Borodino '41

Borodino '41 Rulebook

Table of Contents

2 List of Parts

This game contains:

one map
one counter sheet of 280 counters
two ten sided dice (DIOs)
two roster sheets. Note: be sure to photocopy the roster sheets prior to playing
cardstock charts/tables
one rules book

If any of the parts are missing or damaged, please write to: Clash of Arms Games, The Byrne Building #205, Lincoln & Morgan Sts., Phoenixville, PA 19460.

3 How to Read the Counters

The sample counters are labelled as follows.

Typical infantry unit: Battalion; Company; Regiment; Brigade; Division; Unit Symbol (rifle battalion); Morale; Strength; Range (regular only, AT range); A T Strength; Armor Bonus.
Typical armored unit: Battalion; Regiment; Morale; Strength; Caliber; Direct Fire Range; Direct Fire Strength (AT Strength 2, Range 1); A T Strength.
Typical artillery unit: Battery; Battalion; Division; Morale; Strength; Caliber; Range; A T Strength.
Typical weapons unit: Division; Morale; Strength; A T Strength.
Typical headquarters unit: Division; A T Strength.

Markers: Dummy; Assault/Column; Suppression/Disruption; Demolition/Bridge; Foxholes/Trenches; Cut Off/Out of Supply.

The symbol key lists headquarters (company, battalion, regiment, brigade, division, corps, motorized), personnel (infantry, engineer, cavalry, machine gun, motorcycle, flamethrower) and weapons (antitank, antiaircraft, artillery, heavy mortar, rocket). The armored fighting vehicles are shown as Soviet (BA-10, BT-7, KV-1, T-26, T-28, T-34, T-36) and German (PzII, PzIII, PzIV, Sdkfz222, Sdkfz251, GW 38, StGIII, SIG33) silhouettes.

Errata (counters): Rather than using symbols for Foxholes and Trenches, COA chose to use words on the counters, words being Foxholes and Dug In. The latter is the same as Trenches.

Errata: The "how to read counters" section shows a GW 38 and a SIG with the same silhouette. In the game we see only one such unit anyway, the SIG company of 10th Panzer. A 150mm infantry gun (howitzer) mounted on a Pzkpfw I chassis. The GW 38 was made later using the chassis of a Czech Pzkpfw 38 (t).

Abbreviations: AA (antiaircraft); Arty (artillery); AT (antitank); D (Deutschland); DF (Der Fuhrer); DR (Das Reich); Eng (engineer); FI (flak, antiaircraft); Fid (field); HQ (headquarters); Hvy (heavy); LC (Lenin Cadets, V. I. Lenin Military/Political Courses); Mcycl (motorcycle); MD (Mozhaisk Destroyer, militia); MG (machine gun); NW (nebelwerfer, heavy mortar); Rec (reconnaissance); Rkt (rocket); SS (Schutz Staffel).

4 Sequence of Play and Description of Play

A. Sequence of Play

I. Weather, Air Availability and Initiative Determination Section. If neither player wishes to assault any enemy occupied hexes, proceed directly to IV Night Section.

II. AM Section

A. Initial Impulse
1. Initial Movement (12 movement points)
2. Combat
  - a. Air Strikes
  - b. Defender Retreat Option
  - c. Defensive Fire (regular or AT)
  - d. Offensive Retreat Option
  - e. Offensive Fire (regular or AT)
  - f. Defensive Fire (whichever was not done in c.)
  - g. Offensive Fire (whichever was not done in d.)
  - h. Motorized Defensive Retreat Option
  - i. Assault
3. Initiative Challenge
B. Second AM Impulse
1. Limited Move (8 movement points)
2. Combat as above
C. Recovery Phase

III. PM Section

A. If the Initial Player took two AM impulses, the second player now takes an Initial Impulse (12 MP). If each player took an AM impulse, each now takes a Limited Impulse (8 MP) with the Initial player moving first. Movement and Combat proceed as described in IIA above.
B. Recovery Phase

IV. Night Section

A. Night Initiative Phase
B. First Night Impulse
1. Movement (8 MP)
2. Combat (includes a surprise determination)
C. Second Night Impulse (as above)
D. Recovery Phase
E. Supply Determination Phase

V. Game Turn Indication

B. Description of Play

Each turn of Borodino '41, representing one day, is divided into three turn sections; AM, PM, and Night. These terms are not strictly accurate descriptions of when in a day the action is taking place, but they are close and will do for convenience sake. Each turn section consists of one or two impulses, and several phases. During phases, various activities are undertaken by both players, while during the impulses one player is taking most of the actions.

Administration and Initiative. The turn begins with the Soviet player determining the weather and both players consulting their reinforcement schedule to determine if reinforcements are due to arrive. Both players then determine what air support, if any, they have available.

Next the initiative is determined (both players secretly choosing the number of hexes they commit themselves to assault. This number should be written and shown to the other player after the die roll to determine initiative); they add this number to the result of a die roll and reveal the total. The player with the higher total wins the initiative and becomes the Initial Player for both the AM and PM turn sections. He will receive advantages in terms of movement points available to his units and a certain control over the structure of the day portion of the turn.

AM Impulse. The initial player then takes his initial impulse, moving his units up to twelve movement points if he wishes, placing markers on some of his units to indicate that they are committed to conduct assaults in this impulse and also undertaking any construction or demolition he chooses. The initial player must assault at least as many hexes as he committed himself to when determining the initiative.

Combat. Combat is now resolved. First the initial player conducts air strikes, using his available air shifts to attack units on the ground. The initial player then designates a hex with assault markers pointing to it. The defender may then attempt to retreat the units in the hex under attack.

If he does not wish to retreat or cannot, the defender then performs defensive fire. If the assaulting units include both armored and non-armored targets, the defender may choose to use either regular fire or antitank (AT) fire. If this fire fails to suppress, disrupt, or kill off all the attacking units, the attacker may now either perform offensive fire or voluntarily withdraw his assaulting units. If the defending hex contains both armored and non-armored units, the attacker may now choose whether to fire regular or antitank fire. If the defender had the choice of both types of target to fire on during his first defensive fire, he may now carry out the other type of fire, assuming he has units capable of so doing. Similarly the attacker may now again fire offensive fire of the type he did not use the first time, assuming there are appropriate targets and firing units.

If the defender's hex now contains any motorized or track mobile units that are not suppressed or disrupted, these may now attempt to retreat out of the hex if the owning player so desires.

Assuming there are still defending units in the hex, and some assaulting units are still marked with assault markers, the attacking player now resolves an assault against the hex, the result of which will be retreat or elimination of the units of one side or the other.

After all hexes under assault have combat against them resolved, attacker's units that have not yet fired may do so against any of the defender's hexes they can legitimately fire on, and the defenders may reply in kind.

Initiative Challenge, Second AM Impulse, and Recovery. When all combat is concluded, there occurs an initiative challenge phase. If the initial player wishes to take another (limited) impulse at this time, he so announces and the second player may either meekly agree or attempt to challenge the initial player for the use of the second AM impulse. An initiative challenge is resolved just like an initiative determination, except that the initial player receives a +1 modifier to his die roll. If the initial player retains the initiative, the second player now performs air strikes with any air shifts that he had available for the AM turn section. The player who wins the initiative challenge receives the use of the second AM impulse, and must assault the number of hexes he declared he would.

Whoever takes it has up to 8 movement points to move, build, and/or place assault combat markers. Combat is then resolved. No matter who has the use of the second AM impulse, it is followed by a Recovery Phase, in which all suppressed units not in enemy zones of control (ZOC) have their suppressed markers removed, and all disrupted units similarly situated have their markers flipped to the suppressed side.

PM Impulse. The PM turn section then begins. First air availability is determined. Then if the initial player took two AM impulses, the second player now takes an initial impulse followed by a recovery phase, followed by the initial player's air strikes. If, however, each player took an AM impulse, each now takes a limited impulse, initial player first, followed by a recovery phase.

Night Impulse. The Night turn section begins with initiative determination. Both players, however, have severe limitations as to the number of assault markers to which they can commit. Whichever player wins the Night initiative now takes a limited (8 MP) move, followed by the other player doing the same, followed by recovery. After this there is a supply determination phase in which units on both sides unable to trace supply lines are marked Cut Off. Finally, the game turn indicator is moved to the next day on the turn record track.

Errata (Section 4): The game starts with a special Soviet full impulse representing their retreat the night before. The Soviet player may not use this movement to create field fortifications of any kind. They must end their movement at least five hexes from the western board edge.

5 Weather

Historical Misunderstanding. At the beginning of October, 1941, the Germans encircled three Soviet Fronts (Western, Reserve, and Bryansk) in what was called the Vyazma-Bryansk battles. There were practically no unencircled Soviet forces standing between the Germans and Moscow. The standard German explanation of why they failed to take advantage of this situation is that the bad weather prevented them. The roads supposedly dissolved into mud, and nothing could move. Only after the cold weather set in and the ground froze could the panzers, to say nothing of their supply trucks, move again. In looking into this battle, which took place at the critical moment in the campaign, a very different picture emerges.

According to both German records and Soviet accounts, except for cloudy weather on the 12th and 16th of October, and "heavy snow fall" on the night of October 14-15, the weather seems to have been clear every day of the battle. On October 17th the records of Das Reich SS describe the visibility as poor, but also note devastating air strikes by both sides. As to the ground condition, there are no comments from either side, and plenty of indications that units were able to maneuver over secondary roads and to some extent cross country without noticeable problems. Of course there was slush and mud to the south, but no accounts or photos of the battle give any indication that mud was a factor at Borodino. Albert Seaton in his The Battle for Moscow, confirms that on this axis of advance, the Germans encountered the first snow on October 7, and had no difficulty advancing in light snow and frozen soil until toward the end of the month when a thaw made conditions much more difficult.

The Rule. The players have two choices with how to deal with weather in the game:

Historical Weather can be played by using the weather printed on the turn record track and applying the results against the weather table. Weather, however, is not something that could be relied on in advance. Therefore, the following optional method is available.
At the beginning of each turn, the following occurs: the Soviet player rolls one die. A roll of 8 or 9 will produce intermittent snow fall. The effect is to reduce the die result for air support by 3 for the Soviet player and 5 for the German player. A die roll of 10 will produce a thaw. This will add a one movement point penalty for each hex entered that is not a primary or secondary road and is not entered in march column from a connected road hex.

This last is strictly optional, and when playing historical weather ignore it completely.

Errata (Section 5): In the historical weather it lists cloudy weather and snow at night. Neither of these have any game significance.

6 Initiative

What is it? In reading military history, it seems a truism to this designer that in combat on the level shown in this game, someone is usually imposing his will on his enemy. Usually this is done by attacking. The aggressor is playing, rather than being played with. By attacking he is forcing his opponent to defend, to defer his own plans, and to wait to see what else the attacker is going to do. How big is the attack? Are our troops holding? Is this a feint? Is something worse about to happen somewhere else? Should reserves be committed? If so, now or later? Where? Usually it takes a while to sort these questions out, a process slowed by the tendency of phone lines in the sector of the attack to be cut by artillery fire. While the defender is trying to figure out what to do, time is passing. This time cannot be retrieved! Thus the usual "you move and attack, / move and attack" with both of us having the same ability to use time has always seemed artificial and unrealistic to me.

How it works. In the Initiative Determination Section, both players secretly commit themselves to assault a certain number of hexes. This is done by either writing them down, or setting aside a number of assault markers, or by just remembering them. If a player wins the initiative, he must assault the number of hexes to which he committed himself, so sober consideration is in order before committing to a large number of assaults just in order to win the initiative.

Next the players reveal the number of hexes they are committed to attack, and each rolls one die and adds this to his total. If either player has any formations (regiments or brigades) that have never participated in assault combat (offensively or defensively), he may add +1 to his total for each "fresh" formation committed (or any sub-unit thereof) to assault this turn. The player with the higher total is the initial player. If the totals are the same both players roll the dice again until one has a higher total.

Errata (Section 6): Better results can be achieved by using a D6 rather than a D10 when determining the initiative and initiative challenge. Player's option. This will give the bidding of assaults more influence on the initiative.

When is this done? There are potentially three situations in which initiative is determined; Initiative Determination before the AM turn section, Initiative Challenge (which does not always take place) after the first AM impulse, and Night Initiative Determination at the beginning of the Night turn section. The outcome of an initiative determination or night initiative determination decides who will be the initial player during the day or night respectively.

Initiative challenge. The initiative challenge is slightly different, affording the second player the opportunity to wrest back some control over the day's events. If the second player wishes to challenge for the initiative, he announces this after the conclusion of the first AM impulse. Both players then go through the usual initiative determination procedure, except that the player currently with the initiative adds an additional +1 to his total. If the challenger wins the challenge, he now gets to take the second AM impulse, although only a limited (8MP) one. In the PM turn section, rather than the second player moving an initial impulse (12 MP) and that being it for the turn section, the initial player and then the second player will each move a limited impulse.

