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Exactation

July 16, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Hello everyone,

thank you for your continued interest in my little project, even if I haven’t updated in a while. The Pandemic, while so far having spared family and friends, keeps my busy with school closings and home office, cooking and organizing. So although Ken has faithfully plodded on with his monumental “Scorched Earth” report, I haven’t managed to put any of his postings online yet. All the more new reading to be expected after the summer break!

I already called the anniversary last December, but found the time to go through my old stuff recently. It seems that this domain went online on July 15th, 2000, which means the Generalstab today officially celebrates its 20th birthday! Yay to the Europa-Community, and thank you all again for your continued interest, support, articles, comments and game reports. I cannot possibly name everyone that made this site possible – as I said often enough YOU wrote all those pages, I merely collected them and make them look pretty. So three cheers for Europa, and now back to the dugout, waiting for “Total War”.

P.S: I Hope it is in everyones interest that I won’t illustrate this post with any German soldiers celebrating.

Christmas in Velikiye Luki

August 9, 2019 / / 0 Comments

After the conclusion of this years staff rides to the battlefields of Bennigton, Fort Henry and Prospect Park, we now return to our regular schedule with news from Ken Newalls Scorched Earth game. Three turn reports in a row means we’re approaching the end of 1942, and the chickens have finally come home to roost for the Axis, with the 11th Army being in grave danger of being encircled around Velikiye Luki by a resurgent Red Army.

After this, we will take a break to recuperate from our excursions and march off some of the excess baggage we collected as a result of the excellent food found in New England.

The Northern Front in 1942
The Northern Front in 1942

Bleak Years

June 12, 2019 / / 0 Comments

After two years and uncountable losses and destruction, neither side can claim victory in the East.

The Axis still flies the swastika from the towers of the Kremlin, and their spearheads repeatedly cut the last rail line to Leningrad in summer.  In the South, the Germans repeated last years successes on a smaller scale, repeatedly encircling and crushing large Soviet Armies. 6th Army finally captured Rostov, the gate to the Caucaus, after a swirling, gruesome campaign across the vast plains between Dnjepr and Don that lasted the better part of the year.

However, the Axis failed to reach its declared campaign goal of cutting of Leningrad, Russias second largest city, starving it to death and thus securing its Finish ally. In frozen Karelia, the Finns are fighting a desperate rearguard action, their divisions reduced to regiments, regiments to bataillions, the army ruined along with the burning wrecks of 19th Panzer XX sent to stop the Soviets. During Autumn, the Soviets pried the Panzers from the last open rail line before the German infantry could close up, reestablished supply and secured the continued flow of reinforcements to the cradle of the revolution. Now, its winter, and the Soviets grow stronger: The new tank corps armed with the T-34  rolling of the assembly lines in the Urals that now are back into production managed for the first time to take on a German Panzerkorps head on and force a retreat. The Germans frantically equip their famed Panzer divisions with newer and better tanks, but there are never enough of them around.

The parade to commemorate the October Revolution is a grim specacle this year. In Kubychev, a small crowd is commanded to watch the parade, its listless cheers saluting regiments that will be committed to battle barely two days later.  However, the German soldiers guarding Moscow’s Red Sqare can already hear the rumble of tanks and artillery as  the First Guards Tank Army advances through the  eastern and northern suburbs, poised on liberating the capital.

Despite the exhaustion, neither side seems yet approaching collapse.

Ken Newall takes a look at his truly epic Scorced Earth report after two years of campaining: 1942 Game Commentary

 

Screenshot of the "Sturmvogel"-Homepage
Screenshot of the "Sturmvogel"-Homepage

In Memoriam Panzerkeil

January 19, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Jason Long is a household name to many Europa players. Jason did a lot of historical research centered on the war in the East and the Balkans and published numerous articles in TEM and various Newsletters. He also created several Europa scenarios (“Clash of Titans”) and designed the unpublished Peace in Our Time game on the invasion that almost occurred, the planned German assault on Czechoslovakia in 1938.

For a long time, Jason ran two websites dedicated to the Axis air forces (Sturmvogel) and Axis armies (Panzerkeil). Both are offline or archived now, but Jason kindly gave permission to us to re-publish some of his materials. Since “Total War” will most likely never see the light of day, we’ve decided to include some of Jasons research on the Hungarian Army during Barbarossa, which you can now read in the Academy. In the comming weeks, we’ll add some more material.

Three Turns in May (On Christmas Day)

December 25, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Our first “Fall of France” game report has arrived, belatedly in two ways, first because the game is now quite old, and second because the game was played in 2012. However, we think it will make for a nice addition to the War Archive, and its author, Mike Willner, has allowed us to publish it here. Mike is from the “Metropolitan Wargamers” from Park Slope. I could share some fond memories of my visits to Park Slope and Brooklyn in summer, but I will offer something much more interesting instead and encourage you to have a look at their website & associated Yahoo Group: www.nycwargames.com.

Oh, and the game report? Here you go: Fall of France – Game Report No 1.

 

 

Results of Soviet Winter offensive
Results of Soviet Winter offensive

After Barbarossa – The status of Ken Newalls Scorched Earth game

December 13, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Those of you following us on Twitter or are members of the Yahoo Europa Group will have recieved the biweekly updates to Ken Newalls ongoing game of Scorched Earth. All others hopefully will have taken a look at the expanding game report in the Archive now and then. For those who missed it, here’s a short summary: The game has reached May 1942, with the Axis having occupied Murmansk, the Baltics, and successfully conquered most of Moscow. The Soviets still hold out in the ruins of the eastern part of the city, and have successfully pushed from Leningrad to Narva and into the gap between lake peipus and the Valdai hills.

Now both sides evaluating their strategies for the upcoming summer, and since so many games of FiTE have ended at this point, Kens writings on the matter make for a facinating read we can only recommend. You can read the Soviet side here, and the Axis deliberations are part of the May I turn report.

Valencia, dear Valencia mine

December 10, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Dan Waldstein graciously shared his report of a full game of FWtBT using a variable beginning of the revolution. The biggest upset during the start of the game was that Valencia also declared for the insurgency, and the Spanish Republic never recovered from that. In September 1937, all was over. How it happened, you can read here. We say thank you, and hope you’ll enjoy the read!

 

 

Screenshot of niehorster.org, October 2018
Screenshot of niehorster.org, October 2018

World War II Armed Forces – niehorster.org

October 15, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Dr. Niehorster’s website on the Armed Forces of World War II needs little introduction I presume, being around even longer than the Generalstab and having itself established as one of the most important sites on TO/Es on the web. His thorough research has been the base for countless wargames, and his books are an established reference for scholars interested in the organisational details of armed forces in the Second World War. His Website provides extensive information about all participants at various stagtes of the war, while his books provide the background to the snapshots shown online.

As additional goodies, since Sept 12th the complete German WWII Organizational Book Series are now available for free as pdfs from its site. I can only strongly reccomend stopping by and grabbing a copy.

Date: Oct 15th, 2018
URL.: niehorster.org

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