Donnserschlag is a two player game which is playable in roughly 1 hour per turn. This means that a full 7 turn game (or 8 if Donnerschlag is called in Turn 4) will take less than 8 hours. In fact, we felt like as we got into the groove of the game and became more comfortable with the sequence of play and combat procedure that turns would be able to be completed in 40-45 minutes on a 2nd play. I do want to point out that this is more of a game than a true simulation and was designed to create a high level of player interaction and replayability.

The historical situation is from December 12 to December 23 in 1942, “Unternehmen Wintergewitter” was in progress. This was the code name for a relief attack by Heeresgruppe Don to free the trapped 6th Army in Stalingrad.

We posted an interview with one of the games designers Patrick Gebhardt and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2022/08/02/interview-with-patrick-gebhardt-designer-of-donnerschlag-escape-from-stalingrad-from-vuca-simulations/

The game also came in at #2 on my Top 10 Wargames of 2022! post that you can read at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/03/08/grants-top-10-wargames-of-2022/

-Grant