WI277 - Sneak peak of Stalin's Europe

Wargames Illustrated #277 arrived at the front door today. I was very happy to see the cover and a Battle Report about Stalin's Europe inside.

I haven't been this excited about a new sourcebook since Hammer & Sickle over 1 1/2 years ago.

I snapped a few photos of the cover and the inside contents.

The Cover


German list from the Battle Report


Russian list from the Battle Report - Shermans!


Finally, a bio of the Russian tank hero - Dimitry Loza


Those M4A2(76) Shermans are expensive! My 229th and 3rd Guards Mech Corp run companies of 8 Shermans. I think for an M4A2(76) company, I may want to run them in groups of 7 to save points.

What the heck is the Emcha Gunner special rule? Is that why the A2's are so expensive compared to T-34/85's (taking into account Protected Ammo for the Shermans)?

In other news, I looked over Das Book. It's the size of the Open Fire mini rulebook. There are 9 missions in the book. Hasty Retreat, Roadblock and Cauldron are some of the new missions - is Cauldron a new mission? I don't know, I haven't played it before. Absent from the mission choice is No Retreat. It was an easy mission to set up, but you wanted to be the defender because the defender won 75% of the time (so say the postings on the FOW boards).

Nation Arsenals are up to Stalin's Europe. Although, Blitzkrieg unit stats are NOT in Das Book.

I don't use the amphibious rules or airborne rules, but for $8, it's hard not to pick up the book with the new missions. BF really should have put the EW stats in the book, though.

As always, thanks for stopping by.