Author	Schoenwulf
Method	Solo
Victor	Soviet Union
Play Date	2021-12-16
Language	English
Scenario	GrDa001

This scenario is actually Scenario #5 from Kursk: South Flank (“Manhandled”) but Pz42t’s were used in place of the PzIIIJ’s and VK-3002’s in place of the PzIVE’s & PZIVF2’s per the defined ratio in the Gold Club Journal notes. The Soviets set up their entrenchments about midway across Map 36 and a second tier to the east to protect the tank lanes to the town. This would hopefully allow some crossfire as the tanks approached the town, which is the key objective. Minefields were placed in the north to channel German traffic to the center and south; however, German engineers were able to cover two of the minefields that were only “1”’s and another was a decoy. The Germans have four objectives, but two of them involve the town since they are required to clear both the town and road of undemoralized Soviet units. If the Soviets only hold the road through the town, they will have a Minor Victory, so this is the critical spot on the map. The other two objectives involve German unit exit and limited loss of German steps. Since tank steps are double, with the Tiger triple, placing Soviet AT units to maximize hits is critical as well. Once they fire in spotting range of the Germans they can be in trouble as the Germans have better OBA and an advantage in aircraft draw. In this playthrough, the Germans were lined up north to south across the map with mortar and howitzer units behind the line. The necessity for German victory to have a clear road essentially means that they can’t leave any Soviet “stragglers” who might slip down and take a road hex late in the game, i.e. the Germans need to keep pushing the Soviets back east until they can be either eliminated or a very small patch of road can be properly cleared. The Germans took some early hits from Soviet OBA, mortar groups and aircraft that slowed their advance and cost them steps. However, by the tenth turn, the Germans had advanced and neutralized better than half of the Soviet AT firepower. On that turn, the Soviet reinforcements arrived bringing some much-needed AT support from 6 T-34’s. These latter units moved quickly to reinforce the town, which was now within German striking distance. By the halfway point in the game, the Germans had lost 28 steps to 18 for the Soviets, which shows the difficulty of advancing into a strong Soviet defensive placement. The German OBA, which maxed at the 42-column once per turn simply wasn’t that effective against AT guns in entrenched positions, and the aircraft draws were fairly even (6-5 German advantage) with Soviet aircraft being much more damaging to German units advancing across open ground. So the German objective of losing no more than 30 steps was in jeopardy early, which limited them to a Minor Victory.

As the game moved ahead, the Tiger unit was finally able to move forward with flanking infantry to prevent any Soviet assaults, and 8 of the 11 Soviet AT units had been eliminated, which limited any crossfire on it. It is a devastating weapon but must have protection as noted. On Turn 19, the infantry had been stripped from the Tiger and it was assaulted, which resulted in a step loss even though it destroyed the entire Soviet assault group in the process. Soviet Lend-Lease Blenheim’s also caused quite a bit of damage during the Axis advance, but the Germans drove forward. However at 1030 (the penultimate turn), the Tiger was destroyed, which severely compromised any hope that the Germans had of taking the town and the road through it.

At game end, the Germans had not achieved any of their objectives as two road hexes (going through the town) were still held by Soviet units, only two German steps had exited, and the Germans had lost 59 steps to 63 lost by the Soviets. This led to a Soviet Major Victory. Several factors led to the victory including the success of Soviet pickets, disruption of German foot units by both Soviet OBA and air support, and the eventual need for the Germans to advance armor that could not be adequately supported by ground troops.