Time has come for the third and last chapter of our Moscow '41 gaming session.

My opponent's Pass had left me very surprised. Passing on the first Soviet impulse is not unusual. It is a clever solution to not reduce the Soviet Logistics Value and, above all, it allows to save the activations of the two Soviet HQs.

In fact, although the Soviets can count on the numerical superiority of 36 blocks against 20, they only have 2 HQs - each at 3 stars - while the Germans have 3 HQs, each at 4 stars. And this is the real metronome of the game: 4 Soviet activations against 9 Germans.

But a Soviet Pass on the first impulse is not very effective if in the first German Impulse has managed to open at least two gaps.

Furthermore, with his Pass my opponent, instead of closing one of the four gaps that had been created, had made the powerful infantry of Moscow flow to the front line.

I can't understand what he's doing and how he can believe that the game is unbalanced in favor of the Soviets who, according to him, with the YouTuber's secret move can win every game and quickly.

In any case, I decided not to ask too many questions and take advantage of those gaps, reactivate both HQs on the map to exploit the gaps, advance the motorized formations and surround one of his two HQs, the Central Front.

The other, the NW Front, I rendered useless by advancing the Lehr into the woods leading to the Valdai Hills threatening his supply line and hindering a possible deployment towards the center by disturbing his command line.

At that point my impulse was over without even a fight, but the Soviet reaction capacity was zeroed. I had created two rings and all I had to do was wait for the ten surrounded Soviet blocks to surrender.

So after, the German Logistics Value would have been boosted by a +1 for the remainder of the game (Hiwis) and he would have lost forever one of his HQ (Central Front) for surrendering.

White drums mark Soviet OOS blocks; Blue cylinder marks the Soviet Central Front HQ; Yellow cylinder marks the Soviet NorthWestern Front and the yellow plastic flag point to Area 80 (described below). The German GrossDeutschland (not showed in the picture) is in Area 139, closing the southern segment of the southern ring.

"You lost!" the champion replied with a chuckle while his fans took pictures that were transmitted through the network all over the world.

E: "Why do you think that?"
C: "How do you win at this game?"
E: "With seven flags there is Sudden Death, otherwise we go to December and whoever has the most wins"
C: "So you lost!" replied chuckling loudly.
E: "Why would I have lost?"
C: "Because you left Smolensk empty and now I conquer it and win"

I looked at the map. My opponent's statement was somehow correct. Since at the beginning of the game the Soviets control six of the seven flags (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kursk, Voronezh and Tula) while the Germans control only one (Smolensk). But...

E: "And how do you plan to do it?"
C: "As the YouTuber explained. But I have perfected his move and will attack with the addition of the powerful infantry that I brought from Moscow in the previous impulse"
E: "I'm afraid that's impossible"
C: "Not at all, now I attack in Area 80 and then I spend the Initiative Disc to enter Smolensk that you left empty"
E: "I'm afraid that's impossible."
C: "Now you'll see"

And he began to move his OOS blocks by jumping over mine.

E: "I'm afraid you can't attack with OOS blocks. And anyway you can't jump over areas occupied by my blocks. Also you don't have the Initiative Disc"

C: "What? Why don't I have the Disc? Where is my Disc?"

E: "The Initiative Disc is here with me, I haven't spent it yet, as I wanted to keep the Initiative. Have you had a chance to read the precious Strategic Guide?"

C: "No, I don't need strategy guides. So you are saying that the YouTuber is wrong?"
E: "Does your YouTuber wear these two rings on his left hand, as I do?"
C: "Let me check..."
The tech assisted world champion employed one of his computer and confirmed: "Yes, the YouTuber has two rings like yours".

E: "That's not a YouTuber. That's me - see we have the same rings and the same voice?"
C: "You might have the same rings, but the YouTuber is American and speaks English, while you are Italian. His name is Blocks in the East, not Emanuele Santandrea".

You can check the video mentioned above - named "Timoshenko Strikes Back" - by clicking on the image below:

At this point the story to be told stops. After all, my English is only decent and what followed is not relevant to the game.

Anyway, I made myself available to help the world champion, but he replied piqued that he no longer liked the game because it was unbalanced.

So he remained aligned with his initial assumption, which I just proved being wrong, except that now - after having played one Impulse with the designer - he was convinced that Germans - not the Soviets - are too strong.

I do not believe that Moscow '41 is unbalanced at all. And no clever person who has played the game following the tutorials provided with the game and described in the rules would think so.

And it's not even a repetitive game where there's a special move that makes you win every game without thinking.

It is not a simple game, one where you move the pieces randomly, roll the dice and hope that everything goes as you wish. This is precisely why we developed the Strategy Guide ten years ago.

At the time of the challenge - in 2016 - I had played a hundred Moscow '41 games and since then I have played another hundred and developed new strategies for Moscow '41 that have flowed into the new Strategy Guide offered on Kickstarter together with the air module developed for The Lions of El Alamein.

The new expansion also includes a historical analysis of wargaming from its origins to today together with an analysis of Operation Barbarossa written thanks to unpublished documents that reveal some mysteries and debunk some of the false myths that have accompanied us for decades.

I believe that sharing experiences and spreading tools to stimulate the ability of abstract thinking is more stimulating than looking for miraculous potions to copy so as not to make any effort. 

But this is the thought of a young designer born in a Mediterranean country without great opportunities who has tried to do his bit to improve the world we all live in.

And what do you think?

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