Flames of War

Kursk

We were invited up North to play at Shawn Tester's house, with his table and models in a Kursk area battle (all photo's are courtesy of Shawn). The southern players, Chuck, myself, Michael, and Steve took command of the Soviet forces, which was a great deal of fun for us; except for Steve, we had never used them before. Chuck took the right flanking force, Michael defended the town in the middle, and Steve handled the left. I assumed the roll of overall general, and commanded just a few units in support (mostly artillery).

Our main objective was to defend the town, followed up by taking the hill on the left, and the farmhouse on the right. Seeing the German deployment, we decided that Steve should use the superior mobility of his T-34s to stay out of range of their towed AT guns, and instead he came through the center of town. Backed by Michael infantry, these two forces gave the German center a real problem. The Germans managed to take one building until the battery of 80mm, and 120mm mortars fell on them, blasting them and stalling their advance.

On the left, the 120mm mortars also eliminated one STuG, and a towed AT gun, and managed to pin a German Engineer platoon for quite a while. Steve's infantry flowed down the hill, and turned back only to eliminate the other STuG in an assault, but sadly after it had wiped out half of the 120mm mortars. Steve pushed on with his infantry after that, and his tanks kept on the advance, swinging around and up the hill, finally contesting it.

On the right, things were going Chuck's way until the Tiger showed up as a reinforcement. Chuck left his KV1s in ambush, and gave three P-IVs a nasty surprise, killing all three by the end of the game. The Tiger, however, forced soviet armor to retreat behind a stand of trees. In the end, Russian infantry double timed across the open field and tried to assault the mobile bunker, but were beaten back by nearby infantry.

In the end, the Axis securely held one objective (the farm house) at one victory point; the hill lie contested, and the Village remained in total Soviet control

ошеломляющий успех!

The Soviet General Staff prepares their deployment . From left to right Chuck, me-self, Micheal, and Steve.

On the right, German forces backed by no less than two StuGs, pound Soviet scout units on top of the hill.

Наши войска наступали на врага.

Three P-IVs move up near the ruined farmhouse. Their advance would soon be stalled by three KV1s hidden in the tree line.