In No Retreat! The Russian Front by GMT Games, 2 players take the side of either the Axis, led by powerful mechanized Panzer divisions, or the Soviets who rely on sheer numbers over power to play out one of the greatest overland invasion attempts in the history of warfare, namely the invasion of Communist Russia by the Nazi war machine during World War II.

In this picture, the Axis start the playthrough of the Fall Blau scenario (May-December 1942) just outside of the city hexes of Kharkov and Stalino in their drive to capture the city of Stalingrad to allow for control of the Caucasus oil fields which are worth a Victory Point. Initially the Axis are able to overpower the meager Soviet defenses as shown here with a sizable force consisting of the 1st Panzer and 17th Army with a total strength of 11 as compared to the meager 3 of the defending unit.

Referring to the CRT pictured below, this means the Axis is rolling on the 3:1 column which means a roll of 3-6 means that the Defender either must Retreat (DR), Defender is Shattered (DS) or Defender Destroyed (DD). We enjoyed the simpleness of the combat system and also loved the attritional nature of the back and forth fighting.


During this same turn the Axis attacked across the River Donets and defeated the Southwest 5-3 Russian unit causing it to retreat to Veronezh.

-Grant