Stalingrad done in D-Day Style

[Starlight Sniper]

I’m currently in the works making a home-made  D-Day style game (10 turns, 8 units max, fortune/order/tactics, etc etc.)

Seeking suggestions from those knowledgeable folks who play D-Day (like myslef). I’ve already come up with a few pages of ideas and have a work in progress, but you never know who is going to have the best idea until you ask. It’s not a game I’m making for profit, just something for the boys and I to play on the weekends.

Thanks for your assistance,

Starlight Sniper

[Imperious Leader]

Best way to do that is create a design journal with pictures as progress ensues. Pictures are very important. I would use dropbox for that

[CWO Marc]

Sounds like an interesting project.  Depending on whether or not you want to keep this a purely land-based game, you might consider adding naval (actually “riverine” would be more exact) and aerial components.  The Volga played a vital role in the battle: the Germans could interdict it by day (via artillery, and I think via their air force too), but at night the Russians could (and did) send men by boat across the water to reinforce the city, which kept it from collapsing as the Russian casualties piled up.  I also seem to recall that, north of the city, the Russians held both banks of the river, which ultimately helped them to set up their winter counteroffensive. Stalingrad was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe in the early stages of the campaign (one net effect of which was to make the city streets inoperable for German tanks.)  Later, when Paulus and the 6th Army were trapped in the city, a contest developed between the Russian AAA batteries on the ground and the Luftwaffe planes in the air which were trying to fly in supplies.  I don’t know to what extent Russian fighters were involved in any of this.

[Starlight Sniper]

Thanks for the ideas so far. When completed, I’ll be posting it in the custom game section of the website.

-  For re-enforcements the Russians come in Via the Volga on one side. The Germans via the countryside on the other side of  the map. I was considering upping the number of units to 10, all depending on the final unit counts.

-  The map does contain actual realistic parts of the city. But for ease-of-game aspects, some of it will be fictitious. I’m a fan of keeping as much historical accuracy in the game as possible. Trying to educate as well as entertain.

Cheers,
Starlight Sniper

[CWO Marc]

@Starlight:

The map does contain actual realistic parts of the city. But for ease-of-game aspects, some of it will be fictitious

Fortunately, the overall geography of Stalingrad was fairly straightforward.  There was the southern portion, which consisted of the old part of the town (log huts and wooden buildings); the central section, which was a modern concrete-and-steel urban area; and the northern section, which comprised three large factories and housing for workers.  The city was built on hilly ground on the western bank of the Volga.

[Zjelco]

On this page is an old Stalingrad map for TripleA. Enjoyed playing it, might give you some idea’s or a base to work from.

search: roger cooper stalingrad    1st result

[Kreuzfeld]

first question you have to ask yourself is if you are going to play “fall blau” (german attack accross the donbass to stalingrad), The city itself (german offensive, where they have to take everything to win), or “Operation Uranus” (soviet encirceling counterattack)

“fall blau” would be pretty straight forward, with a few victoryareas. Depening on the scale and focusareas, good VCs would be Voronez, Grosny (or Baku), Stalingrad, rostov and/or crossing volga.

If the city itself, then taking every beachhead area and some key positions like the heights, the tracktor factory and red square would probably be good places for VCs. each unit should probably have very high move in this scenario, as long as they pass through friendly controlled terretory.

Operation Uranus could either be just about the city, or about trying to trap both armygroup A and B.
Completely surrounding stalingrad or taking it would be very important in these scenarios, kicking out armygroup B (or A dont remember) from caucasuss would also be good. in opeation uranus  having supplyrules is a must.

[The11HP20]

@Kreuzfeld:

first question you have to ask yourself is if you are going to play “fall blau” (german attack accross the donbass to stalingrad), The city itself (german offensive, where they have to take everything to win), or “Operation Uranus” (soviet encirceling counterattack)

The question is moot. You make both versions. This ain’t no Highlander. There can be more than one.😝