For as long as I have been gaming – and that’s a long time – the WW2 campaign in the east has been one of my favorites to refight. I have a Battalion Combat Series game (Inflection Point – The Battle for Kalach and the Battle of Chir) in the ‘to-be-played’ pile, but it’s a more complex undertaking than I was in the mood for. This meant that a purchase from my recent UK trip, Battles in the East 4: Mius River and Vitebsk, designed by Antony Birkett and produced by Decision Games, touted as part of an accessible game series, was more suitable. And so, it’s now on the table.

Each hex is 5-8km, each turn is 2-3 days, and units are typically regiments, brigades, or divisions. The system is a modern version of PanzeGruppe Guderian and similar games, but with a very neat supply system at its core. In essence, your units only work at full strength when in attack supply. This comes from your HQ units, and – varying from scenario to scenario and turn to turn – is a huge influence on the campaign.

For example, in the Mius River battle, in turns 1-5 the Germans may only have one HQ (of their choice) in what’s called Attack Supply (the best condition) and in turns 6-10, they may have 2 SS Panzer Corps HQ plus any one other HQ in Attack Supply. The Soviets have 5 Shock Army in Attack Supply in turns 1-3, 28 Army in turns 2-3, and 2 Guard Army in 2-4. After turn 4, no Soviet HQ are in Attack Supply. This means the Soviets have to make hay while the sun shines in the early turns and the Germans have to recover their lost ground in the later turns.

While the supply system is simple, it achieves much of what more complex supply systems try to do with far fewer rules and overhead. I like it a lot. It’s not perfect, but it works. Further, you can see how more subtle variations might be utilized in different designs. For example, there might be a game where each side, at the start of the game, has to predesignate which of its HQs are in Attack Supply in which turns. A player might be allowed to change his plan part way through the game, but at a cost in supply availability, victory points, or something else. As another wtist, the rules might limit each HQ to only being in Attack Supply for a limited number of consecutive game turns, reflecting unit fatigue. And so on.

The rest of the mechanics are straightforward: odds-based combat with shifts to reflect terrain and unit integrity (bonuses for keeping formations intact) as well as armor and anti-tank capabilities, leadership, and artillery support.

The physical production standards are good. It has one double-sided, mounted map with excellent graphics, a rulebook printed in color, decent backprinted counters, and play aid charts and tables. The rules don’t seem to have any major holes, though given this is the fourth outing, that’s as it should be. I found two small pieces of errata in the Mius River setup. One was an obvious typo and the other was an extra unit that had been omitted from the setup list.

So, a very playable game, at least superficially. Now I’m going to give it a go and see how it turns out in reality.