Indragnir's mods: News, files, updates, teasers, bug fixing and ramblings.

[Indragnir]

A new update is finished. This time Kharkov'43 Variant 2.

With the disclosure of german documents captured by the Soviet, plus new sources and extensive playtesting, this update is quite big so it's labelled v1.1

It needs 8 new art pieces only (only if you compare with monster Stalingrad with hundreds...) so the release will be on hold until art is finished.

To your review I paste here the huge changeslog: (beware, long)


Scenario

Shortened to 413 turns. Length was not adjusted considering new dusk-dawn cycle. Last day is 19th March.

LVP locations have been adjusted according to that (plus 1 misstyped date and some further adjusts due playtesting, mainly Barvenkovo and Izyum.)

Some PILLBOXES and BUNKERS are now bunkers. Some BUNKERS changed to TRENCHES.

Soviet

62nd and 97th Mortars regts from 3rd Tank Army were out of Command.

4th Guards Tank Corps now start in TRENCHES and with 2 vacated bunker on the south and west.

1696th AAA regt shouldn't be on map. They should arrive with the 5th Guards Tank Corps.

52th RD Recon co. Was fixed with no release date.

12th, 15th TC and 9th Artillery Division are now deployed at intended roads.

3rd Tank Army Artillery arrival location aligned with the new location of 12th and 15th Tank Corps.

127th Tank Regt is now on map at the scenario since 3rd February.

Axis

At Kramatorsk Axis forces were moved 1 hex back to avoid an early release of 4th Guards Tank Corps (spotted by 7. Panzer Division elements across the river.) Vacated hexes are now minefields.

German forces at the North now start Patrolling toggle on.

3rd Panzer Division now arrive on their historical area (Artemovsk) piecemeal across two days.

19th Panzer Division withdrawl delayed until night fall of 6 February.

StuG.Abt 228 by 31st January still fighting alongside 6th Panzer Division. They arrived later.

3rd, 6th, 11th , 17th and Wiking Panzer Divisions arrive with some fatigue.

Artillery assets XL PzK arrive according to the corrected 11th Panzer Division arrival date.

XLVIII PzK asssets arriving with the panzer divisions.

von Bosse re-forming Pz.G.R.111 (11th Panzer Division) was absent until 5th March. Then II./110 was withdrawn.

382. Feldaus. Div HQ out of scenario (they were sent to Kiev)

Res.Gren.Regt.617 was sent as reinforcements to PzAOK.1 by 18th February

Res.Gren.Regt.620 was sent as reinforcements to PzAOK.1 by 20h February

Air War

The air war had two clearly separated phases:

1-Withdrawl and Reorganizaton of Luftwaffe: pulled out for refit as soon as Stalingrad fell (2nd Feb) They gradually got replenished and rested. In the mean time only Luftwaffenkommando Don (at Kharkov) provided meager airsupport until 18 February.

2-Replenished Luftwaffe: conducted relentless and well-coordinated air attacks on Soviet positions and supply detachments, smashing roadblocks and attacking troop columns.
Excellent coordination with the supporting Stukas and aggressive leadership of the German battalion commanders (Forward air controllers working with panzer columns were able to call upon Luftwaffe aircrafts.) The Stukas efficiently blasted defensive positions of the Russians time and again, clearing a path for the lead elements the columns.

Axis air availability having a too strong impact in the Soviet capacity of using T-mode movement.

Historically the german air power had litle impact until the counteroffensive started because of Luftwaffenkommando Don poor perfomance and operational ratio (only 38%)

Instead of reducing too much Air availability -which would impact the backhand blow- germans are missing a good slice of their attacks flights.They will regain them later in the scenario.

Luftwaffenkommando Don is in the game supporting only Armeeabteilung Kempf, as they did hiistorically. By 18 February LWK Don is withdrawn and the full FliegerKorps I and IV appears in their historical force.Until then Axis will have very meager air support: all planes available from 7 February are delayed until 18 February.