If a player wins the initiative or an initiative challenge, in the impulse immediately following he must assault at least the number of hexes to which he committed. This only applies to the impulse immediately following, so that, for example, a player who committed himself to assault seven hexes won the initiative at the beginning of the turn would have to assault at least seven enemy occupied hexes in the first AM impulse, in his second impulse he would be free to assault as few or as many hexes as he chose; unless his opponent challenged for the initiative and in order to retain it he committed to assault a number of hexes in his second impulse and he retained the initiative. The loser of an initiative determination is no longer bound by his commitment to assault the number of hexes to which he committed. To continue the example, if the second player had committed himself to assault five hexes, he wouldn't have to assault any at all if he didn't want to unless he challenged for the initiative, making a new commitment, to which he would be held in case he won the challenge.

Lull. If neither side commits itself to attack any hexes, a Lull is declared for the day. Each player rolls one die, the player with the higher total going first. In case of ties, re-roll. The player with the high die now takes a limited AM impulse, followed by the second player. If any units were suppressed or disrupted from the preceding night turn, they now recover. Then the initial player and then the second player take a limited PM impulse. If neither player declares any attacks during the following night impulse, the same procedure is followed.

During a Lull turn, players may not enter enemy zones of control, place assault markers, or make artillery or air attacks. In other words, there is no combat allowed. Yeah, sure, there would be some fire exchanged, but in game terms it is not significant so forget it.

Possible Turn Sequences.

Assuming one player wins the initiative and there is no successful initiative challenge:
- Initiative determination
- AM: Initial Impulse; Second Player Air Strikes; Initial Player Limited Impulse; Recovery
- PM: Second player Initial Impulse; Recovery; Initial Player Air Strikes
- Night: Initiative Determination; Initial player limited impulse; Second player limited impulse; Recovery
Assuming a successful initiative challenge after the Initial impulse:
- Initiative determination
- AM: Initial impulse; Initiative challenge succeeds; Second player limited impulse; Recovery
- PM: Initial player limited impulse; Second player limited impulse; Recovery
- Night is the same as in 1. above
Lull is declared as no one makes any plans to attack:
- Initiative determination
- AM: Initial player limited impulse; Second player limited impulse; Recovery if necessary
- PM: Initial player limited impulse; Second player limited impulse
- Night: Initial player limited impulse; Second player limited impulse

7 Movement

During the movement portion of a friendly impulse, a player may move all, some, or none of his units as he sees fit, up to the limit of their movement allowance. The amount of movement points available to a unit depends on what kind of impulse it is moving in; Initial (12 movement points or MP) or limited (8 MP). Units that are disrupted, out of command, or motorized units out of supply have their available MP halved. Units that are suppressed lose 2 MP.

The amount of movement points expended by a unit depends on the unit's movement type and the type of terrain that is in the hexes or hexsides the unit is entering or crossing. A unit's movement type can be determined by looking at the How to Read the Counters section of the rules. There are three movement types: Leg, Wheel, and Track. This movement type is cross referenced on the Terrain Effects Chart to determine how much it costs for a particular movement type to enter a certain kind of hex or cross a certain kind of hexside.

Movement points may also be spent during the movement portion of an impulse to perform other functions: placing assault markers (1 MP), construction, demolition, and changing formation.

Units may not save MPs from one impulse to the next, nor transfer MPs from one unit to another. Units may move in a stack using the highest applicable terrain cost if the stack contains different movement types. Units or stacks of units are moved one at a time, completing their movement before another unit or stack is moved. Once a unit is moved, leave it there. When players start moving units and then moving them over again it can get difficult to tell just where a unit started or which units have moved and which haven't. To avoid confusion and dispute, move it and leave it. It is touch-move, the same as in chess. Believe it, there are many soldiers throughout history who have wished that their commander could have retaken his move that got them into some uncomfortable spot. Of course if you want to be a gentleman and forgive your opponent some blunder assuming he will treat you in kind; that is entirely up to you.

Movement and Assault. Units or stacks that a player wishes to use to make an assault during the combat portion of an impulse must be marked with an assault marker during the movement immediately preceding the combat portion of the impulse. It costs one MP to place a combat marker. Units that lack sufficient MPs at the end of their movement to place an assault marker may not assault.

Only one assault marker is necessary to mark a stack of units that is assaulting the same hex, but each unit in the stack must have the movement point available in order to be placed under the marker. Those units in the hex that are not taking part in the assault should be placed above the assault marker.

Movement Formations. Units are normally considered to be deployed. However in order to take advantage of the road movement rates, bridges, or obstacle gaps, it is necessary for a unit to line up in column. Units in column moving on a road, railroad, or fire trail may ignore the other terrain in the hex for movement purposes. It costs one MP for a unit to go into column and this can only be done on road or railroad hexes. It is then marked with a column marker. When a unit goes out of column (deploys), it must pay the full cost of entering the hex that it currently occupies. Thus a Wheel type unit (trucks) on a road in a woods hex would pay 5 MP to deploy. If at the end of its movement a unit lacks the MP needed to deploy or if it wishes to stay in column to avoid the MP cost to go back into column next turn to continue moving on the same road, the column marker stays on the unit.

Units that are in column suffer from a +2 shift on the Combat Results Table (CRT) if they receive fire. If units in column are assaulted they suffer from a -2 modifier to their morale. Units in column never benefit from terrain in their hex and may never enter or build fortifications or field works. Units in column may neither stack with nor move through other units in column. Units in column may engage in fire and assault combat, but their fire is halved, and they suffer the modifiers listed above. Units in column that engage in assault combat either defensively or offensively are automatically deployed at the end of the combat (after advance after combat) at no cost unless the terrain would prohibit the unit being deployed in the hex.

Movement Restrictions and Reductions. Units that are suppressed have 2 MP deducted from their available total. Units that are disrupted, out of command, or wheel or track units out of supply, have their available MP halved. These effects are cumulative. However, units are always allowed to move at least one hex per impulse unless their only available hexes to move into are either occupied by enemy units, or are prohibited hexes for their movement type, or involve crossing prohibited hexsides for their movement type. Units may never enter or move through hexes occupied by enemy units.

Off Board Movement. Units may be forced to retreat off-map if there is no alternative. Such units must return to the map by the friendly road or railroad nearest to the point at which they left the map in the next available impulse, or they are considered out of the game. Note: they are not considered losses for victory purposes.

Reinforcements and units reentering the map that enter on a road are considered to be in column formation and thus cannot enter stacked. The first unit to enter the map on a road in an impulse pays the normal MP cost to enter the first hex, the second unit pays double the normal cost for the first hex and then moves normally, the third unit pays triple the normal cost for the first hex and then moves normally, etc.

All German reinforcements enter the map either on the Warsaw-Moscow Highway or on another road or rail line within 6 hexes of where the main highway enters the map. To avoid absurd tactics, the Soviet player is specifically forbidden to set up units in position to prevent the entry of the first turn German reinforcements. If the Soviet player subsequently manages to line up thirteen units at the edge of the map to keep the Germans from bringing any forces onto the map, perhaps he is playing the wrong game, yes?

Railroad Movement. Soviet units of the 32nd Rifle Division arrive on the board by railroad, and detrain at the Mozhaisk Railroad Station. It costs 1 MP to detrain, after which units may move normally. If the German player has any units or zones of control on the rail line between the eastern board edge and Mozhaisk station, then the units due to arrive by rail must enter on the Mozhaisk primary road in column.

Enemy Roads. You and I, if we were driving down a road in enemy country that had not been previously cleared by anyone would have a natural tendency to proceed with caution. Not so with our cardboard representatives. So... when German units use road movement on roads that have not been previously traveled by other German units, they pay twice the usual movement cost. This penalty does not apply when using the Moscow Highway. If, during the course of the game, the Germans have cleared the Soviets from large portions of the board without having actually moved a unit through each hex therein, it is OK for the Germans to regard any road behind their lines as friendly. Once a German unit has moved through a road hex, it ceases to be an unfriendly road hex for the rest of the game, even if it has been reoccupied by the Soviets.

Errata (Section 7): No, the Germans do not have to spend the whole game in their trucks. Motorized infantry and engineers may move as leg units, either make dismount markers or use pennies, or simply declare when they are moving on foot and when on wheels. Movement point costs for different terrain are cumulative. Units may enter column on a fire trail. Units must be in column to cross a ford. Units exiting column pay for the road/railway into the hex plus the normal cost of terrain.

8 Stacking

Players may stack several friendly units in one hex. Up to a total of 12 strength points of units may be in one hex at one time. Strength points are the lower left number on a unit, minus any losses they may have taken.

Units may move together as a stack; use the highest MP cost appropriate for any unit in the stack. Thus a stack consisting of infantry (leg mobile) and tanks (track mobile) would pay 1 MP to enter a clear terrain hex, whereas it would cost the tanks only 1/2 MP if they were traveling alone.

Deployed units may freely move through other friendly units, and stacking limits apply for them only at the end of movement. Units in column, however, may not move through other units in column at any point in their movement, and cannot stack with them at the end of their movement. Units in column may freely move through and stack with deployed units, up to the stacking limitation.

Units forced to retreat through friendly units must continue their retreat until they reach a hex where they can stack legally. If this is impossible due to the presence of enemy units or impassable terrain, the units may overstack. They must correct the condition at their earliest opportunity. While overstacked, units are subject to the stacking limits for fire and assault (even if you have 15 points worth of units stacked in a hex, you can only fire and assault with a maximum of 12 points worth in an impulse), but all units in the hex are subject to fire.

A player may only examine the contents of an enemy stack during combat, (after all movement is concluded and after all assault markers are placed) and then only if the stack can be legally observed.

9 Terrain

The terrain around the Borodino Polye (Borodino land or ground) is gently rolling and forested, rising in places to hills and ridges of 300 meters or so. It is dotted by many villages and cut by many streams, most emptying into the Moskva River. Occasionally the soil is marshy, but in early October of 1941 this was confined to the actual marshes. The rest of the soil was firm. The most important terrain feature was the Warsaw-Moscow Highway, the best paved road in the USSR. Parallel to it to the north ran a rail line that passed close to the town of Mozhaisk on its way to Moscow. In the frantic days before the beginning of the battle, antitank ditches, pill boxes, bunkers and trench systems had been dug as part of the Mozhaisk Defense Line, the outer rampart of the defenses of Moscow. Incorporated into the line were some older field works, the famous "Fleches" and "Bagration Redoubt" that had been built in 1812 to help keep another invader away from Moscow.

Errata (Section 9): Ignore the references to antitank ditches. There are none in the game. There were indeed some on the battlefield, but they do not seem to have had much influence on the battle. Fortifications printed on the map effect all hexsides they face, no matter how many. The Redoubt and Fleches are treated like other fortifications.

Clear: is just that, gently rolling farmland and meadow.
Woods: consists of birch and pine forests.
Marsh: was ground too wet to be usable for vehicles but passable in places on foot.
Hills: were not bumps standing up off of a flat plain but rather the highest points in a gently rolling countryside, with low ridges generally to be found between the streams. Units on hills receive benefits when fired at, when firing defensively, and when assaulted, provided that all of their opponents are not on the same hill mass.
Streams: were of varying sizes but none seemed to be a serious obstacle to infantry assault, while all seemed to be an obstacle to vehicles. The available maps are not clear as to where there were bridges and where there were fords. Therefore all road crossings of streams are assumed to cross at bridges. No doubt this overstates the number of bridges, but...
River: the one undeniable river in the lot is the Moskva. Here it is possible to state with some (sic) degree of confidence where the bridges were and were not. The river was broad and deep enough that crossing was possible only at crossings or by amphibious units or with engineer assistance.
Villages: were almost exclusively log built, with large vegetable gardens around the houses and fields around many of the villages.
Town: that would be Mozhaisk, with multi-story buildings, some masonry structures but mostly still wood, including a monastery of some renown.
Railroad Stations, Veterinary Station, Komsomol Summer Camp: should all be treated the same as Villages. The linen factory in Panino I believe to be of wood construction, and is not distinguished from the village except to add color and to confuse the unwary gamer.

Fortifications are a little different than other terrain types, in that a unit may be in a hex that contains fortifications and not actually be in the fortifications themselves. Vehicle units may never occupy fortifications. Other units can, but have the option not to. A declaration is made at the time that the fortification hex is fired at or assaulted, whichever comes first. The defending unit is then considered to be in the position declared for the rest of the impulse.

Fortifications are considered to have a facing, and face three specific hexsides. Units that are in fortifications are protected from fire by a three shift negative modifier no matter which direction the fire comes from. When firing defensively, the defender's fire gets a plus one modifier, but only if it is firing through one of the facing hexsides. When the defender of a fortified position is assaulted, it receives a plus one to its morale, if all the assaulting units are assaulting across the hexsides the fortifications face. If any assaulting unit, however, is assaulting across a non-fortified hexside, the attacker gets a plus two to its morale.

