Kharkov: The Soviet Spring Offensive is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1978 that simulates the Second Battle of Kharkov during World War II. Background The massive German surprise offensive in the summer and fall of 1941 against the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, had finally ground to a halt during the winter months. The Soviets and the Germans unknowingly both planned simultaneous major spring offensives in the vicinity of the Russian city of Kharkov. The Soviets struck first on 12 May 1942, and for a few days rolled back German forces. Then the Germans struck back with their planned offensive, Operation Fredericus, and suddenly it was the Soviets who found themselves overextended and on the defensive. Description Kharkov is a two-player board wargame in which one player controls the German forces and the other the Soviet forces. With only 200 counters and a relatively small map, the game is not overly complex. Gameplay The game uses a set of rules for movement and combat developed for SPI's bestselling 1976 wargame Panzergruppe Guderian: In an alternating "I Go, You Go" system, players move and then attack. However, during the German turn, German armored units get to move a second time following regular movement and combat. One game turn by both players represents one day of real time. Kharkov also uses Panzergruppe Guderian'''s game mechanic of "untried units", where Soviet units start the game facedown on the map — neither player knows the actual combat strength of the unit until it is engaged in combat and flipped over. Soviet units must be able to trace a line back to a headquarters location in order to be in supply; unsupplied units cannot actively attack. To simulate the Soviet offensive, Soviet forces can ignore German zones of control during the first two turns of the game. To simulate the delayed German offense, German units on the southern half of the board cannot move until the start of Operation Fredericus on the fifth turn, unless they are attacked. The game lasts for 10 turns, and is decided by accumulation of victory points for enemy units destroyed and for Russian cities under control by the end of the game. Publication historyKharkov was designed by Stephen Pattrick and appeared as a free pull-out game in Issue 68 of SPI's house magazine Strategy & Tactics (July-August 1978). The game was also offered for sale