THE RUSSIAN PORTFOLIO: Germany's "Barbarossa" Invasion of Russia, 1941-42 Copyright 1999 Louis R. Coatney A. RULES BOOKLET (16Dec99) INDEX Game Designer: Louis R. Coatney I. Dedication .. 1 Game Developer: Louis R. Coatney II. Introduction .. 1 Playtesters: Robert S. Coatney III. Definitions .. 1 Michael J. Welsh IV. Victory Conditions .. 3 V. Sequence of Play .. 3 VI. Weather Determination and Effects .. 3 VII. Dispersal and Facing .. 3 VIII. Strategic Movement .. 4 IX. Replacements and "Siberian Reserve" Reinforcements .. 4 X. Terrain Effects .. 6 XI. Operational Movement .. 7 A. General Rules .. 7 B. Movement into, out of, and/or through Enemy Zones of Control .. 7 XII. Maximum Number of Units in a Hex -- "Stacking" .. 8 XIII. Attacks, Combat Resolution, Retreats, and Tactical Advances after Combat .. 8 A. Commitment of Units to Attack .. 8 B. Combat Odds Calculation Sequence for An Individual Attack .. 9 C. Combat Results .. 9 D. Exchanges .. 9 E. Tactical Retreats after Combat .. 10 F. Tactical Advances after Combat .. 10 G. Reserve Phases .. 11 H. Facing .. 11 XIV. Supply and Isolation .. 11 XV. Control .. 12 See B. SCENARIOS AND HISTORY BOOKLET for Parts XVI. through XX. XVI. Game Length, Special First Turn Rules, Scenario Selection, and Strategic Options .. 1 XVII. Advice on Play of the Game .. 4 XVIII.Designer's Notes .. 4 XIX. Historical Notes .. 5 XX. Bibliography .. 6 Historical Orders-of-Battle/Set-Ups .. 8 I. Dedication: THE RUSSIAN PORTFOLIO is dedicated as a token of remembrance, gratitude, and respect to the Polish, Russian, Jewish, and other East European and Soviet peoples who were our Second World War Allies and who suffered, endured, and contributed so much for Allied Victory over Nazism. II. Introduction: THE RUSSIAN PORTFOLIO is intended to be an educational 2- or 4-player strategic simulation game modeling the historical strategic and operational military decision-making situations of the Axis and Russian commands on the Russian Front--or The Great Patriotic War, as the Russian people memorialize it--during the first year of the Nazi invasion in 1941-42. III. Definitions of Terms: Attacker: The player whose movement and attack initiative it is. Combat (strength) Factor (CF): Arbitrary units of combat strength used to calculate relative combat strengths and battle results. In THE RUSSIAN PORTFOLIO, there is both an Attack Factor (AF) and a Defense Factor (DF), followed by the Movement Factor. Defender: The player whose movement and attack initiative it isn't. Hex: Any one hexagonal space on the mapboard, without reference to the terrain inside it or along its "hex-side." Infantry-Type Units: Fronts, Shock, Rifle, Infantry, Motorized Infantry, Mountain Infantry -- not Mechanized. Movement Factor (MF): The number of movement points a unit can move. For example, a clear terrain hex costs only 1 MF to enter. Owning player: The player to whom a unit in question belongs. Zone of Control (ZOC): Any hex adjacent to an UnDispersed unit, over which it exerts some degree of control. An "EZOC" is an enemy unit's ZOC. IV. Victory conditions: To win the game, the Axis Player must be able to trace an overland supply line into any 6 of the following victory cities in any one Victory Determination Phase: Leningrad, Smolensk, Moscow, Gorky, Kiev, Sevastopol, Voronezh, Rostov, Stalingrad, and Krasnodar. Moscow and Leningrad count as 2 victory cities each -- otherwise, at game's end the Russian Player wins. The Russian Player can also win if -- during any Victory Determination Phase -- he controls Warsaw or Bucharest. V. Sequence of play: See the Charts and Tables sheet. VI. Weather determination and effects: A. Determination: October is Mud; November is Hard Frost; December through the end of the game is Snow. B. Weather effects: 1. On terrain: In Snow weather months, swamp, lake, and river hexes and hex-sides north(east) of the Arctic Weather Line freeze over and are treated as clear terrain hexes and hex-sides. This is true for all purposes, except strategic land movement and victory determination. 2. On movement: Weather has no effect on strategic land movement or on sea movement in the Black Sea. In Snow turns, sea movement in the Gulf of Finland is prohibited. In Mud, operational movement factors on the units are halved, with fractions rounded down. Snow, has the same effect except that the halves of Russian units' movement factors are rounded up. Finn units' operational movement is unaffected by any weather. 