Sunday 1 July 2018

July means Kursk!

A bit of a Kursk theme is planned for the July gaming table. It just so happens that 5th July will be the 75th anniversary of the opening of the German 1943 summer offensive. A campaign (Operation Citadel) that was monumental in terms of the direction of the war and renown for the huge tank battles fought around Prokhorovka.






Dark July, is the Lock ‘n Load Tactical boardgame module that covers the tactical level fighting in the region just west of Prokhorovka and specifically at the Oktiabrski State Farm and Hill 252.2 


The module has six scenarios, with one of them using a full sized map. I happen to have the X-Maps, which are essentially doubled in size, so you get a larger gaming hex as it stretches a one map game into a two map space and I think this will help with the visualisation of tank gun ranged fire.


To coincide with gaming the module, I am reading Kursk - The Greatest Battle, Eastern Front 1943 by Lloyd Clark and published by Headline Review. This has been on the ‘to read’ list for too long and if the opening pages are anything to go by, this should be a good read.


It talks about a Tiger company being charged across the steppe by 100 T34’s a mile out and then suddenly the T-34’s disappear from sight as they drop into a fold in the ground, only to re-emerge half a mile out. It’s the kind of first hand account that helps us understand those ‘to hit’ numbers in our games, even when the ground looks featureless and flat. The Tigers inflicted great carnage, but some T-34’s got through and four Tigers were damaged. It has T-34’s shooting on the move as they close in and the Tigers moving to get better firing positions. All that sort of stuff really helps visualise what out games should be doing.


There will be ongoing Kursk related posts throughout the month here, at COMMANDERS web space and over on Consimworld and BoardGameGeek. For the figure games, I will also post to the LeadAdventureForum / Pendraken etc.



RESOURCES:

Link to next post (intro to Kursk and the Dark July map)

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2018/07/kursk-battles-intro.html


COMMANDERS, this is my sister webspace that is more snippet based than here. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/


Post about the Lock ‘n Load Starter kit (note there is now a Version 5 set) LINK

15 comments:

  1. Looking forward to your July marathon! A mix of miniature and board games will be interesting to read. Will the same DJ scenarios see action in both media?

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  2. Thanks Jonathan, I now think not. I see the month as a 'Battles of Kursk' month, part of which I hope will be the full playing of Dark July. at the moment, I see more game than available time, so this will be pretty much a full on commitment.

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  3. This is great, I very much look forward to following along.

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  4. Thank you for the shout up. I've only really thought about this last minute, so it will be interesting to see how it develops.

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  5. There is a bit of a heat wave going on here in the U.K at the moment. The room that I game in has a lot of glass and is currently showing an uncomfortable 34.5 degrees!

    Heavy card maps / mounted boards don't like it and neither do things like MDF based roads and fields etc, so quite a bit of 'putting out and putting away' is likely going to determine the hours of gaming. Apparently we have another week of it!

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  6. Really looking forward to following this Norm. The heat wave is putting pay to all forms of gaming and painting activity, as it's simply too hot in the house, even at 10.00pm! Not complaining as it's like being on holiday:)

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    1. Thanks Steve, I should have set the first game up today, but have just been zapped!

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  7. Kursk is always interesting.
    I feel for you: the high summer heat has returned to where I live as well. Hot hot hot. Luckily my hobby desk is in a dark secluded room with only one window. 😀

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    1. Oh, and July means Gettysburg. 😀

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    2. Hmm, July 2019 could well be :-)

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  8. Thanks Stew, I am pressing on with the Kursk book (by Clark) and have also dug out a strategic east front game, that has a Citadel scenario, so that might also get a look in for the ‘Kursk month’

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  9. Couldn't agree more, Norm. Last summer I tried "The Summer of Battlegroup" and created an entire Kursk-Ponyri campaign with points and everything centered around the 292nd Infantry Division but, like Zitadelle, my Summer of Battlegroup shot its bolt and I only ended up playing 1 or 2 battles.
    Looking forward to your posts.

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    1. Thanks Steve, I like the theme idea, if only to getting to play the same rules a few times over to get better acquainted and get more from them and running some reading material alongside that increases immersion.


      I was looking at scenario 1 last night and while it only uses a small portion of the map, it is 'kit heavy', so in the true tradition of Kursk battles, there will be a lot of firepower to contend with. I note that too much firepower in a small space is the very thing that stresses my Tigers at Minsk rules, so I will have to give that some thought.

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  10. Very interesting post,Kursk month sounds great!
    Best Iain

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  11. Thanks Iain, I hope to post regularly and keep a momentum going.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment