Korsun '44 Alt Scenarios V3 now available

[Strela]

Hello All,

Volcano Man has just put up the latest version of the Korsun Alt scenarios. You can get it at :

http://www.volcanomods.com/

This is by far the biggest update we have put out on Korsun and has corrected some serious game balance issues and is the result of some pretty extensive game testing. All the testers have played many PC and board games on the subject and are happy that we now have a great series of historical results.

We have learned a lot from testing such as this AAR

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=52288


This is an abbreviate changelog for Version 3 :

GENERAL

• After extensive testing it was found that the Russian breakthrough in 1st Ukraine Front sector was consistently too far south. A completely new setup has been done in this sector based upon additional research. There are increased defenses for the Germans with bunkers added across much of the sector which will hold the Russian advance for the historical first day. Most of 34th & 198th Infantry Divisions are in Battalion strength. In the German 88th Infantry Division sector, the Russians should be able to make significant progress early on due to a company level defense. The change in setup should give the German player the option of keeping 34th & 198th Infantry Divisions out of the pocket – the old setup was almost guaranteeing that they would not be able to retreat south in time.
• The defenses facing 2nd Ukraine Front have also been beefed up with either bunkers or trenches. Be aware the Soviets are strong enough to assault out bunkers without disrupting the occupant (it is bloody though).
• The Weather file has been adjusted to remove the possibility of storms in the Korsun campaigns until January 29th, 1944.



GERMAN
• All German infantry (other than Feld Ersatz) have morale increased to B class.
• Revised VII Korp setup. Extended frontage for 88th Infantry has resulted in a significantly weaker defensive line in the Stepok (44,42) to Kruty’ye Gorby (43,57) sector.
• Release times varied for 34th Infantry, 198th Infantry and VII Korp assets to 12pm January 26th.
• Revised both XI Korp and XLVII Panzer Korp setup slightly to group units into battalions where possible.
• XLVII Panzer Korp, all units are fixed. Release of individual Divisions begins at 12pm January 25th.
• The Hamsterlung (Hamster Line) has been added behind 57th & 72nd Infantry Division. Centred on Rotmistrovka (135,86)
• 24th Panzer Div is now part of XLVII Panzer Korp. This is where it was intended to be used. The Army Reserve formation is removed.
• Introduced German rear area troops. Most of the major towns the Russians passed through had either supply dumps or supply troops present. Many of these troops were surprised when the Soviets rolled into town but then put up a credible defense. Static infantry has been introduced to simulate these forces. They cannot move, but will need to be cleared by the Russian player. Significantly, they will also assist the German player in reporting the extent of the Russian advance (until they die).


SOVIET
• Revised 1st Ukraine Front setup with stronger grouping of 40th Army around Tinovka (27,74).
• Release times revised. 5th Mech Corp now releases at 10am, January 26th in support of 40th Army.
• 233rd Tank Brigade is now subordinated from 5th Mech Corp to 6th Guards Tank Army. This brigade was 6th GTA reserve and was not withdrawn with 5th MC on 28th January. Historically, it surprised the Germans by appearing 50 km’s away from where it was expected. It helped spearhead 27th Army’s breakout to Medvin (56,59) and was the first unit into Zvenigorodka (51,53) via Lisyanki (61,75). It was sent into 27th Army sector when it was apparent that 40th Army was hung up in 34th Infantry Divisions defenses.
• Introduced ‘tankodesantniki’ Russian tank riders. The infantry battalion in each tank brigade has been designated tank riders. They will now move at the same speed as there accompanying tank battalion. Players should be aware that if this battalion is operating separately to the tanks it would not have the movement capability shown in travel mode. It was important to include this unit as the Soviet spearheads from both 1st and 2nd Ukraine front were tank brigades with mounted infantry.
• 713th SU and 1892nd SU Regiments start on map in support of 27th Army. Both Zetterling and Nash mention armour support in the attacks from Luka (48,51).
• 745th SU Regiment has been transferred from 5th Mech Corp to 233rd Tank Brigade.
• 4th and 21st Chemical battalions hard value adjusted from 2/0 to 5/0.
• Within all Tank Corps a new Tank Bde HQ has been added to differentiate it from the Mech infantry Bde HQ. Both Bde HQ’s have had their movement allowances adjusted to match their troops. The tank brigade HQ was introduced as the initial spearheads were consistently out of command in the original OB. Command range is normally set at 5 to ensure that the brigade frontage is compressed.
• Tank Corps are now based on a Divisional structure rather than a Corp. This now allows a single Divisional colour for all components of the Tank Corp. A minor graphics change still allows the Tank Corp HQ to display ‘XXX’ despite being a ‘XX’ in the OB.
• The 173rd Tank Brigade of 4th Guards Army as well as 18th Tank Corp (5th Guards Tank Army) are fixed until 6am, January 26th.
• 53rd and 4th Guards Army artillery has been repositioned further forward and entrenched to better support the initial Russian attack.