3. On combat: In any 3 consecutive Snow weather turns of his choice during the (first) Winter of 1941/42, the Russian Player may increase by a one- column shift (up) to the right the final combat odds of any of his attacks on Axis units which are north of the Arctic Weather Line. VII. Spent and Dispersed Units: A. A unit may be SPENT by its own operational or tactical movement, by attacking, or by a combat result while defending. A spent unit cannot be operationally moved or attack for the rest of the turn. A Spent unit is so indicated by being faced toward the opponent. A Spent unit's defense (combat) factor itself is unaffected by the unit being Spent, and the unit may be attacked and retreated (and/or Spent) by combat again, in the same player-turn or even the same phase. B. A unit can become DISPERSED as a result of combat or tactical advance, at its completion of strategic movement by land or by sea, or upon (re-)entry into the game as a replacement. A Dispersed unit is flipped upside down. A Dispersed unit may not operationally move or attack. While it is Dispersed, it has no ZOC. The combat results of attacks against Dispersed units are read 1 odds column higher (to the right) on the Combat Results Table, than they otherwise would be. (Thus, a die roll of "3" at 3:2 odds would instead be read under the 2:1 column -- as a D1 result, instead of an S -- for any already-Dispersed unit in the defending group.) C. Recovery from Spent and Dispersed statuses: All a player's Dispersed units are recovered to his control -- flipped back face-up -- during the opponent's Initial Operations Attack Phase -- unless they have just been (re-)Dispersed in that same phase. However, a unit recovered from dispersal is then Spent until the end of that game-turn. At the end of the game-turn, all Spent (but not Dispersed) units are then faced back toward the owning players, ready for use in the following turn. VIII. Strategic movement: To be moved strategically, a unit must be UnSpent and UnDispersed. A unit is then Dispersed at the end of its strategic movement by land or by sea. A unit may not move strategically both by land and by sea in the same Replacement/Reinforcement & Strategic Movement Phase (R/R&SMP). A. Strategic land--"rail line"--movement: 1. As long as it doesn't enter an EZOC, an unit may move any number of contiguous hexes--a "rail line"--connected by land and already under friendly control, if it would theoretically be able to make such movement at that instant to the owning player's mapboard edge from any of the hexes traversed. River hex-sides do not obstruct strategic land movement. Open sea, frozen or unfrozen lake, and impassable hex-sides do. EXAMPLE: Strategic land movement is possible across hex-sides K26/K27 and B16/C17 -- never across B16/C16, D12/D13, or the Kerch Straits, JJ13/II14. 2. In any given R/R&SMP, the Axis Player may strategically move any 1 corps-level Axis unit. The Russian Player may strategically move as many as 3 non-front units. Each side's limit is called its strategic land movement "capacity." 3. A unit must end its strategic land movement -- "detrain" -- in a city or town hex under friendly control and accessible to "rail" movement. B. Strategic sea movement: In the Baltic Sea and/or in the Black (and Azov) Sea(s), a player may move a maximum of 1 non-front unit per turn from one friendly coastal hex to a friendly-controlled port on the same sea. (The Sea of Azov is just considered part of the Black Sea.) To so move, a unit must already be sitting on its embarkation hex at the start of the R/R&SMP. The unit is dispersed and may move no farther upon arriving at its destination/ debarkation hex. A unit may not sail through the Kerch Straits if any of the adjacent land hexes (II13, II14, JJ13, or JJ14) is under enemy control. When attempting to sail through a sea under friendly control, a special "submarine" die roll of "1" by the opposing player eliminates the unit instead. An odd number eliminates a unit attempting to sail through a sea under enemy control. IX. Replacements and reinforcements: A. Replacements: A Russian replacement unit enters the game on the Eastern mapboard edge or on any city or town which could be a terminus for strategic movement at that instant. German replacements enter on Warsaw, Helsinki, or Bucharest. Unlike reinforcement units, new replacement units are Dispersed. Not more than 1 unit may arrive in a hex as a replacement or strategically moved unit, per turn. If an arriving unit would violate stacking with a unit already on the hex, the latter unit is moved one hex toward the owning player's side of the mapboard, where it is (also) Dispersed. A unit's replacement factor cost is its smallest combat factor for infantry, mountain infantry, or fronts -- or its largest combat factor for all other types. Replacement factors of the same (infantry or armor) type may be combined to produce units and/or may be "saved" by for later use. Armor replacement factors must be used to replace armor or mechanized units. All Axis ally units and German armies are irreplaceable. 1. Russian replacements: a. Infantry replacements: 1) Each of the 22 major Russian cities (still under Russian control and at that instant in rail-supply) produces 1 Russian infantry production factor per turn, with the exception of Moscow and Leningrad which produce 2. Additionally, 6 more factors are produced off the mapboard to the east in Siberia. 