Wednesday, February 22, 2017

The Campaign For Kharkov Pint Sized Campaigns are Complete

I have finished the work on the pint sized campaigns. There are two campaigns designed for the Chain of Command rules from TooFatLardies. But these can be applied to any skirmish level rule system. One covers the advance of the German 57th Infantry Division and the other the German 101st Light Division. The attack came in October of 1941. This city would be the site of three major battles for the city. The interesting aspect of the October 1941 battle is in the nature of the troops involved. The Soviets had superiority in armor. The Germans advanced with only a single STUG battalion in support of the 57th ID. The Soviets fielded the T34 as well as several improvised armored vehicles such as the KhTZ-16. While not a success on the battlefield, it demonstrated the Soviet inventiveness under the extreme pressure of the blitzkrieg.

There are twelve total scenarios in the campaign. Full force lists are availible for both German Divisions and the Soviet troops present. Maps are based on aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by German troops in September 1941.

I will be adding this to Wargames Vault later today. But it is availible here for only $6.00 US. Simply PayPal the money to my account - cstoesen@corecard.com and I will email you the PDF.

I would appreciate any reviews that I can get either here on the blog or on Wargames Vault. Thanks.

Note that a Kindle and a hard copy will be available on Amazon within the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Note: An Errata document has been created for this. It is availible here.

18 comments:

  1. Nice looking pictures, impressive terrain!

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  2. Is this for Chain of Command, like the other pint sized campaigns?

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    1. Yes it is designed for Chain of Command. But it is usable for any other skirmish scale rules.

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  3. Well done with this Chris, handy to know for future reference.

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  4. Hi Chris, would love to see some battle reports from your play testing!

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    1. Honestly, I playtest before I have terrain ready. Most of it is done with masking tape marking out where the areas are. It is not pretty. I write faster than I can paint.

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  5. Hi Chris,

    I was wondering if you could clear up a few queries about details in this campaign?

    1) Some of the support list values seem unusual. For example, StuGs are very cheap, while infantry are quite expensive. Is this intentional? If so, why?
    2) The Soviet rifle squad on List 3; is this Green?
    3) Soviet platoons are listed as either Green or Regular with no force rating. German ones are listed with a force rating. However the scenarios give fixed support costs. Which quality should Soviet players use, and how would that affect their support levels?
    4) 101st Scenario 1 "may select one strong point that is a bunker". Is this a free bunker? A free upgrade to a building?
    5) 101st Scenario 3 "The bridge is ruined but engineers can repair it sufficiently to cross". Can this be done during the game? How?
    6) 57th Scenario 5. The engineers to blow the bridge cannot be brought up until Soviets have two full CoC dice, and they cannot blow it until they have a third dice. Do all these dice have to be spent to make this happen, or is it just a delay mechanism and they can then be spent on other things?

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    1. Excellent Questions one and all. Let me try to answer them.
      1) The Stug's should not be very cheap . This is most likely a typo or just plain error on my part. I am not used to working with points lists and am not good with them. I will try to get this fixed and make an errata doc to send to everyone.
      2) Yes, it is supposed to be green.
      3) the intent was to make it so you can grab the supplement and use it to create your own thing. So the Soviets should have had a force rating to allow that. The scenarios that I provided can be played as stated with no real change in the support levels. So if you choose a green Soviet unit, you are just giving yourself a more challenging game. But I also view it as a tool kit for you to modify as you wish. So feel free to give Green Soviets a few more support points.
      4) Yes, this is a free bunker or upgrade to a building.
      5) This is an engineering task. An engineer team will move onto the bridge and then you need to declare them to be working to fix it. From here I will steal from the rule book and modify the roadblock section slightly. "To do this they must spend two Phases in which they are activated adjacent to the bridge during which time they must not lose any members killed or have any Shock
      inflicted." After that, the bridge is passable. Have them roll a d6. On a roll of 2-3 it is passable by infantry only. On a roll of 4-6 vehicles may travel across it as well. I will add this to an errata document as I should have put this in the document.
      6) This is only a delaying mechanism. You do not lose your CoC dice for this. They can be spent on other things. Otherwise it is too restrictive on the Soviets.

      Thanks for pointing these out. I will work on the Errata ASAP.

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  6. Excellent, thanks Chris!

    One final question: I may be being blind here but where are the Soviets' victory conditions? It mentions that their orders are to delay the Germans as long as possible, but at what point have they done enough to claim victory and bragging rights?

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    1. Which scenario are you asking about?

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    2. The campaign as a whole.

      German victory conditions seem pretty straightforward: capture all six tables. But how many campaign turns do they have to do it in before the result is a Soviet win?

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    3. I will be making an errata for this shortly that will address these issues. I reviewed the Big Chain of Command document from Rich. For the STUG Batterie, here is what I have:
      Regular Platoon 4 STUG III and Three SDKFZ 250s +5, Plus two additional support SDKFZ 250s +8. If you choose the T34 option: Regular: +9(T-34s), +12 (with SDKZF 250 support teams)

      If the Russians manage to with three or more scenarios, they win a minor victory. If they manage to win four or more scenarios across the campaign, they win a major victory.

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  7. Just sent payment by PayPal so looking forward to reading this campaign. Keep up the good work

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    1. They have been sent and are on their way. Thanks for ordering.

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