Game of the Week, December 8-14

This week’s Game of the Week returns to the frozen approaches of Moscow. Panzer Campaigns: Moscow ’42 takes you into the brutal winter fighting of 1941–42, when the Red Army’s counteroffensive hurled a battered Heeresgruppe Mitte away from the Soviet capital – and then asks a tantalising question: what if the Germans had tried again in the summer of 1942?

Available at 25% off all week until 14 December, Panzer Campaigns: Moscow ’42 challenges you to stabilise the front and claw back the initiative as the Wehrmacht – or to press home the Soviet winter counteroffensive, exploit German exhaustion, and test whether Moscow could have been liberated earlier. And if that weren’t enough, the game also includes the extensive Fall Kreml alternate-history campaign, letting you explore a second German drive on Moscow that never happened historically but was seriously considered in German planning.

From Typhoon to Winter Counterstroke

In our October 13-19 Game of the Week, we looked at Panzer Campaigns: Moscow ’41 and Operation Typhoon – the great German lunge at the Soviet capital in the autumn of 1941, halted only on the city’s outskirts. By early December, German spearheads could see the distant towers of the Kremlin, but the offensive had burned through men, tanks, and supplies. As the Rasputitsa mud gave way to deep frost, the panzers and marching columns simply ran out of strength.

On 5 December 1941, the Red Army seized the initiative. Reinforced by divisions rushed from Siberia and the Far East – released once Soviet intelligence judged Japan unlikely to attack – Soviet commanders launched a massive counteroffensive along the Moscow sector. What had been a desperate, static defence turned into an offensive: instead of clinging to frozen foxholes west of the capital, Soviet rifle armies, tank brigades and cavalry corps went over to the attack against German units that had shot their bolt in Operation Typhoon.

"Der Russe ist in den großen Lücken, die unsere dünne Front allenthalben hat, an mehreren Stellen durchgestoßen und hat uns zum Rückzug gezwungen."

“The Russians have broken through in several places in the large gaps that our thin front line has everywhere and have forced us to retreat.”

- Gotthard Heinrici, commanding officer XXXXIII. Armeekorps, in a letter to his wife

For the Germans, the timing could hardly have been worse. Front-line infantry divisions were understrength after months of offensive operations, horses and vehicles were worn out, and winter clothing and cold-weather lubricants were in chronic short supply. Many troops still wore autumn uniforms when temperatures plunged well below freezing. As Soviet formations struck the weakened German flanks – around Kalinin in the north, Klin and Volokolamsk in the northwest, and Tula and Yelets in the south – positions that had seemed solid days before began to buckle.

Over the following weeks, German forces were pushed back from their most advanced positions in a series of staggered withdrawals and local crises. Some regiments managed to hold firm in improvised strongpoints and villages; others were forced out of their lines by deep snow, collapsing supply, and simple overmatch. Frostbite and exposure claimed tens of thousands of casualties, in some divisions rivaling losses from Soviet fire. Local commanders improvised new defensive lines in depth, falling back from one frozen river line or forest edge to the next while trying to keep formations intact under constant pressure.

Moscow ’42 focuses squarely on this critical phase: the Soviet 1941/42 winter counteroffensive that very nearly destroyed Heeresgruppe Mitte in front of Moscow. On the Soviet side, you are trying to do what Stavka hoped to achieve – not just drive the Germans away from the capital, but turn a failed offensive into a major defeat. On the German side, you walk the same tightrope the historical command faced: obeying “no retreat” orders as far as possible, yet trading space for time when the alternative is encirclement and annihilation.

"Измотав немецкую армию в тяжёлых оборонительных боях, в декабре 1941 года советские воины отбросили гитлеровские полчища от стен столицы и погнали их на запад. Разгром под Москвой развеял легенду о непобедимости фашистской армии. Историческая победа под Москвой вдохновила советских людей на новые подвиги, укрепила их уверенность в том, что враг неминуемо будет разбит."

