Decisive Campaigns Attack Tutorial

Here's a really good, quick overview of how to conduct an attack in the Decisive Campaigns games.

Very helpful. I learned a couple of things from this I hadn't really thought through before.

Three Views of Fall Blau: Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue - 2nd Kharkov Beginning

It was a long, bitterly cold Monday, and I need to get testing on Chris' Race to the Volga scenario for Command Ops, but I wanted to take a few minutes and get things introduced for the next entry in the "Three Views of Fall Blau" series.  In our second go around with 2nd Kharkov, I'll be playing Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue from VR Designs, published by Matrix.

DC:CB is a very different game than Unity of Command.  It is almost board game like in it's presentation, and definitely an old school wargame in most of it's approach.  There are some really unique things about it though that make it a real joy to play, assuming you're okay with moving lots and lots of counters.

Three Views of Fall Blau: Unity of Command - 2nd Kharkov

All of this playtesting Stalingrad scenarios for Command Ops has me interested in the entire campaign leading up to the massive battle itself.  Beyond reading Moscow to Stalingrad - Decision in the East I wanted to game the campaign to get an overall sense of events.  It seems I've been collecting games that allow me to do just that.  I have three different games that either have Case Blue as a scenario or are specifically focused on the German offensive of 1942.  Specifically, I have Unity of Command, Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue, and War in the East.

Each of these games is at a different scale and different level of abstraction.  Unity of Command is scaled at 20km per hex with four day turns; units are German divisions and Soviet Corps.  DC: Case Blue uses 10km hexes with two day turns, units are regiments and divisions.  War in the East has 10 mile hexes with weekly turns.  Units are divisions and corps.  Unity of Command is the most highly abstracted of the three, War in the East the most detailed and complex, and DC: Case Blue is also generally complex, though in ways different from WitE.

I then thought that it might be interesting, over the coming weeks and months, to play through the various scenarios and campaigns of these games covering the German offensive of 1942 and the Battle of Stalingrad/Operation Uranus itself and compare them.  All are great games with an eye toward historical accuracy.  I hope that playing through these campaigns will hone my skills with all three game engines the same way playing a lot of Command Ops has over the past few weeks.

While not part of the actual offensive itself, the prelude to Fall Blau is the Battle of 2nd Kharkov.  Let's start our series with this battle as depicted in Unity of Command's "Stalingrad Campaign."