#0202_08s_Kharkov '43 Grand Campaign_Variant_1 CLOSED

[burroughs]

Well, actually I answered to this post here as it refers to variant 1 of the Kharkov '43 full campaign and to my best knowledge that was exactly the version we used in 2013 to set up the team game.

The fact that the Voronezh Front was crawling at a snail's pace is understandable due to weather conditions, operational and logistic burden, the terrain and determined German effort to delay the advance and put up a determined defence where possible. If my memory doesn't fail it took me quite some time to capture Korocha far to the NE direction of Kharkov - perhaps the Germans were too strong indeed at that point as it was quite early in the campaign before their build-up and long before Manstein's counteroffensive. In the south the SW Front didn't reach anywhere further than Slavyansk without mentioning Kramatorsk before their started to get minced completely yet before turn 100 - the point that jerries even crossed Severny Donets back and threatened seriously the MSR in there. At some point I decided to extend our reach there further west in hope of finding their flank and turning that or just persuade them to redeploy back further SW, but in vain and Popov's Mobile Group was almost completely surrounded and defeated in detail close to western outskirts of Slavyansk and then jerry pushed north and NE from there. Even the attempt to stop them and defend on the river line was futile. Since the potential destruction of SW Front endangered the whole concept of thrust to Kharkov from NE by the Voronezh Front, it pushed grimly for some time, but I was actually focused much more on coming up with the idea how to secure my left wing in the south than on crossing the river in the centre on our way to Kharkov - I commanded the Voronezh Front.

So were the Germans too strong very early in the game? Or were there other issues? Hard to say for sure; I mentioned that we might have had at least one lousy player on the Soviet side in the south for some time who could have contributed a lot to their early defeat in there, but the fact is that from the strategic options chosen at the very beginning ( wrote you already that it had to  be Variant 1 then) apparently neither objective location was quite captured and I cannot admit that we weren't committed on the soviet side so the question if we could have performed better is that we possibly could not. Perhaps our German opponents were doing a great job indeed? The fact is also that I have just found out myself becoming  worse and worse at my wargaming with at least two wake-up slaps in the face from my opponents in EP '14 and at TOAW III Stalingrad and Caucasus.

Regarding Moscow '42 - I think I just don't feel it and that's all; the fact is that I was quite obsessed with the Kharkov battles and the 3rd one in patricular makes a difference.  But I also participated in another team game of Moscow '42 - The Klin-Solnechnogorsk Offensive namely and we the Soviets there literally could not make the Germans budge any way so I was the second guy unfortunately -after our third Soviet commander who simply vanished at some point - who asked to be relieved. It was such a hopeless grind. However unlike in the case of the 3rd battle of Kharkov I didn't read much about Typhoon and the Moscow struggle so cannot say if the scenario unfolded unrealistically or offered ahistorical gameplay.

Thank you for the interest in our effort - the fact is that it made me shy away from Kharkov '43 for some time with my whole admiration for the game and the TOC system in general and only lately I started to consider getting back --to SW Front in fact and operation Gallop if only just to see if that it is really doomed to an early disaster. Obviously, having read a lot about the K '43 fight I was prepared for the Soviet struggle and quite a serious chance of an utter catastrophe. Should you have more feedback I am available any time you want. But somehow the campaign looked already bleak and FUBAR yet before the fourth part of its intended length was reached. Or I just knew better then than the historical commander did? Really?