Prokhorovka Campaign (2/3): Hill 241

[Pasalades]

Introduction:

Operation Citadel stands as one of the most heavily scrutinized and famous battles of the Second World War. At the end of the Soviet winter offensive in 1943, the Soviet operations Star and Gallop, a large bulge extended into Army Groups Center on the Voroznezh Front, all this despite brilliant counterattacks from Field Marshall von Manstein. At the center of this bulge lay the city of Kursk. Army Groups South and Center were to assemble their forces on the flanks of the salient and make a pincer attack toward Kursk itself. The operation was to be launched in late spring, but problems with the refitting of the army had delayed the operation until July 5th. By then the Russian army had gleaned notice of the attack and it’s parameters and spent their time feverishly preparing for the attack. It was at this time that the Whermacht had one last chance to regain control of the Eastern Front and put the Soviet Union back on the defensive. Four days into the operation, only the southern spearhead, led by elite SS Divisions, had made significant progress. The 2nd SS Panzer Corps had pushed close to Oboyan and Prokhorovka, key cities on the approaches to Kursk itself. Prokhorovka Station was a key railway axis that led to Kursk itself. Control of it would seriously destabilize the southern front for the Soviet forces, and vast numbers were committed to its defence. The offensive in the north had stalled by the 9th of July, and it rested on the southern flank to secure victory in this pivotal battle of the war. Spearheading the assault on Prokhorovka itself was the SS-Panzergrenadier Division ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ supported by the First SS-Panzer Regiment. This is where this campaign begins.

What I am presenting here is a three part campaign where each battle is played for specified victory points. Each scenario can be played individually, or the accumulated points from the three battles may be added up to determine the overall winner. I will be releasing one map each week until they are all published, whereupon I hope I will begin work on a fourth scenario that is related but not directly connected to this campaign (a bonus scenario as it were). The purpose of this campaign is to put two or more players right at the ground level of the action leading up to the ‘greatest tank battle in human history’. These battles are meant to replicate actual operations carried out over the period of July 10th-12th outside of Prokhorovka. The battle of Kursk is an awe inspiring yet horrifying series of clashes that encapsulated the conflict between entire civilizations that was the Second World War. The German player will be playing the role of the 2nd SS-Panzer Grenadier Regiment which was the fighting tip of the SS-Panzergrenadier Division ‘LAH’, and supporting armour from the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment. The Soviet player will be operating under the 2nd Tank Corps and its supporting infantry divisions, and later the formidable 5th Guards Army. These three scenarios have been recreated from a variety of sources, both primary and secondary, including Soviet tactical manuals and maps, German troop dispositions, and secondary accounts of the battle and its parameters (I’d be happy to share some sources via PM, they are too numerous to list here). All new maps have been created specifically for this campaign. Each one is a realistic rendering of the battlefield to scale on maps fully compatible with existing Axis and Allies Miniatures maps. Soviet and German forces are recreated as accurately as possible to the squad level and with accurate representation of the armoured forces present at each engagement (as much as the array of units available in AAM allows). Each scenario has been play-tested thoroughly for balance, and present interesting and varying objectives for each side representative of the aims of each side at the engagement. These maps will be updated to accommodate new units as they become available, so check back with the release of each new set. Each of these scenarios require a lot of pieces, so I recommend making use of substitutions, and pooling resources with your friends to pick up the slack. If you desire, more than two people may play the game with extra players taking over the role of the armoured formations. These campaigns are the product of two months of research and hard work. I hope you have as much fun playing them as I did making them. Hopefully historical accuracy will translate into actual enjoyment. PM me with any questions about the scenarios, or for any help with playing either side, and of course please post your comments in this thread, I’d love to hear them!

All of the Maps for these Scenarios will be stored here:
http://24.150.163.38/pasalades

[Pasalades]

Assault on Hill 241:

Description: Although the Kosmolets Farm was cleared, just over a kilometer to the north was Hill 241. This hill overlooked both the Prokhorovka Highway and the farm itself. From the hill came desultory artillery strikes throughout the morning as well as the armoured reinforcements the 2nd SS-PGR fought while taking the farm itself. No progress could be made along the highway until the hill was taken. The only viable route of assault it was across the slopes leading up to the hill itself. At 1300 hours as the forces responsible for securing the farm dug in, two more companies of the 2nd SS-PGR leaped forward with armoured support to try to dislodge the hill’s defenders.

