Produktbeschreibung
Intelligence handbook on Soviet and German Infantry Forces
Stalingrad makes a slight departure from our previous Intelligence Handbooks, by being our first combined book and secondly it's also our first infantry book.
Inside you will find the Intelligence handbooks for both Soviet and German Infantry forces, comprehensive Street Fighting rules, a new Mission, background to the Stalingrad campaign, new Warriors, sniper rules, painting and modelling guides and much more!
Background
By offering both the Soviet and German Infantry in one book we could theme the book around the epic battle for Stalingrad in late 1942. The Germans battling through the streets and ruins trying desperately to throw the Soviets back across the Volga, while the Soviets tenaciously held on, white knuckled, not willing to leave the Boss's city. Fighting that continued until the last desperate Germans were overwhelmed by the rising red tide!
The first thing you will meet when you open your new copy of Stalingrad is a comprehensive introduction to the Stalingrad campaign, find out which Soviet and German Divisions, and Corps, were fighting on the front and what regiments were with them. This gives you a starting point for the flavour of your Stalingrad force as well as letting you know what it was all about, painting the bigger picture.
Colour
Inside you will find two extensive colour sections. The first section introduces the two armies in an 8 page pictorial battlereport, it's followed by a guide to collecting your force followed by 5 pages of Soviet platoons, companies and dioramas.
The second colour section looks at making City Fighting terrain, painting your forces and 7 pages of German platoons and dioramas.
Its all pretty spectacular!
Soviet Infantry Forces
The first Intelligence Briefing in Stalingrad covers the Soviet Infantry Forces. It covers special rules and provides full stats on the Soviet equipment, guns, vehicles and teams. Inside you will find an expanded Strelkovy Batalon (Infantry Battalion), Guardeyskiy Strelkovy Batalon (Guard Infantry Battalion) and Batalon Opolecheniya (Militia Battalion). The second two are variations on the Strelkovy Batalon, allowing for either better-trained troops (Guards) or lower motivation (Militia).
A variety of new and interesting troops are also available. You can field a Shtraf Company as part of your force, these are penal troops and can only redeem themselves through sacrifice in combat. They don't count as part of your number of companies for force morale, so you can just throw them into combat without concern for them.
For a more dedicated Assault force you can field a Storm Group. These troops consist of: a core of Pioneer SMG teams, these can be supported by further teams from a regimental pool of Pioneer SMG teams, Pioneer Rifle/MG, Light Mortar, Anti-tank Rifle, HMG, 82-BM-41 Mortar or 76mm 0br 1927 gun teams. These can be changed before each game giving you a flexible assault force that can be modified to fit the circumstances.
A full array of Weapon and Support choices are available to support your Batalon. Scouts, Machine-gun, SMG, Anti-tank Rifle, Anti-tank, Mortar, Regimental Gun, and Heavy Mortar Companies are available as Weapon Supports. At a higher level you have Assault Gun, Heavy Assault Gun, Tankovy, Tank Destruction, Anti-aircraft, Artillery, Rocket Mortar, Flame-thrower, Flame-tank and Sapper companies for support choices.
To keep your conscripts in order you can get Divizioniy Komissar Boris Ivanovich Vasilevsky, the new Warrior available to enforce Comrade Stalins Order 227 ~ Not One Step Back. With him comes his blocking detachment of three HMGs, just to make sure your troops obey the boss's orders.
Street Fighting
Between the two Handbooks are the Street Fighting Rules, so you can fight the vicious battles in and around Stalingrad (or Kharkov, Berlin, Warsaw, Aachen etc).
It covers entering and exiting buildings, multiple rooms, multiple floors, Infantry and vehicle movement in and around buildings, streets and rubble, firing in and at buildings, artillery in Street Fighting and assaults in buildings.
Also towards the back of Stalingrad you will find a new mission specific to Street Fighting called Not One Step Back. Fighting through city terrain you both try and seize more ground in your struggle for control of the city. Included also are further rules for Sewers and off-board artillery.
T-34s
The T-34s rules have been revised. They can now fire ROF 2 when stationary, but fire is limited by their movement, any movement over 6/15cm means they can't fire at all.
German Infantry Forces
It's not all about the Soviets, you'll also get an Intelligence Briefing covering German Infantry Forces. This allows you to field the forces that form the backbone of the Wehrmacht, the Grenadiers. You can field a Grenadierkompanie, a Schnellschwadron, Pionierkompanie or even a Luftwaffe Feldkompanie.
Grenadiers get Weapon support from Machine-gun, Mortar, Infantry Gun, and Scout platoons.
Plus they have the new Assault Troop with two squads of Pioneer SMG teams with optional support from up to two Heavy Squads which can be made up from: Pioneer SMG, Pioneer MG, Light Mortar, HMG, 2cm FlaK38 gun, 3.7 PaK36 gun or 7.5cm leIG18 gun teams.
The Assault Troop has its very own Warrior who can lead it into combat. Obelfeldwebel Hans Wolf Schmidt is the sort of gritty veteran you would expect to see leading a specialist platoon like the Assault Troop. This Fearless Veteran and his picked group of men are the ideal crew for assaulting those tricky objectives.
In Divisional Support are: Heavy Tank, Heavy Assault Gun, Assault Tank, Assault Gun, Looted Panzer, Tank Hunter, Anti-tank, Light Anti-aircraft, Artillery, Heavy Anti-aircraft, and Rocket Launcher platoons.
The Looted Panzer Platoons allows your force to field one captured Soviet tank, either a T-70, T-34 or KV-1e!
Schnellschwadrons are the Grenadiers eyes and ears, these recon troops can also make an elusive force in their own right. Use them to take advantage of the new sewer rules in the Not One Step Back mission.
A Pionierkompanie can be fielded from your Divisions assets. Pioneer teams are skilled street fighters able to mousehole (making holes in walls to move through) and loophole (making holes in walls to shoot through) more effectively than Grenadiers. Armed with Flame-throwers and Goliaths they make a destructive assault force. They also give you a motorised option for more mobility.
With a desperate need for men on the Eastern Front the first Luftwaffe field divisions make their appearance in 1941. With the Luftwaffe Feldkompanie you field a Confident Trained Grenadier force dressed in Luftwaffe blue, though some of your Support choices are limited.
Snipers
Yes we introduce snipers in Stalingrad, but what do they do you ask? Well, their role is to pin enemy platoons, so any team hit by a sniper becomes pinned while the target platoon goes to ground at the yell of sniper. They are expert at camouflage and hide themselves well, but because of this they don't move during the game.
Stalingrad also introduces two new Warrior snipers, Major Bruno Koenig (German) and Mladshi Leytenant Nobel Sniper Vasiliy Grigorevich Zaytsev (Soviet) each with their own special abilities.
I'm sure you will find something to catch your imagination for your next force, whether it be German or Soviet, in Stalingrad. |
