Demyansk Pocket

Joni Nuutinen

About this game

Demyansk Pocket 1942 is a turn based strategy game set on the WWII Eastern Front. Your mission is to re-open the route to the German units the Red Army has managed to encircle near Demyansk. From Joni Nuutinen: by a wargamer for the wargamers since 2011. The latest update: October 2025.


Historical background: During the attacks of the winter of 1941–1942, the Soviet Red Army managed to encircle 100,000 German soldiers holding the front line in Demyansk, located half-way between Moscow and Leningrad. After receiving reinforcements, the Wehrmacht unleashed an offensive from the city of Staraya Russa. The purpose was not to evacuate the encircled units, but to reopen a land connection to the out-of-supply forces in Demyansk pocket in the hope of continuing to control the area as a preparation for future campaigns. Meanwhile, the encircled units, with inadequacy supplied by the Luftwaffe, engaged in a cutthroat battle for life or death. One of the encircled German units was the 3rd WSS Division, which earned its elite status in the fierce battles leading the defense of the pocket.


However, the German stubborn defensive victory in Demyansk in 1942 paved the way for a major German miscalculation a year later, when 300,000 German soldiers were encircled in Stalingrad, and based on the successful experiences learned from Demyansk, the commanders were ordered to wait for help instead of breaking out.


Game play: You take command of both the encircled units and the fresh divisions that are slowly arriving, attempting to re-establish a land route from Staraya Russa to Demyansk as quickly as possible. To have a chance to seize the top spot in the Hall of Fame, you need to skillfully lead units through the Red Army rifle divisions as quickly as possible and maintain the newly opened route for 9 consecutive turns. All this while fiercely defending the cut-off Demyansk area with poorly supplied Wehrmacht and auxiliary units.


One way to describe this scenario is that it was German equivalent to the operation Market Garden: A way too much was attempted to achieve, and as a result a lot of units were in and out of supply.


Victory Condition: The game is over after you re-establish a connection between the cities of Staraya Russa (upper-left corner of the map) and Demyansk (located at the center of the pocket) - and successfully and continuously maintain that connection for 9 consecutive turns. If the Red Army manages to cut off the connection after its movement phase, the counter resets.


Settings: A long list of options (split on two separate settings pages) are available to alter the look of the game: Change difficulty level, hexagon size, Animation speed, choose icon set for units (NATO or REAL) and cities (Round, Shield, Square, block of houses), decide what is drawn on the map, turn some support units types on/off, are negative move points marked on the units, and much more.



Privacy Policy (full text on website and app menu): No account creation, the made-up username used in the Hall of Fame listings is not tied to any account and does not have password. Location, personal, or device identifier data is not accessed or used in any way. In the case of a rare crash the following non-personal data is sent (vie web-form using ACRA library) to allow quick fix: Stack trace (code which failed), Name of the App, Version number of the App, and Version number of the Android OS. The app only requests the couple of permissions it absolutely needs to function.


"The Demyansk Pocket was a remarkable achievement of German soldiery. Despite being surrounded for months, they were able to hold out and ultimately break out of the encirclement."
-- General Hans Speidel, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army

Ratings and reviews

Great campaign, like all Joni's series. A quicker play. Quite different than most of the others in the series, in that this is a rescue mission rather than trying ro push a front. Your surrounded forces have access to a couple of airfields. Each provide +2 MPs for a unit of your choosing, they can both go to the same unit, a potential +4 MPs! As the Soviets tighten the noose around Demyansk you'll need those extra MPs to plug holes in your lines.

New update ruined the game. Unmanageable. The pocket is attack by such overwhelming numbers it is reduced in less than 14 turns . If this was the history, there would have never been this game to begin with, please fix a once great challenge.

Original was great. Didn't love the new update and how it changed the map and the balance of forces.

What’s new

+ Adding initial German minefields
+ Preventing the worst starting setup overlaps
+ Several new settings, read Change Log for details