Forces (point alternatives listed in parenthesis):

Axis

Leading Elements of the 2nd SS-PGR: (223pts)
SS-Panzergrenadier x 10
MG-42 Machine Gun Team x 4
Light Mortar x 4
Whermacht Expert Sniper x 1
SS-Haupsturmfuhrer x 2
SD Kfz-251 x 5
Sturmpanzer Brummbar x 1

13th Company of the 1st SS-PR: (215pts)
Panzer Mark IV Ausf. G x 4
SS-Panzer Mark IV Ausf. F2 x 1
Tiger I x 1

Allies

Elements of 183d Rifle Division: (167pts)
Mosin Nagant x 15
Ppsh-41 x 5
Fanatical Sniper x 2
Zis-2 57mm Model 1943 x 6
Kuomintang Machine Gun Team x 6
Commisar x 2
Cossack Captain x 1

Elements of the 169th Tank Brigade: (168pts)
T34/74 x 2
KV-1 x 2
T-70 x 4

Maps: All maps are placed with the name in the bottom left. Letters at the end (a or b) refer to half maps.

North
...........Hill-241-6 Hill 241-7
West....Hill-241-4 Hill-241-5.......East
...........Kosmolets-6 Hill-241-3
South


Setup:

Soviets deploy first. All units from the 183d Rifle Division and 169th Tank Brigade may deploy any Hill or Hill with Road Hex on Maps Hill 241-5, Hill 241-6 and Hill 241-7.

All German forces may then deploy on any Town or Road Hexes on Maps Kosmolets-6 and Hill 241-3. Initiative is then rolled as per normal.

Objective: Play for Victory Points - At the end of turn ten the player with the most points according to this list of criteria wins.
For each Panzer IV or Sturmpanzer Brummbar damaged – 1 point Soviets
For each Panzer IV or Sturmpanzer Brummbar destroyed – 2 points Soviets
For each Tiger I damaged – 3 points Soviets
For each Tiger I destroyed – 5 points Soviets
If Germany Loses 100 points or more worth of Soldier Units, all subtypes included – 5 points Soviets
If German forces control all Hill with Road Hexes – 10 points Germans
If German Forces control all Hill Hexes on Map Hill 241-5 – 2 points Germans
If German Forces control six (6) Hill Hexes on Map Hill 241-6 – 5 points Germans

Special Rules:

All German vehicles possess the SS-Determination Special Ability for the duration of this scenario.

The road hexes on Map Hill-241-3 represent the merging of the Prokhorovka Highway with the Kursk Railroad. They rest on an embankment that offers a modicum of protection allowing soldier units to receive cover with a minus one (-1) penalty to their cover rolls.

All Soviet vehicles receive a +1 bonus to their cover saves as they are considered dug in. A vehicle loses this bonus as soon as it moves or changes facing.

Aftermath: Unable to dislodge Hill 241’s defenders at range the German Panzers surged forward only to be repulsed, while the 2nd SS-PGR took the lower reaches of the Hill. The Soviet forces held their ground as counter attacks were launched at the farm itself from the direction of the Psel river. The German attack had stalled, but as reinforcements arrived, renewed attacks seized the Hill by sundown. The Soviets succeeded in delaying the ‘LAH’ and made them pay for the hill. (Soviets Win 10-7)

Production Notes: I find the Germans can really set the tone for this battle by deciding just how many points they want to aim for. This is a Scenario where the Soviet forces will be forced to launch a counter attack on Map Hill 241-5 or Map Hill 241-6 if the Germans take these hills while holding their armoured forces back. Placement is everything, and an ambitious Soviet player will find ways to force the Germans to commit to a struggle for Hill 241-7 itself. After this map, we’ll move up to the 12th of July. The action that took place on the 11th of July, such as the assault on Hill 252 and Octiabrskii Farm were either to frenetic or too broad to sketch out in an AAM scenario. All small unit attempts to take these objectives were thoroughly repulsed by a decisive numerical advantage. Such a scenario would be too one sided. When the objectives were taken it was by a heavy preponderance of armour, artillery, and air superiority. This is not so bad a problem, as any who knows Kursk knows what happens on the 12th, and should have a good idea of what scenario is in store. Buy more tanks!