In other words, if the enemy is coming at your pillboxes from behind, it is better to be out in the open, even if it is raining 105mm HE, than to wait under the concrete until someone slips up behind you and lobs a satchel charge through the pillbox door.

Zones of control extend out of fortified hexes through the hexsides the fortifications face, but units occupying fortifications are never effected by enemy ZOCs.

Errata (Fortifications, Charts): The Morale vs. Assault column entry on the Terrain Fire Effects Table for Fortifications should also read -2 (not -1) for assaulting the flank of a fortification.

Terrain Effects. Units pay terrain costs depending on their movement type and their formation. Defending units can receive benefits from terrain, depending on their type and formation. Thus units when fired at receive benefits for being in woods, villages, towns, and fortifications, and in some circumstances for being on hills and in AT ditches. Units that are assaulting NEVER receive any benefits from terrain. Units that belong to the player whose impulse it is that are not assaulting and are fired upon receive the benefits of terrain.

Terrain benefits against fire are not cumulative, except in the case of Hills, so that the defenders of Klemyatino, a village in a partially wooded hex, would receive only a one shift modifier against fire, while units defending hill 231, a wooded hill, would receive a two shift modifier.

Units defending certain terrain; i.e. Woods, Hills, Villages, Towns, AT ditches, Embankments, and Fortifications, receive positive modifiers to their own fire. Once again, only the hill modifier can be added to any other terrain benefit. Thus a defending unit firing from a woods hex would receive a positive shift, while a unit firing from hill 231 would receive two shifts.

Terrain can also benefit (and sometimes penalize) units defending against assault. Units defending Woods, Villages, Towns and Hills receive a plus one to their morale when assaulted. Units defending Fortifications are affected positively or negatively depending whether they are attacked from facing or non-facing hexes. Units defending against attacks across streams or the Moskva River receive benefits if all attacks are across the water. Units defending Embankments receive benefits if all attacks are across the embankment (this requires a little reasonable judgment. Use that most uncommon virtue, common sense.)

To determine the cost to move through terrain, use the Terrain Movement Costs Chart, cross referencing the unit's movement type with the terrain. Road rates are available only to units in column entering the road hex from a connected road hex. If a unit does not have the MP available to enter a hex, it cannot enter it.

Note that a unit in column moving from a road hex that is also a non-clear terrain hex, to a non road hex, must pay the terrain cost of the road hex as well as the cost of the non-road hex entered.

To determine terrain effects on combat, consult the Combat Effects Chart. There are three categories on the chart:

Fire Against/Through (referring to hexes/hexsides) which gives the effects of the terrain a defender occupies when it is fired upon.
Defensive Fire From which gives the defender's fire the effects of the terrain the defender occupies.
Defender's Morale Against Assault which gives the effects on the defender's morale of the terrain it occupies when it is assaulted.

There are two other "terrain" features, Foxholes and Trenches, but these are not printed on the map and can be constructed during the game. They are represented by counters and are described in the rule section covering Construction and Demolition.

10 Zones of Control (ZOCs)

If a unit can fire into an adjacent hex, it can usually exert a Zone of Control (ZOC) into that hex. The exceptions are that ZOCs do not extend into fortifications, trenches, or town hexes, or across the Moskva River.

Entering and Exiting. Units may freely enter enemy ZOCs. If a unit attempts to exit an enemy ZOC, however, the unit that exerts the ZOC, and any other units that can observe and fire on the hex being exited, may carry out ZOC fire on the exiting unit. Units carrying out ZOC fire in no way limit other fire they may wish to do later in the impulse. All units that can and wish to carry out ZOC fire combine their fire and resolve it as one attack. If the fire disrupts or suppresses the exiting unit, that unit may not exit the ZOC hex or move further in that impulse. If not suppressed or disrupted, the moving unit may continue to move, including entering and exiting other enemy ZOCs. If it does the latter, however, it will be subject again to ZOC fire.

A unit may fire ZOC fire an unlimited number of times in an impulse, so that if an enemy unit were to start movement adjacent to a friendly unit, and move in a complete circle around it through the six adjacent hexes, assuming the friendly unit had a ZOC in all these hexes, it could fire six times and still be able to fire defensive fire in the upcoming combat phase. Units exiting an enemy ZOC suffer a +2 shift on the CRT, unless they began their movement in that hex in which case there is a -1 modifier.

In addition, if a unit changes formation (road column to deployed or vice versa) in an enemy ZOC, the enemy unit can fire ZOC fire at it, treating it as a target in column.

ZOC Fire and Armor. These modifiers for ZOC fire never apply to armored targets, however. Note that units with only two numbers printed on the bottom of their counter have an AT range of less than 1, which means that they can only fire AT fire at units that are assaulting them or that they are assaulting. Consequently these units could not fire ZOC fire at armored targets moving past them. Fortifications provide units occupying them a special AT ZOC into all hexes adjacent to their front sides with a strength of two. This represents mine fields.

11 Observation, Lines of Sight, Reconnaissance and Dummies

Observation. All units have the ability to observe distant hexes. The distance a unit can see depends on the elevation of the observing units, the terrain between the observer and the target, the terrain in the target hex, the type of target unit, and the time of day. From a hill, a unit can observe up to six hexes away (counting the target hex but not the observer's hex). From all other terrain units can observe up to four hexes away. At night units can observe only adjacent hexes.

Lines of Sight. To observe a hex, the observing player must trace a straight line from the center of the observer's hex to the target hex. If this line crosses any part of a hex containing hill, woods, village or town, or crosses an embankment, the line of sight is blocked, unless the observing unit is on a hill and the obstructing hex or hexside is closer to the observer than the target. If the obstruction is a hill, it doesn't matter to whom it is closer; it blocks the line of sight. If a target hex contains an embankment, and the enemy unit declares itself on the far side of the embankment from the observing unit, it is hidden and cannot be observed unless it fires over the embankment.

Errata (Section 11): Hills always block line of sight.

Concealment. Units in woods, village, town, fortifications, and or trenches, or behind embankments, may only be observed from adjacent hexes. Units can freely observe out of these hexes. Units that fire from these hexes may be observed by any enemy unit that can trace a line of sight to them subject to the conditions under "Observation" above.

Inverted Counters. It is quite possible to play this game with all counters face up and with no dummies in play. Due to the fact that players in a wargame have far more information available to them than commanders in an actual battle do, it is better to restrict as far as possible the amount of information that can be gleaned by looking at the map. In order to do this, all Soviet units should be and German units may be played face down. When a face down unit assaults or is assaulted it is turned face up. Once combat is resolved, flip the counter over again unless the unit(s) is observable by enemy units. Since the German player will do most of the attacking, it is not as necessary for him to keep his units face down and it will speed up the game considerably if they are mostly face up. Often players have the ability to hide units by placing them under trench or foxhole markers, or simply stacked under other friendly units. It is usually best to invert only the top unit in a stack; it will make the stack easier to read and save time.

If a unit can be observed, it can be attacked with fire, artillery fire, and air strikes. If a unit can be observed, the owning player must, if his opponent requests it, reveal if the unit consists of personnel, weapons, or armored units. The strengths, exact types, and unit designations should not be revealed. It works something like this: "My unit on that hill can see those guys in that hex. What are they?" "Okay, its some tanks and some infantry."

Dummies. Each side is allowed a certain number of dummy markers. Inverted they look just like real units. Dummies keep your opponent from knowing just where your units are not. If a dummy is observed by an opposing unit, it must be immediately removed from the board.

When an assault is made against a dummy counter, it is immediately removed from the board. The unit that assaulted it may move into the dummy's hex and reorient its assault marker up to one hexside. If the marker now points at an enemy unit, it may now be assaulted. If a dummy is fired at but not assaulted, the owning player may declare them to be any target type he chooses, and place loss markers under the dummy if necessary to maintain the deception.

At the beginning of any impulse, a player may ask his opponent to look away from the board, and then return to play any dummy markers that were not in play. Dummies that were in play may also be freely moved to any place a player chooses. Dummies may be freely stacked together or stacked with real units.

If a player suspects that he is opposed by a dummy, he may attempt to move into the dummy's hex. If the hex contains a dummy all well and good, the player may continue moving without any additional MP cost. If the inverted counter is flipped to reveal a real unit, however, the moving units must stop and receive ZOC fire (moving into the occupied hex involves leaving a ZOC) with the usual +2 modifier. After that fire is resolved, the moving unit may, if it has one MP remaining, place an assault marker and normal combat will follow during the combat phase of the impulse.

Errata (Section 11, dummies): The rules state that you remove dummies from the board at the instant they become visible, and also that you can assault them. Of course if you move adjacent they become visible immediately. If a dummy is in any kind of terrain that provides cover, ie. woods, village, town, fortifications, etc,. and a unit moves adjacent so that the dummy would be revealed, the dummy is removed only during combat resolution or at the end of the following combat phase. Thus if a dummy is in a woods blocking a road, an enemy unit can move adjacent to it and then try to move through it thinking it to be a dummy. When the enemy attempts to do this the dummy is revealed and removed. Alternately if the enemy decided to assault the suspected dummy, the dummy would be revealed and removed when the assault was resolved, allowing the attacker to advance and reorient his marker to assault some other possible target. Thirdly, if the attacker merely moved adjacent and decided not to attack, the dummy would be revealed and removed at the end of the combat phase.

12 Combat

There are two broad categories of combat in this game; Fire and Assault. Fire combat may take place during the movement phase (ZOC Fire and air strikes), and during the combat phase. Fire combat may be offensive or defensive, and may further be divided into regular fire and AT fire. Fire Combat represents everything from artillery and air strikes to tank, mortar, machine gun and rifle fire.

Assault combat takes place only during the combat phase and represents tank and infantry combat at close range, including the use of small arms, grenades, flamethrowers and explosive charges.

Fire combat is based essentially on the weight of fire against a target, determined by the strength or AT strength of the firing units. Assault combat is determined basically on the relative morale of the units disputing a piece of ground. Both types of combat are modified by the effects of terrain, armor thickness, visibility, and various other factors.

Errata (Section 12): There is no counterbattery fire in this game, although air strikes may be directed against enemy artillery. HQs can never assault. A second suppression result on an already suppressed unit disrupts it instead.

Sequence of Combat

All artillery units of both sides that players wish to fire this impulse are flipped face up.
The attacking player chooses the first hex against which he wishes to resolve combat.
The units defending that hex may now attempt to retreat from the hex. If they do the assaulting units can move in and occupy the hex. If they cannot or choose not to:
- a. The defending and assaulting units are flipped face up.
- b. The defending units, and any other friendly units that are not being assaulted and can observe the target or can fire indirectly (including artillery) now can fire, either regular or AT fire, at units assaulting them.
- c. The assaulting units now have the option to cancel the assault (remove the assault markers) and, if they choose, retreat one hex. If they wish to continue the assault:
  - (1) The assaulting units, and any non-assaulting friendly units that can observe the target, may now fire at the defending units, using either their regular strength or their AT strength.
- d. The defenders, if there are appropriate targets available, may now use the strength (regular or AT) that they did not use in their first defensive fire, to fire at units assaulting them.
- e. The attackers, if there are appropriate targets available, may now use the strength (regular or AT) that they did not use in their first offensive fire, to fire at units in the hex being assaulted.
- f. If any of the defending units are wheeled or tracked, they may now attempt to retreat from the hex. If they cannot or do not wish to retreat, assault combat is now resolved, resulting in retreat or destruction of one side or the other.
- g. The attacking player now designates another hex against which combat will be resolved. The same procedure is followed.
- h. When all hexes under assault have had combat resolved against them, the attacking player may fire at enemy units his units can observe that are not under assault. Units that fired at other targets during this impulse cannot conduct this fire.

Retreat Before and During Combat

If a unit wishes to retreat before combat, the controlling player must roll 1 d10. This result is compared to the unit's morale. If the die result is less than or equal to the unit's morale the attempt is successful and the unit may retreat. If the die result is higher the unit may not retreat. If the die result is a 10, the unit is Suppressed. Motorcycle and armored car units may retreat before combat without morale check, but must retreat two hexes if they choose to so do.

If a unit wishes to retreat before combat it may retreat up to two hexes. Units assaulting the hex may occupy the hex, retaining their assault markers and may reorient them up to one hexside. If the marker now points to a hex occupied by an enemy unit that has not already had assault combat resolved against it this impulse, it may be assaulted this impulse regardless of how many movement points the assaulting unit had remaining. Thus a unit that retreats only one hex before combat may find its attackers able to follow and resume their contest. If a unit retreats two hexes it avoids that problem.

If the defending units are armored and all the assaulting units are not, retreat before combat can be done without any die roll. If the retreating units are not armored and are retreating into a woods, village, town, or fortified hex, subtract two from the die roll. Suppressed and Disrupted units may never retreat before combat.

