1. Move and fight
You command the blue-grey Axis counters, with ochre Romanian and olive Italian formations. Soviet counters are red-brown. Select a formation, then a gold-highlighted hex. Armour has 4 movement points; infantry 3. Difficult ground and river hexes cost more. Entering an enemy zone of control ends movement.
Select your Axis formation, then press Attack. Choose a highlighted adjacent Soviet counter or a target from the list, review the combat estimate, and press Commit attack. You can also click an adjacent Soviet counter directly. Moving into contact ends movement, but you can still attack once that turn. An attack costs the remaining action. Up to two adjacent, unspent formations automatically contribute support and spend their actions too. You can untick advance to hold the attacking formation in place. Combat is seeded but includes small variation; the preview is an estimate.
Counter numbers show strength on the left and movement on the right. The lower strip shows remaining strength. A corner tick marks a spent action, a shield shows entrenchment, an amber triangle means strained supply, and a red diamond means isolation.
2. Protect your supply
Supply traces through friendly territory from rear sources and connected rail depots. Supply is blocked by enemy control and unguarded enemy zones. Connected rail depots extend truck reach; a road connection alone cannot activate a rail depot. Captured depots take two turns to reopen, or 2 logistics points to repair immediately while a unit occupies them.
Ready units fight normally. Strained units have reduced movement and combat power. Isolated units are weaker and lose 1 strength at the start of their turn; depleted formations can surrender after three consecutive isolated turns. Supply status appears on each selected formation and on strained or isolated counters. Both fronts use balanced supply reach.
3. Rest and recover
Refit restores up to 2 strength for 1 logistics point, outside enemy contact. The Soviet AI has its own three-point refit allowance. Dig in adds defensive protection, up to two levels.
4. Campaign victory
After turn 12, score held objectives with a friendly route to the rear plus enemy formations destroyed, minus twice your own losses. Aim for 17 points and a connected Stalingrad, Maykop or Grozny. Stalingrad and Grozny are worth 5 each; Maykop 4. Cities must actually be occupied to change hands. Cut-off objectives score zero until their connection is restored. Oilfields give objective points, never instant fuel.
Prototype boundaries
This is an original, simplified scenario beginning 25 July 1942. Coastlines and major rivers use Natural Earth geographic data. Town locations are snapped to the operational hex grid. Relief, corps/army groupings, deployments, rail links and timings are generalized for play. No fog of war, multiplayer, production economy or Operation Uranus yet. It is not a historical order-of-battle simulation.
Save/Load stores one game for this rules version in this browser only. Saves from field editions 0.3 and 0.4 still load, with balanced supply and no replenishment of spent actions or movement. Earlier prototype saves are preserved separately. This standalone prototype does not modify Eastern Front.