PANZERS TO BAKU by Joni Nuutinen
LINKS:
⊕ Play Store
⊕ Amazon
⊕ free turn-limited at Amazon
⊕ free local turn-limited APK to sideload
Operation Edelweiss: The audacious attempt by the Axis forces to launch an attack across the vast Kalmyk Steppe and deep into the Caucasus region to seize the critical and massive oil reserves of the faraway Baku. Fuel and ammo logistics, horrible terrain, vast array of different unit types, and Soviet landings on the flank all combine to make this an excruciating operation. On the plus side, rebels hiding in the mountains are ready to start an anti-Soviet insurgency and the captured oil fields will eventually start to produce fuel for your tanks.
⊕ Taking place in: 1942-07
⊕ Map size: 2500 = 50 x 50 hexagons
⊕ Specials: Captured oilfields will eventually produce fuel for units. Fuel and Ammo logistics (can be turned off). A lot of unit types. Events: Chechen insurrection, Soviet landings, Luftwaffe sent away to Stalingrad.
⊕ Released: 2023-07
WELCOME:
WELCOME: You are now leading Operation Edelweiss: The Axis' ambitious attempt to launch an attack across the Kalmyk Steppe and deep into the Caucasus region. Your primary objectives are to capture the valuable oil fields of Maykop, Grozny, and, most crucially, the vast oil reserves in distant Baku. However, this endeavor comes with several challenges that must be surmounted to alter the course of military history.
Firstly, you'll have to deal with Soviet amphibious landings in the rear area. Secondly, the fuel logistics are stretched to their limits, demanding careful management and resourcefulness to keep the offensive moving forward. Lastly, the daunting resistance posed by the Soviet forces in the mountainous terrain requires skillful strategizing and perseverance to overcome.
On the plus side, the people of the Caucasus Mountains are ready to rely on your advance and launch an insurrection with guerilla forces supported by the German military-intelligence service Abwehr.
As the commander, the fate of this pivotal operation rests in your hands. Only through astute planning, adaptive tactics, and unyielding determination can you hope to achieve victory and make a significant impact on the course of this historical campaign.
VICTORY CONDITIONS: The object of the game is to control the city of Baku (located at the lower-right corner of the map) and over 110 Victory Points (gained from cities). A total of 110 Victory Points are available in this particular campaign.
QUICK TIPS: How the oilfields on the map operate. After German units seize an oilfield, it slowly starts to be rebuilt. Once the rebuilding process has been finished, the oilfield will automatically give +1 fuel to the closest fuel-needing Axis unit without a maximum fuel level. Settings: You can change hexagon size, city icons, unit icons, and many other aspects from settings, or via the four round buttons in the upper-left corner of the gaming view. Unit markings: Lower left corner shows HPs (Hit Points), upper left corner shows the number of MPs (move points), right side has several type of markings: warnings on red, attached resources on white, ground information (what's under unit icon) is marked on green. Zooms buttons (Z) are located on upper-left corner. Combat core concepts: adjacent units critically support each other in battle: encircling is often more efficient than using brute-force direct attacks. TMP-system: By controlling Key Tactical Locations (green diamonds) you will gain TMPs (Tactical Move Points), which can be used to move between two hexagons sharing Tactical Route (yellow-green arrow between the hexagons) without losing regular MPs.
CAMPAIGN NOTES:
Victory Conditions: Control the city of Baku (located in the south-eastern corner) and OVER 110 Victory Points (VPs), which are gained from the cities. A total of 140 Victory Points (VPs) are available in this particular campaign. There is a setting to increase the VP requirement to all available VPs, meaning the player has to control the entire map.
How the oilfields on the map operate. After German units seize an oilfield, it slowly starts to be rebuilt. Once the rebuilding process has been finished, the oilfield will automatically give +1 fuel to the closest fuel-needing Axis unit without a maximum fuel level.