I/JG52 was absent from the battle. Now it's included.


OoB

Some tweaks for soviet and axis values to align them with Stalingrad 42-43 battle values:
-AT Rifles/Rifle Grenades for most foot infantry both sides. (no Security and the like.)
-Motorized Soviet Infantry (both Tank Bdes and Motorized Bdes) AT Rifles/Rifle Grenades.
-Motorized russian HQ units move slower than on foot units on secondary roads. This is now fixed.


Soviet

179th Tank Brigade have their strength uncapped. Maximum should be 16

4th Guards Tank Corps:

-Had more infantry strength (it was too weak to hold their VP locations as they did.) They were suffering the motorized issue on roads and the unspent arriving Pz Divisions.

-Converged tanks from 4th GTC were wrongly set as company sized.

-76th Motorcycle Bn adjusted strength and able to split into 3 companies.

192nd Tank Brigade I wrongly left out most of their armor.

25th Tank Corps and 1st Guards Tank Corps restored to their proper initial strength. (Almost at full)

Small fixes (units without fatigue in fatigued formations, some units not capped at maximum strength and so on)

Soviet 60th Army out of OoB (but for 86th Tank Brigade now under Voronezh Front Units)

Some Russian small AA and Recon under a Corps are converged now. They were almost useless as units but for digging in and that shouldn't be their task.

Russian tank brigades -not under a Corps- have their recon, AA and AT elemnts integrated into the infantry and ligth tanks units.

Russian Motorized brigades are missing their AA (12), AT (8) and Recon (7) assets. They will be either reduced as per overall strength or directly integrated into the parent unit.

Russian Cavalry divisions were missing their Recon and Engineer assets.

1st Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion fielded 350 men 16 AT Rifles and 2 AT Guns. One of the best equipped units in the East Front regarding Machine Guns.

Mobile Group Popov was assigned (27th January) 3 antitank regiments, 3 guards-mortar regiments, and 3 antiaircraft artillery regiments. All of them were missing.

1st Guards Army was missing 213th How Regt, 411th and 426th Guards-Mortar Battalions.

SouthWestern front received by 10th February:
1 AA division.
3 M–13 multiple rocket launcher regiments.

201st Tank Brigade Matildas were all Close Support versions. Matildas and Valentines converged into a single unit.


Axis

Some Panzer Divisions have now all their tanks and SP tank destroyers consolidated into a single unit.

6th Panzer Division

-6th Panzer Division was reequipped after 6th February (tanks from 22nd Panzer Division, workshops and some new shipments) and fielded 64 tanks, their    strength oscillating up and down.
By 6th February fielded 23 tanks. Prior to the counteroffensive the unit had: 10 PzII 10, 33 PzIII lang, 6 PzIII kurz and 11 PzIV lang: a total of 60 tanks plus in short term repair: 3 PzII, 15 PzIII lang, 7 PzIII kurz and 7 PzIV lang.

-The division had 16 s.Pak40.

-11 StuG from StuG Abt 243.

-AT gun companies had 16 guns instead of 12.

7th Panzer Division

-The second “armored cars” company were, in fact, PzII.

-They had: 4 PzII 22 PzIII lang 1 PzIII kurz 7 PzIV lang. Short term 44 tanks. 7th Panzer Division tank strength capped at maximum operational strength repported.
This regt has now replacements.

-6 s.pak40 instead of 12

-4x 88mm guns instead of 8

-Attached 13 stug from StuG Abt 232

11th Pz Division

-Tank Strength. Date Ready tanks
8th February 22
10th February 35 [2 Pz.IIs, 27 Pz.III lang, and 6 Pz.IVs] 27 other panzers in short-term repair and 41 in long-term repair, over fourteen days.
14th February 38 [2 PzII, 24 PzIII lang, 4 PzIII kurz, 6 PzIV lang, 1 PzIV kurz] short term: 5 PzII 25 PzIII lang, 6 PzIII kurz, 10 PzIV lang and 1 PzIV kurz.
18th February 49
28th Febraury 55
10th March 71 [46 Panzer IIIs (7 short barrelled 7.5cm gun), 9 Panzer IVs with the long barrelled 7.5cm guns and 4 with L24/75mm short gun and 12 Pz II]

-No PzIII tanks armed with 37mm guns.