2) No more than 2 Russian front units may enter the game as replacements per turn. The Russian player gets no infantry replacements in the first turn of the game -- they are already on the board. b. Tank Factories and Armor/Mechanized Replacements: 1) Each active tank factory accessible to strategic land movement at that instant may produce 1 armored, mechanized, or shock replacement point in each Replacement/Reinforcement and Strategic Movement Phase (R/R&SMP). A shock army needs to have at least 1 tank factor. 2) Tank factories are in Leningrad, Moscow, Kharkov, and Stalingrad. There is also one off the map in Siberia -- Chelyabinsk, actually. 3) A tank factory becomes nonproductive when its city is out of supply. It becomes permanently nonproductive if a city it is in is lost. c. Lend-Lease: On the third game-turn of 1941 and thereafter, 1 infantry replacement factor of Lend-Lease aid arrives from the USSR's Anglo- American allies in the northeastern city of Archangelsk, unless that city is controlled by the Axis. 2. Axis replacements: Any non-army-level German unit is eligible to return to the game as a replacement unit after being eliminated. Except on the first turn, the Axis Player receives each turn 2 armor replacement factors and 2 non-armor replacement factors. The armor may be combined with the non-armor replacement factors to produce non-armor units, but not vice versa. 3. Voluntary Elimination of Units: During the owning player's Replacement/Reinforcement Phase, he may voluntarily eliminate any of his units. For example, a clearly doomed unit might be more useful sacrificed and brought back in the game as a replacement unit in a better location. Its factors are lost, though. B. The Russian Siberian Reserve Gamble--"Siberian Roulette"--playing option: 1. The Russian Siberian Reserve reinforcement begins entering the game automatically and "safely" -- at no risk -- in the Replacement/ Reinforcement Phase (R/RP) of the 21Dec41 game-turn, unless the Russian Player chooses to begin entering them earlier. They continue for 3 turns. 2. Siberian Reserve units consist of 1. and 3. Shock armies plus "pure" armor (or mech) units worth 7 replacement factors in the first turn. In the second turn, they consist of 2. and 4. Shock armies and 4 factors of armor units. And in the third turn, they consist of 6 factors of infantry and any one cavalry corps. Shock armies may not enter the game -- as replacements or Siberian Reserve reinforcement units -- until this time. Any extra Siberian Reserve reinforcement factors may be used as replacement factors. 3. In each turn that any Russian Siberian Reserves are in the game before their "safe" turn, the Axis Player picks a number (from 1 to 6), and the Soviet Player must cast the die. (This should be done at the end of the Soviet R/RP.) If the number cast is the one selected by the Axis Player, the Japanese have invaded the weakened Russian Far Eastern Military District, and the Axis Player immediately wins the game! 4. Unlike replacement units, reinforcement units are not Dispersed in (and thus can move and attack after) the R/R&SMP in which they enter the game. 5. A reinforcement unit may enter the game in any hex accessible to strategic land movement -- not just on a city or town -- and more than one reinforcement unit may arrive on the same hex. X. Terrain Effects ... A. ... on Operational Movement: 1. No unit may cross an impassable hex-side, such as an all-sea hex-side. (EXCEPTION: A unit may make a one-hex, maximum, operational movement to an adjacent land hex across a lake hex-side, the Kerch Straits or from Leningrad to Kronshtaht. 2. All units except German infantry armies must expend 1 additional movement factor for each river crossed, if they will be entering an Enemy ZOC. B. ... on combat are cumulative: 1. Units may not attack into a hex, unless they could operationally move into it at that instant. 2. Rivers: If a defending unit is being attacked cross-river by all of the attacking units, the combat odds are reduced by a one-column shift to the left on the Combat Results Table (CRT). Any such cross-river defensive advantage is nullified, if any of the total attacking combat strength is attacking from a hex which is not cross-river. 3. Stalin Line: Unless flanked in the manner as for rivers, above, each Russian army receives 1 additional combat factor defending behind the Stalin Line and each front receives 2. 4. Unfrozen Lake Hex-sides, Kerch Straits, Leningrad-Kronshtat: Armor, mechanized, and/or cavalry units may not attack or retreat across them. Other units' attack factors are halved, rounding down any fraction of the total, and they are eliminated by an R2 resulted if forced to retreat across them. 5. Major City: An infantry army or front defending a major city receives a bonus of 2 defense factors. An infantry corps (also) receives a 1- factor defense bonus. Units in a major city cannot suffer Armor Overrun. 6. Victory City: In addition to its major city bonuses (and any fortress bonus), a victory city has 1 intrinsic defense factor, until captured. For Leningrad and Moscow, this bonus is 2. 