If the player holds the city of Taman (route to Crimea), Romanian units prefer to emerge to that area (closer to the front line). If Taman is not held, then the city of Mariupol will be preferred (upper-left corner of the map). This puts some emphasis on the capture of Taman, in addition, this area also has TMP location.
Moving via railroad network consumes Railway Move Points (RMPs). Armored units consume move RMPs per move than Infantry. There will be slowly increasing amount of RMPs available each turn, and small percentage of unused RMPs will be saved for the next turn.
Some Luftwaffe air force units will alternate between being in the play and then sent away to deal with the Stalingrad crisis (outside the scope of this particular map). 23rd Panzer Division will be sent north to Stalingrad eventually.
WSS unit type is a half-division, as the smaller Walloon Legion unit is shown as this unit type. This then results in the Wiking WSS division to be available as two units when it arrives later as a reinforcement. Romanian Cavalry units are the same as Romanian infantry units (to reduce number of icons, improve compatibility with units types and replacements), except they get extra move point from time to time.
Placing of dugouts or minefields near certain spots is forbidden, as it implies fore-knowledge of the coming events. The purpose of the rule is to prevent the player from completely blocking the effect some unnamed events will have in the game play. Sadly, the first play through will always be the most realistic, as the player does not know everything. By the 10th play through, so much can be divinely 'known' and pre-emptively reacted to.
There are no partizans because: (1) There are a lot of units already (2) There are Soviet landings (3) Historically partizan movement was weaker on the southern sector of the Eastern Front (less Soviet influence and more independent ethnic groups).
Fuel needs to be transported from German Supply cities (upper-left corner) to the Armoured, Motorized, and Air Force units. Fuel Depots are a way to transport a lot of fuel at once, while trucks are efficient in delivering the fuel from Fuel Depots to Panzer, Motorized, and Air Force units. There is 1 Fuel Depot available at first, and one more will arrive later with re-entry of Luftwaffe units as a reinforcement. There is a setting to turn fuel element of the game engine ON or OFF. Please note that empty fuel depots will get extra MPs in the rear area.
There is an option to make full fuel trucks use their own fuel as their transport it. This is realistic, and increases the importance of the captured oil fields while forcing the logistics to remain concentrated on the main roads, but makes the game exceedingly hard.
Major Soviet counter-attacks north-east of the active play area are not included in the scenario. The Soviet amphibious landings might occur earlier than historically if the player threatens the Soviets with a total loss of ports.
Why isn't the Kalmyk Steppe relatively empty of units? The Soviets had the 28th Army in the Astrakhan direction, and had the Red Army Caucasus front kept pulling back, those armies surely would have been sent to attack from the Astrakhan direction to the German flank to distract the Wehrmacht. And there were a ton of reserve armies further behind Stalingrad. The oil in Baku was simply too large a chunk of the oil sources to not fight over with everything you got. Plus, the Allied Lend Lease was flowing in to the USSR via Iran, so that region was too important to give up without throwing all the armies nearby into the mix.
Tip: By keeping your air force units located right next to the main supply road, you can significantly reduce the need to transport fuel with trucks in the rear area, freeing the trucks to solely focus on the tricky front line delivery. Alternative ways to speed the fuel delivery is to send away the fuel trucks with the fuel depot to top up from an own supply city. Some might even consider flying the air force units next to the supply city to then refuel them with a fuel truck visiting the supply city.
Tip: The faster you seize Maykop and Grozny, the quicker you'll start to automatically receive extra fuel to the nearby units. Over tens of turns the extra fuel from captured oil fields can mean dozens and dozens of units of fuel. Due to the limited number of Railway Move Points (RMPs) make sure to transport the unit most needing railway movement first.
Scenario Specific documentation that includes links to more generic documentation on how the game series and the underlying game engine works.
To get a feel play the free turn-limited demo version (sideload or Amazon App Store), while screenshots are available on the app stores. No ads or tracking in these either.
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