Assaulting units that wish to cancel their assault after receiving the first round of defensive fire may retreat one hex, as may assaulting units that have suffered suppressed or disrupted results from defensive fire or otherwise have had their assault marker removed due to enemy fire.

Units retreating before or during combat are not subject to ZOC fire of units that are marked with assault markers, or that were subject to assault during the impulse.

Remember, a unit need not be marked with an assault marker to carry out offensive fire against enemy units that it can observe.

Fire Combat

Fire combat is resolved by totaling all fire of all units firing at a target, finding the vertical column on the appropriate CRT which is equal to or less than the total, then shifting the column to the right or left to reflect the effects of terrain and various other factors, thus arriving at the appropriate column. Two dice are now rolled, (red for the Soviets and gray for the Germans) and the result is read from the firing side's die, and any required morale checks from the defender's die. Results of "0" are read as "10".

Regular fire is used against all non-armored targets (Armored targets are identifiable by the vehicle silhouette on the counter, except that the half-track company is assumed to be dismounted unless it is in column, or the German player clearly announces that it is mounted. When mounted treat it like an armored unit). The strength of all units firing at a hex containing non-armored units is totaled, and then used to attack each unit in the hex individually. Thus if a clear terrain hex containing three non-armored targets was attacked with 12 points of fire, each of the three units would have combat against it resolved on the 12 column of the Combat Results Table (assuming there were no other modifiers appropriate to the combat). If different modifiers applied to different units in the stack, the modifiers would be applied individually so that if only one unit in the hex had a strength of less than 5, it would have the combat resolved on the 8 column after receiving the -1 modifier for size while the other units would have their combat resolved on the 12 column. If the hex contained both armored and non-armored units, the regular fire would apply to the non-armored targets only.

After the attacker adds all relevant column shifts to the fire total, the defender calculates the number of defensive column shifts, which produces the final column on which to resolve the fire. Shifts that produce a total of more than 60 or less than 0 are ignored.

Units that are assaulting must fire at the hex they are assaulting. Units that are being assaulted must fire at units that are assaulting them.

Units may split their strength and apply it against different targets, as long as they comply with the previous paragraph. Defensive fire may only be used against units marked with assault markers. You want to use your heavy AA guns to blast that group of enemy tanks out in the open? Do it during your own impulse!

Fire Strengths

A unit uses its strength to do regular fire. If the firing unit has taken losses, its current strength is used. Units that have a larger AT strength than their regular strength (tanks and weapons units) may use their AT strength when firing at non-armored units in town and fortified hexes. In this case the AT strength is treated like a regular strength, added to the regular strengths of other units firing on the hex, and the regular CRT is used. Units with a range value printed on them (a third number on the bottom right corner of the counter) may use either their regular strength or their AT strength during an impulse, but not both. Units without a printed range may use their regular and their AT strength in the same impulse.

To fire on a hex units must be able to observe the hex (or in the case of some weapons and artillery units, have a friendly unit observe the hex for them) and be within range of the target.

Weapons

Heavy mortar units and some headquarters have weapons that can attack enemy units that they cannot observe, as long as friendly units can observe the target. Some weapons, including some antitank, antiaircraft, and artillery units can fire on non-adjacent enemy units.

When units fire directly at enemy units that are non-adjacent, their strength is reduced by one point for each hex over one that they are shooting, so that an antitank unit firing at an enemy unit two hexes away would have its strength reduced by one, at three hexes by two, etc., except that range attenuation can never reduce a unit's strength to less than 1. Heavy mortar and headquarters units (infantry guns) use their full strength when firing at distant targets.

Minimal Fire

Offensive fire against targets that are not being assaulted, and against which no more than one point of fire can be directed (before modifiers), is forbidden, not because it didn't happen historically, but because it is irrelevant in game terms and life is too short to spend waiting for the maximizers amongst the gaming public to finish rolling 5 extra attacks in hopes of rolling a 0. Lets get on with it!

Antitank (AT) Fire

Armored targets may only be fired at with antitank (AT) fire. AT fire is resolved like regular fire, except that an individual unit is targeted (not all units in a hex), AT strengths are used to attack, and the AT Combat Results Table (ATCRT) is used to resolve the fire. Non-armored units stacked with armored ones are not affected by AT fire.

Armored units may only benefit from one column shift maximum for terrain when fired at. They may never benefit from foxholes, trenches or fortifications, nor do they ever receive any benefit for target size being less than 5.

Some armored units have a small dot on the upper right hand corner of their counter. If the dot is solid black, it is an armor bonus. An armor bonus gives its unit a minus one shift on the ATCRT when fired at. In the case of the KV1 unit, it gets two shifts for having two dots. When engaging in assault combat, offensively or defensively, the armor bonus of the units of each side having the largest bonus are added to the morale of the units of that side. Thus even though the Soviet player might have a KV1 company and a T34 company involved in the same assault, the Soviet side would receive a +2 to their morale, even though the T34 has another bonus point.

Some units have a white dot (or small o) in this location on their counter. This indicates weak armor. Such units have an automatic +1 shift on the ATCRT when fired at. It has no effect on assault. An armored car unit, fired at with 3 points of AT fire, would have the fire resolved on the 5 column of the ATCRT.

AT Strengths

Units without a range factor (units with only two numbers on the bottom of the counter) are assumed to have a range of one for regular fire and an AT range of less than 1, which can only be used when the units are assaulting or being assaulted. Units with a parenthesized range factor (artillery units) have an AT strength of 2 with an AT range of 1, and use that parenthesized number as their strength for direct fire purposes; the last number is their direct fire range. Their regular strength is used for taking losses only.

Artillery

There are several different kinds of artillery in this game. There are antitank and antiaircraft guns that can attack targets with direct fire. There are the headquarters of rifle and motorized infantry regiments which contain infantry guns and heavy mortars and can function like artillery. There are field artillery, including gun and howitzer battalions. There is a German heavy artillery battalion. There are German heavy mortar battalions (100mm nebelwerfers), and Soviet rocket (Katyusha) battalions that can only fire indirect. Each is handled slightly differently, but all have elements in common. All share the ability to engage targets that they are not adjacent to. Except for ZOC fire against targets that they can directly observe, artillery units can only fire once per impulse.

Artillery units that are Cut Off and fire become Out of Supply and can no longer fire until that condition is remedied.

Players familiar with previous incarnations of these rules, Black Sea*Black Death or Aachen, will note that artillery ammunition is not kept track of in this game. In this battle, while neither side was lavishly supplied with ammunition, neither side seemed to be suffering serious problems in feeding their guns, as long as they could reach them. The Germans were still near their dumps built up for the Vyazma-Bryansk attacks, and the Soviets were backed up against their own supply and communications hub, Moscow.

Indirect Artillery Fire

Each field artillery battalion and howitzer battalion is assumed to have a range of 14 hexes for indirect fire; gun battalions have a range of 20 hexes. Each battalion fired on a hex produces a shift of 1 to the right (+1) on the CRT, so that if a battalion engages a non-armored target by itself, it attacks it on the 1 column of the CRT. For a field artillery, howitzer battalion, medium gun or heavy howitzer battalion to fire on a target another unit must observe the target. For Soviet player the observing unit must be a unit of the 32nd Rifle Division or an artillery unit itself. For the German player any unit is eligible to observe for artillery fire. In either case, the observing unit may not be suppressed or disrupted.

Errata (Section 12): "G" stands for Gun (cannon). The Soviet regiment of heavy cannon, the 572nd, has a range of 20 hexes, as does the German battalion of heavy howitzers. Both battalions can engage in ZOC fire, although if they are that close to enemy units they are probably in deep trouble.

Direct Fire Artillery

All regimental headquarters, antitank and antiaircraft units, and all artillery units (except the German heavy howitzer battalion, heavy mortars, and Soviet rockets) can fire direct fire at any target they can observe. For this the artillery units use their direct fire strength, while other units use their strength. Units with a parenthesized middle number on the bottom of the counter use an AT strength of 2 with an AT range of 1, and use that middle number as their strength for direct fire purposes. The last number is their direct fire range. Range attenuation (-1 for the second hex, -2 for the third, etc.) applies.

Artillery Fire Restrictions

Artillery units that have enemy units adjacent to them may not be used to fire against non-adjacent enemy units. Suppressed or disrupted artillery units may not fire at all. Artillery units that are assaulted use half of their strength when calculating the size of the defenders of the hex. Artillery units may not assault, and those that lose an assault combat automatically lose half of their available strength.

Rockets and Mortars

Rockets and mortars are alike in that neither can fire direct fire and neither has any AT strength. The Soviet rocket battalions can fire like indirect artillery fire, complete with observation. When Soviet rocket units fire, they deliver two shifts, rather than one, to the target. The rocket battalions are limited in that they can only fire once per day rather than once per impulse. After they have fired, mark them with an Out of Supply marker. If they can trace a supply line remove the marker at night. If a rocket unit is assaulted it may retreat, even if it loses the assault, without losses, as long as it has a place to retreat. If it cannot retreat, the rocket unit is destroyed. At this point in the war, the Katyusha units were still considered secret enough that their standing orders were to blow up the launchers rather than risk their being captured.

The German rocket platoon, mounted on halftracks, can only fire direct fire, has a range of one hex, hits with a strength of four, (instead of producing shifts) and causes a morale check like Soviet rockets do. Like the Soviet rockets, it can only fire once per day, See Special Units, Rule 18.

Errata (Section 12): The German rocket platoon of the 10th Panzer's engineer battalion can only engage in direct fire.

Any unit attacked by rocket fire must automatically undergo a morale check, even if the result is a miss. If a morale check is already required, it is taken with a -1 modifier to the unit's morale.

Mortars are simply like artillery units except that they cannot fire direct fire or AT fire.

German Heavy Artillery

The 627th Artillery Battalion, armed with 210mm howitzers, presents a special case. (Errata: the heavy artillery battalion is the 637th, not the 627th as the counter says.) It may not direct fire, except to use its strength to shoot at adjacent enemy units. When firing on distant targets it fires one shift to its printed range of 20 hexes. If it is firing on enemy fortified positions or trenches, it hits with two shifts.

CRT Shifts

Various factors, including terrain, target size, etc., can cause the column on the CRT or ATCRT that is used to resolve combat to be shifted to the right or left. Shifts to the left are referred to as minus (-) shifts, those to the right as plus shifts (+). In calculating the correct column for a combat, add all the positive shifts first and then subtract the negative ones. To produce a shift in the column to be used between columns 18, 30, 45, and 60 (inclusive), two shifts are required. To shift the column from 12 to 18, or from 18 to 12 requires two shifts also. All shifts that push the column above 60 or below 0 are ignored. Armored units never receive the size modifier for being less than 5 strength, nor benefit by more than 1 shift for terrain.

Combat Results

There are three possible outcomes on the combat result table and antitank combat results table: a miss, "c" which is a morale check, and "1", "2", "3", or "4" which represent the number of strength points lost and also call for an automatic morale check. Miss results have no effect on the target.

Morale Check

When resolving fire combat, the firing player rolls two dice. One die is read to determine the result on the appropriate column on the CRT, while the other is used to determine the outcome of any morale check that might be called for. If a miss is rolled, then no morale check is required and the morale die is ignored. The red die is for the Soviets and the gray die for the Germans, so when the Soviets are firing, the red die is read for the combat results and the gray for the morale, while the opposite is true if the Germans are doing the shooting. The player doing the shooting is always the one rolling the dice.

When a morale check is called for, compare the die result of the morale die to the morale of the unit being fired at. If the result is less than or equal to the unit's morale, the unit passes its check and there is no result, unless the unit is assaulting and the die result is equal to its morale, in which case the assault marker is removed and the unit may, if it chooses, retreat one hex.

If the die result is one larger than the unit's morale, the unit is Suppressed and is marked with a Suppressed marker. If the die result is larger than the unit's morale by two or more the unit is Disrupted and is so marked. Any assaulting unit that is Suppressed or Disrupted loses its Assault marker. Any unit that misses its morale check by 5 or more has suffered a catastrophic morale failure and is removed from play. More on suppression and disruption later in these rules.

Hits

If the combat results dictate a strength loss, this loss is deducted from the unit's strength, which is the number printed on the lower left corner of the counter. To represent the number of hits a unit has taken, refer to the roster sheet provided. Following each unit are a number of boxes corresponding to that unit's strength. For each hit that a unit takes, cross off a box. Make several copies of the roster sheets. When determining a unit's strength for firing or to determine the unit's size for calculating assault or as a modifier from fire, subtract the current value on the roster sheet from the unit's printed strength. To determine a unit's antitank strength, determine the fraction or percentage of strength lost and apply that to the AT strength, rounding up, and never reducing to less than one. When a unit loses it's last strength point it is destroyed and removed from play.

