The Competition & Teaser Thread

[PzKw43]

Will there be a display of visible hexes like in the Campaign Series?

[Kuriltai]

I feel a disturbance in the Force...Could it be Comrade P and my heads exploding???

It's been a long while since I've been this puzzled about the positions of units shown on a map

It was either this or watch the Olympics...

[ComradeP]

That's sort of what we guessed initially, but there are problems with that:

-LSSAH's purple-ish, and it isn't on the map. At the point where the SS could be lined up like this, Totenkopf would be partially north of the Psel and LSSAH would be in the northern part of the map, which it isn't. Maybe it would be somewhat to the north of the map, but Das Reich would need to be there in its entirety and it seems to be missing some units and most of its armour.

-After counting, there's a problem in general as the northern and southern SS force is composed of about 4 infantry battalions (there are 3 visible in the south, but I'm guessing the 4th is in a stack near the objective in the village at the frontline in the south) and there's just 1 regimental HQ in the north. SS Panzergrenadier divisions normally had 6 battalions in total, but it varied based on if additional battalions were (temporarily) attached. It's just a bit odd that the map is cut with about 4 infantry battalions of both on the map, as if it's a Panzer division.

-Where's all the Soviet infantry? 9th Airborne for example? There are what looks like just 2 Guards Regiments of some sort here, not even a full division. One of the things I don't understand is why there are just two regiments and why they don't belong to the same division. At Prokhorovka, the regular Soviet Tank Corps had their infantry with them. There isn't any in the north.

5th Guards Mechanized Corps was initially in reserve, but was split up and committed to the north (facing Totenkopf), center (facing Das Reich) and south (facing III Panzer Korps). In the center, it was deployed north of 2nd Guards Tank Corps. Here, the infantry is south of the Guards Tank Corps in the upper part of the map.

The 183rd Rifle and 93rd Guards Rifle divisions would also need to be on the map.

The map is 30 kilometres long north-south.

-Where is the 167th Infantry Division? The counter background colours indicate two SS formations. In order for this to be near Prokhorovka, the formation to the south would need to be the 167th.

-What is the second Guards Tank Corps? Only the 2nd Guards Tank Corps was in this sector on the 12th, the 5th Guards Tank Corps was attacking from the west with 1st Tank Army and no Soviet maps I've seen indicate other Guards mobile units in Corps strength at that time being in the area. Besides, the area the southern units are in would be about to be attacked by III Panzer Korps and captured after Prokhorovka, hardly the time to launch an attack.

-Where is 2nd Tank Corps?

-Where is the Prokhorovka-Pokrovka railroad branch?

-Where is the lake north of Nepkhaevo, if it was there at the time?

-Teterevino and several other places are on the wrong side of the railroad and the western river.

[Kuriltai]

Wholly Crap!!! Thats a lot of Questions... Do you have Nipes BMSteel book?
I'm a little pressed for time,so forgive my brevity...
-I have been trying to match the map and not so much the formations.
-I used PzC Kursk to match the towns and RR.
-I am assuming this scenario is based on the Blood Myth Steel on pg193 which is July8th...
-Nipe/Glantz have differing views of this day
-LAH is off map attacking the unplayable section to the west with the Das Reich Armor(nipe)I think maybe The 2 tigers might be LAH...?
-Soviets are attacking in this scenario and have passed thru the infantry..
-183 div is off the playable area to the North...93 Gds are east of Tetervino Sud...9thAir is not on the map at all and I can only assume is in the Prokhorovka area

-again according to this nipe map,VERY GENERALLY,Russian units would be,from North to South,10TankC/2TankC and 5th Gds TankC
Germans North to South at this time are Das Reich then a 167 Pio KG South of TeterwinoSud then 3rd SS.At this time,167 had not yet relieved 3rd SS...
-The Nipe map and PzC Kursk dont show a Prokhorovka-Pokrovka railroad branch?

I have not looked closely at the units on the scenario map as they are too damn small...
For that matter ,I can barely see the secondary roads...
Comrade P,I think you and I are working off different maps and I am going to guess I might be a day ahead of your timeline...

I have to say, I am enjoying the Hell out of this thread,too bad we didn't have something like this going on the blitz all the time.This is the best thread since the Great 88mm AT debate back in the T"41 / Glenn Saunders day.
Strela and crew must be laughing their bags off...

[Richie61]

I know that the "arrows" are in SB, but why even have them in the game?
You can't take a move back after moving, so why have them?

A frap video would be nice

Why can't you use the "switch" like gas masks in FWW to have the counters
flip over to show additional data that won't fit on the front of the counter?

[Compass Rose]

I know that the "arrows" are in SB, but why even have them in the game?
You can't take a move back after moving, so why have them?

A frap video would be nice

Why can't you use the "switch" like gas masks in FWW to have the counters
flip over to show additional data that won't fit on the front of the counter?

Interesting ideas!

What is a frap video?

[GerryM]

These are the kinds of things I had in mind when talking about the interface earlier on. I am just afraid the the interface will be just the standard Tiller one that has been here since Smolensk. My idea then was to be able to drag the map around on the screen instead of scrolling. Saw another idea in VASL today - right-click in any empty hex on the map will map it around.

Obviously it's too late for changes now. But I think that interface design has come on a lot in the last 10 years and it would be good for any company to try these new ideas.

Take care,

Gerry

I know that the "arrows" are in SB, but why even have them in the game?
You can't take a move back after moving, so why have them?

A frap video would be nice

Why can't you use the "switch" like gas masks in FWW to have the counters
flip over to show additional data that won't fit on the front of the counter?

[Richie61]

frap video is a program to record video to post. Images are nice, but a video would give us a better idea of what they are clicking & doing on screen. They are very common now a days in video game circles.

Just like Dennis makes.

[Tide1]

Good video.

You can move any way you want as long as you have the movement points in PzB. I can't speak for SB

Panzer Battles UI is better though

[76mm]

While we're talking about interface changes, I hope they consider more hotkeys, and customization.