I played for a week without having an aching back or sore elbows at any time. It's got great mechanics and represents command and control, logistics, and all the fiddly bits very fluidly and intuitively, but simply put, it is much more physically playable than those monsters that are 6 feet wide.

On the topic of road congestion, we finally found ways to reflect it without any charts or unpleasant sequencing rules.

We've played 22-24 June 1941 a bunch of times now, including two this week, and are finely honing both the most critical surprise offensive in history and road congestion. For the former, we finely found some data about 10th AT Brigade yesterday and refined the Lithuanian revolt's effect

Whether a few dozen counters and a "dead dish" will be playable enough while maintaining at least a broad grip on historical accuracy is something knowable only through consideration and playtesting.

The papers above, from Soviet military journals in the 1980s, are generally consistent with each other and with the US Army manual, from 1945, so they are probably pointing in the correct directions despite their doctrinaire tone and careful omissions.

I spent a while in 2022 and 2023 digging further into Soviet evacuation, medical care, and repair.

The "Western" official histories are solid on medical and ordnance topics, but Soviet data is tougher to come by and if I want to build a system, I need at least vaguely comparable data for all the major countries.

I am trying to transform that system of notes and a spreadsheet into a few dozen counters and a "casualty cup" or "dead dish" that players empty and process in perhaps two minutes at the end of each game turn.

The system works well, but it requires a spreadsheet for five minutes during the enemy action phase and a constant trickle of notes taking throughout.

Each army has evacuation and repair assets that compete with enemy advances and environmental conditions to transform losses into replacements before the losses are permanently destroyed.

Currently, HU has units of the nine combat sizes that require specific quantities of replacements to rebuild and generate specific quantities of losses when damaged.

Many popular rules systems lack special replacement rules, and I understand wanting to avoid a topic so difficult to make plausible and playable.

I continue to labor to make HU an enjoyable simulation, this week around "special replacements." Europa and Battle for Normandy are examples of games that have special replacements, where taking losses generates replacements, and I adore them for it.

"Armored and Mechanized Troop Technical Reconnaissance in Great Patriotic War"

"War Department Technical Manual TM 30-430, Handbook on U.S.S.R. Military Forces"

"Particular Features of Tank Technical Support for Troops in the Summer Operations of 1944"

"Repair Plant on the Front"

"Ways of Maintaining Tank Army Battleworthiness in Offensive Operations of Great Patriotic War"