057 Tank Fight at Prokhorovka

Details: Written by: Bill Jaffe and Dana Lombardy; Category: Eastern Front; Published: 18 January 2021; Last Updated: 14 December 2021; Hits: 770

Victory Results:

0 %

100 %

Total plays 1 - Last reported by pino on 2021-12-13 23:34:55

n the spring of 1943, the Germans planned to regain the initiative on their Eastern Thant. A large bulge in the area around the city of Kursk made a tempting tenet, and the Germans expected their armored spearheads to break through as they had hr 1941-42. But when the attack began in early July: the Soviets were prepared with massive numbers of mines. for fortifications, anti-tank guns, and tanks, Their northern defenses stopped the Germans after a few days. In the South, an elite corps of SS pan: er grenadier divisions came close to success - with the fate of the battle determined by a tank slues: near the town of Prokhorovka.

	Soviet	German
Division 1	4 KV-1s	1 Panzer IV 2 Tiger Is
Division 2	2 Squad Bases - 6 Regular Infantry - 2 Officers 2 ZiS 76.2 AT Guns 1 T-34/76	3 Panzer IVs
Strategy Decks	Artillery 2 (remove one "Increased Priority" and all three "Sustained Blanket" cards) Morale 1 Combined Air Support 1 (Shared)	Command 1 Combined Air Support 1 (Shared)
Starting Strategy Cards	3 Two of the starting cards are "Take Cover" and "Take Down the Beast" from Morale 1	1
Operations Cards	040 Lack of Tank Radios	011 Elite Tank Crew
Deployment Zone	Division 1: Any hex with a dark red border on map 33B and any hex on maps 10A and 11B. Division 2: Any hex on maps 10A and 34B.	Division 1: Any hex with a grey border on maps 3A and 35B. Division 2: Any hex with a grey border on map 3A and 12A.
Starting Initiative
Objective	The side with the most victory points at the end of round 10 wins. The Soviets get 1VP for each German Tank destroyed.	The side with the most victory points at the end of round 10 wins. The Germans get 1 VP for each Panzer IV and 3 VP for each Tiger that exits the north edge of map 34B.
Rounds	10
Actions per turn	3	3
Reinforcements	Soviet D1 receives a variable number of reinforcements during the Status Phase of Rounds 2, 3, and 5. - Each round roll a die: 1 = 2 SU-I22s 2 = 1 T-34/76 3 = 1 KV-1 4 = 3 T -34/76s 5 = 1 SU-122 6 = 1 SU-I22 and 2 T -34/76s - Then roll a die for location: 1 = 11B 2 = 7A 3 = 1A 4 = 34B 5 = 32B 6 = Soviet player's choice of any of these maps above.	Status Phase of Round 2 German D1): - 2 Panzer IVs Status Phase of Round 4 (German D1): - 1 Panzer IV - 1 Tiger
Special Rules	At the beginning of Round 3, the Soviet player resolves the "Instant Minefield" card from the Sabotage deck. If the Soviet player runs out of the required reinforcements, he can reroll once.	-
Terrain Features	The stream is Shallow. Vehicles may not enter balka hexes. The swamp hex on 33B is a ford where vehicles may cross the river at a cost of 3.

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Posts in discussion: 057 Tank Fight at Prokhorovka

alecrespi replied the topic:

#1030

11 months 2 weeks ago

Some comments found online.

RayGuns (Sep 18, 2012)

We played the "Tank Fight at Prokhorovka" scenario three times last weekend, and we discovered a major flaw in the scenario in that the Germans can almost always win if play it right. In fact, two very good players worked together as Russians played against one German player, and the German player still won easily. How? Basically, the trick for the Germans is to get one VP more than the Russian player. Once the German player achieves a VP advantage, the Germans pull back to good defensive positions and forces the Russians to come to them. When that happens, the Russians tend to get the short end of the stick.

To make a long story short, we think the victory conditions should be altered to reflect the need for the Germans to keep advancing.

This hasn't been test played yet , but the victory conditions we came up with, and we think might work better would be simply this:

Russians get 1VP for each German Tank destroyed.
Germans get 1VP for each MkIV and 3VP for each Tiger that exits.

Needless to say, the Tigers still draw attention as before, but with different results. Again, this has not been tested, but seems more interesting than the original victory conditions because now the only way for the Germans to get VPs is to keep advancing.

Game Note:
We played this a few times using the Ground Support Deck I, but I think it seems to make more sense if it were the "Combined Air Support Deck I". Need an official ruling about this typo in the scenario.

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