Kharkov '43 Grand Campaign AAR---from the Russian side

[Strela]

Dog Soldier,

Good question. We did all the larger game testing with explicit supply on. This was based on the fact that both sides (but particularly the Russians) had problems supplying their spearheads. This shows up in particular later in the game where supply is coming from the board edge and it takes a long time to get to the troops. In the main I have a personal preference for VST, but Kharkov needed explicit supply to work properly in a historical context.

The amount of supply delivered each day was tweaked a few times - but the major determinant was the amount of mechanized formations for a side. As supply represents both ammo and fuel, a tank/motorized based unit will chew up supply when in contact. This forces pauses at various times to replenish and in the 'Stemming the Flow' AAR that I posted here on the Blitz, the German counterattack was dictated by the supply situation. It was interesting to see how any form of interdiction of the highways / railways could have an outsized impact. One of the players in the AAR escorted all his supply trucks with recon type units to protect them!

In the campaign game, both sides are in range of forward dumps that should last at least three days. Truck bound supply (plus rail for the Germans) start arriving from day two on. This gives a chance for the supply to start flowing from the map edges but also forces both sides to worry about their transportation routes. Trucks are the predominate type - so there is not an artificial slowing due to all horse bound supply.

Trains were included for the Germans for two reasons - limit the amount of flexibility they had as well as make the towns on major rail nexus important. The Soviets drove to the south for the exact reason of cutting off the German east/west communication. They actually succeeded for a short time and the attack from the march(train) by 15th Infantry Division at Sinel'nikovo was to reopen the rail line.

So, explicit supply worked well to represent the difficulty of advancing a long way away from your supply source, while representing the importance of protecting your rear area transportation hubs - which in the very open nature of the Kharkov '43 battle harder than it sounds....


David

PS VST does work well in many (most?) situations, Kharkov was a special case, with a situation not dissimilar to the desert titles.