Objective Kiev
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One of the cool things about magazine games is small size, which usually means fast setup and always means portability. Objective Kiev and Battle for Moscow can be bagged together in a slim, plastic folio for protection. The resulting package looks vaguely official, something that might carry a boring lease contract, or the collected gas bills for the year, instead of something plastered with panzers and sure to attract unwanted attention if not outright ridicule.
Solo play through.
Setup is about 30 minutes, this is the second time. With a little practice, should be 5-10 minute set up in the future.
Time to start rolling dice.
Turn 1
This is where I learn the rules, and why things are the way they are.
For example, the initial setup dictates that Russian armies must not be placed adjacent to each other. This results in armies (infantry) alternating with corps (mechanized). One reason this makes sense is game play, setting up two mechanized next to each other is inviting a fast German punch through the line.
The Germans more or less punch a hole, but don't advance as far as they could.
The Russians beat a fast retreat and will attempt to defend the cities in the southwest part of the map: Iasi, Chernovtsy, and Stanislav. This is going to be impossible, though, because they need to stay in supply.
Turn 2
Hungarian and Slovakian corps enter as reinforcements. German infantry is going to swing a bit east, then south, to try and cut off Russian supply.
Germans attempting to squeeze the Russians out of supply such that DR results in elimination.
Russians start to get replacements now.
I have to speed this up, I don't have all day.
Several more turns transpire…
I've got to be someplace in 30 minutes, and the game is at the top of Turn 6. It looks a lot like the Russians will win it, mainly by bogging down the German at the south end of the map. The German would now be in the position of moving long distances across the map for lower adds attacks. The main problem for the Germans is the defense in depth guarding Kirovograd. It looks like it would be really difficult to take Kirovograd in two turns, given 5 steps of Russian replacements will come in right there.
As you can see, the Germans would need to either swing around from the north, or punch a hole through a developing line. The north has those pesky forest hexes which slow down movement. Punching a hole would be easy given three turns to ensure the hole is exploited.
In this game as in Battle for Moscow, once a defending unit is in a position where retreat will cause step losses or outright elimination, lower odds attacking becomes a viable. A unit doesn't need to be destroyed if it's pinned without a way to move, and not strong enough to attack.
Definitely looking forward to playing this one with an opponent.