Kursk: Burning Tigers, scenario Ten: Graveyard of Armor I: Firefight at Butyrki

I have been playing a lot of Eastern Front games over the last year with many on the Kursk topic, as I enjoy that topic, so back into PG Kursk games. This one looks interesting on paper as most of them do but it only has two maps, 14 turns, not too many counters and an interesting mix of units and victory objectives.

Having playing with the Goliath units in some scenarios before I learned to make sure your enemy was suppressed before closing in with the StuGIIIG carrying or towing these Goliath remote controlled, tracked bomb units. This time I was able to deploy both but the first one did little damage rolling a 3 on the die but the second unit rolled a 5 on the die which was very helpful!

As the battle progressed I was doubting I could achieve all three victory objectives as the German player but once the Tiger platoons knocked out all the Soviet T-34 units the Germans open up their game play, with Artillery, air-support and three very much needed Engineer units, the Germans plowed through, only losing 5 Infantry steps and one leader in the whole battle. This scenario kind of reminded me of playing PG scenarios in the Pacific, clearing out entrenchments, mines, dug-in units, AT Guns, and city hexes. I was under pressure right until the end, clearing out Soviet units. The last town hex wasn’t cleared until the second to last turn and the last road hex wasn’t open until the last turn but the Germans achieved all three of their victory conditions for a Major Victory.

A fun scenario to play, I thought I had the prefect Soviet defense setup but I guess not but a few dice rolls differently and maybe the outcome could have been lowered a bit. Maybe I should not have defended the road south and just the town of Butyrki, I don’t know but with so many scenarios to play, I’ll have to let someone else figure it out. Overall, a fun scenario to play.