The scenario looked very much like the one I played two days earlier, without the Tigers, but things went very differently today. Again, the Soviets have to hold the town in the center of the board, and have the AT guns, AT rifles, even more infantry than before, and lots of T-34s with RKKA SMG platoons. Guards hold the town while RKKA tanks and SMGs enter on turn 1 from the east. When the Soviets got the initiative on turn 1 and could bring in those reinforcements right from the start, I thought it was going to be a major Soviet win, but the StuG IIIG took out one T-34 platoon and a step from another, causing that remaining step to run away before the combined fire of all the rest of the T-34s ganged up and eliminated it. SS Armored cars lost 2 of the 3 platoons to the Soviet Guard 57mm gun forward of the village in the fields before it was bogged down in a long series of assaults, winning fight after fight but then being completely eliminated with it's defending infantry on the final turn. The majority of the SS bypassed the guns in the fields, and with the threat of the RKKA T-34s coming around the north side of the town, didn't hesitate this time to close with the town and attempt assaults on the western 3 hexes. The center hex fell right away, but the southern hex held on for a bit, while the Soviet defenders of the northern hex fell to direct fire. German halftrack mounted guns tried to rush and take that vacant northern town hex and paid the price by fire from the T-34s, but their sacrifice allowed other SS troops to get in and take that hex. The eastern town hex fell to combined adjacent fire from two of the three German held town hexes and a surviving Guard CPT fled after the smoke cleared. As the last SS armored car ran past the town to the south, the SS motorcycle company figured out that they had finished with their foes, and joined the armored cars for a run to the east edge, followed closely by the mortar carrier, and in two turns, the SS had their 10 steps cleared off the board. Having completely lost the town, the Soviets eeked by with only 16 steps of enemy losses, while the Germans achieved 40 Soviet steps, exited the 10 points of SS troops, and got 12 points for the town, for a total of 62 points. Serious German win. As the fighting in the town and the last dug-in Soviet gun went on nearly to the end, I rate this a 5 for a knuckle biter. Great game.

For my first scenario in Kursk South Flank I picked the last scenario in the scenario book. It’s not a large one but a one mapper with about 80 counters so kind of tight for a one mapper. It has a Soviet starting force one battle-group of Guard units starting on the map and another Soviet RKKA combat formation that also enters on turn one. All the Germans enter on turn one or later if desired. Three things I like about this scenario, one the Victory conditions are very interesting, the mix of units with the Germans having a Recon force mixed with other elements: 4 types of Infantry, APCs, weaker Tank units (PzII & PzIIIj), Assault Gun, a bunch of different AFVs & ACs and the Kubel units as well. The Soviets have both a Guard and RKKA force which consist of 4 Infantry types, Mortar, AT-Guns, 76.2mm guns and T-34c, T34-b and T-70s with one 18 factor of off board artillery. The third thing is it’s only a 12 turn scenario, as I am too busy currently to play the monster scenario I want to play.

Because of the three different victory factors for each side, both sides have to figure what is working best for them and adjust as the game play continues. The Soviet start with their mostly Guard Infantry and supporting heavy weapon units defending the town hexes with AT & ART guns supporting the flanks. The Soviet also roll their RKKA Tanks units and SMG units on to the map on turn one from the east end of the short map. The German enter on the west end of the map, their whole force, deciding how to move forward without artillery support and which victory objectives will pay-off better: Controlling town hexes, eliminating enemy steps or exiting units off the far end of the map. Interesting, as the Kubelwagens don’t count against you in any way in this scenario if lost in combat and don’t generate points for exiting either, so I will send them ahead to scout things out. Maybe there are too many better targets for the Soviets to shot at and wants to waste as shot on them, unless they start causing problems for rear Artillery and similar type units.

As the Soviets are pretty well defended in the town, the Germans just send a small force in that direction to maybe tie down all those guard units, then the rest of the Germans try flanking around the town to maybe exit units off the far end and eliminate enemy units. The problem is, neither side has very much range with their AFVs and Tanks units and both must close with each and hope to activate first the next turn. The T-34c are a more difficult tank to destroy with what the Germans have in this scenario, other than the StuGIIIG, the Germans have a lot of AFVs and weaker Tank types and the situation starts to go bad for the Germans, as they are taking too many step losses. Still they find a way to sneak some units off one of the flanks and those MTC’s have a lot of speed before the Soviet adjust with some of the light T-70 Tanks to plug the holes. The Germans also make one attempt to take the town hexes, as they need more points to win this thing but this goes very poorly.

