As the Soviets, I was excited by the opportunity to really defend in depth for once. There were a lot of units on only one mapboard. So, I sealed off the side of the board near the town with the minefields, held quite a few AT assets in the backfield and just waited for the Germans to roll in.

The minefield pretty much worked- the Germans decided to come through the town! Their initial assault on the town cost TWO TIGER steps! This was also where I had kept my two precious Guard SMGs to stymie his assault morale bonus. The Germans ground forward just a little, but I kept blowing away the SPWs he kept bringing in to reinforce the town. This created a wall of wrecks that made maneuvering difficult for the Germans. As turn 12 approached, it was obvious that the Germans wouldn't mop up the big town quickly enough, or get any steps off the board. The Soviets - dinky little non-guards Soviets- held back the German tide this time.

In looking for a medium sized tank battle in Kursk, I thought this one looked good. Fair warning for the Germans the victory conditions are quite step for them. They will need to clear all the town hexes as well as exit units to win, while the Soviets just need to hold one town hex to win. The Soviets will have positioning as well as a good amount of guns and tanks to defend the single board with.

The Germans will have a good amount of tanks including Tigers to lead the assaults as well as take on the Soviet T-34s. There is supporting infantry with SPW-251's but these will be limited due to a large amount of 45mm AT guns, which seem quite adept at taking these halftracks out. The Germans will have the OBA advantage being able to put 48 BF on a target before modifiers, so they should be able to get some results even on the towns and entrenchments. Soviets have positional defenses in mines, entrenchments and dugin positions making them harder to hit with low firepower shots. There is the chance that both side will get a plane every couple of turns to help with the attack or defense.

For morale the Germans have only a slight edge over the Soviets. German morale reduced two points making it the same are the reduced Soviet morale. So initially the Germans will have the advantage but if the Soviet can get step losses they will have evened up the morale. For leadership, the Soviets had the advantage as they German leaders were poor with many 8-0-0 and 9-0-0 as well as two 7-0-0 leaders. The Soviets are always poor but they are on the defensive so they only need a couple of morale bonus leaders and a few to initial counter attacks and provide assault bonuses.

With the Soviets, the setup in three key defenses, the initial skirmishing units, the force holding the large town and the Guard units holding the smaller town and finally the guns and mortars providing fire support to the other defenses. The skirmishing units consist of a company old the small hill to the west of the major town. This include entrench 45mm AT guns and a HMG platoon having sweeping fire on the advancing Germans from the west board edge. The other skirmishing unit was a company dugin in the field to the north west of the large town. This also had supporting HMG's and two 45mm AT guns. Minefields covered the northern board edge to the field as well as the southern edge to the large town. In the large town a company of INF and all the SMG's along with the 85mm AA guns and the remaining 45mm AT. In the smaller town this was held by the Guards. KV-1s and INF in two town hexes make a formidable defense. The finally set was all the 76.2mm guns, mortars and T-34s. These were positioned to cover the advances on the towns as well as having the 120mm mortars on the only level 2 hill giving them full rein over the battlefield.

To counter this defense the Germans will advance a quickly as possible to the weak points of the skirmishing points. Lining up the SCHs, HMGs and ENGs with the Tigers, PzIVF2's and new Pz747r's. The lighter armored units and the halftracks will hold until the skirmishers are cleared. The first turn of advance proved bloody for the Germans as full ENG is killed by OP fire and several key SCH and their leaders are disrupted. Soviet fire on the second turn is even more devastating with 2 full SCH's lost to 76.2mm and mortar fire. But for all the loses the Germans have closed on the Soviets and assault the hill west of the large town. The initial attack inflicted more casualties but demoralized the Soviets. As reinforcements moved in the Soviets were quickly destroyed and the hill defense started to fall.

To the north the Tigers lead the charge into the fields and closed on the dugin troops. Demoralizing the first batch they moved to the next while supporting SCH's cleared the units. But morale recovery was on the Soviet side and they recover before the assaulting SCH's could destroy them. Tying up SCH's a second force moves to flank them but accurate fire from a INF and 45mm AT gun put a stop to the advance with a step loss on the Germans. Heavy support fire from the town disrupt the other forces and leave the Germans needing to recover over a couple of turns. But what is more disturbing to the Germans is that the infantry step losses are now up to seven and five other units disrupted or demoralized.

Soon the hill is cleared after the PzIVF2 destroy the AT gun and INF in the entrenchment then move on to position to fire on the large town. The Tigers soon join after the dugin Soviets in the field are destroyed. But the SCH's are severally depleted and require several turns to recover. This leaves the initial attack on the large town to the armor. The PzIIIJ's are brought forward to provide support to the town assault. The Soviets see an opportunity to take on the German armor and the T-34's are committed to the battle. But before they got going the Luftwaffe make an appearance a tank killing He129. It is able to score a kill on one of the T-34's as it starts moving out. The rest of the tanks moved in two groups, one north of the town and one to the south in an attempt to take on the PzIIIJ and the Pz747r's with lighter armor. But this fails as the PzIVF2 and the Tigers are able to decimate the advancing T-34's and the remnants are forced back into the large town. At the same time German OBA takes out one 85mm AA gun give the Germans a window to the town free of AT fire. Closing in the Pz747r's take the lead and dash into the town destroying a Soviet INF. Fire from the Soviets try to stop them but the German are into the town.

Seeming like they could take the town without infantry they push more tanks in but Soviet infantry stiffens up and the assaults are bogged down. Meantime the German SCH's are pounded by the Soviet mortars and 76.2mm guns effectively keeping them out battle as the losses mount. The German tanks slowing grind out assaults on the town but time becomes an issue. The Soviet counter attack at the PzIIIj's and kill one but the Tigers strike right back. Eventually most of the large town is taken by the Germans with armor, but this leaves no time for attacking the small town, let alone get units off the board. In the a Major Soviet victory with the Soviets holding at least one town hex.

The key to the Soviet success was the loss of infantry support for the attack. The tanks were powerful to push into the town but they became bogged down and very vulnerable to the Soviets. German leadership was poor as well that lead to delays with recoveries and not having units in position. The Soviet guns were very successful at killing and demoralizing while the INF's were hard to dislodge from the towns. The one failure for the Soviets was the tank counter-attack. After losing the initiative for the turn, the Germans unloaded on the tanks and killed most. It probably would have been better to let the Germans get stuck in assaults in the towns and then let the tanks loose. But that will be for another day.

Kursk: South Flank, scenario Thirty: The Day the Tigers Died

I won’t waste time writing a detailed AAR this time, as I noticed this scenario already has one on the PG-HQ website. But like others I couldn’t take all the town hexes as the German player. The Soviets put a lot of minefield and entrenchment counters around the larger town, funneling the German units around it and right into waiting Soviet anti-tank guns as Engineers tried to clear some openings. The Soviets had placed their armor, dug-in in key areas and both sides lost a lot of steps. The Tigers were held up in battle and very slow in movement and never had time to reach the small town on the far eastern side of the map. Needless to say, the Germans achieved none of their victory objectives giving the Soviets a Major Victory!