Actually, are the battleships still metal? Or have they switched to resin?

EDIT: It'd actually be an improvement. More breaky, but much easier to base.

I bought Zombies!! along, but then everybody got addicted to it and ruined any semblance of fun by overplaying it.

Actually, are the battleships still metal? Or have they switched to resin?

By Saturday evening we had made it to mid August 1942, so about 21 turns played overall, which was quite good.

At the start of the game the Axis focused on supply point accumulation and was reluctant to fuel a lot of panzer divisions to encircle the retreating Soviets. This allowed most Soviet units in the Donets bend to retreat behind the Don at either Rostov or Voronesh.

Subsequently the northern half of the map (from south of Tule to around Svoboda on the Don) saw practically no cambat action at all, focus of operations was between Rostov and Stalingrad only.

In June the Axis focused on the capture of Sevastopol and advanced only cautiously into the Don bend. 11th Army on the Krim was reinforced with several infantry divisions and one motorised infantry division, and then the battle was on. The axis attacked here on a broad front, which lead to an extremely bloody and costly battle for both sides. When the smoke cleared in early July, Sevastopol was in Axis hands, at the estimated cost of ~70 SP and 30-40 infantry steps.

During the remainder of July the Axis continued its careful advance inside the Don bend. Only one major battle took place, when the Axis tried to establish a brideghead south of the Don, approximately where the Donets flows into the Don. The initial river crossing operation was succesful, and 1 German infantry division established a bridgehead. Alas, the Axis had chosen a turn with limited flight for their attack. Consequently the Soviets assembled a huge counterattack force. Unfortunately for the Axis, they did not yet have a combat mode HQ north of the river and were not able to reinforce the bridgehead before the counterattack. Soviet numbers prevailed and the Axis division was thrown back across the river with heavy losses.

Further Don river crossings took place at the start of August. One Axis army with about 5 panzer and 5 infantry divisions crossed the Don to the east, about 10 hexes south of Kalach. Following an initial attack by 1 infantry division, 4 panzer divisions exploited across the river and established a solid bridgehead. Thanks to a limited flight turn the Soviets were able to counterattack heavily and inflict severe losses on 22nd panzer division (5 steps), but the bridgehead was too well established to be crushed and could only be contained.

The Axis main effort was on another Don crossing towards the south, abouth half way between Rostov and Stalingrad. This crossing was successful as well and the Soviet forces defending the Don had to retreat behind the Manych, which most if not all managed to achieve.

In a follow-on operation the Axis panzer forces aggressively advanced thowards the Manych river crossings close to Salsk. This was supported with a surprise move by the Axis panzer forces operating out of the eastern Don bridgehead opposite Stalingrad: 5 panzer divisions were fuelled and moved into the Kotelnikovo area to link up with the main Axis effort. Rather surprisingly though as well, the Axis ababndoned its Don bridgehead close to Stalingrad as part of this operation. It was obvious now that the strategic targets chosen by the Axis were the oil fields and not Stalingrad.

The next turn was limited flight again, the Soviets won the initiative and went first to counterattack using the massive reinforcements received in early August. The Axis spearhead, one German panzer division close to Salsk, was completely wiped out, additionally half of GD division joined the dead pool. In its turn the Axis were able to consolidate its position and reestablish trace supply for the Axis panzers around Kotelnikovo - and this is where the game ended.

The stage was set for a massive battle for the Manych river crossings, to precede the isolation of Rostov and the Axis advance into the Caucasus. All the while the Soviet Stalingrad Front had assembled 2 tank corps, 2 cavalry corps and half a dozen infantry divisions in a its Simoferovich (sp?) Don river bridgehead, ready to start a spoiling offensive against Italian and Romanian axis allies in the Don bend.

Our group very much enjoyed playing this scenario. While June and most of July was dominated by turns of careful maneuvering, from end of July onwards heavy battles set the scene.