("Living Rules" for Beyond the Urals, as of 03/07/02.)
Beyond The Urals
An Alternative History Campaign in Russia, 1942
Credits
Design & Development: Ty Bomba
Playtesters: Rob Franz, Martin Svensson, Christopher Cummins
Rules Layout: Callie Cummins
Counter Graphics: Larry Hoffman
Map Graphics: Joe Youst
Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Game Components
3.0 Set Up & Hex Control
4.0 How to Win
5.0 The Turn Sequence
6.0 Stacking
7.0 Zones of Control
8.0 Supply
9.0 Soviet Reinforcements & Replacements
10.0 Movement
11.0 Weather
12.0 Combat
13.0 The Second Front
14.0 Charts & Tables
15.0 Designer's Notes
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Alternative Time Line
Beyond the Urals: An Alternative History Campaign in Russia, 1942 (BtU for short) is a two-player, low-to-intermediate complexity, strategic-level simulation of a campaign that might have been had the Germans reached their goals for Operation Barbarossa in 1941 but in so doing still failed to force the capitulation of the Soviet Union. The easiest way this might have come about is simply to imagine Marshal G.K. Zhukov had been defeated by Gen. D.G. Pavlov in the map-wargames held in the Kremlin during January 1941.
At that time Pavlov was head of Soviet armored forces and had convinced Stalin the correct strategy to counter any German invasion was to pack the border areas with the best Red Army units. His idea was to thereby contain any German attack at the border, then quickly go over to a counter-offensive that would carry the war back into Germany. Zhukov's brilliant command of the "Blue" side in the wargames, however-with German panzer formation strengths based on what they'd done in Poland and France-revealed the bankruptcy of Pavlov's approach.
Stalin, thus convinced of the correctness of Zhukov's strategy, immediately authorized a strategic redeployment in depth that contained three "echelons" of armies arrayed from the border back to Moscow. Had Pavlov been a better wargamer, his strategy would have undoubtedly led to complete Soviet defeat in real life by bringing about the encirclement and destruction of almost all of the Red Army in positions west of the Dvina-Dnepr line. That was, in fact, precisely the campaign the Germans hoped to fight when they first crossed the border on 22 June 1941. For a more detailed discussion of this idea, players are referred to the following book: Fugate, Bryan and Lev Dvoretsky, Thunder on the Dnepr: Zhukov, Stalin and the Defeat of Hitler's Blitzkrieg, Presidio Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-89141-529-7).
The second part of the alternative time-line postulated here, that the Soviets kept fighting even after the Germans reached their planned Archangel-Astrakhan stop line, is equally simple to arrive at. Being given no alternatives other than to suffer genocide at the hands of the German conquerors or continue their resistance, no matter how desperate, it is not hard to imagine the Russians' choice, even if they underwent a regime or ideology change.
1.2 The Game Situation
It is hard to imagine the Germans, having once gotten this far beyond their historic high-water mark, could thereafter suffer much serious damage in the east, at least when measured relative to what happened to them historically. At the start of play the Germans are launching what they hope will be nothing more than a large mop-up campaign aimed at occupying one of the last two industrial areas left to their main enemy in Eurasia. They might fail in the sense their plans unavoidably involve pushing a huge force into an area that, in the strategic sense, could otherwise only be considered the middle of nowhere. That is, those forces could probably be at least as well used in a number of other campaigns conducted elsewhere against the still relatively intact Anglo-Allies. The Germans, though, would probably not be risking running into anything like the historic Stalingrad debacle.
The game therefore reflects a situation in which the Germans are clearly on the offensive, fighting to finally and completely defeat a desperate Soviet defense. The defenders, in turn, are trying to hold on to a critical part of their truncated state until the winter again shuts down the campaigning season. The Russian hope is, by surviving another year, they might yet see the time when the still strengthening Anglo-Allies become enough of a threat to the German rear to force Berlin to shut down further offensive operations in the east, withdrawing large segments of the Wehrmacht for redeployment.
1.3 Orders of Battle
The orders of battle are extrapolated from both sides' historic organizational charts of mid to late 1941. That is, the Germans could be expected to throw everything they had in the east into this, minus only a few corps to cover the almost militarily impassable areas off the northern and southern edges of the map. We can safely figure the Axis satellite armies that proved the Axis' Achilles heel in the real 1942 campaign are off map to the west on anti-partisan duties or perhaps are also helping to hold the extreme flanks.
The 20th Mountain Army is included because it is hard to imagine Hitler could have resisted transferring that headquarters into Russia from Scandinavia and assigning it every mountain infantry corps in the army. The mythic qualities inherent in a campaign across the mountains dividing Europe from Asia would have simply been too much for the dictator to have withstood putting together this kind of specialized army to spearhead the operation.
