I. Overview:

The campaign will generally be executed using the “General’s War” version of Firestorm Bagration. There will be a few modifications to facilitate running the campaign as a web based effort and to add in more historical realism. We will use the six turn campaign with the 22 June 1944 start date.

Gamers who wish to participate in this event may do so in two ways. They may elect to be part of the “Strategic” discussions that will occur on the HQ/Staff forum for each side, they may elect to play the table top battles that are developed during the course of the campaign or they may do both of these. A player’s involvement in the campaign may be as little as playing in a single battle from one of the turns or they may play multiples battles every turn and be heavily involved in the strategic discussions.

Battles will generally be fought at the 1500 level and modified by supply status and the presence of Firestorm Troops. We will endeavor to maintain a high level of historical realism and thus will use only late war East Front German and Soviet army lists. For the effects of battles to count in the campaign a battle report of the action must be posted on the BF Forums.

Each side will need to designate a “C-in-C.” This designated person will be the main liaison to the campaign organizer. Each side can keep with the same C-in-C throughout the campaign or the may choose a new one each round. The C-in-C will have to make the final decisions of Attacks and other Strategic Moves but they should be heavily involved with other players on a side’s HQ/Staff forum to take advice of the experience and insights of all those who wish to help formulate the campaign strategy from turn to turn.

II. Turn Sequence.

We will keep to a three week cycle to complete each campaign turn in accordance with the following:

Week 1
Tuesday – Planning the two C-in-C’s and Organizer determine battles
Wednesday – Campaign Organizer post all generated battles
Thursday – Players sign up to fight posted battles.
Week 3
Sunday – Deadline for battle reports to be posted on BF Forums
Monday – Strategic Phase (C-in-C’s with Organizer)

The general idea is to allow three weekends to get battles in. The C-in-C’s will be heavily involved on Monday and Tuesday night every third week wrapping up the previous turn’s strategic admin and then working out the battle breakdown for the following turn.

III. Planning Phase.

The two C-in-C’s will meet on-line at the BF Forums with the Organizer at the same time on every third Tuesday to conduct the Planning Phase and moves for the upcoming turn.

The Organizer will start a thread on the BF Forum that includes an updated Campaign map and the number of attacks allowed for that turn (2d6.. with a min # of 4). Maskirovka is effect and the Soviets will have initiative completely for the first turn and a +1 to initiative rolls in turn 2. The C-in-C’s will determine where to place attack arrow back and forth in accordance with the initiative and normal rules for assigning Firestorm troops to the fight. Each time a new attack arrow is placed and Firestorm troops are placed the map will be updated. This process will continue on line until all attacks battles for the turn have be determined. The battles generated will then be posted on BF Forum on next night (Wednesday) for players to sign-up for.

IV. Battle Phase.

Forces. Each generated for the turn will include a full description of the allowable forces for that zone, supply effects if any. Grenadier (FE2) and Strelkovy (Standard(FE2) or Udarny(H&S)) are the default force type and can always be used in anyzone. The presence of Firestorm Troops allocated to the battle will allow the options as using other forces as follows:

German:

Tiger - 501st and 505th
- Heer Tiger Company (H&S)
Panther - 5th Panzer Division – Panzer Company
- Sperrverband (H&S), Panzer Ko (FE2), Panzer Grenadier Ko (FE2)
Stug - 78th Sturm Division
- Sturm Kompany (SO), Stug Batterie (SO)
PzKw-IV - 20th PanzerDivision
- Sperrverband (H&S), Panzer Ko (FE2), Panzer Grenadier Ko (FE2)
SdKfz 251 - Panzer Grenadier Divisions (14, 18, 26 & FHH)
- Panzer Grenadier KO(FE2), Panzer Ko (FE2)
Pioneer Truck - Armee Pioneers
- Ersatz Pioneer Ko (H&S)
In Vitebsk or any zone adjacent
- Luftwaffe

Soviet:

IS-2 - IS-2 Regiments (63rd Guards, 4th & 5th Independent)
- IS-2 Tank Regiment (SO) , ISU Regiment (RoH when published)
T-34/85 - Tank Corps (1st Guards, 2nd Guards, 3rd & 9th)
- Tankovy (FE2/H&S), MotoStrelkovy (H&S), MotoStrelkovy (FE2/H&S)
T-34/76 - Guards Tank Corps (3rd Guards & 1st Mech)
- Rota Razvdeki (H&S), MotoStrelkovy (H&S), Guards Tankovy (H&S), Inomarochnikiy Tankovy (H&S)
8th Penal Battalion
- 8th Shtraf Battalion (SO)
Pioneer - Front Engineers
- Sapper Battalion (RoH when published)
SU-76M - Cavalry Corps (2nd 3rd, 4th, & 7th Guards Cavalry)
- Cossack Sotnya (FE1), Rota Razvdeki (H&S), MotoStrelkovy (FE2), Tankovy (FE2)

Terrain. Terrain will be determined by the zone type and setup in accordance with pages 55 to 59 of Firestorm.

Mission. Missions will be determined by the rolling on the terrain mission table on page 21 of Firestorm and played on 4’ x 6’ tables.

AAR’s. For a battle to count in the campaign a battle report is required. We are looking for these to be at least one page in length and to include a couple of photos. Accordingly miniatures and terrain should be to a “Tournament” standard at a minimum.

Signing Up for Battles. When signing up for a battle you are acknowledging that you can muster enough forces to include bonus Firestorm Troops to fight the battle. Your opponent does not need to be actively participating in this campaign though its best if they are. Many players can sign up to fight the same battle in which case the scores submitted will be averaged out. You are also committing to follow up a decent battle report when you sign up to fight a battle. Not following through with this requirement may result in you being dropped from further campaign participation.

Unresolved Battles. Any battle that remains unresolved by the 3rd Sunday deadline will be resolved by the Organizer using the rules on pages 45 to 47 of Firestorm.

V. Strategic Planning Phase.

The two C-in-C’s will meet on-line at the BF Forums with the Organizer at the same time on every third Monday to conduct the Strategic Phase – Exploitation moves, Partisan and Polizei activities, Reinforcements, March Moves, and Rail Moves. This will be executed on line on the BF Forums in much the same manner as the Planning Phase.