharkov rules in about 20-30 minutes and be playing. As a simulation, it's a lot of fun although I'm not sure how it will play as a game. Back in the 80's, we used to call games like this 'beer and pretzel' games...short learning curve, high kill rates and over in a couple of hours. Good fun when you have to scratch that Eastern Front itch but don't have a lot of time to do it.
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Mike Szarka
Canada
Oshawa
Ontario
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Hi Ron,
Nice review. One thing that I wasn't sure of in my play of the game was whether or not you could use more than one air support chit in a single battle to provide additional die roll modifiers, which could help to blunt some of the nastier Russian attacks. I played only one per combat but I wasn't certain.
Mike
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Ron Campo
United States
Salem
Illinois
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Thanks for the kind words Mike. Greatly appreciated.
As to your question I played it as you did. Rule 12.17 says 'his available aircraft, each to support any one combat'. My reading was 1 aircraft unit per combat mainly because if they meant otherwise, they would have phrased it differently...although I can absolutely see the interpretation the other way.
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