Wednesday, March 12, 2025

No Retreat! The Russian Front - Vassal game ends

Vassal game of No Retreat! The Russian Front with Mike has just ended with Soviet (Mike) Auto Victory on Turn 24 February 1945 has he was 2 VPs beyond the 8 required on this turn.

My Germans came close to auto-win in 1941 and 1942 but once Soviet replacements started to crank up I tried to form a solid defence line as far east as possible.

This worked for a time but when Strategic Initiative shifts to Ivans (better card events a real boon) a couple of breakthroughs saw several Hun units pocketed and a losses mounted as I failed to extract all but a few.

The inexorable advance of the Red Army then ensued and cities changed hands with VPs mounting in Soviet favour, and their early entry into Romania saw loss of Polesti oilfields and writing on wall for my lot as Soviets ground down the Whermacht and entered Germany itself.

This was a truly excellent game experience and by far the furthest I have ever gone with this game in physical form as either an earlier auto-win or simply running out of time usual game enders.

Never been to into 1945 phases and this only rule section we struggled with as to how to recalculate VP levels otherwise pretty smooth sailing throughout which is seldom the case.

As Germans I felt the elation of early offensives and near misses and then the relentless pressure of Red Army (literally turning from low factor brown units into high factor red units) and other world events (like Italian Invasion, D-Day) becoming a drain on German abilities.

Weather was pretty much historical (first winter is brutal) with only a couple of turns when I could have done without the extra mud conditions.

Whilst highly abstract NR retains a deep historical flavour and full immersion in the grand campaign with a low unit density and not too many special rules or exceptions, the cards doing a lot of heavy lifting in this regard, one of most enjoyable games I own.


Overview of game end with imminent German collapse fully evident







German sector with weakened forces and strong Soviets units poised for drive on Berlin







Southern sectors with Budapest, Belgrade and Vienna all in danger







The Turn and Victory Tracks at end of Turn 23 and German losses evident (so hard to rebuild units in later part of game)



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