Battle Gap simulates the Soviet summer offensive against Army Group North in the summer of 1944. This realistic wargame allows players to walk the razor's edge that divides a Cannae from a Phyrric victory, thrusting each player into its powerful narrative.

The German player dives head first into a terrible situation. Your right flank is unsupported, as neighbouring Army Group Centre has been decimated by OPERATION BAGRATION. The military situation might dictate retreat, but the victory conditions reflect Hitler's insistence that the Baltics be held as long as possible. So to succeed as commander of Army Group North, you'll need a mix of fatalism, fanaticism, and finesse. The German position is grim, but not hopeless...

Welcome to 1944 on the Eastern Front!

The Soviet player commands the three powerful fronts directly involved in the capture of Riga. Your spearheads will advance 300 miles through the yawning gap between the German army groups in the opening five weeks of the campaign. Remarkably, it is not a heavy mechanized force; just seven tank or mechanized corps in a force pool including 138 rifle divisions. The terrain here is just too wooded and bog-ridden to sustain the kind of swirling tank battles found in the open steppes. Instead, this textbook example of a Soviet "Deep Battle" is driven by a different set of advantage. It has the manpower to grind enemy resistance, the truck-power to keep fast-moving columns supplied, and the air-power to dominate the skies.

Baltic Gap has two distinct phases of operations. In June and July the Soviets hold most of the advantages and will attack along multiple fronts. Clever retreats and counterattacks help the defenders evade catastrophe, but heavy German losses are just unavoidable. This rather one-sided situation evens somewhat in mid-August, when six panzer divisions enter the fray.

Baltic Gap covers this action at a scale of two turns per week and five miles per hex. Four scenarios utilize the entire 34 x 44 inch playing surface. Four others cover just a portion of this area, the smallest, needing just five action-packed turns to cover a German King Tiger battalion to the 1st Herman Goring Panzer Division, from an early German collapse (off-map) at Narva to an intriguing what-if assuming Hitler allowed Army Group North to abandon Estonia without a fight.

Baltic Gap utilizes the Operational Combat Series (OCS), a system that can portray these battles like none other. The mechanics have been crafted to present a unified thesis bringing together the essential elements of maneuver warfare. Appreciating OCS as a great simulation provides the intellectual fun, but the design doesn't let delivering a great playing experience take a back seat. This sublime blend of realism and playability has won six of the previous OCS games the prestigious Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best WWII Game": Enemy at the Gates, Tunisia, DAK, Burma, Sicily, and Case Blue.

With the summer of 1944's compelling strategic situation and fascinating tactical puzzles, Baltic Gap proudly takes its place as the eleventh member of this illustrious series.

Baltic Gap Contains:

• Two 22" x 34" full-colour mapsheets
• 5 counter sheets (1.400 counters)
• OCS v 4.0 series rulebook
• 1 game OCS specific rulebook
• 2 OCS v4.0 charts
• 2 six-sided dice
• 4 Campaign scenarios, 1 smaller scenario using parts of both maps, 3 smaller scenarios using one map only.
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