The Soviet order of battle is based on a generous estimate of what they could still have fielded after going through a preliminary debacle of the kind that would have had to have taken place in order for this situation to be created.
1.4 Game Scales
Each hexagon on the map represents approximately 20 miles (32.4 kilometers) from side to opposite side. The Soviet units of maneuver are armies, while all German units are corps. Air power is represented abstractly, with two counters representing the effects of German tactical air superiority. Each full game turn represents one week.
1.5 Halving
The general rule concerning the halving of numbers in the game is whenever such a division takes place all remainders are rounded down. Thus, for example, "half" of three is one and "half" of two is one, while "half" of one is zero. There is one exception to that last, however, in that if a combat factor is halved, half of one is one, provided only one unit is being halved. That is, no single unit's combat factor is ever reduced below one for any reason. If, however, there were two or more units in the same battle and both or all were to be halved, then all the involved units' combat factors are first added together and only one division and rounding is made.
1.6 North
The compass rose printed on the map show its relationship to magnetic north. For all play purposes, though, whenever a map direction is referenced in these rules it should be understood the north side of the map is composed of the hexes 1000 to 1028, inclusive. The east side of the map is composed of the hexes 1000 to 4200, inclusive. The south side is 4200 to 4228, inclusive, and the west is 1028 to 4228, inclusive. The corner hexes are therefore each part of two map sides.
2.0 Game Components
2.1 The components to a complete game of BtU include these rules, the map sheet and 176 die-cut counters (also referred to as "units" and "unit counters"). Players must provide themselves with a standard six-sided die to resolve combat and other probabilistic game events.
2.2 The Game Map
The game map illustrates the militarily significant terrain found in the western portion of Siberia in 1942. A hexagonal ("hex") grid is printed over the map to regulate the placement and movement of units across it, much like in Chess and Checkers. A unit is considered to be in only one hex at any one time.
Each hex contains natural or manmade terrain that can affect the movement of units and combat between units. The terrain on the map has had its exact, real-world configurations altered slightly in order to make it coincide with the hex-grid, but the relationships among the terrain from hex to hex is accurate to the degree necessary to present players with the same space and time dilemmas that would have been faced by their historic counterparts had this hypothesized campaign taken place.
Note also that every hex on the map has a unique, four-digit identification number. They are provided to help find exact locations more quickly and to allow for the recording of unit positions if a match has to be taken down before it can be completed. For example, the industrial center of Ufa is in hex 3216.
2.3 Counters
There are 176 unit counters in the game, most of which represent combat formations. Others are also provided as informational markers and memory aids. After reading these rules at least once, carefully punch out the counters. Trimming off the "dog ears" from their corners with a fingernail clipper will facilitate easier handling and stacking during play and enhances their appearance.
2.4 Sample Combat Unit
Each combat unit counter displays several pieces of information: nationality (and therefore the "side" each unit is on), specific historical identification, unit type and size, combat and step strengths, movement allowance, and reinforcement or other special status.
2.5 Nationality
A unit's nationality is shown by its color scheme.
The German Side
20th Mountain Army: white on leaf green
All other German units: white on black
The Soviet Side
Regular Red Army units (all one-steppers): white on red
Elite Guards and Tank units (all two steppers): red on white
2.6 Historical Identification
All units are identified by the numbers used historically to designate those same formations during this period. The letter "G" on some Soviet units stands for "Guard," while "Sh" is the abbreviation for "Shock."
2.7 Unit Sizes
Units' historical organizational sizes are shown by the following symbols:
XXXX - army
XXX Ð corps
2.8 Unit Types
All ground units in the game belong to two basic categories: mechanized ("Mech") or non-mechanized ("Non-Mech"). Mechanized units are those whose primary means of moving across the battlefield is by wheeled and/or tracked vehicles. Non-mechanized units are those whose primary means of locomotion is provided by legs, human and animal. This distinction is important for movement, combat and replacement considerations.
Mechanized Unit Types
Panzer/Tank
Combined Arms Mechanized
Non-Mechanized Unit Types
Infantry
Mountain Infantry
2.9 Combat Factors
Attack and defense factors are the measures of each unit's ability to conduct those types of combat operations. Their uses are explained in section 12.0.
2.10 Movement Factor
This number is a measure of a unit's ability to move across the hex grid printed over the map. A unit pays varied movement costs to enter different hexes, depending on the terrain and the unit's type (see section 10.0).