-Their AT company was a mixed one of 9x 50mm and 9x 37mm. In between they received 4x75mm Pak40.

-Artillery rgt was a bit stronger with 32 tubes (23 10,5cm le.F.H. 5 15cm s.F.H., and 4 10cm Kan.) plus 2 28cm s.Wurfgerät (rocket launchers)

-They had 6 8,8cm flak guns.

-Pz.G.R.110 had a heavy infantry gun company and a flak company.

-They had 11 self-propelled Panzerjägers on 1.Kp.(Sfl.)

-Aufk Btl had 2 Pz II tanks from start and capped at 12 by 10th March

-No Felder. Btl See combat strength below
22 January: The division had a Gefechtsstärke of 3,820.
10 February: The fighting strength of the division was some 3,174
10 March: The fighting strength of the division was 3,539 due arrival of absend PzGr.111 (and the withdrawl of PzGr.110)

-Corrected number from PzGr.110 (was labelled as PzGr.4 that was a unit from 6. Panzer Division) and Artillerie Regt. (should be 119)

17th Panzer Division

-They had 9 PzIII lang 1 PzIII kurz 5 PzIV lang. Short term: 12 PzII 19 PzIII kurz 22 PzIII lang 5 PzIV kurz 12 PzIV lang

-Flak.Bn.297 reduced in strength.

-Marders lowered to 10.

19th Panzer Division

-17 PzIII lang (they transferred 7 PzIII to 7th Panzer Division) l PzIV kurz and 3 PzIV lang.

-6 Marder 7.62cm

-14 75mm Pak40.

-Attached StuG Abt.209 with 11 vehicles.

Wiking

-Division had 12 Stug lang (from Stug abt.203 partially, the others were with 23rd PzD) and 3 Marder 75 (integrated with the Stugs.)

382. Feldaus. Div

-Lowered to quality D.

Krasnograd was garrisoned by ad-hoc forces:
-Schtzmannsch.btl.4 (police)
-Grenadier companies XI/295/7 and V/305/2
-1 Urlauber (on leave) company

PzAOK.1 (area of operation covered by this scenario) received by 20th February (from Voroshilov area of operation) Gruppe 511 (Alarm btl 3 and 2 companies from Sich btl 708.) They arrived near Slavyansk area.

320. Infanterie Division

-Lost all of their motor vehicles prior to the start of the scenario. The horse-drawn batteries and field trains also lost a tremendous number of animals in battle and from ex-haustion. Oxen pulled the medium artillery, while cattle and oxen served as draft animals for transporting radio and signal equipment. Even General Postel himself decided to use such a team as a sure means of transportation.

-The loss of many machine guns, antitank guns, and artillery pieces could be offset only by weapons captured from weak Red Army detachments in sporadic raids; the ammunition for these weapons also had to be taken from the enemy


StuG Abt 203 without 1./Bttie since it was attached to Wiking

StuG Abt 243 deleted since they were attached to 6th Panzer Division from LVII PzK for the counterattack.

1.Bttr./Stu.Gesch.Abt.210 (5 StuG) attached to LVII. Panzerkorps

PzAOK,1 reported 5 artillery bns plus 1 btty for a grand total of 44 tubes (not counting werfers) instead of 69 on the area of operations covered by the scenario.


PDT

Motorized movement on secondary roads lowered to 9 from 10

Air Strike Limit lowered to 20 for both sides.

Miscellanea

Fixed component from 1st Czech Btls (they were using the HQ art)