A Victory Denied III

Turn two saw a determined German response to the Timoshenko attack in the south, with elements of 9th Army and 2nd Panzer Groups cutting into the Soviet troops. An aggressive attack by four divisions of the 3rd Panzer Group west of Krichev has led to a confused situation as the Soviet front line folded back upon itself. The advanced panzer divisions then found themselves in a pocket of sorts, though the forces to their east, in Krichev itself, are not strong.

Here is the board situation at the end of turn 2:

A Victory Denied II

Pat and I have now played a couple of turns of A Victory Denied. This clickable screenshot shows the situation at the end of turn one. Smolensk has fallen already as the panzers begin to make headway in their drive on Moscow. On a positive note, Timoshenko's counter-attack in the south from Rogachev successfully linked up with elements of 13th Army to retake Mogilev and destroy two Panzer divisions in the process.


The Germans are now firmly in control in the centre, but are being forced to send resources south to prevent a Timoshenko-inspired breakthrough.

Turn two awaits...

A note on map symbols: arrows represent advances made this turn, curved lines show the current position of the fronts, and circles indicate pockets which have been surrounded or bypassed. Black is used for the German forces; rust is used for the Soviets.

A Victory Denied

It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the blogging front. A computer meltdown is partly to blame, but with that sorted out I've also been busy playing over VASSAL. Two excellent games of Lost Battles were had with John, a couple of live games of Commands & Colors enjoyed with my brother, and now my boardgaming buddy Pat is back in the saddle as well.

Pat suggested we play A Victory Denied, which is the 2009 follow up to my favourite WWII boardgame, A Victory Lost. Neither of us has played it before, and while we are very likely making all sorts of blunders, it is turning out to be an engaging affair.

The game takes as its subject the abortive drive on Moscow from July-September 1941, and it already seems to be less static than its predecessor. That's not to say that AVL is static, but there are certain defensive positions that get used time after time. I imagine that the lines we use will firm up as the game progresses and as we get more experienced.

Here then is the game map and positions at start. The German units are gray and light blue while the Soviets are tan and red. It is a nice map, but I do find the glossiness of the paper can make it a little difficult to see what's what on the table under my lighting. Yet another reason to use VASSAL, from which this screenshot is taken:


It's been a while since I've learnt a game from scratch, and I'm enjoying it. It shows again the value of having gaming buddies to give a wee push when one is needed!