Panzers to Baku

Panzers to Baku is a strategy boardgame set on WWII Eastern Front in 1942, modelling the historical events of German push deep into Caucasus at divisional level. From Joni Nuutinen: By a wargamer for the wargamers since 2011. Latest update on July 2026. You are leading Operation Edelweiss: The ambitious Axis attempt to launch an attack across the Kalmyk Steppe and deep into the Caucasus region. Your primary objectives are to capture the oil fields of Maykop, Grozny, and, most crucially, the vast oil reserves in distant Baku. However, this endeavor comes with several challenges that must be dealt with to alter the course of military history. Firstly, you'll have to deal with Soviet amphibious landings in the flank. Secondly, the fuel and ammo logistics are stretched to their limits, demanding careful management to keep the offensive moving forward. Lastly, the daunting resistance posed by the Soviet forces in the mountainous terrain requires perseverance to overcome as your fuel runs low. On the plus side, the people of the Caucasus Mountains rely on your advance and launch an insurrection with guerilla forces -- supported by the German military-intelligence service Abwehr. Basically, Germans had a semi-unsolvable problem: The only way to guarantee smooth fuel logistics all the way to the Caucasus was to keep the motorized forces in one rigid, concentrated strike force.... but that would inevitably lead to dangerously narrow advance along one of the coasts, greatly increasing the chances of the whole spearhead getting cut off at once if something happened on the flanks. This scenario includes a lot of various unit types without including overwhelming number of units to move, plus the Luftwaffe units will be sent away to Stalingrad for a while, so your aerial support varies during the play. The major events include the German-friendly rebellion in the Caucasus mountains and the major Soviet landings on the Axis flank. How the oilfields on the map operate. After German units seize an oilfield, it starts to be rebuilt. Once the rebuilding process has been finished, the oilfield will automatically give +1 fuel to the closest fuel-needing Axis unit. Fuel and Ammo logistics: Transporting key supplies to the frontline can be turned OFF if you prefer a simpler mechanics. This status is shown on the Hall of Fame since the game is easier without having to stretch fuel supply lines all the way the last objectives. "The overall situation for the Wiking Panzer Grenadier Division had changed decisively: it had advanced into the mountain valleys and the remote mountain villages of the Western Caucasus after the headlong advance through the plains of the Kuban... although it had crossed the Maikop-Tuapse road to the south... the entryway to Tuapse was blocked by the heights of the Western Caucasus (1,000 meters and higher) uncharted valleys and roaring creeks. Completely changed fighting conditions; unsuitable for tanks and motorized formations... On 23 August 1942, we were given a demonstration of the new state of affairs in the position that we had reached that was the farthest to the west. In Chadyschenskaja, embedded in the pocket of a valley, we failed in the effort to advance farther. The detonations of the Russian shells echoed threateningly from the dark, steep slopes. There were only 60 kilometers separating us from Tuapse and from the coast of the Black Sea." -- Ewald Klapdor in Viking Panzers