New Terrain Project

As part of painting up the BG Kursk forces, I have had a re-think on my terrain. So I am trying out the idea of using 2mm thick vinyl floor tiles.

Viewed in daylight

 4x4 layout

 4x4 layout

 Scatter terrain needs a bit more work

 Existing terrain matches reasonably closely

 Reasonably easy to add some additional material onto already made tiles

7 Days at Kursk - Day One - Game 1

LSSAH Sector Game 1
This is snapshot of the terrain in the immediate vicinity of the starting actions on the first day. Hill 228.6 is on the left hand side and 220.5 is slightly North East.

This pitches the elements of 8.Komp/II.Rgt-2 against elements of the lead battalion of 151 Rifle Regiment.

German Platoon (1 Officer)  Points=182   13 BR       
Grenadier Platoon                 100 Pts     11-r BR
- Platoon HQ (6 men)
- Squad 1 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts
- Squad 2 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts

- Squad 3 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts

- Combat Medic                      8 Pts     0-r BR
- MG42 Team (3 men)                18 Pts     1-r BR
- Medium Mortar Team               24 Pts     1-r BR

- Foxholes for 20 men              20 Pts       0 BR

Soviet Company (4 Officers) Points=188  16 BR
Rifle Company                     188 Pts     16-i BR

Company HQ (4 Men)

- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men

- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men
                
- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men

WW2 - BG Kursk - 7 Days at Kursk - Day One

I am not one to chase the perfect list and have always tended to try and follow "reasonable" historical structures.  So I have thought about doing the same for BG Kursk.  These are my interpretations for specific games on the Southern Pincer for a series of games covering 5 - 12 July 1943 which I have called the 7 days at Kursk.  The ideas of the games is that it lets me field specific forces which in turn drives the painting progress :)

Day One - 5 July.

In the morning you have:

• 8.Komp/II, Rgt -2/LSSAH capturing Hill 228.6 and then being subject to a counter attack by units of 151 Rifle Regiment. 
• Once the counter attack had been dealt with, LSSAH then prepared to launch its attack on Hill 220.5. This was an attack with dismounted Grenadiers supported by Tigers and Sturmgeschutz;  then, onto the second belt with the Panzergruppe being brought forward with an intermediate action involving the Tiger company against 230th Tank Regiment counter-attack
• DR attacking Beresoff/Beresov and then the second belt with dismounted Grenadiers and no armour support which includes facing a counter attack by Soviet armour in front of Beresoff/Beresov.
• T attacking Gremuchi with dismounted Grenadiers supported by Tigers and Sturmgeschutz with the Panzergruppe being brought up very quickly to continue the attack

As a taster this is a small snapshot of the terrain in the region taken from Google Earth with the Kursk historical maps overlay

My initial idea was to break each of the engagements down into constituent parts but as BG Kursk is a game and not a simulation, pieces of it don't quite fit the game system.  So I have decided to bathtub up each Divisions actions into one game per day (3 Divisions, 7 Days = 21 games) and play some more generic type games.

So the new sequence will see LSSAH and T having a mix of forces while DR will be mainly an infantry and artillery fight up. In all cases the Soviet defenders will see a strong infantry contingent supported by armour and artillery.

Cold War - 1 (NL) Corps

Always on the lookout for something different, I found an article recently which discussed the make up of the covering force for 1 (NL) Corps.  Following concerns that the NL forces might take too long to deploy from Holland the covering force came from 1 (GE) Corps in the form of 3rd Panzer Division, supported by the NL 103rd Recce Bn & 41 Panser Bde and the US 3rd Brigade from 2nd Armored Div.  What a cracking wargaming collection.

So off digging out OMG I found that the NL Orbat didn't quite match the information on the Orbat85.nl website.  So this is an update to it (less points). It doesn't have the Bde Recce Company.

41st Pantser Brigade                                           
Bde HQ                   1 X HQ(M577)             Str.4      
Bde Recce Platoon        2 x M113C&R              Str.3

41st, 43rd Pantser Battalions
BHQ                      1 X HQ(Leopard 2)        Str.4
Maint Sect               1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
3 Coys,each              4 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4


42nd Pantserinfanterie Battalion
BHQ                      1 X HQ(YPR-765 PRCO-C)   Str.5
Maint Sect               1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
3 Coys,each              3 X YPR-765 PRI          Str.4
Support Coy              3 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3
                         3 X 120mm(YPR-765 PRMR)  Str.3

41st Engineer Company
                         1 X AVLB(Leopard)        Str.2
                         1 X CEV (Leopard)        Str.2
                         3 X Eng(M113)            Str.4

41st Air Defence Company
                         3 X PRTL(Caesar)         Str.3
                         3 X Stinger(Landrover)   Str.3

41st Field Artillery Battalion
                         1 X HQ(M577) (6AR)
                         3 X M109A2               Str.6

The Bde deployed organisation forms three equal battlegroups with the following structure:

41st, 43rd Pantser BG
BHQ                      1 X HQ(Leopard 2)        Str.4
                         1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.3 
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
2 Coys,each              3 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4

1 Coy                    2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3

42nd Pantserinfanterie BG
BHQ                      1 X HQ(YPR-765 PRCO-C)   Str.5
Recce Plt                1 X Inf(Landrover)       Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRRDR(GSR)   Str.3
2 Coys,each              3 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4

1 Coy                    2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.4
                         1 X INF(YPR-765 PRI)     Str.4
                         1 X YPR-765 PRAT         Str.3

Support Coy              3 X 120mm(YPR-765 PRMR)  Str.3

And then add the following to the Covering Force mix 103rd Recce Battalion
BHQ                      1 X HQ(M577)             Str.4
                         1 X ARV(Leopard)         Str.4

3 Coys, each             2 X MBT(Leopard 2)       Str.3
                         3 X M113C&R              Str.5
                         1 X 107mm(M106)          Str.3