"After exhausting the German army in heavy defensive battles, in December 1941 Soviet soldiers pushed Hitler's hordes back from the walls of the capital and drove them westward. The defeat near Moscow dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist army. The historic victory near Moscow inspired the Soviet people to new feats and strengthened their confidence that the enemy would inevitably be defeated."

Leonid Brezhnev, later General Secretary of the CPSU in: Lenin's Course, Vol. 1, 1964–1967 

The winter campaign is organised around the successive phases of this struggle. Initial Soviet attacks on the flanks (6 December – early January) show the first blows against overextended spearheads and weak junctions, often as fluid, swirling battles in deep snow and poor visibility. A second phase (early January – early February) widens the offensive along much of the sector, with both sides straining their logistics as the front becomes a patchwork of salients, pockets, and counter-thrusts. Finally, a set of “critical nexus” scenarios (late January – 15 February) highlights crisis points where a breakthrough might unravel the German front – or where a timely counterattack or stubborn stand averts disaster. All of this is tied together in a grand campaign from 6 December 1941 to 15 February 1942. For players who already own Moscow ’41, Moscow ’42 feels like the second act of the same drama – the failed drive on the capital paid for in a grinding winter of attrition, but it also a great game in its own right.

Fall Kreml – When a Deception Becomes Reality

Historically, Hitler’s Directive 41 shifted the main German effort for 1942 to the south, toward the Caucasus and the Volga, with Operation Kremlin (Fall Kreml) serving as a deception plan to convince Stalin that a renewed offensive on Moscow remained the primary threat. In Moscow ’42 this deception becomes a full alternate-history campaign: instead of sending their armoured reserves south, the Axis concentrate for a second offensive against the central front, using an order of battle built around the forces actually available in June 1942 and facing strong Soviet formations kept in front of the capital by that very deception. If you are interested in how we approached Fall Kreml as a plausible “what if” – the research behind it and the design trade-offs – keep an eye out for our separate Alternate History (Part II) blog post last week, which looks at that alternate history in much more detail.

Two Campaigns, One Massive Operational Sandbox

Moscow ’42 really is “two games in one.” The winter and summer halves share a common engine and map, but they play very differently: one is a desperate struggle in waist-deep snow and subzero temperatures, the other a fast-moving summer offensive with long armoured thrusts and fluid tank battles.

• The game includes 57 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI.
• The master map (244,620 hexes) includes Smolensk in the west, Kalinin in the north, and Moscow in the east
• The order of battle file covers the Axis and Allied forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.
• Order-of-Battle, Parameter Data and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
  
• The sub-map feature allows the main map to be subdivided into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.
• Design notes which cover the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the Wargame Design Studio team to produce this simulation game.
• Moscow ’42 provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play as well as two player hot seat.

Recommended Reading & Viewing

If Moscow ’42 leaves you wanting to dig deeper into the history behind the game – both the winter counteroffensive and the 1942 deception planning – here are a few suggestions you might explore alongside your campaign:

Soviet General Staff. The Battle of Moscow, 1941–1942: The Red Army’s Defensive Operations and Counteroffensive Along the Moscow Strategic Direction. Translated and edited by Richard W. Harrison. Solihull, UK: Helion and Company, 2015

 

Stahel, David. Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany’s Winter Campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019

Heinrici, Gotthard. A German General on the Eastern Front: The Letters and Diaries of Gotthard Heinrici, 1941–1942.Edited by Johannes Hürter. Translated by Christine Brocks. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Military, 2014.

Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov. London: Icon Books, 2012

...and here are some documentaries on YouTube about the counter offensive and deception campaign.

Screenshots

Below, you can see screenshots from Moscow '42 to get a feel for the 2D and 3D views, both winter and summer terrain, and the scale of the engagements. Clicking a screenshot opens it in full resolution.

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week: Panzer Campaigns: Moscow ’42. Whether you’re fighting to save Moscow in the snow, or testing the “what if” of a second German summer offensive toward the Kremlin, you’ll find countless hours of challenging, historically grounded gameplay at a very attractive price.