Assault

Assault represents closing with the enemy to seize the ground he occupies by means of small arms fire, grenades, satchel charges, flamethrowers, bayonets and rifle butts.

All units with an infantry, cavalry, engineer, flamethrower, motorcycle, half-track, tank, assault gun, or armored car symbol on them can assault.

To assault, a unit must have an assault marker on it, pointed towards the hex to be assaulted. If a unit being assaulted fires, it must use its defensive fire against some or all of the units assaulting it, and assaulting units must likewise fire only at the units that they are assaulting.

Should defensive fire produce a suppressed or disrupted result, or a morale check result that is equal to the attacking unit's morale, the assault marker is removed. If an assault involves both armored and non-armored units, and the armored units are all destroyed or have their assault markers removed due to morale check results, the assault markers are removed from the non-armored units as well. Almost always in WWII when tanks and infantry attacked together, if the tanks were destroyed or turned back, it would stall the infantry attack for a good while, if it did not stop it completely. Likewise tanks attacking or defending alone from close combat by infantry in terrain that offered cover tended to come off poorly.

Armored units that are not stacked with non-armored units and are involved in assault combat either defending or assaulting woods, village or town hexes, and that are assaulted by or are assaulting infantry (cavalry, engineer, motorcycle or flamethrower), do not receive any benefit from being armored units nor do they receive the bonus for armor dots.

Assaulting units never receive any benefit from the terrain in their hex when subject to defensive fire.

If all defending units are destroyed by offensive fire of assaulting units, the units assaulting the hex may move into it, reorienting the assault marker by up to one hexside to left or right of its original orientation if so desired, and if the arrow now points to an enemy occupied hex, assault it. A unit may not, however, fire offensive fire more than once during an impulse.

If forced to retreat by assault, a unit must retreat away from the enemy assaulting them, towards cover, towards friendly headquarters, and towards friendly board edges, in that order. If strength point losses are required and armored, engineer or flamethrower units were involved in the assault and caused the morale number to be modified by their participation, first the flamethrower, then the armor and then the engineers are required to take the required losses before other units may take losses.

Surprise

During Night Impulses, players are severely restricted in their ability to make assaults. It's not that it was impossible, just seldom done. The Germans did not make any night attacks during the battle, the Soviets only one. As one West Point graduate pointed out to me, "If you don't sleep at night, you tend to get tired. So most armies sleep at night." During the game, the Soviets will be allowed to assault at night on two night turns only, with a limit of three hexes that they can attack in each of these night impulses. The Germans can attack in one night impulse, limited to two hexes that they can assault. If the German player should announce his intention to make his night assault the same night impulse that the Soviets are doing the same, initiative must be resolved. If a player, committed to assault at night loses the night initiative, he is relieved of his commitment to assault that night, although he may do so if he so desires. If he declines to assault, he may do so in a future night turn.

In any case, any player assaulting at night must use the Surprise Table. The results of rolling on this table, which is done for each hex assaulted, can be an increase or decrease in the morale and losses and firepower for one side or the other. Or there may be no effect at all.

Assault Resolution

To resolve an assault, each side determines the morale of their units involved in the assault. If all the units on a side involved in an assault are from the same parent formation (brigade or division, or independent unit), use the highest morale of any involved unit. If the units are from different formations, use the average morale, rounding down. Note that the morale of armored units can never have the effect of reducing the morale of a side in an assault. Similarly, the morale of weapons units in a defending stack cannot cause the morale of the defending stack to be lowered.

A variety of modifiers are now applied to the two sides, for relative strength, for armor and armor bonus, for terrain, for the effects of special units, for command, for suppression and disruption and possibly for surprise at night. See the Assault Modifiers Table for a full list. These modifiers cause the attacker's or defender's morale to be raised or lowered. The result will be for each side to come up with a final morale number. These numbers are then compared, and both players each roll one die, the player with the higher total adding the difference to his die result.

Assault Results

The die results are now compared, the player with the higher total is the winner of the assault. If the die result is a tie, each player takes a one strength point loss and the dice are rolled again until one side comes out ahead (note that the morale numbers may change due to the losses suffered). The result of the assault depends on the amount by which the winner beats the loser, and whether the attacker or defender wins the assault. If the winning margin is one, the loser must retreat one hex and if the winner is the attacker, his units may advance and occupy the defender's vacated hex. If the margin is two, the loser must retreat one hex and is suppressed. If the margin is three, the loser, if the attacker, must retreat one hex, if the defender, must retreat two hexes, in either case the unit is disrupted, and loses one strength point. If the margin is four or more, the attacker would retreat one hex, lose one strength point (or if the margin is more than four, one additional step loss for each number more than four), and be disrupted. If the defender loses by four or more, the unit is disrupted and takes losses as described for the attacker, and must retreat two hexes. In addition, if the attacker wishes to pursue, the defender may be forced to retreat up to two additional hexes.

Retreat After Combat

A unit may never advance or retreat through hexes or across hexsides through which it could not move during movement nor may units move through enemy units. If they retreat through the ZOCs of enemy units that are not marked with assault markers (and were not at any time during that impulse) they are subject to ZOC fire. If a unit is forced to retreat in such a way as would violate the stacking rules, the unit must continue to retreat until it reaches a hex where it may legally stack. If it has no such place to go, it may overstack; see the stacking rules. Units that are unable to retreat at all suffer one strength point loss for each hex they are not able to retreat.

Units are retreated by the owning player, except in the case of units retreating after being beaten by four or more in an assault. In this case the third and fourth hex they retreat into are determined by the opposing player, who must be pursuing the retreating unit with at least one unit of his own.

Advance After Combat

A successful assaulting unit or stack may occupy the hex it assaulted, and if the defender is required to retreat two hexes, the assaulting unit may advance two hexes. After entering the defender's original hex, the advancing units may advance in any direction they choose, just as long as at least one unit advances along the defender's path of retreat. In addition to the assaulting unit or units, any friendly unit or stack of units adjacent to the assaulting unit that are not themselves assaulting nor in an enemy ZOC may advance after the assaulting unit as if they were attached to them, remaining adjacent and advancing no further.

Suppression and Disruption

Units may become Suppressed or Disrupted as a result of fire or assault combat. Suppression suggests some loss of effectiveness and disorganization, Disruption a more serious loss of organization and control.

Suppressed units have their morale reduced by one, their fire, whether regular or AT, is halved, rounding down but not to less than one, artillery units cannot fire at all, and such units cannot assault. Their movement is reduced by two MP. If a suppressed unit receives another suppressed result, it is disrupted.

Disrupted units have their morale reduced by two, may only fire defensive fire with a strength of one, have no ZOC, may not observe targets for other units to fire on, may not perform any construction tasks, lose half their available MP, and may not enter enemy ZOCs or assault.

During the Recovery phase, units that are not in enemy ZOCs may recover from Suppression and Disruption. Both players first remove all suppressed markers, and then flip all disrupted markers to their suppressed side. Units in enemy ZOCs may not recover.

13 Supply

Supply represents ammunition for all weapons, food, fuel, casualty evacuation, etc. During the supply determination phase at the end of the night turn section, both players check their units to determine if they are in supply. This is done by tracing a supply line from the unit to the supply source. The line may be of any length, but may not pass through enemy units, ZOCs, or terrain through which the unit could not pass. A supply source is any road (or railroad for the Soviets only) that is connected by a continuous line of road (or railroad) hexes to a friendly map edge. The western map edge is friendly for the Germans. For the Soviets the eastern, as well as the northern map edge east of the Moskva River is friendly.

A friendly headquarters can also serve as a supply source, providing supply for any number of units, but once it has been so used it is marked Out of Supply and cannot be used as a supply source again until it has been resupplied.

When checking supply, all units unable to trace a supply line are marked with a Cut Off marker. Units so marked function normally, except that any time they fire, their marker is flipped over to read Out of Supply. A unit that is out of supply cannot fire offensive fire, or ZOC fire, and has its defensive fire halved. Out of supply and cut off markers are removed in any supply phase in which the unit can trace a valid supply line.

14 Air

Ah, history. So many clever gamers know perfectly well that the Soviet Air Force was smashed in June of 1941, and although able to put some planes in the air in 1942 and more in 1943, was not able to really do anything of significance until 1944, and then only because the Anglo-American bombing effort had taken away all the German fighter protection...sigh. How then to explain the references from Guderian and many others in their memoirs of heavy Soviet air strikes in 1941??!! Sure enough, here in front of Moscow, we read again of heavy Soviet air raids, ammunition trucks of Das Reich going up in flames, etc. etc.. To be sure, the Red Air Force was slim enough, but still punchy. The Luftwaffe, although at the end of a precarious supply line, was also out during the battle in force, one staffel of Stukas diving through cloud and snow flurries to finally break the back of Soviet resistance at Artemki.

Rather than go into a sub game on the air, with fighter duels and other fun stuff a la Black Sea * Black Death, in this game the only thing that matters is the ordinance from the air striking the ground.

At the beginning of each day turn section, each player secretly rolls one die and records the result. The German player, having a lot more planes available, adds five to his roll. That is the amount of shifts that are available to apply independently as regular fire during that turn section. So if the German rolls a 5 at the beginning of the AM turn section, and then wins and keeps the initiative, he will have 10 shifts that he can use to attack Soviet units during the AM initial and limited impulses. He could use all 10 on one target or 1 on each of 10 targets, all in the initial impulse, or all in the limited impulse, or distributed between them in any way he chose. Air strikes cannot be accumulated or saved from one turn section to use in another; if not used in the turn section they were received in they cannot be used at all.

Note that since you get your air strikes by the turn section (AM and PM) it is possible that the second player may not get an impulse in the AM turn section, or the initial player in the PM turn section. If this is the case, the second player gets his AM air strikes right after the initiative challenge, and the initial player gets his PM strikes just after the recovery phase of the PM turn section.

During a lull turn, there are no air strikes possible (the planes are busy elsewhere). If an 8 or 9 is rolled for the weather determination, Soviet available air shifts are reduced by three per turn section, the German by five per turn section. During night turn sections there are no air strikes available.

The German may use up to 1/3 of his available airstrikes in combination with regular fire of artillery and other units (Stukas). All other air strikes must be used independently.

Air Strike Procedure

In order to conduct an air strike against a target, it is necessary to observe the target. Thus an air strike may be conducted against any unit in clear terrain, or against any village or town or against any unit in woods, marsh, or fortified hex that has been observed on a previous turn (day) by friendly units. Otherwise targets in covered hexes may not be attacked by air. If a unit is in column on a road, it is observable from the air, even if that road goes through a woods.

At the appropriate point in the impulse, the attacking player designates his target(s) and says how many shifts of air will be applied to it. "I am going to attack that hex with 4 shifts of air, so the attack will be on the 5 column." Appropriate adjustments for terrain, unit size, etc. are then calculated.

Antiaircraft Fire

For purposes of antiaircraft fire, halve the range of AA units. For each antiaircraft unit within range of the target, the two players each roll one die, if the player making the air strike rolls higher, there is no effect, if the player being attacked rolls higher, reduce the air strike by one shift.

Antiaircraft units may only fire on one target per impulse, and if they do so, may not fire at ground targets.

After this, the air attacks are conducted normally, just like regular fire. The results are implemented immediately. This continues until the attacker has no more air strikes to conduct. If an air strike is called in on a dummy in clear terrain, the dummy is removed from the board and the air strike can attack any other target within 6 hexes. If the second target is also a dummy in the clear, it is also removed and the air strike is finished. If an air strike is made on a dummy in a woods, village or fortified town hex or is in a stack that is in a position spotted a previous turn (the player performing the air strike is not entitled to know what it is) and if the attack die result calls for losses on the dummy, it is OK to pretend to mark something on the roster sheet to maintain the deception.

Air strikes against armored targets are shifted once to the left for light armored units (open armored dot), and twice to the left for other armored units.

15 Construction and Demolition

Units in the game can build two kinds of field works, Fox Holes and Trenches. Engineer units can destroy bridges and fortifications.

Field Works. Any personnel type unit can build fox holes and trenches. Fox holes represent what people can find or dig for their own protection given half a day and rudimentary tools. Trenches represent more complete works, connected and coordinated better, still built with hand tools, but lacking much overhead protection, although rudimentary earth and timber bunkers are assumed, as are small mine fields.

Fox holes take 8 MP to build and provide a -1 shift when units occupying them receive fire.

Trenches take two impulses to build, unless there is a fox hole marker already in the hex, in which case they may be built in 12 MP. Trenches provide a -2 shift when receiving fire, add one to the defender's morale when assaulted, provide for an AT ZOC fire of 2 into all hexes into which a ZOC is exerted from them, and provide a +1 shift for all fire from trench positions.

If units abandon a fox hole position, remove it from the map, not because it would automatically fill in, but to keep the board from getting cluttered. Trenches can be taken by an enemy unit and used, just reorient the marker to show who owns it. Trench markers that have been left behind by the battle are probably better removed from the board. Unlike fortifications, trenches and fox holes are not directional. Units in fieldworks should be placed under the marker.

