Approaching the Campaign in Barbarossa: Army Group North, 1941

Stephen Rochelle, 4 February 2026

The campaign game in Vance von Borries’s Barbarossa: Army Group North, 1941 (2^nd Edition, GMT 2025) runs from the opening of the German-Soviet war on 22 June 1941 to 5 October 1941. In that three-and-change months, the German player is charged with capturing or isolating Leningrad. The game sets absolute boundaries between Army Groups North and Center (these are relaxed if you elect to combine the games on a really big table) but does provide a few victory point objectives off the direct Leningrad route that speak to wider coordination with AGC and the drive towards Moscow.

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Supply Route Overview

Both players run unit general supply by rail, with only the final portion of a supply route by road or overland. Rail supply can run an unlimited distance, but each unit only has a 5 to 7 hex (depending on weather and terrain) final line of communication (LOC) to link into the supply network. As an intermediate level, main roads (but not secondary roads) can provide up to 21 hexes of link between a unit LOC and the rail network. Additionally, the German player must convert railroads from Soviet broad gauge to standard gauge before they can carry any traffic (either units or supply) at a limited pace of 4 to 8 hexes per turn.

As main roads are scarcer than railroads, and as their additional 20 hexes of supply provide for much faster advance than pure railroad conversion, I treat them as a higher strategic consideration than the railroads themselves. Broadly, if a main road is present, a railroad is probably on a parallel track near at hand. The one significant exception is discussed at the appropriate point.

With that in mind, the number of supply routes can be summarized: from the German frontier to the Dvina River, there are two main roads. From the Dvina to Pskov at the southern end of Lake Peipus / Lake Pskov, there are the same two main roads, which meet at Pskov. From Pskov to Leningrad, there are two main roads diverging at Pskov and converging on Leningrad. Geographically, the breakpoints of the Dvina and Pskov are each roughly 1/3 of the distance to Leningrad. There are no viable supply routes southeast of Pskov; the necessary rail junction (near Velikiye Luki) is on the wrong side of the impassable Army Group Boundary.

Additionally, north through Estonia, there are a number of main roads leading to Tallinn, and a single main road from Tallinn north of Lake Peipus to Narva and then Leningrad. While the Narva route has the least railroad distance in Russia proper (rail conversion in the Baltic States is faster), it introduces an additional major river bridge that will require reconstruction as well as a very narrow geographic choke point. Narva is unlikely to support a primary route of advance.

Objective 1: Crossing the Dvina

The initial German offensive – the opening 10 turns – should probably set an objective of taking Pskov. As described above, Pskov is a hard requirement to maintain supply for any advance south of Lake Peipus, and the terrain in that area is more favorable for a major offensive than that north of the lake at Narva. But Pskov is within Russia proper and has fortified lines (the Stalin Line begun in the 1920s) – once Soviet reinforcements begin to arrive, it can quickly be made into a very difficult conquest.

We work backwards. Pskov must be taken; it is approached broadly from the Dvina River, the only lengthy stretch of Major River sitting across the German line of advance. Major rivers are noteworthy because their bridges can be blown and require length reconstruction: if the Germans dedicate two engineer units to the task, it will take on average 10 turns to rebuild a rail bridge (20 turns if only one engineer is available). The Soviets are not allowed to destroy bridges until Turn 4; as their demolition phase follows the German player’s turn, the Germans have 4 turns to capture as many of the Dvina crossings as practical. Coupled with this, all forces on both sides are automatically in supply for the first 5 turns, so supply routes to the Dvina can be temporarily ignored.

We again step backwards. The main road to Riga through Siauliai is the shortest path to the Dvina, but also the most heavily defended. The crossing at Krustpils is undefended, but no main road moves to that bridge and the secondary roads are winding and traverse forest and other slow terrain. It’s fine for supply but infantry is going to cross slowly, and the advance up to Pskov is likewise not supported by a main road. Daugavpils is on the far side of the fortified city of Kaunas, but lacks significant local defenses. Additionally, the rail route to Daugavpils is worth noting: no railroad runs from Kaunas to Daugavpils; the Daugavpils railroad branches instead at Siauliai. Until that rail conversion process can be completed, the main road beyond Daugavpils won’t count for extending the supply network. A German advance in this direction should probably reserve one or two ASPs to provide general supply while that happens.

I note that the victory conditions for the Initial Offensive scenario nod at all this – there are VPs awarded for exiting units toward Riga, Krustpils, and beyond Daugavpils – but they don’t account for the timetable of bridge demolition, and skipping the process of railroad conversion discourages the German player from thinking about how long it will take.

Counting Hexes – Railroad Conversion Rates and Contingencies

German railroad conversion is limited both in total amounts per turn as well as lower limits per turn along any given line. In the Baltics, these rates are higher, as the Soviets didn’t convert everything over to broad gauge in 1940, instead using annexed standard gauge stock in many cases. For this initial period, the Germans have 22 Rail Conversion Points (RCPs) per turn at a maximum of 8 RCPs per line. Generally a point is a hex, save for adverse terrain like swamp or marsh at 2 points per hex (relatively rare in this area). Including the near double-turn special rules for Turn 1, the Germans can potentially use 48 RCPs along any given line, though this is slowed by Soviet units and undemolished fortifications.

We set aside routes through Kaunas, as they are indirect and cross multiple fortifications. They’re fine for spending excess RCPs but aren’t pacing a primary supply route. The RCPs needed to put supply onto a main road on the north bank of the Dvina are:

• Riga, 38 RCPs to 1637 north bank, as a road bridge does not connect the two Riga hexes)
• Krustpils, 50 RCPs to 3143 north bank
• Daugavpils, 47 RCPs to 5807 south bank, as a road bridge crosses the river. Daugavpils can also pick up a length-restricted road supply net via the rail spur to Utena for 37 to 39 RCPs (4912 to 5112, respectively). This is an additional 9 to 11 RCPs for a dead-end spur with no use once Daugavpils proper is connected.

