1SS First Day Scenario Pack

[Mad Russian]

Jason, sorry if this has been posted someplace and I missed it;

What is the order of your scenario packs?

As far as I can see they aren't given an identifiable order. I would like to play the first one in the either the 1st SS or the 5th GTA. Do you need a playtest on either of them more than the other? I'll be glad to give one a H2H run through. If you have no particular one that needs it I will more than likely do the 5th GTA.

[JasonC]

The 5th Guards Tank scenarios are all part of the Operation Uranus scenario pack, which is set in November 1942. It is the Russian counterattack that trapped 6th Army in Stalingrad that is being depicted. So far, I've received an AAR from only a single one of those, from one player. It definitely needs playtesting, and I encourage you to play through it.

There are two others - Ponyri Campaign, and 1SS First Day. Those depict the northern and southern faces of the Kursk fight - particular sectors of each, actually. 1SS First Day is receiving excellent feedback from several players. Only the town fight (Bykovka) within it has yet to be played, and one person told me he would start it soon. I would also be interested in reports about that one, certainly.

Ponyri Campaign is not at TPG but must be requested from me in a separate zip. I have not uploaded them individually because the scenarios are not designed to be played individually, and I fear people will download them that way and misunderstand their intended forces.

A half a dozen or so have asked for it, and I am playing through it with one fellow from the Blitz ladder. But I have yet to get full AARs on it - as isn't too surprising given its overall length when played as intended. In the one I am playing H2H, we are on turn 15 of PC Break In, the first full sized one (it is preceeded by a small recon type battle).

These are linked scenarios, not stand alone, with the German force suffering progressive causalties through the series, while the Russians are fresh each time. It depicts 3-4 days of fighting on the northern face, in front of and then within the town of Ponryi. If you just played them as is, the German force would be too large in the later battles. All losses before a given fight need to be removed from the OOB of the later ones (German side only).

I plan another on Operation Kutuzov, known on the German side as the Orel offensive, which helped defeat Kursk by drawing away essentially the entire north face force trying to meet it. That one is still in the design stage and will be roughly twice as long as the others.

[Mad Russian]

Originally posted by JasonC:

The 5th Guards Tank scenarios are all part of the Operation Uranus scenario pack, which is set in November 1942. It is the Russian counterattack that trapped 6th Army in Stalingrad that is being depicted. So far, I've received an AAR from only a single one of those, from one player. It definitely needs playtesting, and I encourage you to play through it.

Okay, I'll start there. What is the order of the scenarios? I am assuming that they follow an order but that it doesn't necessarily have to be followed.

When I did the 3rd Armored Division scenario campaign I made each a stand alone scenario even though they represented a progression of the division through the war.

Is that the case with your operations as well?

[JasonC]

Uranus scenario pack and 1SS First Day scenario pack, each scenario can be played independently in stand alone fashion.

Ponryi Campaign, on the other hand, should not be. The first can be skipped if you like, and the second - PC Breakthrough - can be played stand alone (though the challenge is to win it with minimal losses). But the rest require the German commander to remove from his OOB, anything he lost in the previous fights to that point.

As for the order of scenarios within the Uranus pack, it is -

Operation Uranus (dawn of first day, initial Russian assault)

Rumanian Roundup (dusk of first day, Russian attack - Rumanian retreat, trying to get away from the pursuit)

5th Tank Army vs. 22nd Panzer (dawn of second day, meeting engagement, German reserves trying to stop Russian breakthrough)

5th Tank Army vs. 1st Rumanian Panzer (midday of second day, Rumanian attack - to escape encirclement and cut a way out)

Alarm Along the Chir (3rd day, Russian probe of ad hoc positions along the Chir river to the west)

5th Tank Army vs. 24th Panzer (dusk of 3rd day, meeting engagement southeast of the others with elements of 6th Army, shows the formation of the western face of the Stalingrad pocket)

There is a readme with the details, or you can just follow the briefings in each scenario.

[Mad Russian]

Originally posted by JasonC:

There is a readme with the details, or you can just follow the briefings in each scenario.

There was no readme file attached to the scenario. Not sure if you overlooked adding it or if you intended the players get it directly from you.

The other possibility is that it is included with the pack. But since you have the scenarios listed separately on TPG the readme file is not present.

Just a heads up. Nothing to get excited about. I want to play them in order for you so that you get the progression of PT's in the same order that you put it together.

[JasonC]

It is in the zip file I send if people ask for the scenario pack, and also on this forum in the thread announcing the pack. Everyone talked about this one, not Uranus (surprise surprise). If you go to that thread you will see the details, same overall briefing and order of scenarios stuff you get in the read me.