Ponyri-Kursk: The Northern Pincers July 7 & 8, 1943 (2009) L2 Game Design LLC
Ponyri-Kursk: The Northern Pincers July 7 & 8, 1943 is a stand-alone Blood & Steel system game designed by Paul Rohrbaugh and is an extension of the highly successful Blood & Steel folio game on the battle of Kursk.
Ponyri Station is a simulation of the armored clashes between XLI Panzer Corps and the defending Soviet forces near the small town of Ponyri, reflecting the high water mark of the German Kursk campaign.
Game Scale:
Game Turn: 2 hours
Hex: .75 miles / 1.21 kilometers
Units: Company to Reigment
Game Inventory:
One 11 x 17" full color map
One dual-side printed countersheet (176 5/8" counters)
One 8-page rulebook
One game folder/player aid chart
Solitaire Playability: High
Complexity Level: Medium
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 1-2 hours
Königsberg: The Soviet Attack on East Prussia, 1945 (2018) Revolution Games
Konigsberg: The Soviet Attack on East Prussia, 1945 simulates the Soviet Attack by the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts on elements of Army Group Center in January, 1945.
Each corps and army is represented by an activation chit and each side has a limited number of activation's they can use in a turn.
This leads to players uncertain as to when or if formations will move or fight when they want.
The Soviets offensive is mobile but quickly out paces its infantry and HQ's, random events can ground the Soviet Air Force or Stalin may intervene and delay some formations.
The Germans units get hit hard and each move is critical to blocking the Soviets from the critical cities of Elbing and Konigsberg.
Your motorized formations can be hit by no gas or the Gross Deutchland could withdraw when you need these units to defend a critical location.
Can you replicate the epic defense of Konigsberg or will the Soviet onslaught win the day?
Game Scale:
Game Turn: 2 days
Hex: 5 miles / 8 kilometers
Units: Kampfgruppe to Corps
Game Inventory:
One 22 x 34" full color map
One dual-side printed countersheet (280 1/2" counters)
One 12-page Konigsberg rulebook
One Cover Sheet/Player Aid Card
One Plastic zipper bag
Solitaire Playability: High
Complexity Level: Medium
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 4-10 hours
48th Panzer Korps: Battles on the River Chir (2006) Pacific Rim Publishing Company
48th PanzerKorps: Battles on the River Chir, is a battalion/regiment-level simulation of the battles on the Chir River, December 7-12, 1942.
Players control the Soviet 5th Tank Army and the German 48th Panzer Korps.
The game emphasizes the special abilities of armor, infantry, and weapons units.
The German player must use his small number of powerful mobile units to blunt many Soviet drives deep into his positions, and then counterattack.
Game Scale:
Turn: 12 hours
Hex: 1 mile
Unit: Company to Regiment
Game Inventory:
One 22" X 34" mapsheet
One countersheet (200 1/2" counters)
One 12 page rule booklet
This game was included in CounterAttack magazine #3.
Awards and Honors
1991 Charles S. Roberts Best World War II Board Game Nominee
Ukraine '44 (2012) Multi Man Publishing
Hex and counter Soviet Winter Offensive in Ukraine 1943-1944.
Ukraine ‘44 is a simulation game that focuses on one of the pivotal moments of the Soviet Winter Offensive in Ukraine in 1943 and 1944.
Over the course of a week, the Axis 1st Panzer Army was cut off and encircled by strong Soviet forces of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts and like its brothers at Stalingrad and Korsun, expected to be destroyed.
In what would called the battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket (or Hube’s Pocket), the Germans would fight and claw their way out and finally escape.
Hube’s successful operation to escape encirclement is still studied to this day as a model of how to breakout from a pocket.
Ukraine '44 is part of the International Games Series (IGS) from Multi-Man Publishing (MMP).
Originally published in Special Ops magazine issue #2 (Winter 2012).
Game Scale:
Turn: 2 days
Hex: 3.1 miles / 5 km
Units: Division to Corps
Game Inventory (Special Ops #2 edition):
One 22 x 34" full-dolor mapsheet
One dual-side printed countersheet (280 1/2" counters)
One 8-page Ukraine '44 rule booklet
Beyond the Urals: Campaign in Russia, 1942 (2002) Decision Games
Beyond the Urals: Campaign in Russia, 1942 is a two-player strategic-level simulation of a campaign that might-have-been in Russia during World War II.
Beyond the Urals postulates that the Germans had defeated the Red Army in their 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, but failed to force the capitulation of the Soviet Union itself.
In early 1941, Soviet leaders had decided to deploy their armed forces "up front" on the border with the Third Reich, as chief of the Red Army armored forces, General D.G. Pavlov, had proposed.
As a result of this alternative deployment, the Germans destroy the Red Army on the frontiers, sweep eastwards, and take Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad in late 1941.
However, in this alternative time-line, the Soviets keep fighting even after the Germans reached their planned Archangel-Astrakhan stop line.
Being given no alternatives other than to suffer the consequences of German exploitation and terror in the East, or to continue a desperate resistance, the Russians and other Soviet peoples go on fighting.
The remnants of the Red Army make their stand to protect the great industrial complexes east of the Urals, hoping to draw in the Germans for the final decisive battle.
As 1942 opens, Hitler orders the Wehrmacht to head into the East for the final battle of annihilation in Eurasia, beyond the Urals.
Game Scale:
Game Turn: 7 days
Hex: 20 miles / 32.4 kilometers
Units: Corps to Armies
Game Inventory:
One 22 x 34" full-color mapsheet
One dual-side printed countersheet (176 5/8" counters)
One 16-page Beyond the Urals rulebook
Solitaire Suitability: High
Complexity Level: Low
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 5-10 hours
The Koltov Corridor: Disaster at Brody July 1944 ‐ First edition (2007) Firefight Games
The Koltov Corridor: Disaster at Brody July 1944, simulates yet another disaster for the German Army in 1944.
This time, in July, from the 13th to 23rd, the German front at the Koltov area shattered from the weight of the Russian 3rd and 4th Tank armies breaking through a narrow 3-4 km gap in the German lines.
As the 8th and 1st Panzer Divisions counterattacked, Russian aircraft filled the skies and wreaked carnage upon the 8th Panzer.
Further north, a large German pocket had been created, which attempted to breakout.
As German forces were tossed into the relief effort, the front shattered like glass.
The 16th Pz and 20th PG Divisions but could barely hold their positions as the two massive Russian tank armies streaked for the Vistula River!
This unique game has both players secretly issuing orders (five to select from) to each one of their formations.
When revealed, a player's plan may be enhanced or wrecked depending on the orders issued to the opposing formation!
It captures the reality of war quite well.
Combat losses are in strength points.
The German has a hard road to hold in this game as the Russian tank armies exploit the Koltov gap that is always created.
The Russian also has some hefty victory conditions that require most objectives on the map to be in their control.
The further west they move, the easier the situation is for the Germans.
Game Scale:
Game Turn: 12 hours
Hex: 2 miles / 3.2 kilometers
Units: Battalion to Division