Grumble Jones December Scenario - GJ102

As December arrives, I breathe a sigh of relief...as it means the final scenario of the year. But then I catch myself and realized...January is coming and with it another year of Grumble Jones scenarios. Putting out the monthly scenarios is a labor of love thought to be sure. It remains a lot of fun coming up with the ideas and putting them paper. We'll see what 2022 brings!

So yes, Osprey helped me with the December scenario. And the cover is the inspiration for GJ02 The Professors House. The Osprey color plates are wonderful. I particularly enjoy the quality of the art on their newest publications. Some of the older color plates were not quite as good. So the action depicted takes place at the House of the Professors. Are you familiar with the House of the Professors? I was not and it took me hours of research to locate it on a map of Stalingrad. I first checked my ASL maps with Red Factories and Valor of the Guards. No luck. So then I looked to my other sources.

This excellent magazine comes with a great fold out map of the city. So I researched it hard. It had the House of Professors on the map but did it denote it...so I couldn't find it. 

My research in my other books cleared it up and the House of the Professors is circled in red on the map on Page 76. But again, it is identified as such...you just have to know that it's there and it's located in a distinctive triangular road junction. 

Jason D. Mark's outstanding Into Oblivion would finally show me where the House of the Professors was located. It's clearly identified on the map located on page 349. WOOHOOO!!! The house is to the west of the Dzerzhinskiy Tractor Factory. And this explains why I couldn't find it on the ASL maps. I believe Critical Hit has covered this part of Stalingrad, so those of you with that map should be able to see the House of the Professors.

Stalingrad is such a huge battle space. It's just massive and even though there are a ton of Stalingrad scenarios, there is still so much of the battle that has never been covered. And that's a good thing. As time goes on, designers will still be able to model Stalingrad scenarios over the coming years. And designers will find a plethora of great books on the subject. It's a bit of a golden age for books about the battle.

And YouTube is another outstanding resource for Stalingrad. I've become a huge fan of the YouTube channel for TIK. He has been doing a massive series of videos about the battle from the advance to the Don to the advance to the Volga. And the detail is just incredible. If you have not seen his videos...they are a must. And he is not finished yet. Currently, we are only up to mid-October with some of the most well-known fighting yet to be covered. 

TIK Channel 

The link above will take you to the most recent episode, which coincidentally covers the House of the Professors area of the battle. It doesn't delve much into the fighting there, but you will see that part of the city covered in the course of the episode. 

So why Stalingrad? That's a great question, because I generally don't enjoy Stalingrad scenarios, because they tend to be in your face urban slugfests. I tend to enjoy combined arms actions with opportunities to maneuver. Stalingrad doesn't usually often you the opportunity to maneuver.  So...I usually avoid the battle. And from a scenario design standpoint...I just felt like there were more and better Stalingrad scenarios than I could provide.

And then I saw the cover of the Osprey book and realized...this would be a cool ASL scenario. Now, I won't pretend that I'm the designer to do it justice. There are many, many better designers than I will ever be that could take this event and make a great scenario. 

So after deciding on the fight to depict, I next had to come up with maps. I looked at the current urban geoboards and couldn't come up with anything that matched my vision. So then I looked at the DASL boards and found what I was looking for. Next I threw in a ton of infantry for both sides....cause it will be a bloody engagement and you need the squads to keep you in the fight!!!

As always with my scenarios, I hope that they are fun and passably provide a glimpse into the actual event. And thank you for the support and encouragement that I have received from so many readers. It's very much appreciated.

Here now is GJ102 - The Professors House.

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).