I purchased this one yesterday and-after some difficulties-added it to my UoC games. http://unityofcommand.net/blog/ I cannot recommend enough buying these from the designer as they will get right back to you if you have problems with the installation! At any rate; Black Turn centers around the Barbarossa battles and I am saving the Moscow scenario like a fine wine as "the first time is always the best time". The Axis player scenarios I find intellectually interesting, but I really throw myself into the Russki player roles-kind of like back in the 80s Panzerblitz marathons at my house where I did not care to play anything else. This must be very much like how the actual commanders saw the situations in their minds-except that Guderian, Von Bach, Rokisovsky, Zhukov and the rest had only maps, telephones, couriers and radio communications to read and control their battle fronts. There are some complimentary user designed games already on the website and they mostly focus on the Finnish wars and they look to be most excellent. So...Happy Holidays! http://unityofcommand.net/cs/ PS. Squeaked by on my first shot at saving Moscow-WAHOOO! JeffinMNUSA
January Offensive off the Black Turn series....Go on the offensive just then and there!!!??? WITH WHAT!!!??? And what is my infantry armed with? Borodino Muskets? Pitchforks? Why Stalin gave up on running things himself. There must be a way of beating this beast but I have not found it, and the best I did lately was to not get slaughtered by a more powerful and mobile foe (guard carefully against armored thrusts into your supply and use the woods and rivers for cover!). This one is a real tightrope walk and one misstep and it's over! I'll try it again in a couple weeks after reading up on what the UoC wizards might have to say on the subject (these guys get Brilliant victories on the first try and just might have figured out a few things.) JeffinMNUSA PS.New Logo is of My Uncle Frank and Aunt Marge at Igualzu Falls in Brazil about 1940 or so (colorized from the BW with a modern digital shot as a background). Frank was almost certainly an American spy down there and his story would make a great true adventure novel if the CIA would ever release his records.
Another "Go on the offensive!!!??? WITH WHAT!!!???" scenario. Look at all those Russki divisions.... At any rate; I tried this one last night a couple of times and was nearly wiped out in the 1st try and managed to survive and capture precisely zero objectives on the second. As with all these scenarios labeled "hard" there is a way to "git 'er done"-you just need to find it... and get a bit lucky.
The Penza-Sarotov user designed scenario you can load off the UoC site. Fast moving and a lot of fun quickie game-I would have done a lot better on this one if I hadn't carelessly let a Soviet Armoured division into my rear; which I then had to chase down and destroy with my closest armored; unit but not before he cut supply for two turns! These games will turn on you on a dime if you miss one little element! Which was the case with what I did for a living so nothing new there.
The Uman Pocket scenario off the Black Turn scenarios; Another fast moving quickie of an Axis player game, that I managed to squeak by on the first shot. I find it curious that the Romanian units are as worthless in this game as they are in most, and if this is a reflection of the historical reality why didn't OKW just send them all home? They are of some use in plugging gaps and holding ground-but combat wise they are almost useless. As with most of these BT scenarios the mighty German armored divisions rule the battlefield, and the German infantry units are no slouches either. JeffinMNUSA
A supply net view from the BT Taifun scenario. And this beats to hell all the old Avalon Hill/SPI arguments about supplied and unsupplied. Taifun on the 1st try? Well I finished just now and just missed taking the Kremlin by a centimeter on turn 18. The basic strategy is to push your armor onto the plains in the South and sweep Northwards carefull to keep your supply net moving Northwards with the armor along the routes of the Russki rail lines. A good big board game!
I beat the Luga to Leningrad game on the Black Turn series with room to spare. Another fast moving shorty; I found myself crippling as opposed to out and out killing a lot more units on first time armor attacks than the usual-this reflecting forest combat to where the defender has an advantage. Ah well-have your infantry finish off the cripples where practical...you don't want them getting into your supply lines! Now the fact is that the Axis never wanted to get into urban combat in Leningrad for very good reasons; but I just did and won! Ah well-as the designer more or less said in reference to the Bagration scenario; it wouldn't be much of a game if the game totally reflected the realities. A lot of fun.
Hi all; Got a Decisive Victory on the Dash to the Donets BT scenario. The terrain favors and armored breakthrough followed by an attack on enemy supply and that is exactly what I did. These are all some pretty playable games and it does seem like the UoC team is getting better at design. JeffinMNUSA
The BT Army Group South scenario; this one is rated "easy" as indeed it is in terms of Soviet resistance-there are a lot of Red units but they are pretty weak, as indeed the Red Army was in 1941. New players might do well running off paper maps of the area so as to keep their objectives clear in the course of action. The opposition is little more than a delaying force in this game, and the real problem with this scenario is the matter of speed; and the player might do well spending prestige points to add engineers (or maybe scouts) to his forward armored unit and sending it towards the NE.
The user generated Jatkasota scenario-which you will need Black Turn to upload. Good one-and you might want to leave your weaker Western forces dug in until the North Central forces (they all have engineer steps-and was the secret of Finnish military prowess in education?) make some progress. A plodding, methodical infantry scenario where the major concern is supply (check it every time you make a move!); and the Finns have overwhelming tactical advantage when combat is joined...there are just not enough Finnish units so beware of flanking moves and use the trees and rivers as much as possible! Beware the final objective at Petrovzavodsk! The garrisson is self supplied so you can't starve them out, and it's powerfull and mean as a polar bear! Next time I think I will be saving an air strike or two for this guy!
The "easy" rated Army Group North scenario from the Black Turn upgrade. And it is more or less a "road race" scenario with the Russkis as little more than speed bumps to be run around-or over-by the all powerfull German Armor. I spent all my prestige points on an Engineers step for my spearpoint unit as he has to cut through all manner of terrains to open the all important main supply link-and I think this to be the correct move. 1st time and a DV-cool! Now the "hard" scenarios on the BT series really, really, really are HARD! JeffinMNUSA PS. THe correct sequence reads from R to L for some reason.
The Army Group Center scenario off the BT series. Kind of fun doing the "deadly dance" eastward and knocking off enemy units with ease...
Hot off the press is the Operation Munschen scenario off the User Generated site on the UoC site-which you must have BT for it to work. http://unityofcommand.net/cs/ A good game about the German/Romanian invasion of Bessarabia in 1941. As always the German Divs will be doing the heavy lifting-though some Romanian Divs show some spunk, most particularly the Romanian Armored. Now just how you are supposed to take Falciu-Tirganca on turn 2 across a river with only Romanian strength is a mystery I have yet to figure out-maybe those UoC wizards on the site will drop a hint. JeffinMNUSA