7. City: Any one infantry-type unit receives a maximum bonus of 1 factor for the hex. A hex containing (only) a city/town is considered "clear." 8. Fortress: A fortress adds a defense factor of 1 to any one friendly infantry-type unit defending it. Fortresses can survive isolation, and they remain in friendly control until actually occupied by an enemy combat unit. Furthermore, they them- selves can act as an independent source of supply for any 1 non-front unit, if the normal supply line is cut. They cannot be Armor Overrun. Although not so marked on the map, Kronshtaht ( ) is a fortress. 8. Swamp: A Soviet army or front defending in a swamp receives a defense factor bonus of 1. (See stacking limitations against armor in or attacking into swamp, and there are no Armor Overruns therein.) 9. Hills: Each infantry-type unit in a hill hex receives a defensive bonus of 1 factor. Units in hills cannot be Armor Overrun. 10. Mountains: Same penalties against stacking and Armor Overrun as for unfrozen swamp. Same defense factor bonuses as for major cities. C. ... on Supply: Supply may not be traced across an impassable hex-side. Supply can only be traced across an all-sea hex-side if the sea is under friendly control. (Supply can be traced across frozen or unfrozen lake hex-sides, the Kerch Straits, or the Leningrad-Kronshtaht hex-side.) D. Clarifications of terrain, unit situations, and geography: 1. Unless it is Snow weather, units attacking Leningrad from H15 (Pushkin) also suffer the normal cross-river penalty. However, units in Leningrad can always attack (units in) H15 without suffering this river penalty. 2. The Hungarian unit may never enter Romania -- under penalty of elimination. Similarly, one of these nationalities' units may never enter a hex already occupied by the other's. XI. Operational movement: A. General rules: 1. The owning player may move all, some, or none of his UnDispersed units during any one of his Operations phases -- unless prevented by impassable hex-sides or other rules. However, he may only operationally move a unit once per game-turn, and if it has moved it must attack in that (initial or reserve) phase if it ever is to do so during that game-turn. It is immediately thereafter "Spent" -- and faced toward the opponent. 2. Except in the case concerning rivers, above, 1 movement factor is expended for each hex entered. An UnDispersed/UnSpent unit may be moved all, some, or none of its (weather- and phase-modified) movement factor. 3. The owning player must finish moving one (group of) unit(s) before starting to move another. (If necessary, a tournament director may invoke chess rules about moving a "touched" piece.) 4. A unit of whatever type may never enter--let alone pass through--a hex containing an enemy unit. 5. A unit may always make an operational movement of at least 1 hex, as long as it isn't violating Zone of Control rules described in B. below. It may even exceed its MFs to do so; however, it is then Dispersed. B. Operational Movement into, out of, and/or through Enemy Zones of Control: >>> Players are reminded that Dispersed units have no ZOCs. <<< 1. A unit must stop upon entering the ZOC of an enemy unit -- even if that EZOC is already occupied by a friendly unit. A unit may leave any EZOC without penalty. 2. In most cases, a unit may not move from one ZOC to another ZOC of the same enemy unit -- even when the initial EZOC is occupied by a friendly unit -- UNLESS it is moving into a hex occupied by a friendly unit ... and it may then do so even if that friendly unit only arrived in the same/current movement phase. EXCEPTION: A stack of units containing at least one "pure" armored unit may make a (total) 1-hex operational movement from one ZOC to another ZOC of the same enemy unit, even if the latter hex is unoccupied by a friendly unit -- UNLESS the enemy unit is a German army or Russian front OR UNLESS the stack would have to move across or into non-clear terrain. Any other stack of units (not containing a "pure" armored unit) may do the same, except that it is Dispersed by doing so. 3. A unit may always make a 1-hex movement out of one enemy unit's ZOC and directly into another, different enemy unit's ZOC. C. The Operational Movement "Bonus:" Axis units receive a bonus of 2 operational movement factors and Russian units receive a bonus of 3 operational movement factors, if they do not move into the ZOC of an enemy unit. They may still receive the OMB if they do move into an EZOC, but they are Dispersed by doing so. A unit still receives its OMB if it is (only) moving out of an EZOC. These bonuses are never modified/reduced by weather, although they can be reduced by the Reserve Phase movement penalty, after all normal/printed operational movement factor has been subtracted. (For example, a front moving in the 3rd Reserves Phase would only have 2 "bonus" movement factors left of its entire movement factor.)