KIEV 1941: THE LARGEST WW2 ENCIRCLEMENT by Joni Nuutinen
LINKS:
⊕ Play Store
⊕ Amazon
⊕ free
⊕ local apk
You are in command of the Wehrmacht forces planning to create the largest encirclement in the military history by using two fast-moving panzer pincers, one from the north and one from the south, to encircle the huge number of Soviet Red Army formations located at and behind the city of Kiev. Do you have the nerves and maneuvering skills to drive two narrow wedges deep in the USSR to pull off the historic encirclement in a timely manner, or do you cave in and choose a wider yet slower attack? Or maybe your panzer pincers themselves will cut off...
⊕ Taking place from: 1941-08
⊕ Map size: 2500 = 50 x 50
⊕ Specials: Two-pronged panzer attack to cut off most enemy soldiers in military history. Depicted in history books as 'easy' victory, but in reality the Germans were low on everything when it came time to seal the encirclement. Classic simple groud-warfare strategy boardgame without excess menus or econemy or logistics.
⊕ Released: 2024-05
WELCOME:
You are in command of the German armed forces planning to create the largest encirclement in the military history by using two fast-moving panzer pincers, one from the north and one from the south, to encircle the huge number of Red Army formations located at and behind the city of Kiev.
Historical background: Due to the economic importance of the southern USSR, the most and best Soviet units were placed here. This meant, that when the Germans invaded in 1941, the southern group advanced most slowly. Eventually, Germans postponed the middle group's advance towards Moscow that was evacuated and empty, and decided to turn the famed panzer divisions led by General Guderian southwards towards the rear area of Kiev. And if the southern group's own panzer army could finally get their act together (they were also tasked with seizing the massive industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk) and advance north to link up with the panzers of Guderian, a million Red Army soldiers could be cut off. In spite of his generals' pleas, the Soviet leader refused to empty the Kiev area until it was too late, and instead kept on sending more and more Red Army reserve troops towards northern (Guderian) armored pincer in order to stop the German encirclement movement and hold on to the industrially important area. The result was a colossal battle that pulled in more and more divisions from both sides as overstretched Germans simply struggled to cut off and contain such an unprecedented number of Soviet Armies in the operational area.
Do you have the nerves and maneuvering skills to drive two narrow wedges deep in the USSR to pull off the historic encirclement in a timely manner, or do you cave in and choose a wider yet slower attack? Or maybe your panzer pincers themselves will cut off...
VICTORY CONDITIONS
The game will end once German player reaches over 170 Victory Points (VPS), which are gained from cities. A total of +VP_TOTAL+ Victory Points available in this particular campaign.
Quick tips:: 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. 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. Combat core concepts: adjacent units critically support each other in battle: encircling is often more efficient than using brute-force direct attacks.
CAMPAIGN NOTES:
The game will end once German player reaches over 170 Victory Points (VPS), which are gained from cities. A total of 200 Victory Points available in this particular campaign. It is possible to turn ON 'all VPs required for win' setting from Settings.
Fair warning: it is actually possibly to finish the campaign WITHOUT the encirclement taking place at all. This can happen if you choose to massively direct Panzer divisions on capturing the eastern Soviet supply cities instead of pushing for the historical pincer movement.
There are in total five 4-HP security divisions available which can be summoned via Generals (one per turn, Cost 3 MPs). They will appear near (if lucky) the General that uses the action. Excellent for securing flanks.
Please note that Stuka Strikes can now be requested via an action by a general. This will give 1-3 Stuka Strikes and costs 3 or more move points. Some Stuka Strikes, in waves, will also become available automatically. The more you have Stuka Strikes requested already the more expensive they get.
The player is assumed to first seize the large industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk (lower-right corner of the map), before securing that area with infantry and moving those panzer divisions back a bit and sending them forwards. Extra MPs are rewarded for taking this industrial city, plus this area holds several TMP locations.
Due to the size of the intended encirclement in this particular campaign, the speed/likelihood of HP loss will be a bit slower than usual, and depend on factors like the area held and the X coordinate of each unit.
Due to the battles prior to this scenario starts and where the fresh Soviet divisions are located, the upper-right corner will be the most strongly held area by the Red Army, whereas it will be more passive in the western and southern quarters of the map.
This game marks the return of the early 'units gaining skills' system in a reimagined format. There are more skills, and they clash less with the 'tactics' feature. Also, the new system uses much less memory, as it is handled separately from other resources. That being said, it's a new system, so if you notice anything wonky with skills, throw me an email. At this stage of development, the skill-system can not be turned OFF.
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.
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-- FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about game series overal
-- Developer Log: tidbits about military history and scenario updates
-- Sortable Table of all campaigns