 
Designer: Ted Raicer
With the fall of Rome, the
Allied invasion and liberation of France, and the Soviet Destruction
of Army Group Center, 1944 was not a good year for Nazi Germany.
1945 would be worse. In the west Hitler's failed Ardennes gamble
would be followed by the Allied surge to and over the Rhine.
But it was in the east where the Soviets would inflict the final
catastrophic defeats on Hitler's once-victorious war machine.
In January 1945 the Germans
faced the main Soviet concentrations on a line from the borders
of East Prussia, through Poland along the Vistula, to the Carpathians.
Chief of the General Staff General Heinz Guderian described the
German front as a "house of cards." "If the front
is broken in any one place," he warned Hitler, "the
whole thing will collapse." Hitler in turn dismissed the
Soviet threat as "the greatest bluff since Genghis Khan."
But Stalin wasn't bluffing.
The Soviet offensive in central
Poland began on January 12, their offensive in East Prussia a
day later. The vastly outnumbered Germans on the Vistula front
were pulverized by the Soviet blitzkrieg, which tore the heart
out of the German Army Group A. As two Soviet Fronts (1st Belorussian
and 1st Ukranian) raced headlong for Berlin, reaching the Oder
River by February 3, the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts (after
meeting stiff initial resistance) closed in on Konigsberg and
Danzig. These offensives inflicted 500,000 casualties on the
Germans (including 1300 tanks destroyed) and left the Soviet
spearheads within a couple days march of Berlin. But Soviet losses
began to mount, and logistical difficulties and an early spring
thaw combined to slow the advance. German counterattacks from
Pomerania, though generally ineffective, convinced Stalin of
the need to clear the flanks before assaulting Berlin.
Pomerania and Silesia were
cleared of all but isolated German garrisons between February
8 and April 4. Then Stalin ordered the final assault on Berlin,
which began on April 16. Though the German General Heinrici intially
held up Zhukov's attack on the Seelowe heights east of Berlin,
the German position was increasingly hopeless and Berlin was
soon surrounded. Hitler killed himself in his bunker at the end
of the month. The Soviets suffered frightful losses in these
final battles (as many as 250,000 in Berlin alone) but by May
1st only scattered battlegroups of Germans, desperate to escape
to the West, still remained under arms.
Before the Soviet offensives
Guderian had begged Hitler to call off the Battle of the Bulge,
abandon attempts to relieve the besieged defenders of Budapest,
and evacuate German divisions isolated in Courland, in order
to strengthen the main German front in Prussia and Poland. Hitler
refused. Army Group A requested permission to execute Operation
Sleighride, a step-back to avoid the worst of the initial Soviet
attack. This too was denied, with the army ordered to hold in
place. While the eventual outcome was not in doubt, had these
plans been implemented it is possible the Soviets could have
been held up long enough so that the Allies would have met them
on the Oder rather than the Elbe. As it was, the Germans suffered
the greatest defeats in their military history as the Red Storm
moved over the Reich.
Red Storm Over the Reich is
a Ted Raicer game covering the epic final campaigns of WWII on
the Eastern Front, as the forces of the Soviet Union smashed
the German armies defending Poland, East Prussia, and Pomerania,
and advanced across the Oder to Berlin. Included in the game
are three scenarios.
* The first scenario is historical,
which finds the German forces out of position. Their armies will
likely be shattered on the first turn, but the victory conditions
are tough on the Soviets– they must do at least as well
as historically.
* Scenario two has the historic forces, but allows the Germans
to implement Operation Sleigh-ride, a sane pull-back of the main
defense line along the Vistula out of range of the opening Russian
barrage (an operation historically nixed by Hitler) that at least
allows for a more orderly flight.
* Scenario three combines Sleigh-ride with reinforcements from
other fronts. It assumes that Hitler has had an incapacitating
stroke in late November or early December, and the new Nazi leadership
is sufficiently uncertain of its position that it defers in military
matters to Guderian. The Ardennes Offensive is cancelled, as
are the attempts to relieve Budapest, as well as substantial
forces are evacuated from the Courland pocket. This increases
German strength on the main eastern front by approximately 50%
and doubles German tank strength, which, when combined with Sleigh-ride
gives the Germans some serious fighting strength.
Scenarios one and two can be
completed in 8-12 hours and scenario three in 12-16 hours, depending
on your individual playing style.
Red Storm is the opposite of
1941 East Front Games: The Soviets have assembled a massive force
and will rip gaping holes in the German lines through blitzkrieg-style
attacks. The German player must somehow piece together a desperate
defense only to have it repeatedly blown apart by the enemy.
But time is the enemy of both players in this game. The Soviets
need to accomplish their victory by the end of the last turn,
satisfying the historical timeline, or they lose the game, and
the Germans must delay the Soviet assault on Berlin long enough
to prevent the Soviet win.
The rules for Red Storm Over
the Reich are moderate in complexity but feature enough chrome
for both sides to recreate this desperate campaign. Special rules
include: the creation of Kampfgruppe divisions (or not), naval
evacuations, panzerfausts, Volksturm divisions, Leaders, Soviet
Logistical Constraint, Hitler mandated attacks and more!
Included with each game are
two maps each 22” by 34”, two sheets of counters (456
total), rules, set-up charts, tables, dice and game box.
Product Review | Designer's
Replay | Playtest Pictures | Message Board
Stock # 1003
Retail Price: $63
Complexity: Medium
Playing Time:
8-12 hours (scenarios), 12-16 hours (full campaign)
Solitaire Suitability: High
(due to variable movement)
Components
* 2 maps - each map is 34"
x 22"
* 2 full sheets of 9/16" counters (456 counters), printed
both sides
* 5 full color set-up and play aid charts printed both sides
on cardstock
* 1 rules book, 32 pages
* 2 6-sided dice
* 1 full color box and lid...
All content ©2005 Compass
Games LLC
Retail Price:
55,00 € |
Max. Discount Price:
44,00 € |
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Preis inkl. MwSt, zzgl. Porto in Abhängigkeit von Bestellmenge und Versandadresse.
(This sentence must be here for reasons of german bureaucracy.)
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