Gary Grigsby’s War in Russia

Gary Grigsby’s War in Russia description

A wargame on the topic of the great Patriotic war from foreign developers. What is nice – does not contain the slightest "cranberry" and has a high historical accuracy. And therefore deserves a detailed description.

You can play as Soviet Union and for Germany. The chronological framework is limited to the events of 1941-1944 years – the game starts at the time of the Nazi invasion and ends, provided games for the Soviet Union in late 1944, when the whole territory of our country was liberated from the invaders (of "Kurland boiler" game developers apparently don't know, but it's quite forgivable). All of the major battles of the war – the defense of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, battles in Belorussia in 1944 – present.

The gameplay is quite ambitious: you have to control the movement of troops (including aviation), to monitor the amount of ammunition and the timely arrival of reinforcements, to repair military equipment, change the structure and number of each unit (if necessary), and so on. However, some of these "local management", you can pass subordinate commanders (you in the game, apparently, are the high command – that is, either the Bid, or O. K. N.). Directly during the battle continuously provides comprehensive information about all current events (loss of reinforcement, the level of availability of resources [key, of course, is oil] and so on).

Needless to say, this game is turn-based. Before the end of each turn (in other words – before the outbreak of hostilities) to his troops can be given different orders – where to move troops to designate targets for air strikes, request reinforcements (as in any other game of this subgenre). All battles take place automatically, always acts first aircraft, then the ground troops. On the attacking side, as a rule, losses are always a few less. After the retreat of the enemy forces, which was the battle, comes under the control of the winner.

Map of hostilities divided into traditional metal – based. Any military unit can move per turn on six adjacent hexes. Some hexene movement of troops is occurring faster than normal (if there is, for example, Railways), according to some – on the contrary, slowed down (because there may be a thick forest or swamp) - that is, the variety of landscapes present. The game also takes place to be a weather change – it can occur between turns and to have a serious impact on plans of attack or defense (frost, thaw and so on).

All military units are divided into three types: infantry and artillery (squares with a cross inside); the tank corps (squares with inscribed rectangle); the headquarters (squares with letter H inside). Planes, unfortunately, the map is not marked, but are on the ground, you can see their number, location, give orders – but you cannot see in any way, they are subject, like all other troops, staffs. At the headquarters there is also a rather complex hierarchy. Of course, nothing prevents you to create new groups, different combinations of existing you have, you can also reallocate existing groups in terms of subordination between the different staffs, you can even create a new staff.

An interesting feature of the game for the Soviet Union is the presence of partisans in the occupied territories (except, of course, a hypothetical situation that the player is so talented that will crush the Germans in the first battle, then of course no guerrillas will not). Show themselves the partisans by the end of the stroke in the appearance of the map behind enemy lines red squares, the appearance of such is, apparently, spontaneous. Direct control of the guerrillas is impossible, but if they are to break through and unite with them, they will join the ranks of your troops. Sometimes (but this is rare) guerrillas can liberate some territory from the Germans (but probably only temporarily).

In War in Russia, unfortunately or not, there are no long campaign game is a set of scripts, each dedicated to a specific historical event; another matter that the historical sequence is, of course, saved. Victory condition is set by one of the parties of a certain number of so-called victory points, that is, victory points are given for the capture of "key" cities. Some specific battles somehow limited in time, so the winner may not be.

It should be noted that, unlike a great many other similar games, in War in Russia to be extremely friendly and intuitive for the player interface. Yes, different buttons and options quite a lot, but this is both logical and adequate, special difficulties with development should not occur. The only difficulty may be associated with different types of movements of troops. The Move button is simply there to give the order to move in a certain direction (it is clear that the infantry moves slower tanks, and the terrain also affects movement speed), button Transfer is to order reinforcements from the headquarters to go anywhere, the button Plot means moving from a specific to another specific hexa nearby Goksu (for a total of six possible variants), button Rail – travel by rail (if any), the button Transfer Rail move reinforcements from the headquarters of the railway. It is clear that the roadbed must be continuous from the headquarters to the destination.

Finally it is worth saying that, since historical accuracy in the game ultimately saved it, at first, much harder to play for the USSR at the end of the game for Germany. In the first scenario – the German offensive – when playing for the Soviet Union will, most likely, retreat to Moscow, because the preponderance of forces on the enemy side just huge. But they say there are ways to prevent the enemies to reach even to Kiev, so you can try. But the Germans at the end of the game, an additional "headache" - massive bombing of the rear of the aircraft the US and UK, leading to a sharp reduction in backup resources.

Graphically this sub-genre we traditionally don't evaluate, but we have to admit that in this respect the War in Russia also looks very neat and beautiful. Of course, the graphics are almost entirely conditional, but it is colored and sufficiently "adequate" - that is, to understand that where the special is not working. Overall – an excellent game, worthy of its high rating, and not least for the fact that it is one of the few absolutely adequate Western games about the Russian and one of the very few on the Eastern front of WWII. Perhaps some of the most hardcore wargamers he seems overly simple, but for most fans it's just a wonderful gift.

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Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com