In the End of this short scenario, the Germans had 22 points while the Soviets had 37 points for a major Soviet Victory by 5 points. Very interesting first play in KSF! This scenario is fun, has a lot of different options in a small space for one map. Next time I play this, I will avoid attacking the town hexes and try the east end exit method with the Germans and stay out of tank duals unless I get the first shot as too many of the Germans Halftracks have a variety of guns types but are very weak in the armor protection area. The laser counters make assault combat much easier, as they are so thick counters, easier to handle. Good stuff and a good memory for my first KSF game play.

Short little scenario, good for the defender, especially if the German player is too cautious. I would have expected the motorcycles to be all the way across the board, gaining the Germans points, but instead the Germans decided to fight it out in the town. This might have worked, but the German infantry seemed a bit thin on the ground- so I was content to sit in Assault hexes as the Soviet and let the lethality of Assault combat grind us both down. The Germans gave up in Turn 8, having lost 15 steps, while the Russians were at 6 or 7 with respect to their losses.

It was a tiny little battle- a bit of a let down after the monsters represented by most of the scenarios. A good scenario, though, to think about what we have learned about tactics from Kursk: the THREAT of AT fire is more potent than actual AT fire; separating infantry from armor is often a good way to get both armor and infantry killed; patience often trumps "the brilliant move that has to work out just right for it to be of any benefit at all."

THis game was played over Skype with Alan Sawyer in one session.

On seeing the scenario chosen by Alan, I instantly thought it was going to be tough for the Germans. A Recon force made of lightly armoured vehicles with one StG in support arrayed against T34's. Also, the town central to the game is going to be defended by Soviet Guards. Through all this, the Recon force is asked to possibly assault the town and exit troops.

To be fair, Alan might be being harsh on the scenario. MY plan, having done the maths was to slip past the town to basically ignore the guards. Then take on the RKKA tanks with my StG and PzIII and then allow the speedy motorcycles and armoured-cars to slip off the board along with any of the other troops that made it.

Key to this was to destroy the 76.2mm in Mikhailovka. All the time this battery stood there, it would block the safe passage of the StG and PzIII platoon who were required to engage the expected blocking T34s. The Germans launched all their foot troops as the battle opened and early on German HMG's began to engage the 76.2mm. This had little effect as their fire was poorly directed, but meanwhile, Schutzens were flowing forward eastwards. At 1500 hours,the HMG's received support and were backed up by just arrived 251's and Kubels to stiffen the fire against the Soviet artillery piece. This large group managed to take a number of shots at the artillery position (on the 30col of the DF chart). Each time a 7 was rolled and the whole attack was being held up.

The nail in the coffin was the overly accurate Russian 16col OBA and some opp fire that maanaged to remove steps and my patience finally cracked, conceding the game far too early.

This scenario is not proven as unbalanced as perhaps suggested and I'm sure more plays will produce German wins. I'm wondering whether I need a time out for a month or so from battles after I have completed current engagements. I never concede so early and try to make any loss that comes be as hard as possible for the enemy to inflict. But I have conceded early on in my last 2 games. ..... Battle fatigue ?

Well, I believe we have found the first FtF dud of Kursk. Although someone might be able to play and win with the Germans the scenario seems to be favoring the Soviets. The Germans have a recon for, with lightly armored cars and tanks to attack the town of Mikhailovka. The best quality they have is there morale, but even that can be matched by the Soviet Guards holding the town. No German OBA and only a single board scenario restricts the Germans to trying to push the units around the Soviets. But the Soviets have enough firepower to deal with them as well as the setup. T-34's and tank-riding SMG's enter the board immediately, so a secondary line can be established along the German axis of attack. Guard units can hedgehog themselves into the town making any attack very tough. With our play, the Soviet leaders were average, while the Germans were below average.

The Germans start by trying to move in to id the hidden AT gun as well as positioning for a board edge dash. The Soviets put up some long range fire but the Germans whither the fire. Soviet RKKA units advance from the east positioning in the center of the board. The Guard units hold the town with dugin INF, just outside and HMG's and 76mm providing long range fire. AT units are positioned try to catch tanks and armored cars moving down the edge.

As the Germans advance cautiously to minimize Soviet fire, but Soviet OP fire finds its mark reducing a SCH step. The Germans look to silence the 76mm gun with a combination of HMG and SPW251 fire but the fire falls short. Other SCH's advance as well as MTC's but Soviet OBA finds its mark and two more steps are lost as well as disruptions and demoralization. At the point the Soviet second line had formed right in front of the advancing Germans and given the casualties count growing, the Germans pulled back.

This was a seemingly nice small scenario for both sides, but it does favor the Soviets.