I like the Kursk '43 (nice to play a PzC game with good weather and terrain that isn't mud or snow). What's the consensus on play balance? My impression is that the Soviets get hammered in the campaign game. If so, what is the solution? Adjust the victory point thresholds so the Germans need more points?
Michael
Played a number of Kursk scenarios (H2H) as the Soviet player and am still working towards a winning strategy! However, I'm not saying it is unbalanced, etc, just that I am not applying the correct strategy at the moment. So my thoughts on playing Soviet are just that.
Generally, it appears that the Soviets are on the defensive early, which makes sense given it is a Kursk game!
The first trick I think is to save units from impossible situations or locations that can be surrounded. As you would all be aware, once isolated it is only a matter of time before elimination.
Trade units/ground for time as sparingly as you can. Often you can find yourself "in-the-game" in the first half only to totally collapse in the second half if you loose too many troops.
Use terrain to your best defensive advantage. Engineers should only be digging-in in key areas and then released for other fortification construction. Don't loose your engineers!
Victory locations may have to be abandoned/ token defence early so that you can build a force for a last quarter counter-attack.
Spread the Germans as much as possible so you can try for localised superiority.
Counter attack when an encirclement is possible.
In the first half of the game the German player can take what terrain he wants given time. Battle it out to delay but not to the last man.
Just a couple of thoughts. Being on defence is more difficult IMHO than on offense but being strategy gamers we love a challenge. Perhaps not as attractive as being on the offense but I think it offers many possibilities and different strategies to apply given the factors presented in the scenario.
What about the core of the problem being you do not have the same level on information on the German offensive plans as the Soviets had in the days?
If I remember correctly the Soviet Army’s intelligence was able to gather a lot of information on the German attack to come. I wonder to what extent the simulation of that would not need some kind of asymmetrical Fog of War, i.e. the Soviet player having the benefit of no Fog of War masking German movements units and movements and the German side playing with the regular or extended Fog of War on to mask his opponent’s units and moves. I doubt this is feasible in the game engine but the issue of reproducing the level of information actually possessed by the opponents when the events took place should not be neglected. And yes, I know it’s always possible to launch the scenario outside of the game in course with no Fog of War, so as to see all details on both sides.
I imagine the scenario designers have taken that into account with the type and number of fortifications. Also, the Germans did advance during Kursk, just not as far as they had hoped. While the Russians knew what was coming and even the date, their knowledge of where the German forces were to the minute still depended on the Mk I eyeball.