George MC Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 New scenario available for test at The Proving Grounds Rail Yard Blues “Totenkopf” SS panzer kampfgruppe attacks a Soviet held rail yard and village during the Kessel battles near Kirovograd in early January 1944. Map Size: 1km x 1.2km Total Points Combined: 7000 Fictional Author: George McEwan Date: January 1944 Region: Russia Battle Type: German Attack. Fictional Game Length: 45 variable Time: Dawn Ground Condition: Light snow Temperature: cold Weather: Fog Defender: Soviets (dug in) Map Contours: Gentle 1.25m Map Edges Friendly to: W - Neutral N - Allied E - Allied S - Axis Flag type: Static – there are 3 flags each worth 300 points. Axis/Allied Bonus: none Play recommendations Best played as H2H or as the Germans Vs Soviet AI; for the first attempt playing against the AI use ‘stick to scenario default’, depending on your experience give AI a combat experience bonus e.g. crack players +3; veteran players +2; regular players +1; green players no bonus. Background Weakened by a steady stream of losses since the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, the Wehrmacht’s Eastern Front was in tatters by January 1944. Army Group South was seriously weakened, and the Soviets recognizing this weakness sought to exploit it. In December 1943 the Soviets broke through southwest of Kiev and pushed the German Fourth panzer Army back over 160km. In early January the Soviets launched another massive offensive with the aim of smashing the German XLVII Panzer Corps who were deployed to defend Kirovograd. More than 600 Soviet tanks opened a huge breach in the German line and trapped several German divisions in the large industrial city. This gap was rebuilt after Manstein moved two fresh divisions to mount a counterattack. Leading this effort was the Waffen SS “Totenkopf” division which had been brought up from the lower Dnepr. The weather at this time of year had been unusually mild with blizzards alternating between spells of rain. With the thaws the road network would very quickly turn into a nasty quagmire that mired all wheeled vehicles and even caused difficulty for tracked vehicles. This meant that rail links and their associated facilities were crucial to either side to enable them to rapidly move supplies and reinforcements to the front. In this fictional scenario a Soviet mechanised unit has taken advantage of one such cold snap and pushed into a crucial goods yard on the outskirts of a small town. A panzer kampfgruppe from the “Totenkopf” division has been tasked to retake the rail yard thus allowing the Germans to continue to support their desperate counterattack. On the other side of the battlefield the Soviet commander has been tasked with ensuring that on no accounts do the Germans retake this vital facility... Sitting in their SPW nervously clutching their weapons the panzergrenadiers peer expectantly into the gloom. In the panzers the commanders, with the soft hiss of static in their earphones, scan the gloomy silhouettes of the rail yard with their binoculars. Opposite, hunkered down in their foxholes the Soviet defenders can hear the rumbling and squeaking of tracks approaching through the foggy dawn… Information Sources This is a fictional scenario and is based on accounts of actual actions covered in: “Armour Battles of the Waffen SS, 1943 – 45” by Will Fey “Chronicle of the 7. Panzer Kompanie 1st SS Panzer Division “Leibstandarte” by Ralf Tiemann. “From The Don to The Dnepr” by David M. Glantz “Steel Storm: Waffen SS Panzer Battles on the Eastern Front 1943 – 1945” by Tim Ripley. I hope you enjoy/enjoyed this battle. I’d appreciate any feedback about this scenario, good, bad or indifferent. You can grab a copy here http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details_link.html?sku=953 Cheers fur noo George Mc 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 Feels like a Christmas present every time one of your new battles turns up, George. And I mean that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted October 25, 2005 Author Share Posted October 25, 2005 Originally posted by Aragorn2002: Feels like a Christmas present every time one of your new battles turns up, George. And I mean that. Thank you Nice of you to say. Hope you like em. Tankovyi Desant is worth a play through to - inspired by Evgeni Bessanov's account of his comabt experience (now that boy was lucky - Tank Rider is well worth a read, and more so for the fact it is one of the few Soviet eye witness accounts of combat on the Eastern front available in English). Kharkov is currently being playtested by Charlie and myself so will be released just in time for Christmas cheers fur noo George 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmavis Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Review posted, George! Great stuff! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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