Trebian finally gets to Kursk

Chris has run a number of Kursk games over the last 30 years or so, and I think I've missed all of them. I've never had access to massed Soviet armour, unless it's the likes of the T-70 or T-26, facing up against PzIVs and Tigers.

This week's game was a disguised scenario based on Kursk. I was promised many T-34s. I got them, but on the other hand my opponents turned up with the odd Tiger and Panther. So instead of my light troops banging their heads against mediums, it was mediums against heavies. Plus ca change.

I partnered Steve and faced off against Phil, who was joined by Tim. Here you can see my massed armour waiting to be unleashed.

For this game Chris was using the "Graham variant", which is where the SPs of a base represent its quality. Veterans are 4, Conscripts are 2 and so on. This variant arose after I misread a draft of the rules and ran a game as described. Instead of 7SPs to an area it is now two large bases and one small. Chris was also trying out some changes to the re-org phase he said, but I didn't notice any difference. Possibly because he didn't police the players that closely and we just carried on as normal.

Phil started with a concerted attack on the village on my right. I bided my time.

On my left Steve was suffering the usual T-26 disappointment. Luckily he had a reasonable amount of artillery support.

Phil stuck his Tiger into the assault on the village, and my T-34s pounced. I also caught the Tiger with my heavy artillery. And hit it.

My troops got evicted from the village, but I drove the Tiger back.

Steve was holding on over on my left, having suffered a series of pushbacks early on.

I surrounded the Germans who had overrun the village, and unleashed my veteran motorised infantry. Their task was to cover the flank of my armour as I went after the Tiger, and then head on to overrun Phil's artillery.

With one thing and another I reckoned I'd inflicted enough damage to destroy most of the Germans defending the ridge.

The German line is smashed and we storm forwards.

The armour rolls up the rest of the crest line, surrounding the beleagured Germans in the village. In the distance my motorised infantry swarms across the steppe, harrassing the German artillery into a hurried retreat.

At the top of the picture you can see the Geramn artillery on their baseline just before being forced off the table. Just that pesky garrison bottom right to deal with.

Steve was counter attacking too. He's probably a move or two behind me, but it is looking good. Chris then started to hand out German reinforcements. Another Tiger on my side. Time to wrap up the evening and have a cup of tea or coffee.

Good to play the Soviets with some advantage for a change. The SP variant works well and allows for different troop quality without too much faffing about. A very satisfactory evening.