Only personnel type units can occupy fox holes. Weapons units and personnel units can occupy trenches. Armored units get no benefit at all from fieldworks.

Fieldworks are cumulative with terrain shifts, thus a unit on a wooded hill in a trench would have fire against them shifted four columns to the left: once for the woods, once for the hill, and twice for the trench.

Fieldworks can be built in fortified hexes, but units may only occupy one of them; the fieldworks or the fortifications. There may only be one type of fieldworks in one hex at one time. Fieldworks may not be built in marsh hexes.

Bridges. Engineer units can repair and build bridges. If a bridge has been destroyed by demolition, an engineer unit can repair a bridge by remaining stationary for one full day (AM, PM, and Night turn sections) adjacent to one end of the bridge and remaining undisrupted and unsuppressed for the whole time. At the end of the player's night impulse the bridge demolition marker is removed.

An engineer unit can build a new bridge over any stream by remaining adjacent to the stream for a full turn, not in an enemy ZOC, neither suppressed nor disrupted. At the end of the night movement, place the bridge marker. Each side has a limited number of these bridge markers. Do not make more but you may recycle bridges behind your lines that you don't expect to need again.

The Moskva River can be crossed by personnel or weapons units if there is an engineer unit adjacent to the river that remains stationary an entire impulse. If the crossing is opposed, use the appropriate modifier from the Combat Effects Chart. The Moskva can be bridged by a German engineer unit that spends its entire turn adjacent to the river, neither disrupted or suppressed, not in an enemy ZOC, and stacked with their division's pontoon bridge counter, with no enemy units on the opposite bank.

If an engineer unit is not able to maintain the conditions needed for construction, either by being suppressed, disrupted, or having an enemy unit move so as to put the engineer in its ZOC, or having an enemy unit move into the hex on the opposite side of the obstacle, the construction effort is negated for the day and must be recommenced the next day. In the case of an attempt to bridge the Moskva, the pontoons are considered lost if an enemy unit moves so as to be adjacent to the hex the engineer is in, even if the enemy is on the opposite side of the river. A newly repaired or built bridge may not be crossed in the same turn in which it is built or repaired.

Demolition. Engineers can destroy bridges by expending four MP at one end of the bridge. The engineer unit doing this cannot be suppressed or disrupted. The bridge is then marked with a demolition marker. An engineer unit occupying a fortified hex can destroy the fortifications by remaining in the hex for four MP undisturbed. Mark the hex with a demolition marker.

16 Reinforcements and Replacements

Reinforcements. There are two ways for units to enter the map as reinforcements. The order of appearance may call for them to enter at a particular map edge hex. In this case they are assumed to be in road column and may enter the map on that road. Since the units are assumed to be lined up behind each other, the first unit pays the normal cost to enter the map's first hex, the second unit pays double for that first hex only, the third unit triple, the fourth quadruple, etc. If the entry hex is blocked by enemy units or their ZOCs, the unit may enter the next available impulse, by the nearest road on the map edge to the one they were scheduled to enter on. Don't get silly with this.

Reinforcements are listed in the turn record track. They enter in the indicated turn section in the appropriate place during friendly movement in that turn section. If, due to the initiative process, it is not possible to move during a particular impulse, the units enter in the next available friendly impulse. All German reinforcements arrive on the Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw highway or on a road or railroad within 6 hexes of it on the western board edge.

Soviet units only can enter the game on the highway or railroad. Although several other railroad stations (stanitsa) appear on the map, the only one that seems to have been used, probably due to more extensive facilities for unloading heavy equipment, was Mozhaisk station. All Soviet units of the 32nd Rifle Division arrive at Mozhaisk station. It requires one MP for them to detrain, after which they move normally. For the first hex on a road adjacent to the station, the first unit pays normal cost, the second double, etc.

Units are always assumed to be in supply and command when they enter the map.

Replacements. At the end of the last German impulse of a turn, the German player rolls one die. If the result is 6 or higher, he receives two armor replacement points, if the result if 5 or less he receives one armor replacement point. These points can be added to any German armored unit that meets the following criteria: it must be neither suppressed nor disrupted, nor in an enemy ZOC, nor cut off or out of supply. It also must have taken losses. The replacement points can be used to restore losses in order to bring the unit up to, but not above, its original strength. If no units qualify for these replacements, they may be accumulated from turn to turn, keep track on scratch paper. Destroyed units cannot be brought back onto the map with replacements. The Soviet player receives no replacements.

17 Command

At the beginning of a player's impulse, he must check his units to be sure that they are in command before he attempts to move them. When resolving assault, both players must determine if their units are in command.

To be in command, a unit must be within 8 hexes of a friendly HQ unit. While any HQ will do, as there was a certain amount of shifting of forces around, I strongly urge the players to operate their regiments and brigades together. It will make the job of remembering what you are doing with inverted counters much easier, and will help you in organizing your play.

If an HQ unit is disrupted, it may not place other units in command. If an HQ unit is destroyed, all units subordinate to it are immediately suppressed.

Units out of command suffer the following penalties:

movement allowance is halved.
may not observe for friendly artillery.
in assault combat the average morale of a stack becomes that of the unit in the stack with the lowest morale.
having successfully assaulted can only advance one hex.

Units stacked with a friendly HQ may be considered to have the same morale as the HQ if so desired.

Reconnaissance units, motorcycle units, and armored car units are never considered to be out of command.

18 Special Units

Flamethrowers. The Soviet player has three companies of flamethrowers. These units may not fire offensive or defensive fire. Their only participation in combat is through assault, whether offensively or defensively. Any assault combat that the flamethrower unit participates in causes the Soviet side in that assault to receive a +2 to their morale. If the Soviet side is required to take losses in the combat, the first unit to take the losses must be the flamethrower unit. Flamethrower units subject to defensive fire never receive the benefit for being less than 5 strength points.

Armored Engineer Platoon. The German 90th Engineer Battalion of 10th Panzer Division contained a platoon of half-track mounted rocket launchers. These weapons were used for direct fire, with a strength of 4 and a range of 1. Any unit attacked by this unit must undergo an automatic morale check, even if the result is a miss. If a morale check is already indicated, take it with a -1 modifier to the unit's morale. The platoon may not fire AT or ZOC fire.

Amphibious Tanks. The T-38 light tank of the 12th Recon Bn of 32nd Rifle Division is an amphibious unit. It may freely cross streams and rivers paying 1 additional movement point to do so. If the T-38 company assaults across a water obstacle, AT fire directed at it has a -1 modifier applied to it, because the tanks are harder to hit being half submerged in the water.

Cavalry. There are only 4 of these units in the game, and when fighting they are considered to be dismounted. No saber charges here. When moving they are considered to be mounted. Contrary to what one might think from the movies, most people on horseback do not get around at the gallop. It tends to make the horses tired. Instead they usually walked, and occasionally went faster. Unfortunately (for game designers), horses walk faster than people. Cavalry units receive 3 additional movement points per Initial impulse, and 2 additional movement points per limited impulse.

T-28 Static Tank Company. One company of 16 T-28 multi-turreted, pre-war medium tanks was present at the battlefield. Several crew members were decorated for knocking out a number of enemy tanks. The unique feature about of this company is that all of the tanks lacked engines! The vehicles were railed to the Mozhaisk Defense line and then dragged into emplacements by tractors. The unit is set up by the Soviet player with his initial force and may be set up inverted. They may not move once set up and may not assault, but when assaulted they do receive the tank benefit. They receive one solid armor dot when fired on from the front and one hollow armor dot when fired upon from any other direction.

19 Scenarios

There are two scenarios for Borodino, 1941, the introductory scenario that covers the retreat of the 18th and 19th Tank Brigades to the main defensive line and that runs from October 11 through October 12, and serves as an introduction to the rules, and full battle that starts on October 11 and runs through October 19.

Introductory Scenario. To play the introductory scenario, simply run the game and end it after the night turn section of October 12. Victory in this scenario is determined by whether or not the Germans have penetrated the Soviet defensive lines before the arrival of the bulk of the 32nd Rifle Division. The German player wins a decisive victory if he can take Yudinki, Yelnya, and Shevardino. If he can take Artemki, make that a very decisive victory. If the German takes Yelnya plus Shevardino or Yudinki make it a major victory. If the German player takes Shevardino and Yudinki but not Yelnya, call it a marginal victory. Taking only one counts as a draw, taking none is a Soviet victory. For each German tank unit destroyed, reduce the German victory level by one.

To start the scenario, the Soviet player sets up his initial forces on the map, no further west than Kolotchy Station. After this, the Soviet player receives his first turn forces that enter from the west edge of the map. They move an initial impulse. This represents the retreat of the tank brigades and accompanying forces the previous night. The turn then begins, with the German player automatically having the initiative on the October 11 AM impulse. From then on the play proceeds normally, with initiative being determined by the initiative process.

The Battle of Borodino, 1941. The main scenario starts just like the introductory scenario, and runs from October 11 through the night of October 19. The German objective historically was to clear the resistance on the Moscow Highway and proceed to Dorochova, off map to the east, only 70 km from Moscow. To win the game the German player must clear the highway of all Soviet units and zones of control from west map edge to east map edge. He must also take Mozhaisk. In addition to doing all of this, he must have some forces left on their feet to exit the map. The sooner he clears the road and the more forces he has left after doing so, the greater his victory. What, you want a bunch of numbers to add up to prove what a big winner you are? Do like the real generals did, minimize your own losses, inflate your opponent's and claim a victory!

Historically the battle had to be characterized as a Soviet victory. By October 19th Mozhaisk was in German hands, the Highway had been cleared as far as the map edge, and the 32nd Rifle Division and other forces of the 5th Army had taken about 60% losses. However, XL Panzer Korps had taken losses in proportion, especially in the SS Das Reich Division, which dissolved the 11th Motz Rgt after the battle to try to strengthen the tattered remnants of its other two regiments. 10th Panzer had been cut in half. Even more vital, the highway had remained barred to the panzer's advance for a vital week, time to bring up fresh forces and to build new fortifications. The road to Moscow would remain closed to the Germans, and although they were able to push the 5th Army back an additional twenty three kilometers and take Dorochova, they would get no closer to Moscow than that by this route, the best and most direct road to the Kremlin.

If the Germans can clear the road and take Mozhaisk before October 19, each day earlier adds to the dimension of their victory. If their casualties are less than 50% they are also doing well. If they take their objectives with more than 50% losses on October 19, the outcome is a draw, if they get it sooner or with less losses it is a bigger win. If they get it on October 19th but have more than 50% losses call it a draw. If losses are heavier, or the Germans do not get their objectives by the end of the game, it is a Soviet victory, the magnitude growing with the German losses. If the Soviets can hold on to Artemki and their main fortified positions, it is a decisive victory.

So what does 50% losses mean? Count infantry, engineers, tanks, recon forces and AT. Artillery shouldn't be figured in. Exact numbers are really not that important, a few strength points one way or the other would not matter much in the real historical context. They shouldn't matter so much to you in the game either.

German Order of Appearance

October 11: 7 Pz Rgt, 10 Mcycl Bn, 3./55 Flak, 2/I/26 Flak, 3/II/26 Flak, 1/90 Arty, I/I/67 Arty, Pz Bde HQ Hauenschild, SS Deutschland Rgt, SS Der Fuhrer Rgt, SS AT Bn, SS Flak Bn, SS Recon Bn, I/SS Arty, II/SS Arty.
October 12: 10 Pz Div HQ, I/Motz Rgt 86, III/Motz Rgt 86, 90 Recon Bn, 49 Eng Bn, I/I/90 Arty, SS Das Reich Div HQ, SS StG Co.
October 13: Motz Inf Bde HQ von Bulow, 69 Motz Inf Rgt, 11/86 Motz Inf, SIG 706, II/I/90 Arty, 1/II/26 Flak, 93 Lt Flak Bn, 618 Arty Rgt HQ (Arko 128), III/SS Arty, IV/SS Arty.
October 14: SS Mcycl Bn, SS Eng Bn, 7 Flak Rgt (-).
October 15: SS 11 Motz Rgt, 11/72 Arty.
October 16: 54 Nebel Rgt (-), 637 Arty Bn.

Errata (German Order of Appearance): On the German Order of Appearance the I/1/67 should be the II/67, the III/86 should be the 86/10 HQ, the I/1/90 is the II/90, and the 1/I/90 is the III/90. The 86/10 HQ should appear on Oct 12, II/61 should appear on Oct 11, DR/SS artillery HQ on Oct 12, 90/10 Pz artillery HQ on Oct 13, III/90 artillery on Oct 13, 2 and 3 of the 90 AT battalion on Oct 12, 1/90 AT on Oct 13.

