Is this gamey?

[Dog Soldier]

Marquo,

You have a point about historical releases. Rarely does a game follow "historical" timetables. After all, as commanders we are trying to do something different. It would follow that a flexible reaction to the release of reinforcements mechanism of some kind would benefit many of the games. The subjective part would be simulating the grand strategy outside the scope of the battle in the title.

In Kursk, the Russian grand strategy was to ruthlessly ride out the German attack and not commit the reinforcements until the Germans were sufficiently worn down. The Russian command did not want to only stop the German attack, but achieve a decisive defeat upon the cream of the German mobile forces in the east. The Russian command was willing to exchange their fortified infantry and AT units to accomplish this. How many gamers would have the "sang froid" to try and hold one more day with only the forces at hand? To easy is the temptation to commit reinforcements early to stop the other player in most games.

The destruction of the German mobile forces in that battle was to influence the rest of the war in the east. The Axis were never able to to effectively counter a Russian offensive after that battle due to the lack of mobile forces. The disaster at Minsk the next summer is a good example of the direct result of Kursk. For the German army in the east,after Kursk, it was just one long fighting retreat. Meager mobile forces were used as "fire brigades". There was just not enough left to do anything but delay the inevitable defeat.

Dog Soldier