Part 78: Turn 11 - Soviet Org Phase: Red Orchestra

Axis Detraining Phase, Turn 11
January/February 1943


2nd Panzer takes up positions northeast of Minsk. In this foul weather it will be difficult for them to start any offensive operations, but they should be able to stop a push towards the city.


The Soviets have 2 cards in hand, so they don't need to discard. They draw 4.


As their second card, they draw Great Patriotic War and immediately play it. The deck and the discards are reshuffled together to form a new draw deck.


Everything is fine on both sides of the front.


The Soviets may now upgrade one of their units. It has to be Overland Supplied. If they choose not to use this free upgrade on the Moscow Regional Infantry unit, they may later fortify it at a cost of 1 card discard. They may also flip Sevastopol and/or Leningrad back to their Regional Infantry side.


They may also pay cards to replace their destroyed armies. Remember that your units may be placed on the map at any Soviet-controlled city in the USSR that can trace an overland supply path (or at a friendly map edge). They arrive Disorganised.

Finally, at a cost of 1 card per unit, they may remove Disorganised markers from newly-placed units.


I need discards and placements from The Sandman. The deadline for these is Sunday, May 25, 6 PM GMT.

However, the Soviets also opt to play one of their cards now!



The Red Orchestra springs into action! It appears one of the many Soviet or allied intelligence networks in occupied Europe has gotten access to some highly confidential German intelligence data and are ready to send it to the GRU!

The Red Orchestra was the Gestapo code name for Soviet espionage rings in areas occupied by the Germans. The name comes from the original Red Orchestra, founded by Leopold Trepper, a Jewish agent for the GRU in Brussels in 1939. Under the cover of a raincoat importer, Trepper established several front companies in Belgium, which he used to get himself into possession of documents and knowledge he should not have. After the German invasion, he moved his businesses (and his "business") to Paris and continued to provide critical data about the Nazi plans. Thanks to his trade contacts with the Todt Organisation (an engineering group responsible for many large scale civilian and military construction projects in the Third Reich and occupied territories), he could gather lots of information on the Nazi war effort and economy. However, Trepper's main broadcasting station was shut down in December 1941, and a year later he was arrested himself and quickly agreed to co-operate with the Abwehr to feed the Soviets disinformation. In September 1943 he escaped, but by then his ring had pretty much ceased to exist.

The German hand contains the following cards:



The Sandman may now pick one to be discarded immediately.

Meanwhile, the Germans are about due for another reorganisation of commands. I want every German commander to tell me which position they want and to nominate one other member of their team to some other position.

The positions to be taken include:

- The Chief of the OKH,
- Commander of Army Group North (currently 11th Army)
- Commander of Army Group Centre (currently anything between 2nd Panzer and 3rd Panzer, including the two),
- Commander of Army Group South (currently anything south of where 3rd Panzer is).

Fluff commanders may decide to take part in the reshuffle or not. By default, they will stay where they are.

Alongside your preferred station I would like to hear one reason why you should go there. The reason may take the form of:

- A journal entry, no longer than 300 characters,
- An image no larger than 400x400 pixels,
- A speech no longer than 200 characters,
- A voice recording no longer than 30 seconds,
- A good argument, no longer than three lines.

Good luck.