2.11 Step Strength
All ground units in the game have one or two "strength steps," also simply called "steps." That's an arbitrary term used to express the ability of a unit to absorb a certain amount of combat losses before ceasing to be an effective formation (a measure of its "robustness" in current US Army jargon). Those units with combat factors printed on only one side of their counter are "one-step" units. Those with printing on both sides of a single counter are "two-step" units.
When units of these sizes are eliminated in play, it doesn't mean every individual within them has been killed. It means enough casualties and equipment losses have been suffered to render them useless for further operations. If a two-step unit suffers a one-step loss, it is flipped over so its reduced side (the one with the lower combat factors) shows. If a one-step unit, or a two-stepper that has already been "reduced," suffers a step loss, it is removed from the map ("eliminated") and placed into a "dead pile" off to the side of the map.
2.12 Soviet Two Step Units
There are seven Soviet two-step units in the game: 1st through 5th Tank along with 1st and 2nd Guards Armies. They are printed red-on-white to make them easily distinguishable from all the white-on-red one-step units. When a Soviet two-stepper has been reduced to one-step strength, its combat factors are always "1-1." However, when at full, two-step strength its combat values are always unknown until it enter combat, and they are always determined anew each time it does enter combat. That is, a die is rolled by the Soviet player for each involved two-stepper at the time the combat odds calculation process is begun. That result (one through six) is the appropriate combat factor for that one unit for that one battle. Soviet two-step units may never receive replacements, neither as replenishment on the map nor to be reclaimed from the dead pile.
Note that 3rd and 5th Tank Armies start play on the map no matter what date turns out to be Game Turn 1 (see 3.2). The others, though, enter as reinforcements unless the game is rolled to begin on or after June I or June II. In that case, based on the reinforcement entry code printed in each affected unit's upper-left corner, they may also become part of the Soviet side's initial on board force. For example, if Game Turn 1 turned out to be June I, then the Soviet two-step units bearing "3s" in their upper-left would be added to that side's starting forces.
2.13 Soviet Untried Units
Note that all the white-on-red Soviet units in the game each contain only one strength step. Their reverse sides show only a "U" (for "Untried"), a unit-type box and a movement factor. All such Soviet units begin the game with their untried side showing, and neither player knowing exactly what is on the reverse sides. They aren't flipped over, thus revealing their exact combat strengths, until the first time they enter combat attacking or defending. Once revealed, untried units are never flipped back to their "U" side while they remain in play. For more details see 9.6.
2.14 Reinforcement & Starting Units
Units that enter play after the game has begun, rather than starting play already set up on the map, are called "reinforcements." Reinforcements can be distinguished from starting units by the fact they-the reinforcement units-have only a one-digit number, "3" or "4," printed in their upper-left corners. Those numbers refer to their earliest possible game turns of entry into play; see section 9.0. Only the Soviet side has reinforcements (five of them); all other Soviet units and all German units begin play already on the map at the start of the game; see 3.3.
2.15 Other Counters
The uses of the following counters are explained at appropriate points throughout the rest of the rules:
¥ Hex Control Markers (see 3.4)
¥ German Victory Point markers (see 4.3)
¥ Game Turn indicator (see section 5.0)
¥ German Aerial Supply marker (see 8.7)
¥ Weather indicators
(see section 11.0)
¥ German Ground Support Aircraft markers (see 12.17)
3.0 Set Up & Hex Control
3.1 Players should first decide which side each will control. After that they should each take their own side's units and sort them onto and around the map according to the instructions given below.
3.2 Determining the Start Date
The climate in the Asian heartland is unpredictable in terms of just when ground conditions will prevail that allow the start of active, large-scale campaigning. Accordingly, before either player sets up any units on the map, the German player should roll a die to determine the actual start date of the campaign. That is, a die roll of one means play begins on Game Turn 1/May III. A roll of two would mean play begins on what's shown on the Turn Record Track as "Game Turn 2/May IV," etc. Play may therefore actually begin on any game turn from May III to June IV, depending on the die roll.
Note that Soviet Guard and Tank Army reinforcements arrive on Game Turns 3 and 4 (Jun I and June II). If the die roll starts play on or after those dates, then the affected units become part of that side's initial set up rather than coming in as reinforcements (see section 9.0). No matter what game turn actually turns out to be the first game turn of play, refer to the game turn numbers printed on the map when dealing with reinforcements, etc. For example, June I is always referred to as "Game Turn 3."
3.3 Set Up
The Soviet player sets up first. He places all his initially available units, which include all those one- and two-step units that lack a reinforcement code number in their upper-left corners, anywhere on the map other than in the Gold Row (see 10.17). Then the German places all his available units anywhere in the Gold Row. Both players must observe stacking limits (see 6.0) during initial placement.