Here is an example of the front line on the 2nd Ukraine Front at the beginning of the main campaign :







Here is the same sector at 16:00 on the first day from a Russian perspective - 20th Tank Corps is on its way to Lebedin as the infantry continue to widen the break in the German line.




All comments and feedback welcomed!

[Strela]

And as a little tease - our next project is well underway....

[Dog Soldier]

• The Weather file has been adjusted to remove the possibility of storms in the Korsun campaigns until January 29th, 1944.

Is this modified weather file going to over write the stock weather file? That could cause problems if a player can not tell which weather.dat file (stock or VM) is currently in the game directory when moving back an forth between stock and VM _alt scenarios playing different opponents over time.

Dog Soldier

[Strela]

The original file did not have storms. Unfortunately you are correct there is no ability to use separate weather files dependant on the scenario being played. The only change to the weather files are the inclusion of storms and players should agree which file they want to use before starting a game or alternatively do a second game installation for their _Alt scenarios.

[Mr Grumpy]

Strela,
Would it be possible to bring 'closure' to your thread in the AAR area, that way when people read it in the future they will get the whole story of the test from beginning to the end.

[Volcano Man]

And as a little tease - our next project is well underway....

Ohhhh, you big tease!

[Indragnir]

Regarding your new project: that area is the very east of Kharkov map.

Gruppe Barbo means is between 1942 and first quarter of 1943.

Are you (re) working FSoR?

Bests
César

[cavalry corps]

Looks good - wow

May I ask if you fixed the silly arrival of the air supply for the campaign and the break out scn . It all lands well behind the Russian lines. I have played it many times


Cav

[Strela]

Thank all for the comments :

Foul - Will see what I can do. I have been ruthless with save game file lately and may have to see if I can resurrect the last turn. Each turn for the AAR was taking me 2+ hours to post and other priorities got in the way. At the very least I can write up a summary of what was learned and what was changed with the scenario to further balance it and drive a historical outcome.

Cesar - I said it was a tease :) so I can neither confirm or deny. There has been some great efforts to do FSoR by the community previously. Whatever we do will go beyond any efforts that are normally done and will be more in the vein of VM's Operation Compass with multiple campaigns and scenarios. My wife has expressed her dismay when 6 large books arrived from Amazon on the new topic - after seeing the time we put into Korsun.

Cavalry Corps - Just had a quick look at the para drop - had not adjusted (or tested extensively) this area. There are a couple of things to note :

1) The airdrops initially are on the forward edge of the German battle line with a scatter of 3-4. This will result in some falling on the Russian side of the lines.

2) The drops after Feb 12th are in advance of the German start lines. Historically the breakout had moved beyond Shenderovka to Khilki / Novo Buda area. Some of the drops fall in this area or further to the east. The challenge with the drops is to supply the German advance of both the pocket and the relieving forces - the mud makes it very difficult to supply the forward forces and the Germans historically did airdrops to keep the advance moving.

3) The scenario design tools force the designer to 'guess' where the front will be - that is the case here. One option I think could give players slightly more flexibility is to use strategy options for the paradropped supply so that they could land in say 3 different areas. One might be Korsun airfield, one might be where the German start line was and one might be somewhere in advance of the line. Scatter would be still present, but at least this gives the player some control? The challenge for the player is that paradropped supply does not move so landing too far in the rear will not supply the forward units.

Happy for anyone elses comments on this one.

[Mr Grumpy]

Thank all for the comments :

Foul - Will see what I can do. I have been ruthless with save game file lately and may have to see if I can resurrect the last turn. Each turn for the AAR was taking me 2+ hours to post and other priorities got in the way. At the very least I can write up a summary of what was learned and what was changed with the scenario to further balance it and drive a historical outcome.

Anything you can do would be great, if you don't have time to post images then a summery would be just as good, it was an excellent AAR and it just needs some sort of 'full stop' to do it justice IMO. ;)

I bet there are many 'PzC widows' in the world! :smoke: