Gary Grigsby's War in the East

Publisher: Matrix Games · Studio: 2by3 Games · Creator: Gary Grigsby, Joel Billings

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Anecdote

A monumental work from the American studio 2by3 Games, directed by veterans Gary Grigsby and Joel Billings and published by Matrix Games in December 2010, War in the East simulates at the operational scale the entirety of the Eastern Front from June 1941 to May 1945. The map covers five million square kilometres divided into fifteen-kilometre hexagons, across which nearly four thousand historically attested units engage at division level. The orders of battle draw on Soviet and German archives consulted by historians Glantz, Citino, and Erickson, faithfully representing both the growing strength of the Red Army and the progressive erosion of the Wehrmacht. The logistics system distinguishes between railway wagons, serviceable roads, horses, and trucks, thereby modelling the genuine constraints that weighed on any operation at this scale. The player can command the Axis against the Red Army in a grand campaign spanning four real-world years across two hundred weekly turns, requiring between eighty and two hundred hours to complete. Shorter scenarios, by contrast, focus on specific battles such as Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Kursk, or Bagration over a few sessions. The interface, austere for newcomers but of abyssal depth, simultaneously manages tactical aviation, partisans, terrain, and weather in a detailed simulation loop. Gary Grigsby has been designing computer wargames since 1982 at SSI, and War in the East is considered his masterpiece. A sequel, War in the West, covers the western and Mediterranean theatres, and War in the East 2, launched in 2021, has refined its mechanics. The game is used in military studies circles as a tool for operational analysis.