Kursk: Burning Tigers, scenario #23, Drive on Ponyri IV: Standing Their Ground

Needing an Eastern Front fix, I decided to play a scenario from Kursk: Burning Tigers and finally getting to use my new die-cut counters for it as well. Not sure what to do with my old laser counters? But this scenario was perfect for what I was in the mood for, a Kursk scenario, two maps and a nice mix of counters, including: Brummbars, Elefants and Goliaths. All of which I have never played with on a PG battlefield.

The Germans have three victory objectives to try and accomplish to achieve different victory levels or defeats. They are; all town hexes, all 40 meter hill hexes and a five hex wide corridor from north to south. The Russians have entrenchments and minefields but kind of a thin line to defend all those German victory objectives. Both sides roll for air-support on even turns but the Germans have a modifier in their favor. The Germans also have two forces, one enters from the north and the other from the east on turn five or later depending on the dice roll.

The first five turns are very tense, as the Germans can’t wait for their reinforcements to come, to achieve getting a victory in 16 turns. The German StuGIIIG are weak for dug-in Soviet T34s and paid the price for it but the Elefant tanks are monsters for 1943 and blow away most the Soviet armor. I just kept them away from Russian Infantry. The Soviets did manage to takeout a German Brummbar unit with a nice roll on the dice of a 12 with a 85mm AT Gun which in turn was taken out by the other German Brummbar. Steps eliminated didn’t matter in this scenario, which I kind of liked, after all it’s a bloody Kursk scenario! But the German Infantry was taking a beating in the 40 meter hills until their reinforcement arrived from the east and directly into the 40 meter hills from the other side and with the help of the Goliath units the Hills and entrenchments were conquered. The Germans also easily opened a five hex wide corridor. But after getting these two victory objectives, it was far too late to attempt taking the city hexes on map 42, where the Soviets had rung in the city with minefields and a good amount of AT Guns and Infantry, which I didn’t even attempt as it was too short of time to organize my units and I was too short on German Infantry at this point. Maybe I put too much Russian resources into defending the city. I always thought the Soviet SU-122 deserved a 12 Direct Fire rating, not a lowly 10, as it is a 122mm gun after all.

So the Germans win a minor victory by getting two out of three victory conditions. On an enjoyment level, I would give this a 5 out of 5 rating and it was fun to finally get to use the Goliath units in game play.