A Soviet strongpoint near the front line in 2314 is guaranteed to restrict rail conversion in the first Axis Engineering Phase to at most 4 RCPs on this primary route, as strongpoints aren’t demolished until after rail conversion is completed. This means that 44 RCPs is the functional maximum down this line, still contingent on timely work to clear Soviet units as well as the further strongpoint in Siauliai. Krustpils cannot be reached before supply checks begin, and neither can Daugavpils – though the spur line can be (the 21-hex road net would be counted from the Utena railhead which is 10 hexes behind Daugavpils), and Krustpils is within distance of a road supply net from Riga if the north bank road is clear. The German player should probably reserve some ASPs for general supply purposes if a spearhead is making good progress on either the Krustpils or Daugavpils axes, though.

Objective 2: Attacking Pskov

Regardless of where the primary Dvina crossing occurs, there probably aren’t many mobile Soviet forces in the intermediate terrain between the Dvina and Pskov, but the Soviets will be incentivized to start pushing reinforcements to Pskov itself and its surrounding fortified lines. The Krustpils approach has its continued weakness – no main road to extend supply in the intended direction of advance. As Turn 6 arrives and ASPs start arriving again, the Germans could allocate some for advanced General Supply, but the primitive roads advancing from Krustpils also mean that it will be hard for the trucks to keep up with an armored advance. The best route out of Krustpils is probably that due east towards Rezekne on the main road from Daugavpils; the fallback is northeast to Gulbene where secondary roads will link with either of the Riga or Daugavpils approaches.

With Lake Pskov / Lake Peipus to the north, the approach from Riga has little choice but to advance directly into prepared positions. Terrain in front of the fortifications is extremely slow and the Germans will not be able to outflank positions before the Soviets can respond with interior lines. The approach from Daugavpils has an extra line of fortifications across the main road, but those fortifications can be flanked to the east, as can Pskov itself. The southern approach is probably superior as a main line of advance, but a credible force to the west, either directly from Riga or crossing up from Krustpils, will help keep the Soviet defender honest.

Hopefully the German panzers haven’t completely shot their bolt at this point, as they’re painfully slow to rebuild, but getting this far and setting up the option to grind further north with infantry is an essential milestone in the conquest of Leningrad. There are worse places and reasons to lose your tanks.

Asides

Velikiye Luki and the Impassable Army Group Boundary

As a standalone game, AGN treats the Army Group Boundary between Army Groups North and Center as functionally impassable: the Soviets get a time-limited offer to retreat southeast “off-map” from Kaunas and re-enter; the Germans are allowed to trace supply across the boundary to supply sources in the AGC area. Nothing specifically indicates that the Germans can convert rail on the far side of the boundary, and my reading of the tone of the restrictions is that corner cases are not to be sought.

In fact, the scenario special rules for the campaign reference hexes W2925 and W3124 – the two AGN-side rail hexes west and north of Novosokol’niki, respectively – as “map edge hexes” which cannot receive rail head markers until the Axis player converts map W rail hexes to them. That is, no trace through these two “off-map” hexes to link this rail line. This really feels like a development misstep, because as discussed above, that leaves the line through Pskov as the only available Axis supply route south of Lake Pskov / Lake Peipus. The Velikiye Luki route is worse, to be sure – it is longer, is lacks a supporting road network to accelerate advance, and it is a much longer distance in Russia with the accordingly slower rail conversion – but the game-specific rules prevent it from even being an option.

Narva and the Road Not Taken

A final aside to cover the other major river crossing noted in the overview. Narva on the land bridge between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus seems tempting. All that faster rail conversion through Estonia! Less than 20 hexes from the bridge to Leningrad! That’s all true, but this terrain is ugly.

There are no secondary crossings of the Narva River. No secondary roads even lead to the east bank on the Russian border. The woods are very slow to move through. The Luga River is another defensive line right behind the Narva. The Soviets will see you coming; the bridges will be blown. It’s not that the German player should never attack through this crossing, but it should probably never be the primary attack. Eventually this path will be viable, and if somehow there have been spare RCPs to convert the railroad up the east bank of Lake Peipus (don’t bet on it, RCPs within Russia will fall to 6 total per turn), an infantry attack could be surprisingly well supported and supplied. And this close to Leningrad, a rail ferry plus a bridging unit for ground movement is probably all you need, without reconstructing the permanent bridges. It’s the only rail alternative not through Pskov, and you’ll want it operating sooner or later.

References

• German situation maps from “Der Feldzug gegen Sowjet-Russland : Band I. Operationen Sommer-Herbst 1941 vom 21. Juni-6. Dezember 1941”, US Library of Congress,
  See also The Nazi War Atlas of Operation Barbarossa for a description of this atlas
• High-level order of battle information at Wikipedia (Soviet Northwestern Front is the relevant portion for this article; Northern Front was deployed in Leningrad and further north opposite Finland)
• Context for the Stalin Line at Wikipedia
• Dr. Craig Luther, ACDC 2026 presentation on his book “Guderian’s Panzers” for context around Barbarossa armored operations from The 2026 ACDC (presentation focuses on Army Group Center, but common threads regarding flank security, limited tank replacement depth because the 10 panzer divisions in 1940 became 20 in 1941 by halving the armored regiments in each, and so forth are present)

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