Fortress Stalingrad
Laurent Favre
Lfavre@club-internet.fr



Fortress Stalingrad is a scenario I designed in an attempt to simulate the death of the German 6 Army. I 
attempted to portray accurately units. Of course there are huge gaps both in the historical data, and my 
personal knowledge, so true historians and scholars will inevitably find many errors in my data. Please feel 
free to e-mail me with your data and the references you used and I will happily make changes.



German player

  The German player has a tough time ahead of him. The soviet player outnumbers you, and he decides 
where and when to attack. Your initial positions are simply disastrous and any competent opponent will 
surround your most powerful army. Your reinforcements will be scarce and a mixed bag of fresh and 
burned out divisions or emergency units. Last, victory conditions emphasize Stalingrad loss, which was 
until 17th November a recurrent them in Goebbels propaganda.
 
 Initially you will have many gaps in your line, and you should as historically create some defensive line on 
the Chir in order to shorten the distance between Stalingrad and the relief forces.

Your next objective is to withdraw then 6th Army. You will lose the town but you may attempt to save your 
troops. I didnt want to put an idiocy rule  on the German player. The immobilization of the most part of 
the 6th army in the first turn reflects only material factors that impeded a quick withdrawal:
 -Units needs some time to regroup and redeploy in a new and unexpected direction.
-One just doesn't pivot two victorious armies 180 and give up the chief strategic prize of the summer 
campaign without first carefully assessing true soviet intentions and abilities and without referring to the 
highest authorities. 
- Supply was already low and motorized units needed time to regroup.
 In game term, units of  6 would have a half movement allowance the first turn. As it isn't possible, I 've 
frozen part of the army. 

 Relief operation has some chances of success in December if 6th Army cooperates with mainstein armored 
thrust. 

 When the soviet will launch new offensive operations, presumably on the Don bend against Italian army, 
you will have to withdraw. But by making this retreat quickly you may battle for Morosovosk and 
Millerovo to win the game.

Your supply lines are long. Be careful about partisan activity that may cut railroad nets. The biggest 
problem is however the low force supply level. Plan carefully your offensives to avoid depletion.





Soviet Player

  The Allied player is going to have fun, you have lots of everything, and there is plenty of room to 
maneuver and surround enemy. But your forces are weakened by some handicaps. 
First your supply lines are short the most part of the game. Your formation supply proficiency is low too. 
So your units will easily outrun their supply lines and will have to rest time to recover. As in reality, you 
should plan successive and limited aim attacks.
Then, cooperation between armies is limited, peculiarly for those belonging to different Fronts.
Last, your units are generally of lesser quality than German ones: lesser proficiency, light rifle squad 
against rifle squad to reflect firepower superiority of German infantry. 
 
The first step is the surrounding of the 6th Army. You have two turns to do it as German units recovers then 
freedom of movement. Sure, you will crush these hopeless Rumanians but you need on the first turn to race 
to Kalach. Avoid losing time. Offensive may begin by bombardment of part of Rumanian line to weaken 
some units. Then, plan infantry attacks supported by independent tank regiments to create gap. Then you 
will have 8 or 9 phases in order to push cavalry, tank and mechanized corps toward key bridges.

When you will have completed encirclement, dig in and wait German counterattacks. Dont overextend 
yourself even if on turn 3 and 4 German lines on the Chir are weak. Dont forget: supply is scarce and if 
your units keep moving, they wont replenish. 

Then your supply lines will increase; new armies will reinforce Don line. Time for a new push across the 
Don or elsewhere. German player will maybe choose quickly to reinforce 8th Army. Take example on 
Zhukov and Stavka: strike where German is weak to surround them.

You will need five or even six armies to reduce Stalingrad. Wait until late December to launch massive 
attack against Paulus troops: they weaken with the time.



Design issues



TO&Es

  The majority of time spent designing this scenario was spent researching TO&Es. A nightmare as never 
sources give same numbers
Some highlights:
- Only German has rifle and heavy rifle squads: all sources show their firepower was superior.
- German units have a few Rifle RL squads in order to reflect better anti-tank training.
- Rumanian and most Italian units have low proficiency. These troops were able to stand and fight 
bravely when well leaded. It was rarely the case. Moreover, most Italian units were demoralized in 
1942 as they regard this war as a Mussolinis one rather than their. 
- Aerial forces for both sides are limited, as their primary task was to keep or weaken aerial supply of 6th 
Army.
- Some artillery and asset units have been regrouped in more larger and unhistorical units to limit 
number of units

 
Current Problems

  Currently the PO is programmed, but it is truly unable to handle such a large scenario on a strategic scale.

Soviet is currently challenged by the asymmetrical bug which affects player 1s units (when they have 
spent all their movement points, they evaporate rather than retreat.

OOB isnt totally defined, peculiarly for the soviet 5th Shock Army.

These notes need to be developed ;-)


 

Laurent Favre	Page 1	27/01/99
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