Prokhorovka. The Great Tank Battle

[Crossroads]

We just finished our first go with three vs three players on the Prokhorovka: The Ultimate Battle (TR) scenario. 

TR stands for team game version with Russian side going first. It is a slightly modified version of the German / Russian vs AI original scenario by Alan R. Arvold.

So. We are now switching sides to complete a sequential mirrored game to conclude on the game balance.

Meanwhile. If you want to enjoy a massive scenario as Soviets, getting a Major Win, while losing 498 (four hundred ninety eight) AFVs while at it, this would be it! 

The scenario covers the July 12th massive counter attack. I have not calculated the forces starting the battle from the OoB, but here's what Wiki says:

The German forces involved in the Battle of Prokhorovka were from the three Waffen-SS divisions of the II SS-Panzer Corps: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf. On the evening of 11 July, the serviceable armour strength of the II SS-Panzer Corps was 294 tanks and assault guns, which included 15 Tigers. The armoured strength of Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf were 77, 95, and 122 tanks and assault guns respectively

The main Soviet armoured formation involved in the battle was the 5th Guards Tank Army, which controlled five corps by 12 July: the 2nd Guards, 2nd, 5th Guards Mechanized, 18th and 29th Tank Corps. All together they fielded 793 tanks and 37 to 57 self propelled guns for a total of approximately 840 armoured fighting vehicles.

What ever Wiki says, I trust the scenario more, for it is obvious Alan has put a huge effort with latest books and stats available on the battle. But I feel that's a pretty accurate description of both sides before the hostilities of July 12 commencing. 

So that's the background.

Here's the losses at the end of play:

Soviets:
- 140 T-70s
- 270 t-34s
- the remaining AFV losses are LL M3s, Churchills, KV-1s and SU-76/122s,
- for a total of 498 tank losses.

Germans:
- 66 mkIIIs
- 66 mkIVs
- 14 T-34s
- 48 stugIIIs
- 4 (four) markVIs
- the remaining losses are Marders (17) and pz Is and IIs (very handy for arty spotting and recon),
- for a total of 223 tank losses. 

Before the remaining turns and the desperate German push to keep the kessels open, they were down with 151 tank losses, before the "ramming" started. At that stage they had like a 3:1 advantage on tank kills. At this scale. So 150 lost almost 450 killed. Wow.

We were playing with No Exiting Map ROE, and it did get quite close and personal towards the end.

Way cool!