Tom Kassel - 09:30am Mar 14, 2002 PST (#3433 of 3565) Resting from playtesting for the moment I played three games of Minden Games' Barbarossa Campaign during a recent trans-Atlantic trip. First game was a German victory in Spring 1942. All events and economic chits were German so that can be regarded as simply one-sided luck. Second game started with a nice run of Soviet chits and Soviet initiative in summer 1942, but it was immediately lost in fall (German strategic mode of logistics followed by steady German progress. The German staff was purged in Fall 1943 (can't imagine why - they were doing fine). Moscow fell in Spring 1944! Germans still held the initiative (and most of Russian territory) in summer 1945, so won. The third game saw a mix of German and Soviet event chits, but steady German progress saw Moscow and Stalingrad taken by Summer 1943 with Leningrad encircled so the German wins again. Slow and steady advances (or even small retreat followed by advances giving a second chance for an initiative bonus for a city which failed at the first try) seem good enough. There was little to no incentive for taking the risky aggressive posture in blitz attacks. This is all rather unsatisfactory so I'd suggest a few changes: -When attacking a fortified city, an initial green chit doesn't automatically advance but you re-draw and advance only on green/yellow. -Russian counter-attack table get 1R if Russians have tank superiority (more advanced tank track) -When resolving Russian counter-attacks, you must start with hexes adjacent to the most Russian spaces. This prevents you pointing to 3/4s of the front and just saying, "only two adjacent Russians, no possible advance". Successful advances would now tend to expose additional hexes. -On the Blitz combat table, make all Red results "No effect/End*", not just the initial one. -I think I'd be inclined to replace the SS unit in the initial setup with a normal German infantry.