Battle for Moscow II is played on a map of the former Soviet Union where the battle was fought. It uses playing pieces that represent the actual military units that participated in this campaign. Each player represents a General commanding an Army Group of troops (for the Germans) or a Front of Soviet Armies. The individual German ground units represent corps (from the Latin word "corpus," meaning "body") of approximately 25,000 soldiers and what was left of their equipment after the long drive across western Russia in the summer of 1941. The Soviet ground units are mostly armies of approximately 40,000 men each, with a few cavalry and airborne corps of about 10,000 men each.