[hornet69]

another excellent job .they should post this as a official scenario.

[GijoeNumberOne]

another excellent job .they should post this as a official scenario.
I agree, however, most reader probably don't have anywhere near the number of units required. It takes a dedicated fan (or money-wasting fool, as my wife so straightforward told me) to collect the required units. One of my biggest gripes is AH putting out scenarios that require more units then most of us can deploy (after too many hundreds of dollars in cases and boosters, I still have only 1 Tiger II !!!!) That said, I am only missing 1 SS panzergrenadier and 3 Mosin-Nagant, so will be playing this scenario with 4 proxies tomorrow :) . I will also add that I have ordered more basic infantry from my favorite single-unit supplier.

[hornet69]

yes i do agree with you . not to many people have a lot of this game .it would be nice to see more scenarios designed with 100 to 150 point range.and i am in the few minority range of having almost 4 of every unit .as i have no wife ,no kids ,no illegal habbits .i supply all the pieces to my group here as all the others but one ismarried with kids .hope fully besides the winner of the scenario contest.they will post on theboards here the top ten that came close.

[Pasalades]

When designing a scenario with historical accuracy in mind, the playability can suffer. But I made a conscious decision of weighting one over the other. I will still try to make my scenarios balanced though. After you play them, post any feedback here. Whilethe first scenario is finely tuned, I'm still not totally comfortable with the balancing in this one.

[Der Leiter]

Just finished playing Part 1, will try to play this by next weekend and see how it goes.

[Timmon]

Pasalades, a query if you will. How have you converted historical unit strenght (or whatever numbers your sources have given)? Is there a straight 1:1 ratio of tanks? or 1:2? And is one infrantry figure equal to a squad, platoon, or something else?

In any case, thanks for exellent scenarios & maps.

Br,
Timo

[Pasalades]

The tanks are represented on a one to one ratio, and the infantry organizations are representative of the company level. For example in this scenario, there are two SS-PG companies consisting of 5xSS-PG, 1xSS-HSF, 2xMG-42, 2xLM each with supporting vehicles, hanger ons ect. As new units are realeased with new sets I may modify this. Everybody has their own ideas on what would constitute a company in AAM, but needless to say that design of the game requires a degree of abstraction and imagination when it comes to envisioning what individual soldiers represent. For me one soldier mini = a squad of 12 men so what I put in the scenario balances out to two companies that have suffered a few casualties on the way to the current engagement. It strikes a balance between acuracy and playability, particularity when it comes to unit availability and point cost. It works and it's right by my count.

The tanks suffer less abstraction and represent as closely the units present at a particular engagement, give or take the unreliability of some pprimary sources. In particular, Soviet documentation suffers from some scarcity, so I had to approximate a bit given the numbers I had pertaining to a particular Tank Brigade or Company. In other words I would know how many T-34s were in a given Tank Brigade on a given date, but I would have to approximate just where they were deployed. For the German forces, I had more reliable sources. I was able to acquire a table listing the exact numbers of particular AFVs assigned to each division. Even better I was able to get a composite of the 13th SS-PZ company that fought at all three engagements in these scenarios. While there were four Tigers deployed in the company, I took into account that not all of them were battle ready until the 11th of July, but I know for a fact that all four fought as a platoon on both the 11th (which is not covered in the campaign for reasons mentioned in my production notes) and on the 12th (which is covered). Long story short, this is a close as you get to the real thing unless you can glean better information and research than I have. If I've made a mistake feel free to let me know. It's the only way I'll learn.

[Der Leiter]

Played part 2 on the weekend as a three player - splitting the Russians in two (Elements of 183d Rifle Division & Elements of the 169th Tank Brigade with a few extra soldiers/tank riders).

From what I saw it seems the scenario is actually fairly balance (though I'll admit only one trial isn't enough to say for sure). the Russians ended up winning 9 (100+ points of soldiers, 1 destroyed PzIV, 2x damaged PzIV) :7 (2 points Hill 241-5, 5 points Hills 241-6 x6).

