Alan Snider  - May 19, 2005 2:00 am (#9956 Total: 9990)  
On the Playtest Table: Adam Starkweather's "The Devil's Cauldron"; 
and announcing the "Northern Knights Wargaming Group" in Vancouver, 
Canada with a retail store of it's own at http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ 
	 
GAMENIGHT, May 14th: Terence Co, Craig Nynych and I sat down with a
classic title that Craig has been carrying around with him for years,
SPI's "Kursk" 1970. Terence and Craig teamed up to command the Russians,
while I took on the challenge of directing the German offensive. We
chose the July variable setup. 

This was the trickiest bit of setup I've done in awhile, as the Germans
must either occupy or project a zone of control in EVERY hex of their
fortification line. After much though, I set up mostly behind the line
to enable my units to move freely to attack who they wanted, rather than
getting "stuck" in a ZoC trying to set up a favorable attack. I found it
very tough to hit the 4-1 odds required to get the best low risk attack,
in the attempt to push the Russian line back (and through their
fortification lines). The movement costs are so tough, that often only
armoured units can move at times, as leaving and re-entering a zone of
control is 6 movement points if all movement is in a clear hex. 

The German attacks were very carefully planned, but they still seemed to
take too many losses, and struggled to keep a solid attacking force,
especially in the south near Kharkov where the river caused all sorts of
problems to the German advances. What little success I had on the first
turn came in the 'bulge' in the centre, where I was able to bust up
quite a few of the Russian positions, and exploit the opening with
armored units. 

It was on the second turn that the real problems started, as the
Russians managed to splinter the German lines in the South, which will
force the Germans to plug a few huge holes in the line, as there is 3
Russian units nearly all the way through the German fortification lines.
If not for a few roving armoured units, I'd be in real trouble already.
The real point is, that this effectively stalls the German push for at
least one turn if not more. 

The only glimmer of hope may be in the North, where the Germans have
begun to roll up the Russian flanks, and have nearly made it through the
Russian fortification line in the furthest northern area of the map.
Once through the fortifications, the Germans may be able to run rampant
cutting supply lines... 

This game will be resumed on May 21, as we finished the days' play with
2 turns complete. 

Alan Snider - May 23, 2005 1:49 pm (#9987 Total: 9990) 
On the Playtest Table: Adam Starkweather's "The Devil's Cauldron"; and 
announcing the "Northern Knights Wargaming Group" in Vancouver, Canada 
with a retail store of it's own at http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ 	 

GAMEDAY, April 21: Craig Nynych, Terence Co and myself sat down to
finish with our game of SPI "Kursk" 1971. We pick up the action at the
start of turn 3, with the Germans facing some huge problems in the South
and some emerging holes in the line in the North. 

The Germans managed to stretch their already thin resources, to address
nearly all of holes in the line; as well as making a few high odds
attacks where possible. The results were horrible, as an EX or 1/2 EX
result can be considered Russian victories. This leaves little room for
the Germans to succeed, as they MUST lead with their armour; while at
the same time staying in supply. A withdrawl of the armour (during the
mech move) to a better defensive position ensures the mobile part of the
German force remains on the board. 

The following Russian counterattacks were devastating. In the North the
Russians poured through the gaps created by selected attacks and careful
retreats of the enemy units (yes, the attacker determines the retreat
direction of the opponent), and followed up with ambitious mechanized
movement. The hole created was large enough such that the Russians put
the entire German line East (northern part of the map) of the river OUT
OF SUPPLY. It had briefly crossed my mind to pull back behind the river
during my turn, but thought I could hold for one more turn (wrong!). It
was not surprising that the Russians chewed up these trapped units with
little effort. They could not even move away, as the movement costs were
such that disengaging from the enemy was not possible (a bit weird). 

Th one bit of progress that the Germans were able to make was just south
of Okhovatka, and they did move a few more hexes toward Kursk; but the
success was much overshadowed by the wholesale German collapse. When one
of my attacks put one of my armoured units out of supply in the northern
most region of the battle, and was subsequently eliminated in the
Russian counterattack; I declared that the killing blow... I could see
that the Germans could go no further. Essentially the Germans walking a
knifes' edge between victory and defeat, and simply cannot take many
defeats in the first 4 turns. I was not able to prevent this. 

Luckily for me, Terence kicked in with some enthusiasm with the German
defence, and relieved me of some misery which had become my situation. A
combination of sloppy strategy/movement and average dierolls (they'll
kill ya in this game) sealed my fate. Craig is one to play a game
through to completion, no matter what the state of competition, while I
see no point in a lopsided affair (VP condition-wise). I think I've
gotten quite used to a much different "plan" of attack with both Terence
and Nathan regarding a first playthrough with a game... That being, to
try to get a good competitive playthrough whilst getting a flavour for
the game system at a higher level ie. What a game will be like after
playing it 5 times or so. This often involves pointing out a horrendous
potential error by the other player to raise the level of play. Not
everyone will groove to this way of thinking, but it is certainly my
preference. 

Overall, we really did like this game. So much so, that we launched
another game. This time we are going to use the July historical setup,
and all of the errata and optional rules from Grognards. We began setup
immediately on conclusion of our game... This has slightly more mobility
for infantry units, particularly the Germans who have a 5 mp rating
(Russians have 4mp). This will make it less tricky to engineer a
favourable attack, as well as to not being as vulnerable to being put
out of supply.