Axis Crimean Campaign

Axis Crimean Campaign 1941-1942, seizing Sevastopol while fighting off multiple Soviet amphibious landings. From Joni Nuutinen: by a wargamer for the wargamers since 2011. The most recent version out on March 2026.


Historical background: Plans for Operation Barbarossa ignored the Crimean Peninsula, but after the Soviet Air Force operating from Sevastopol attacked critical oil fields in Romania, the Germans quickly changed their minds and decided to seize the Crimea.

The first attempt to break through the Perekop Isthmus to the Crimean Peninsula was interrupted by the Soviet counterattack, with the Red Army breaking a Romanian sector of the main front line. This distraction allowed the Soviet Navy to evacuate their coastal army from Odessa to Sevastopol, crushing German dreams of a quick victory in the area.

And if getting through the Perekop Isthmus required two attempts, the Axis forces faced the same exact frustration when trying to wrestle control of Sevastopol: After quickly seizing most of the Crimean Peninsula, German offensives against Sevastopol were interrupted multiple times by the Red Army making amphibious landings in different parts of the Crimean Peninsula.

You must take over the command of the German 11th Army from Erich von Manstein and advance as effectively as possible while reacting to all the Soviet countermeasures like the Red Army unprecedently carrying out multiple landings.

FEATURES:

Unique aspects of the scenario: German railway gun units; multiple Red Army landings in the rear area. Dynamic flux between trying to make the initial breakthrough, then quickly spreading out through the island, then again getting bogged down seizing Sevastopol while fighting off the Soviet countermeasures.


"11th Army's task was to assault the enemy's last Crimean stronghold, Sevastopol. The sooner this was achieved, the less time the enemy would have to organize his defense and the greater would be the prospect of success... The heavy fighting for the pill-boxes, which the enemy defended with stubborn determination, was sapping the strength of our troops, and the severe cold to which they were henceforth exposed taxed their energies to the utmost. Nevertheless, in the last few days of December the tip of the spearhead drew near to Fort Stalin, the capture of which would at least have given our artillery visual command of Severnaya Bay. All we needed now were fresh troops... Such was the situation when the Soviet amphibious landings struck, first at Kerch and then at Feodosia. The threat was a deadly one, coming as it did at the very moment when almost the entire forces of the army were in action around Sevastopol!"
-- General Erich von Manstein in Lost Victories