Operation Citadel 1943: Campaign Turn 1

First game in the campaign is complete... 

You can see how the German win has effected the overall possible outcome of the Campaign. Russians still have a shot at victory but need to win the next battle at Cherkaskoye or the best they can hope for is a draw.

Original draft for the campaign structure
Butovo scenario
Butovo battle report

Losses
I'm also going to track the losses incurred for fun and figure them into the scenarios somehow so watch them trucks and armour losses Germans!

Russians
Infantry 5
Infantry Anti-Tank Rifle 2
Heavy Machine Gun 2

Germans
Infantry 2
Stug 2
PzIV 1
Truck 1

Battle Report: Butovo Operation Citadel 4th July 1943

Saturday saw the chaps gather to try out the Butovo Scenario (full details for the scenario and TOE can be found  here).

Table Set-up. Gray squares are minefields (2 dummies)

73d Guards Anti Tank Dig in

Soviet lines are drawn

Butovo

General Von Cleweswitz on recon. 

The German deployment plan

Russian fire plan

Delays to the German arrival and inability to get off multiple orders works to their advantage as they  avoid the Russian HE assets

T

2nd turn Russian Assets 

PzIVs unaffected by the Arty. However on the next command test their HQ found their radio had been damaged (blunder led to -1CV).

Germans take a wide berth of the field

3d turn and the ruthless Russians shell their own positions. Again the tardy Germans fail to oblige

Germans deploy for assault on hill 233

German firepower finally dislodges and destroys  1 infantry stand,  the 2d stand  is rooted out by assault. Germans seize the lightly defended objective but not before the Russian infantry claim a stand of Heer from reaction fire.

The Russian Maxim gave the German central effort a lot of problems, keeping the  PAK 40 suppressed.

Germans expose the weak left  flank of the Russian defenses, but can they carry Butovo?

Turn 8 and honors even

The Russians scramble to redeploy their forces  to the Eastern outskirts of Butovo.

Mr 1/36  improves the weather.

Germans take advantage of their improved CV and assault Butovo in force whilst the Russians  who have had good command all game struggle to get orders off and fail to reinforce the Eastern edge.

PzIVs go on a spree, completing 6 orders in a row and with the help of their supporting infantry blow away 5 Russian stands and their HQ! Suddenly the Germans have managed to contest Butovo and reap the 2 extra VP for doing twice as much damage. 

Turn 12 end of game situation in Butovo

Turn 12 Russians hold the hill in the foreground (2VP)  German Stug battery that was tasked with assaulting the hill was destroyed by ATG fire. Butovo (3VP) is contested. Germans hold hill in the background (2VP)

Final scores on the board. Germans carry the day with 3 VP (1 objective and inflicted more casualties) to the Russian 2VP

Final thoughts, this was a great game to watch. For a long while the Germans struggled to make any headway and it looked like they would sustain too many losses to take Butovo. Then suddenly their luck changed (literally with the weather) and they punched through. Very close game, well fought.

Scenery  looks great. Great work from General Sutov in producing so much terrain for the game.

The scenario seems pretty well balanced. The BKC system is great.

Will be updating the campaign situation and working up the next scenario which will be an attack on the Russian Main Line of Resistance, stay tuned...

Kursk Scenery update III

Mini update today.

I spent an hour and a half base coating the hills and modular river sections last night. Woke up this morning to find little white spots of poly-filler still showing through, grrr.

Next time I will try mixing the colour into the poly filler. Would certainly save some time and avoid the issue of bits getting chipped off to reveal the filler behind that always occur when packing up after a few too many beers.

More excitingly here is a pic of General Sutov's Gunpit and Trench creations. The General has been cranking these out for Saturdays game along with the other required field works (which IIRC I was supposed to be doing). Great work buddy.

Operation Citadel 4th July 1943: Butovo

Major General A.I. Baksov's 67th Guards Rifle Division (GRD) of 22nd Guards Rifle Corps was defending astride the main road that ran from Borisovka northward through Butovo and Cherkasskoe to Oboian. His right flank covered by the 71st GRD. 10km to the rear the 90th GRD backed up by the 6th Tank Corps of the 1st Tank Army formed a second echelon defenses along the Pena river. The 67th defended a 14km sector along a low generally treeless ridge line. The main routes into Baskov's positions ran northward along either side of the village of Butovo.

Baksov created a security belt that ranged from two to four kilometers in front of his main defenses anchored  on Butovo.

Preliminary fighting started shortly after 1600 hours on on 4 July 1943 in the south, as Fourth Panzer Army had elected to try to take the Soviet outposts prior to the main assault on July 5. 

Advanced Battalions of Großdeutschland's Grenadier Regiment and 11th Panzer Division attacked Butovo and the high ground around Butovo in torrential rain.  

Map used with permission from the Spearhead Yahoo group.

Soviet TOE

German TOE

Weather

Poor Weather -1Cmd penalty. See page 24 BKC II

Deployment 

Soviets deploy first up to one third of the table.
Germans nominate a player as their Recon element. Gets 1D3x30 seconds in the room with a map of the table. May mark, measure and take notes of the Soviet deployment. May not ask any questions.

Germans can then formulate their plan, divide up their units into formations and should use the map to mark where each formation will enter the board from (note xcm from left hand corner). Germans deploy opposite and use mobile deployment.

Game Length

12 Turns, the Germans take the first turn.

Objective

Calculate the number of victory points at the end of 12 turns. The following terrain features are all objectives; Hill 228.4 +2VPs, Butovo +3VPs and Hill 223 +2VPs. Inflicting more casualty points than casualty points taken (but not twice as many) +1VP, Inflicting at least twice as many casualty points than casualty points taken +2VP. Decide the winner as per page 36 BKC II.

Kursk Scenery Update II

Some pics of my new modular river sections. Really happy with the way these are coming on.

Lots of different ways these can be fitted together and like hills these are good for pretty much any period, place or game, 40K, SAGA, ACW, maybe even Force on Force.

Going to need at least a second and maybe third bridge piece, but have plenty of girder sections left and the bridge section was just a piece of plasti-card so easy to make.

I'm thinking of leaving the bridge free floating on the piece so it can be removed and used as a river piece cutting through a hill.