The Arduous Beginning: The Attack of Army Group Center June – August 1941

About this board game

The Arduous Beginning: The Attack of Army Group Center June – August 1941 is a historical board game for 1–2 players, with a playing time of approximately 120 minutes. It recreates the opening months of Operation Barbarossa, when German forces drove east toward Moscow in the summer of 1941.

The game focuses on Army Group Center, the largest German concentration of troops in the invasion. The initial assault sent Soviet forces reeling, and Minsk quickly fell, but the German timetable demanded a decisive campaign. German panzers and infantry faced Soviet armies and mechanized corps along the western frontier, with the outcome potentially determining whether the war would be short or prolonged.

This new historical design by renowned designer Frank Chadwick is an iteration of his classic Battle for Moscow game system. It combines ease of learning and design elegance with dramatic gameplay, offering a focused treatment of a pivotal World War II campaign.

• Historical setting: Army Group Center’s campaign from June through August 1941.
• Scale: Each unit represents one German corps or one Soviet army or corps.
• Time scale: Each turn covers approximately eight days.
• Accessibility: Complexity is rated 2.5 on a 9-point scale.
• Solitaire play: Solitaire suitability is rated 8 on a 9-point scale.

With its concentrated setting and manageable complexity, The Arduous Beginning presents a dramatic contest between the German advance and Soviet resistance. The game’s 2009 release brings Frank Chadwick’s established system to this crucial stage of the Eastern Front.