Historical Commentary:
Unquestionably, Stalingrad was the turning point battle of World War 2 in Europe. The vast majority of the Nazi German ground forces were committed to the east for most of the war. And while the Germans had been stopped at Leningrad and Moscow, two of their best armies (along with accompanying Axis "allied" armies) were utterly destroyed in the Stalingrad campaign, to the astonishment and great relief of those in the world who opposed Nazism.
Game Design Commentary:
The Russian order of battle is greatly abbreviated from the historical ... basically only those units that were in the battle in September ... for the sake of simplicity and speed of setup and play. General Chuikov was essentially rationed in the number of units he had to keep Stalingrad from falling entirely, and thus keeping the snout of the German war machine snagged in Stalingrad, while the strategic, double envelopment (19Nov42) Russian offensive was being developed on its flanks.
Thus, all eliminated Russian units except snipers can be brought back into the battle, if they can get across the Volga. (I may go ahead and provide a separate countersheet of the later Russian units in the battle, if only for the sake of remembrance.)
Thus, the Russian Player in the game must win it with just what Chuikov had.
More comments by myself and others about the game can be read on ConSimWorld
If you are a friend, and/or if you would like to share info and ideas about military and naval history and game designing and cardstock model shipbuilding, and/or you have any questions about STALINGRAD: GOROD SMERTI feel free to e-mail me at ELCOAT@Hotmail.com
19Oct12.)