It would seem... extremely difficult for the Germans to get the 10 points for the 'Hills with Road Hexes' unless you've completely overrun the Russians, in which case it's probably game anyways.

With practically no cover (the 2 point hills are deceptive; well placed Russian units can shoot you up all around it) the German infantry don't seem destined to survive.

One thing I found puzzling was the 'dug in' rule for the Russian tanks. Aside from perhaps being historical it doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose as the German Tanks can simply pound them from range 9 or greater. Nor can the Russians permit the German Armour (especially the Brummbar) to roam freeling - I don't see this ability being used too often. If I didn't want to commit my tanks yet I'd just deploy them behind the cover so they can't be shot at all.

I'm a little aggravated that of all the rolls of my opponent's KMT MG teams the only one The Entire Game to overheat was being destroyed anyways :mad: (1st campaign I was Russians against him, all of my MGs overheated first turn. bah).

Overall a pretty decent scenario. Now I'm waiting to break out my 4 Tigers :D

[Pasalades]

I was planning to throw it up tonite, but I've been delayed. I promise tommorow. The Tigers will break free. As for the Dug-In rule. It is a problem with extended range German tanks, But it can serve a purpose as there are a few hill hexes that do not have disadvantageous LOS. But yes it is there for history. The info I had stated specifically that KV-1 tanks were dug into that hill. I wonder if a rule disallowing ER attacks on long range against dug-in tanks would dissrupt the balance of the scenario? I also did not extend the dig-in rule for soldier units. Their cover seems satisfactory as it is since the earthen terrain offers equivalent protection anyway. All in all I'm glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback. If the Germans ignore their left flank, and use speed to their advantage, they should be able to push into the right-most limits of the hills and sweep in from behind. The snipers cause alot of grief but that's why you have the Brummbar. Once you take the hexes closest to the hill, only say a KV-1 with a Cossack Captain would keep you out of the Hill/Road hexes.

[Senior_Simpson]

You Have Real Good Scenario .

[Beagle]

Some Awsome Scenario here ..Can NOT Wait To See What Gettysburg Will Be Like

[AATigers1]

I have not yet played this scenario and it looks like it will be fun - can't wait. One question - you have a Brumbar listed... I thought the Brumbars were allocated to the 9th army on the north of the salient with the 46 or 47 PzC .?.

[Pasalades]

You are very correct. When I wrote this scenario up, only set II was out so I could not put in the StuG IIIs that had not been released yet. Obviously, when I put up new versions of the scenarios, I will make some modifications. The SS-Panzergrenadiers had SPGs provide close support for their own mechanized infantry units. However, the Brumbarr was not among those SPGs that the II SS-Panzer Corps recieved in preperation for Citadel.

[AATigers1]

Upon further investigation, it appears that in fact the 216th Hvy Pnzr was attached to the 41st Corps not the 46th or 47th as I had remembered from years before.

Attachment - perhaps the stug D should be up gunned as the stug G for your scenario - same gun as Pz IV G on the AAM cards.

[heck99]

Pretty cool scenario, but I don't have 15 Mosins, and only 1 T-34/75.

[AATigers1]

Sub other allied infantry units & use shermans or some Brit tanks.

[BogenBlitz]

I have tried more than a dozen times to download your maps over several months. I wait and wait, and the things never fully download. How big are they exactly, and can anyone tell me why downloading these would be a problem? I'm on high-speed DSL and I don't ever run into problems downloading anything else on the Web. Thanks for your help.

[Pasalades]

I'll run a few tests. If you can't get things to finish downloading (this hasn't come up too much with other people) then perhaps you could try a download manager to resume your downloads when they stop.

EDIT: Yup they work fine. Try an app that can help with a stalled download. If anyone could suggest some apps, as I don't know any... I haven't used one (like getright) in years.

[BogenBlitz]

Thanks for checking. I'm just stumped why this doesn't work for me. I am a Web guy by trade. I don't like being stumped.... :confused:

[hornet69]

always a good scenario to play

[MrBluze]

I have always been able to download your maps in the past, but now when I go to this link here http://24.150.163.38/pasalades all I get is a blank page.

[Pasalades]

My server admin informed me of a new ip once he made an equipment change. http://24.150.166.155/pasalades/

[Grenzewolf]

Bumping Scenarios to "Within a Month"