Battle of Kharkov - GE vs. SU

[PatrickWR]

Battle of Kharkov – August 1943

After the Allies invaded Sicily on July 10, 1943, Hitler made the critical decision to cancel Operation Citadel. The German effort to crush the Soviets at Kursk had effectively ended, and an entire SS contingent was sent from the Eastern Front to Italy, to help repel the invaders. At this same time, Soviet tacticians (unaware that the true battle was over) spearheaded a massive counteroffensive at the end of July. This attack renewed the momentum that the Soviet army had enjoyed immediately following the victory at Stalingrad, and Soviet forces gained ground as they once again pursued the retreating German army westward.

Kharkov lay in the path of the advancing Soviets as they pushed into Ukraine. The devastated city had changed hands three times during the war, and now the Soviet vanguard was determined to dislodge the German defenders. This scenario represents the final pitched battle to reclaim Kharkov.

Victory conditions
There are 12 town hexes on the four maps. At the end of turn 8, the player who controls more town hexes is the winner. In case of a tie, continue playing and check victory conditions again at the end of turn 10.

German Forces – 120 points of pre-1944 German, Italian and Romanian models.
Soviet Forces – 120 points – may consist of units from the following list:
Commissar
Cossack Captain
Mosin-Nagant
PTRD-41 AT Rifle
PPSh-41 SMG
Fanatical Sniper
ZIS-2 57mm AT Gun
T-34
KV-1
T-70
M3 Stuart
M5 Half-Track
Jeep
Vickers MG

Optional for campaign play: The player who won the Battle of Kursk scenario may add +10 points to his or her army build allotment.

Map setup
Charlie 1/Able 1
Baker 1/ Dog 1

Orienting the maps horizontally as described above, north is “up” for the viewer.

The German forces may deploy in the first 4 hexes on the westernmost edge of Charlie-1 and Baker-1. Soviet forces may deploy on the first 2 hexes on the easternmost edge of Able-1 and Baker-1.

Important note: Treat all pond hexes as forest hexes. I recommend using the forest hexes from the Combat Zone kit to cover up the ponds.

Conclusion: The Soviets reclaimed Kharkov, although over 70% of the city was destroyed during the war. The German army continued to fall back, and the Soviets pursued them across Eastern Europe.

I welcome your comments!

[MEX10MM]

I love eastern-front scenarios. Thank you.
(Can´t wait to see what the new set will add to the soviet and german forces)

[PatrickWR]

Thank you, I think I'm going to end up doing a string of Eastern Front scenarios...hopefully if you play 'em in order they'll resemble a campaign.

I'm also going to revamp all my scenarios once Set 2 hits...we'll undoubtedly have TONS of new units to play around with!

[Toneturbo]

Hey PatrickWR,

Great work! I'm really glad to see you are creating a campaign of it, too!

Thanks for Kursk! One of my players and I were wondering if someone would do it.

I look forward to the next in the series!

[DocD]

Hey pat. DocD here. I was wondering why did you use the Churchill? I don't recall reading anywhere that they were in the battle. What does the Churchill represent?

[PatrickWR]

Hey DocD, I threw the Churchill in there after I stumbled across a reference to its presence at Kursk (specifically Prokhorovka) on Wikipedia. Not sure how much faith WWII historians put in this online resource, but I've found Wiki to be full of pretty well-researched stuff. I was looking for a way to squeeze in a couple different tanks, and this passage was good justification:

"The Soviets were handicapped as well with some tank formations consisting of inferior British tanks (Valentines and Churchills)."
Wikipedia link

It should be mentioned that the Churchill Crocodile variant was probably NOT at Kursk, as it was a specialty model and may have not been available to the Soviets. But for our purposes in this game I think the Churchill Croc is a satisfactory addition to the KV-1 & T-34. Thoughts?

[MEX10MM]

Patrick:
You can also squeeze the M3 Lee in both scenarios as Soviets used them during this time. "Coffin for seven brothers" as the Russians called them.
http://www.battlefield.ru/lend_tank/grant_5.jpg
This is a link to a Russian site with a picture of some soviet M3 Lee in 1943.

[PatrickWR]

Thanks! A little more searching found justification for the Soviets to use Stuarts as well, so I think I'll add them along with the Lee to the Soviet army lists. I'm really hesitant to allow the Sherman, because of its metagame influence and because I'm kind of afraid that "Soviet" players trying out my scenarios will be tempted to take 4x Shermans and a bunch of Mosin-Nagant infantry...thereby missing the whole point of playing Soviets (cool Russian tanks).

[Joisey]

Originally Posted by PatrickWR

Hey DocD, I threw the Churchill in there after I stumbled across a reference to its presence at Kursk (specifically Prokhorovka) on Wikipedia. Not sure how much faith WWII historians put in this online resource, but I've found Wiki to be full of pretty well-researched stuff. I was looking for a way to squeeze in a couple different tanks, and this passage was good justification:

"The Soviets were handicapped as well with some tank formations consisting of inferior British tanks (Valentines and Churchills)."
Wikipedia link

It should be mentioned that the Churchill Crocodile variant was probably NOT at Kursk, as it was a specialty model and may have not been available to the Soviets. But for our purposes in this game I think the Churchill Croc is a satisfactory addition to the KV-1 & T-34. Thoughts?

The croc wasn't in service at the time of Kursk. And it has the effect of enticing players to use the heavier croc instead of playing with the KV-1. The quantities of lend lease tanks were so small compared to Russian production that it's unrealistic to even include them. At the very least, there should be a ratio requirement on the purchasing.

[PatrickWR]

Originally Posted by Joisey

The croc wasn't in service at the time of Kursk. And it has the effect of enticing players to use the heavier croc instead of playing with the KV-1. The quantities of lend lease tanks were so small compared to Russian production that it's unrealistic to even include them. At the very least, there should be a ratio requirement on the purchasing.

I see what you're saying re: the croc. It was more of a spaceholder until Set 2 came out anyway. I was really scraping for tanks to include in the Soviets' list, seeing as how the T-34 and KV-1 were rares. Of course, I'll update all my scenarios once the expanion hits, hopefully removing anchronistic units. I like the idea of lend-lease equipment quite a bit, though, as it allows players who don't have gobs of spare rare tanks lying around to enjoy scenarios. With the exception of the Croc, none of the lend-lease tanks I listed are unbalancing or anything...in fact, the Lee is barely played by anyone! Admittedly the Sherman would be a beast, and that's part of what prompted my decision to leave it out of the scenarios. At least for my scenarios, realism has to give way to gameplay every now and then.