Note on transcription: the scanned order of appearance renders some Roman numeral unit designations in garbled Cyrillic characters; they are transcribed here as the Roman numerals they stand for, and the errata above fixes the unit designations.

Soviet Order of Appearance

Set up to start on or east of the fortified line / Kolotchy Station: 36 Mcycl Rgt, 230 Reserve Rgt, 121 AT Rgt, 367 AT Rgt, 421 AT Rgt, 59 AA Rgt, 767 AA Rgt, Lenin Cadet Bn, 305 MG Bn, Mozhaisk Bn, 467 Eng Bn, Rkt Bn a-e, Special Cav Sqdns S1-S3, Flame Cos F1-F3, Ind T-26 Co, Static T-28 Co, 5th Army HQ.

October 11: Enter West map edge on Highway: 18 Tank Bde, 509 AT Rgt; enter west map edge road north of Highway: 19 Tank Bde, Kalinin detachments 1 and 2. All other forces enter eastern map edge or by railroad: 17 Rifle Rgt, 113 Rifle Rgt, 133 Field Arty Rgt, 65 AT Bn all by railroad.
October 12: By railroad: 32 Rifle Div HQ, 408 AT Rgt, 32 AA Bn, 32 Eng Bn; by Highway: 20 Tank Bde.
October 13: By railroad: 322 Rifle Rgt, 154 How Rgt, 316 AT Rgt, 12 Recon Bn.
October 15: By railroad: 572 Gun Rgt.
October 17: By highway: 22 Tank Bde.

Errata (Soviet Order of Appearance): The Soviet Order of Appearance does not list the flame thrower co. of the 32nd. It should arrive with the Div HQ on Oct. 12th.

20 Notes

Historical Commentary

At the beginning of October, 1941, the German armies of invasion were poised for the final blow against the USSR. Having first surprised and defeated the armies defending the frontier, they had clashed with the Red Army's second echelon and been fought to a standstill east of Smolensk in July. Turning south, they had encircled and crushed the Soviet armies in the Ukraine, and to the north had pushed to the gates of Leningrad. Now, although late in the year, they were ready to resume their drive on Moscow. They conceived this as the endgame, that the end of the war was in sight. True, they had underestimated both the size and the strength of the Red Army, and had taken serious losses getting this far. But they had inflicted severe losses on their enemy and were confident that they would prevail.

At the beginning of October they jumped off with three panzer groups and three armies. Within ten days they had encircled or smashed up the Soviet armies in front of Moscow at Vyazma and Bryansk. It was days before the Soviet high command was even aware of their danger, by then it was seemingly too late. Practically nothing stood between the Germans and Moscow. True, some of the Soviet forces fought their way out of the bag, but most of their heavy equipment was lost. Forces were urgently summoned from the far east, but they had a long way to go, from the Pacific coast by train!

In these crucial days, in mid-October, the fate of the Soviet Union, indeed the fate of the world, rested on the shoulders of a handful of rifle divisions, plus a few tank brigades and military school cadets who could be mustered to hold the Germans until reinforcements could be brought up. The 316th Division of General Panfilov stood at Volokolamsk. To the south the Podolsk officers school cadets, with the 17th Tank Brigade stood at Uinskoye. Both groups set a standard for courage that still bears examining. They fought and bled, but the Germans were slowed.

In the center lay the road. The Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw Highway, the best paved road in the USSR. The road that led directly to Moscow. Two Soviet tank brigades were sent to secure it on October 9th. They had less than 100 tanks, half of them obsolescent BT models, the rest the formidable T-34. On the 9th they ambushed the vanguard of the SS Das Reich Division rolling up the highway. For three days, assisted by the 509th AT Rgt and troops of General Kalinin who had broken out of encirclement, they held back the Wehrmacht, falling back slowly but contesting the road the whole way. As the Germans released more and more troops from the encirclement lines around Vyazma, the pressure built. The tanks of 10th Panzer Division joined the SS on the 10th of October. By the 12th, the 18th Tank Brigade ran out of luck. The second battalion of the 10th Panzer's Seventh Panzer Regiment claimed knocking out 41 Soviet tanks in a woods next to the highway. Were they caught refueling.? Surprised from the flank? It is not clear. At any rate the Soviets could claim only 10 German tanks destroyed on that date, including those hit by 19th Tank Brigade.

At any event, morning of the 13th found the SS probing forward, confident that the breakthrough had been achieved. XL Panzer Korps of 4th Panzer Group, controlling the two divisions, gave orders to proceed to Dorochova, 23 km to the east of Mozhaisk. By 12:40 SS Regiment Deutschland was fighting to take fortified positions near Kolotchy Station, while Der Fuhrer Regiment pushed up the highway to Yelnya.

Here they met the 17th Rifle Regiment of 32nd Rifle Division. The 32nd was a pre-war division, veterans of fighting against the Japanese, and built on the lavish pre-war TO&E, with very large rifle regiments, two artillery regiments, tanks in the reconnaissance battalion, etc. Sped across Siberia by train, they had arrived in the nick of time. To hold the Moscow highway, Stavka had committed its best unit. For support it sent two more tank brigades, and half of its ten newly formed antitank regiments. True, these "regiments" had only 16 guns apiece, but they were armed with 76.2 mm guns. Behind them more troops were being brought up, but for the next week it was up to Colonel Polosukhin's boys to hold. Otherwise the panzers would be in Red Square in a few hours of driving.

Four German attacks were beaten off, and four more launched against the cadets of the "Military-Political Courses named after V.I. Lenin" (commissar cadets) holding south of the highway similarly failed. To the north, a probe by reconnaissance elements against Aksanovo were driven back by remnants of 19th Tank Brigade and 113th Rifle Regiment. Rogachevo fell, but the front had held.

On the 14th however, more German forces had come up and after heavy air strikes, the combined forces of the SS and part of 10th Panzer smashed through Yelnya, pushed the cadets out of Yudinki, and drove into Utizy and Artemki by 11:00. The 17th Rifle regiment had taken serious losses and was partly surrounded. This looked like the breakthrough the Germans sought. The headquarters of 32nd Rifle Division at Shevardino, on the old Borodino battlefield of 1812, were on the front lines.

In the nick of time reinforcements appeared. The 12th Reconnaissance Battalion of the division, with its armored car and tank companies, rolled up the highway to counterattack. They were supported by the III Battalion of the 154th Howitzer Regiment, just off the train from Vladivostok. They threw the SS back and retook Artemki. Commanding this ad hoc group was Lt. Colonel P.I. Vorobiev. Vorobiev's group was to include engineers, antiaircraft units, the survivors of 17th Rifle Regiment, and eventually a tank brigade. Their stand at Artemki was decisive in the battle, the town changing hands nine times in six days. Vorobiev was probably the operations officer of the division staff.

As Vorobiev's group struck from the front, north of the rail line, the II and III battalions of the 322nd Rifle Regiment stormed Utizy, and during the night drove the Germans out of Rogachevo, after which the Red Army pulled back to Shevardino. A day that had started out disastrously had been retrieved, and the Germans driven back near their starting positions, although they retained Yelnya. That night snow fell, lightly covering the dead, the smashed tanks and the smoldering houses.

By the 15th the light had dawned on the German planners that a pleasant motor cruise to Dorochova was not in the offing. Instead the SS division was to clear Artemki and push to the cross roads south of Mozhaisk straight up the highway, while the panzers were to push through the SS and slant to the left, through Utizy, to attack Psarevo and come at Mozhaisk from the Tatarino road. The morning got off to a bad start for the Germans as Obergruppenfuhrer Paul Hauser, commander of the SS Das Reich division, was critically wounded by a mortar fragment in Yelnya. Oberfuhrer Bittrich from SS Deutschland replaced him while Standartenfuhrer Wagner, commander of 11th SS Regiment, took over for Bittrich. The luck wasn't all one sided, however, as the commander of the Soviet 5th Army, General Lelyushenko, was also wounded and replaced by General Govorov.

The SS drove into Artemki, were kicked back out again, retook it and again lost it. Meanwhile they were still repelling Soviet attacks in the vicinity of Rogachevo and Kolotchy Station. It was 4:00 in the afternoon before the last Soviet attacks were driven off. The panzers then succeeded in pushing the 322nd Rifle Regiment back to Semenovskoye, where, supported by the direct fire of the 133rd Field Artillery, the Soviet infantry held. Two AT regiments, rocket barrages, and a flamethrower company were thrown in to save the Army observation point north of Artemki. This is where Lelyushenko was wounded.

On the 16th Gruppe von Hauenschild of 10th Panzer, consisting of the 7th Panzer Regiment and the 86th Motz Inf Rgt with support from two howitzer battalions, was to attack at 0700 through Borodino Station to Psarevo, and then to Tatarino and Mozhaisk. Gruppe von Bulow, with 69th Motz Inf Rgt, 10th Mcycl Bn, some AT and Flak and supported by one howitzer battalion, was to attack from Yelnya to Doronino-Semenovskoye and thence to Tatarino. On the highway the II battalion of SS Der Fuhrer was to simulate a frontal attack straight up the road at 0600 to draw the enemy's attention, while the rest of Der Fuhrer would attack at 0800 through Yudinki to turn Vorobiev's lines from the south. SS Deutschland was to attack north at 0800, driving across the railroad and rolling up the fortified line, its left flank resting on Fomkino, its right east of Shevardino. One company was to be left at Rogachevo to mop up Soviet remnants still causing trouble there.

By 1100 hours, however, the plan was breaking down. Von Bulow and SS Deutschland were pinned down by heavy fire and taking serious losses with no useful results. Der Fuhrer crashed into Artemki again, but were driven out by Vorobiev's detachment, supported by 20th Tank Brigade. The last reserves of 32nd Rifle Division, first battalion of the 322nd Rifle Regiment, pushed the enemy back across the railroad line, but then was pushed back itself. A night attack by von Bulow's gruppe took Shevardino, but couldn't hold it against a furious counter assault by the remnants of the 322nd Regiment. Both sides were near the end of their endurance. The next day would decide the battle.

The Germans regrouped for the last push, transferring the panzer regiment and 1/69 to von Bulow, while 11/69 was to mop up Semenovskoye. Von Bulow successfully attacked, and drove to Tatarino. The 10th Mcycl Bn held the flank at Utizy and the 90th Recon Bn held Kolozkoye. Soviet counterattacks from Mozhaisk toward Tatarino were beaten off.

Meanwhile the SS put most of their weight on their left, reinforcing SS Deutschland with two battalions of Der Fuhrer. On the right, II/DF, supported by the motorcycle battalion, were to attack through Fomino to Sivkovo. The main body would attack from the woods S. of Utizy SE through Aitemki. The attack would jump off at 10:00 hours.

Von Bulow took Shevardino at 10:00, but the SS attack couldn't get on track until 12:10. At 15:25 a roar was heard and diving down through the clouds came a stream of IL-2 Stormoviks, bombing and machine gunning the supply columns of the SS. Much of the division's ammunition supply column went up in flames.

By 17:00 III/DF pushed, unspotted, to within 400 meters of Artemki. At this point nine Stukas dropped from the heavy clouds, hitting Artemki with pinpoint accuracy. Racing in before the smoke cleared, III/DF found themselves the masters of Artemki, the ground littered with Soviet dead. Two hundred prisoners were taken. Vorobiev's depleted detachment withdrew up the highway, still denying it to the Germans. There would be no counterattack. Wet snow started falling from the skies, carpeting the battlefield.

On Saturday the 18th, the Germans, although exhausted, continued their attacks. The 10th Panzer was thrown at Novo Derevnya, a heavily fortified and mined strongpoint. A Soviet counterattack with the remnants of 113th and 322nd Regiments threw them back briefly, but the Germans persevered and broke through to Kukarino, breaking the 32nd Rifle Division in two. The panzer division's artillery moved up to Tatarino to support the attack against Mozhaisk scheduled for 11:30. Gruppe von Bulow was to take the north of Mozhaisk, von Hauenschild, with the panzer regiment reattached, was to take the south edge of Mozhaisk and link up with the SS to the south. Antiaircraft and antitank forces would hold Tatarino.

Against light resistance, the SS moved up the highway to the crossroads, overrunning a battery of heavy antiaircraft guns attempting to get away. By 14:00 they were in Sobolki and by 19:00 they were past Novo Surino. By 20:05, the SS Deutschland Regiment had settled in for the night, sending a report to division detailing its heavy losses and reporting disease and exhaustion and the need to dig in and rest. The regiment was averaging 70 men per company, and had barely 600 effectives left in total. To the south (off the game map), the German 7th Infantry Division was approaching the battle.

