Operation Star: The Soviet Winter Offensive, 1943
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 SPI folio edition, 1979 | |
| Designers | Brent Nosworthy |
|---|---|
| Illustrators | Redmond A. Simonsen |
| Publishers | Simulations Publications Inc. |
| Publication | 1979 |
| Genres | World War II |
Operation Star: The Soviet Winter Offensive is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1979 that simulates a Soviet offensive in Ukraine during World War II. The game originally appeared in the "quadrigame" collection Four Battles of Army Group South, but was also released as an individual "folio game."
In February 1943, the Soviet's Voronezh Front launched an attack in Ukraine against Germany's Army Group South to retake the towns of Kharkov and Kursk.[1]
Description
Operation Star is a two-player wargame in which one player controls Axis forces while the other player controls Soviet forces.
Components
Operation Star includes:
- a 22" x 17" paper hex grid map
- 200 double-sided die-cut counters
- two copies of the 8-page rulebook "Rules common to all four games in the Army Group South box"
- a 4-page rulebook with rules unique to Rostov
- a booklet of historical background
Gameplay
The rules system is based on the Eastern Front wargame Panzergruppe Guderian published by SPI in 1976. This uses an alternating system of player turns in which the Soviet player moves their units first, then conducts attacks. The German player moves, attacks, then moves their mechanized forces a second time. During either movement phase the German player may conduct overruns (attacks at half strength, using only units which began the turn in the same hex.)[2]