OCS Depot

The Third Winter

This game covers the critical campaigns in the Ukraine region during September 1943 - April 1944. This series of battles pulled in 75% of the Soviet and 85% of the German armored and mechanized forces, nearly 60 mobile divisions. The campaign proved to be the bloodiest in the war to date and The Third Winter has the major engagements: the battle for Kiev, the winter counterstroke of Manstein's 'fire brigades', the tank battles at Kirovograd, the Korsun-Cherkassy pocket, the moving 1st Panzer Army battles (known as Hube's Pocket), the fortress battles around Ternopol in the spring of 1944, the baptism of fire for II SS Panzer Corps and the slugfest in Romania...  OCS Game 4-19, published June 2021.  Designer: Antony Birkett.  Developer:  Chip Saltsman

Four maps, 7 countersheets, scale is 1 hex = 5 mi/8 km.  Campaign game is 63 turns, from 26 September 1943 until 26 April 1944.

Game Specific PDF's: (files dated 12 August 2021 contain all errata from 17 August 2021 Errata)

• Game Specific Rules (Living Version 25 Jan 2022)
• Scenario Book (Living Version 12 Aug 2021) - Note additional update 2 Sep 2021: In Scenario 8 (Scorpions in a Bottle), the Axis player has only ONE Kessel HQ which starts on the map.  No second Kessel HQ is available.
• Axis Player Book (Living Version 12 Aug 2021)
• Soviet Player Book (Living Version 12 Aug 2021)
• Game Specific Rules - Edited to fix three minor errors.
• Scenario Book - Edited to fix one minor error.

Errata:

• TTW  Errata (25 Jan 2022)

Countersheets (a bit fuzzy, sorry):

• TTW Countersheet 1 Front
• TTW Countersheet 1 Back
• TTW Countersheet 2 Front
• TTW Countersheet 2 Back
• TTW Countersheet 3 Front
• TTW Countersheet 3 Back
• TTW Countersheet 4 Front
• TTW Countersheet 4 Back
• TTW Countersheet 5 Front
• TTW Countersheet 5 Back
• TTW Countersheet 6 Front
• TTW Countersheet 6 Back
• TTW Countersheet 7 Front
• TTW Countersheet 7 Back

Misc:

• The Order of Arrival for both players in their Player Books is in "visual" style. For traditionalists who prefer their OOA text-style:
  • Axis Arrivals
  • Soviet Arrivals
• Scorpions in a Bottle Play Notes - Strategy guide to the single-map Korsun Pocket scenario, by playtesters Antonio Salvatucci and Paolo De Francesco.
• Full Campaign AAR (Scenario 1) by Chip Saltsman
• Scenario 2 Campaign AAR by Chip Saltsman
• Tray Labels - Counter tray labels designed to print on adhesive labels, created by Chris Anthony

The Third Winter Vassal Module Page is here