General Govorov, regarding the situation, gave Colonel Polosukhin orders to withdraw the main forces of 32nd Rifle Division, 113th and 322nd Rifle Regiments, and remnants of 18th, 19th, and 20th Tank Brigades, across the Moskva river. The 113th Rifle Regiment provided the rear guard. To the south, Vorobiev with 17th Rifle Regiment survivors, the recon battalion, the remaining howitzers and flak, the Lenin Cadets and the 22nd Tank Brigade with the 36th Motorcycle Regiment screening off to the south, fell back behind the Mzhum River. Mozhaisk fell on the 18th to the 10th Panzer Division, and by the end of night, Polosukhin had his forces on a line from Teterino to Glasovo, ready to resist any attempt to cross the river.

From October 12th through 18th, the Soviets claim they inflicted losses of 117 tanks, 12 armored cars and half-tracks, 226 trucks, 124 motorcycles, 40 guns and mortars, 10,000 dead soldiers and officers, and 4 aircraft downed. These figures seem reasonable, in light of the German reports that 7th Panzer regiment was down to 22 Pzkpfw IIs, 35 Pzkfw IIIs, and 12 Pzkpfw IVs at the end of the battle. The SS had about 600 men left in SS Deutschland and 400 in SS Der Fuhrer with only 5 officers and 27 NCOs left on their feet. The SS Deutschland claimed...well, its not clear what they claimed. In their daily reports from Oct 10 through Oct 17 they give one set of numbers, while at the end of the battle (probably covering a slightly longer period) they claim another set. The daily numbers I will give in parentheses. 7 (5) guns including 2 (1) 152mm howitzers, 3 (4) infantry guns, 12 (10) 85mm AA guns, 6 (10) AT guns, 46 (38) HMGs, 55 (24) LMGs, 24 SMGs, 14 (8) 82mm mortars, 2 concrete artillery positions, 3 earth and timber AA positions, 2 concrete AT pill boxes, 46 MG and rifle positions of concrete and timber, 4 AT ditches, 5 ammo trucks, 9 trucks, 3 heavy tractors, 35 light tractors, and 900 (776) POWs. I tend to believe the after action (unparenthesized) figures, as the others were probably less carefully determined. Of interest is the lack of figures in the final report for tanks, although the daily figures, doubtless including some (most) KOed by 7th Panzer Regiment, come to 58, including 41 on October 12th. Claims by the SS Das Reich Division as a whole, or of 10th Panzer are unavailable, but by multiplying these figures by four you will be near the mark.

The basic picture is clear then; both sides took a terrible pounding. The Soviets gained invaluable time, and knocked the stuffing out of a panzer korps. The Germans took Mozhaisk and tore apart one of the Red Army's best divisions, along with three tank brigades and some supporting units. On the balance, though, the battle can only be regarded as a Soviet victory, as other fresh divisions were en route to block the Moscow Highway. The Germans would be hard pressed to find replacements for the dead they left scattered around Borodino, and in this instance more importantly, the equipment. The crucial week, when Moscow stood almost defenseless, was gone. Soon it would be winter, and Germany was a long way away.

Order of Battle, Borodino '41

Soviet

Headquarters, 5th Army (General Lelyushenko, then General Govorov)
32nd Rifle Division (31 units) (Col. Polosukhin)
- Div HQ (Div HQ, 1 flamethrower co, 2 37mm AA bty)
- 17th, 113th, 322nd Rifle Rgts (3 rifle bn, 1 rgt HQ each)
- 133rd Lt Arty Rgt (3 arty bn, 1 rgt HQ)
- 154 How Rgt (3 howitzer bn, 1 rgt HQ)
- 65th AT Bn (3 45mm bty)
- 12th Recon Bn (1 armored car co, 1 lt tk co, 1 cavsqdn)
- 32nd Engineer Bn
- 230th Reserve Rifle Rgt (3 rifle bn, 1 rgt HQ)
- 36th Motorcycle Rgt (1 motz rifle bn, 1 armored car co, 1 mcycl bn)
- 18th Tank Bde (1 armored car HQ, 2 BT-7 co, 1 T-34 co, 1 motz rifle bn)
- 19th Tank Bde (1 armored car HQ, 1 BT-7 co, 1 T-34 co, 1 KV-1 co, 1 motz rifle bn)
- 20th Tank Bde (1 armored car HQ, 2 BT-7 co, 2 T-34 co, 1 motz rifle bn)
- 22nd Tank Bde (1 armored car HQ, 2 T-26 co, 2 T-34 co, 1 motz rifle bn)
- 121st, 316th, 367th, 408th, 421st AT Rgts (2 76.2mm btys each) [These are actually 8 gun double batteries]
- 59th, 767th AA Rgts (4 76mm btys each)
- 572nd Gun Rgt (3 gun btys, 1 rgt HQ)
- 509th AT Rgt (2 85mm motz btys)
- 465th Engineer Bn (printed; the errata corrects this to the 467th Engineer Bn)
- II/Lenin Cadet Bn
- Mozhaisk Destroyer Bn
- 305th Machine Gun Bn

German XL Panzer Korps (General Stumme)

10th Panzer Division (33 units as printed; the errata corrects this to 35 units)
- Division HQ (Division HQ, von Bulow Inf Bde HQ, von Hauenschild Pz Bde HQ)
- 69th Motz Inf Rgt (1 motz inf bn, 1 motz inf bn(-), 1 pz co, 1 rgt HQ)
- 86th Motz Inf Rgt (2 motz inf bn, 1 rgt HQ)
- 7th Pz Rgt (rgt HQ, Pzkfw II co, 2 bn; each bn HQ, Pzkfw II co, 3 Pzkfw III co, 1 Pzkfw IV co)
- 90th Pz Arty Rgt (2 motz 105 bn, 1 motz 150 bn, 1 rgt HQ)
- 90th Pz Recon Bn (1 armored car co, 1 mcycl co reinforced)
- 49th Pz Engineer Bn (1 motz eng bn, 1 halftrack plt w/rockets, 1 pontoon bridge)
- 90th Pz AT Bn (3 motz btys)
- 10th Motorcycle Bn
- Hvy Inf Gun Co 706 (1 SIG co)

SS Motorized Division "Das Reich" (36 units) (General Hauser)

Division HQ (Division HQ, StG III co)
SS Deutschland, Der Fuhrer, 11th Motz Inf Rgts (each with 3 motz inf bn, motz eng co, mcycl co, rgt HQ)
SS DR Arty Rgt (3 motz 105 bn, 1 motz 150 bn, rgt HQ)
Recon Bn SS DR (1 armored car co, 2 mcycl co)
Mcycl Bn SS DR
AT Bn SS DR (3 AT bty)
Motz Eng Bn SS DR (1 motz eng bn, 1 pontoon bridge)
AA Bn SS DR (2 20mm AA bty)
Arko 128 (1 arty rgt HQ; 618th)
- II/AR 1, II/AR 72 (2 motz 105 bn) [printed "II/AR 1"; the errata corrects this to II/61, a motz 105mm bn]
- II/AR 67 (motz 150mm how bn)
- I/Nebel 54, II/Nebel 54 (2 hvy mortar bn)
- 637 Hvy Arty Bn (motz 210mm how bn)
- I/Flak 7 (3 88mm btys, 2 20mm btys)
- II/Flak 7 (2 88mm btys, 2 20mm btys)
- II/Flak 26 (2 88mm btys, 1 20mm bty)
- 93rd Lt Flak Bn (1 37mm bty, 2 20mm btys)
- 3/55 Lt Flak Bn (1 20mm bty)

Player's Notes

Play or be played with. Be the hammer or the nail. That's how the initiative system works. If you don't attack, your opponent will set the tempo and decide where the action will occur. On the other hand, if you attack, you must expose your units to enemy fire. Play and pay, that's how it works. The Germans have the burden of the offensive, they must seize and hold the initiative. They must decide where their main effort is going to be and then concentrate their forces to achieve it. It will do no good at all to spread out over the entire map and try to attack everywhere. It simply won't work, and if it succeeds anywhere, there won't be forces available to follow up and widen a breach.

Try to maintain some integrity with your regiments; it will help keep things organized so that you don't have to think a piece at a time. All your units are precious. With only 7 useful armored companies and 14 strong infantry, motorcycle and engineer battalions at your disposal, you can't afford to make frivolous attacks or take unnecessary losses. Save the SS motorcycle companies for probing for dummies and making sacrifice attacks. Your 88mm AA will save you from the T-34s and KVls and are good fortification busters.

The Soviet player must always watch for the danger of a German breakthrough. There is nothing more wasteful than a fortified position that falls without a fight because the Germans got there first. Use your artillery well, get your antitank guns in front of his tanks, preferably in field works or fortifications, and don't be afraid to risk your 76mm AA in an antitank role. Try to be aggressive early in the game if you get an opening, and throw your opponent off balance. Counterattack wherever he gives you an opening, but don't be foolhardy and throw away valuable units in dashing raids into the enemy's rear. Remember you must always block his way forward. If you can identify his point of concentration, get your reserves in front of it. Defend in depth if you can, so that if he crushes a unit and gets two impulses in a row he can't run wild. Make him pay for each hex and do not be discouraged.

Designer's Notes

I don't have much to say about this one. If you have Black Sea*Black Death or Aachen, you have read it all. If you don't, you should if you liked this game. This system is in its fourth generation. In this guise it has less special units than any game I've designed before, not because I don't love chrome, but because they weren't present at the battle. Artillery and ammunition supply has been simplified, again, not because I have given up on more complete artillery rules, but because the game situation didn't seem to need them.

This is a historical period that I would love to return to again, but at this point topics being discussed locally include Brusilov, a head to head fight between 3rd Guards Tank Army and XLVIII Panzer Korps west of Kiev in November of 1943, possibly Yelnya with Zhukov giving the Germans their first taste of his offensive style in August of 1941. Who knows what else? There will be more, the next one probably Operation Spark, the relief of Leningrad in February 1943, sharing a jump off date with the battles around Novorossisk at the other end of the front line.

The initiative system has been around for a while; its my own invention (said the Red Knight), and I have had little feedback. So what do you think already?

Errata (as of January 1st, 1997)

The Clash of Arms errata sheet, transcribed in full. The rules corrections above are already applied in-line in the sections they concern. The roster, order-of-appearance, chart and countermix corrections are recorded here and in the Order of Battle and Order of Appearance sections above.

Game Scale. A hex is around 800 meters, 5 to 6 impulses equal one day, and one strength point is equal to 100 men, 5 to 6 tanks, or 6 guns.

The Roster Sheets. On the German roster sheet, the AT batteries of both divisions have 4 boxes; all should have 2. The Nebelwerfer battalions listed on the roster sheets as 107mm are 100mm, as on the counters. The roster sheet lists the 20mm and 88mm batteries of both battalions of the 7th flak in reverse order, so that the 1, 2, and 3 of the 1/7 are 88s and the 4 and 5 are 20s. Likewise, the 1 and 2 of the II/26 should be 88mm, the 3 should be 20mm. The counters are correct.

The Orders of Appearance. The Soviet Order of Appearance does not list the flame thrower co. of the 32nd. It should arrive with the Div HQ on Oct. 12th. On the German Order of Appearance the I/1/67 should be the II/67, the III/86 should be the 86/10 HQ, the I/1/90 is the II/90, and the 1/I/90 is the III/90. The 86/10 HQ should appear on Oct 12, II/61 should appear on Oct 11, DR/SS artillery HQ on Oct 12, 90/10 Pz artillery HQ on Oct 13, III/90 artillery on Oct 13, 2 and 3 of the 90 AT battalion on Oct 12, 1/90 AT on Oct 13.

The Charts. The Morale vs. Assault column entry on the Terrain Fire Effects Table for Fortifications, should also read -2 (not -1) for assaulting the flank of a fortification.

The Countermix. There should not be parentheses on the range of the Pzkpfw IIIs. The Soviet regimental headquarters (found low down on the counter sheet) is the 322/32. There should be a 59 AA Regt., not a 54. Rather than using symbols for Foxholes and Trenches, COA chose to use words on the counters, words being Foxholes and Dug In. The latter is the same as Trenches. The Soviet "12 Rec/32" mcycl co is not in the Soviet OB, and its presence gives the 32nd Rifle Div 32 units rather than 31. Likewise, the OB and roster list a 465th Eng Bn, while the counter and Order of Appearance list a 467th. The latter is correct. The German 10th Pz Div has 35, not 33 units. The heavy artillery battalion is the 637th, not the 627th as the counter says. The 20mm AA by of II/26 should be the 3/II/26. The 3/93 Lt Flak should have a strength of 2-2-2, not 2-1-(1) as printed. The counter reads I/61, the OB says II/AR 1, the roster sheet indicates II/AR 61. It is II/61, a motz 105mm bn.

Note on the 509th. Note that the guns with the 509th AT battalion are 85mm antiaircraft guns, not 85mm AT guns that were not available for several years. Big guns, on turntable mountings, without gunshields. They somehow managed to breakout of the encirclement at Vyazma.

The Rules. Corrections to Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 are applied in-line above. Section 7 and Section 9 corrections, and the Section 11 dummy and hill corrections, are recorded at the points where they apply.