WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin

Anyone played this? I played it for the first time yesterday, took 13 hours to complete and it was the most absorbing and fascinating time I have ever had with a game. I am sure we forgot several of the exceptions but the game ebbed and flowed and rarely was I ever bored as I was always desperate for my next move, or to see how my defence would go when my opponent attacked.

Moscow almost fell at the first opportunity, but we grimly hung on and built up a massive wall of defenders. For the whole of 1942 the German army was knocking on the door of Moscow but I kept on rebuilding my defences and replacing troops, just about managing to keep them supplied and eventually developed tanks to push back the German horde. There were small invasions in Italy and Norway, the Italians defected, and my forces in Norway who had made it down to Copenhagen were forced back and defeated by German reinforcements. Rommel cruised through north africa and into Iraq, securing crucial oil supplies for the Germans. In winter 44/45, I invoked the Overlord landing and brought ashore two brutal tank armies that rolled into a vacant France (the defenders had rushed to shore up Italy) and captured key cities. Russia pushed the Germans back to their eastern border, and I liberated Copenhagen and Oslo to secure the final victory points I needed with only Spring and Summer 45 remaining. Germany would have done better to invoke the Totaler Krieg option (gives them a large victory point cache) but my opponent was convinced he could take Moscow and Totaler Krieg would have ruled that out. By the time he realised it was a lost cause he was below the minimum points to play it, and it was a grim fight to the death.

Astonishing game, but a physical and mental commitment for sure! Better played over two days I reckon, but if you have a whole day and want to recreate the European theatre, then this is perfect. Sure, it's a little bit scripted, but if you enjoy the history (that's the only reason you'd buy this game) that will not be an issue.

I thought about buying this, I have a bunch of CDGs, mostly long, but I decided to buy Shifting Sands instead because of the shorter play time. I've heard a lot of mixed stuff about the game, actually, particularly that the strategic situation is not terribly interesting--i.e. a large battle in Russia, not much else. Which of course is how any strategic WWII should play out, but I don't think the CDG system's strength is in operational or tactical campaigns (Eastern Front campaign) but rather in strategic considerations (which fronts do I put my focus on when I have choices).

In my game I found the Russian struggle to be enthralling. I suspect if I over-played the game, the fun would wane but I think that digging this one out a couple of times a year will help it maintain it's status for me.

Sounds like an exciting "epic" scale wargame. You've got it buzzing around in my head now. But 13 hours! Thats a steep time commitment. GMT does generally do nice games though.

Bill N.

I've been thinking of Europe Engulfed, myself. The thing is, EE is down on my list of games to be interested in buying, so it'll probably stay there for a while.

--Mike L.

Here's the session report for the game:

www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3353

We screwed up the invasion rules, but never mind.

It's definitely exciting and epic. This was our first play, so it was bound to be slightly slow. Plus my opponent is a bit of a perfectionist at games at was a little slow a couple of times...

I love this game! I've played about 6 times. We have found the Barbarossa invasion tough to pull off efficiently. The games that have gone the distance were all nailbiters, literally going either way into the last had. sweet stuff.

If the game goes the distance 10 - 13 hours seems typical.

P

I'll have to check out the session report. I got BtB in a trade not too long ago and have a game lined up in a couple weeks. Looks good.

Looks like I posted the wrong link to the report a month a go! This is the correct one:

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/284714

Playing Shifting Sands tomorrow. Should be a blast.