How Does RPCs and collecting and using them work exactly in the game

I’ve played a couple of games of A&A Stalingrad and found it to be a stimulating and changing game. However, agree with the sentiment that the Axis player must execute with near perfection AND enjoy favorable die rolls.

Was thinking about how to balance the game without compromising the vision of the designer. Landed on the penalty that the Russians suffer in the first two rounds. In addition to “Not stepping back”, Russian units must attack as if unsupplied during the first two rounds. Note that the penalty would not apply during the German turn (Russians on defense) but only on the Russian turn when their counterattacks might be stymied by draconian orders from above.

I suspect that, on average, about 15 to 20 counterattacking Russian units would be so penalized during these first two turns. That might leave the Axis player with 3 more units to engage in the City by turn 3.

Also interested to know if there is a 2nd edition to the rules coming.

@Hansolo88

Yes you are right. Thanks

Yes it does, as long as the first free move is not into a contested or hostile territory.

Per the rules… Page 16 and 17.
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@Hansolo88 Anyway to give one last anecdotal addendum if you’re still out there, I busted out my own copy of the game yesterday and gave it a run. I haven’t touched the game in about a year so I’m pretty rusty, but I still remembered the basic strategies + all the rules enough to play at least a mid-level game.

I do agree that USSR is the much easier side to play, as they won. However, the game was a decent enough toss up that I felt it could have gone in Germany’s favor if I hadn’t botched some key decisions (mostly, I failed to heed my own advice and had Germany trying to break into all 3 city entrances instead of just focusing on 1-2 in-force. This left Pitomnik underdefended, which let the Soviets surround the city early (I had captured all but two territories in the city, those being the two factories). Once Germany was cut-off, they quickly burned through their supply crates and stalled out afterwards, letting the Uranus forces walk into the city and clean things up.

I’ll play more and hope I can get a better grasp on Germany in case others come asking for advice later.

UPDATE: In a second playthrough, I was able to win a total (although it took until about turn 12 to close the game out because some Soviets kept running around in the RP territories making me play whack-a-mole). I would generally recommend the following:

All Optional Rules - OFF (basically all of them benefit the Soviets IMO). Have Germany focus on the northern flank of the city to rush towards the Tank/Artillery factories. If those can be shut-off quickly (turn 4/5/6) it shuts down USSR’s ability to effectively fight in the city. To that end, in the initial stages of the game, use Germany’s air to target the northern ferry and/or any stragglers you can find in that portion of the board. If USSR isn’t building Artillery on the river, you may also want to make a point of killing the one they start with to reduce their AA odds long-term.

@Screamer hope you do soon.
I have set up and run 2 Turns , but had to pack it up .
Will try again soon.

@jim010 Seems to me it might just be a case of needing to try messing around with the German strategy, but again without a full game report I can’t really give super concrete advice.

One other thing you mentioned was that you’re not using air units in the city for fear of having them get shot down. That may be part of your issue as, in my opinion, Germany needs to be comfortable with the idea of gambling their air units to make decisive attacks against Soviet positions in the city during the initial attempt to break in, even if the air units get lost in the process. This is because:

A: you get more air units with winter storm later.
B: The “bad weather” mechanic in the later rounds of the game will eventually make your air units effectively worthless anyway.

So it’s a “use it before you lose it” kind of situation. In certain situations, the air units can be used to soak hits for tanks, as strange as that sounds.

@DoManMacgee I was just going to use Italy pieces from G40.