Operation Citadel : Syrtsevo

 This is game 2 in my Operation Citadel campaign.

July 7, 1943, elements of Grossdeutschland advanced on Syrtsevo which was held by elements of 10th Motor Brigade, 1st (?) Motor Brigade, 90th Guards Rifle Division, and 112th Tank Brigade. Or at least that's what the internet told me.

I'll let the pictures tell the story -ish.

Two Soviet SMG units, an AT unit, and a mortar unit have taken positions in and around the village. Meanwhile, the Grossdeutschland Recon battalion observes the village from the hill.

Usual close up sot. The Germans are Matchbox, the armored car is 32x or one of those brands.

II/PanzerGrenadier arrives opposite the Soviet tank unit.

Stug battalion in the house. II/PzG leave their vehicles in order to make use of the woods for cover.

Same turn (3) two Panzer IV battalions arrive on the hill South East of the village. The Tiger company arrived shortly after.

A bit of a log jam on GD's right.

"Pretty sure we didn't sign up for this."

Soviets hold on the village despite shelling and an assault by the Stug battalion.

A battalion of Pz IV from 3rd Panzer Division arrives on the left to offset the loss of one of GD's Pz battalions.The Soviets are being squeezed.

A collapse on the Soviet right opens the door for GD to enter the village.With remaining units in bad shape and outnumbered by the Germans, the Soviet HQ concedes the village and orders the village abandoned.

GD captures the village.

Some Notes:

Changing the scenario so that both sides arrived piecemeal made for a much more interesting battle. I can't be sure, but I think it helped to break up the scrum I ran into in previous plays of this scenario.

The Tiger company was only given two Hit Points/Strength Points to reflect it's company size, but could only be hit on 6s, and still had saving roll.

Here's the map I created for the table - I stole the general layout of the roads from someone else on the web, and I can't find it now. If I do, i"ll update this with a link:

My grid is 6 inch squares, so the total space is 3' x 4'.

For campaign points: 

• GD held the village for the win: 2 points.
• GD eliminated 60% of the Soviet force:  3 points.
• Soviets eliminated 25% of the German force: 1 point

Total in the campaign now is: GD: 9 to Soviets: 5.

Rumors of My Demise and a Developing Set of Rules

I am deeply humbled. I disappeared and did not consider that during the times of the pandemic that this might cause concern.

Just before the US plummeted into lock downs and rising COVID infections, I found myself being called to return to music (I mean my own music. I'm in a band but I don't do much writing for it). Music, like wargaming, can demand a ton of time, but unlike gaming, drains me of energy in all sorts of ways. The creative process, for me, is not an enjoyable stroll in the park but the tearing of some hideous thing from the purple-black tendrils of doubt and pretension, hurling the putrid sputtering mass into this reality, and wrestling it into something less horrible, through the power of blood and sweat and tears, presumably for sharing with the world. The latter opens up gaping dimensions of doubt unknown to those who have never walked that path.

But I digress. The point is, writing and recording sucks up free time and I am terrible about balancing my interests.

I returned to gaming in June however with a handful of G Company games, including revisiting D-Day with the US Army's 1st Infantry Division. Some thinking about what I wanted from my games led me back to company element games, and then some more reading led me to battalion element games with a goal of playing GrossDeutchsland's advance during Operation Citadel (more to come on that, including five scenarios with painfully simple maps made in Google Draw, suggested orders of battle, etc.).

It may be hubris speaking, but this reminds of me of the pictures in older war games books. Please note the card stock buildings are prototypes, and not finished. I wanted to make collapsible Russian style buildings. They work, I just need to make more and finish them.

As an apology for disappearing without so much as a word, allow me to present a draft of what I call Divison Squares (I was calling it Space Wars early on as a joke, because that implies outer space and perhaps even Star Wars, when it's not about that at all. Which tells you all you need to know about my sense of humor.) There is nothing new in there, just an amalgamation of mechanisms that work for me, written for me, but now cleaned up a bit in case anyone else finds use in them.

The Division Squares rules began as Battalion Squares where each unit is a company. I'll revisit those eventually. This picture is an early game using those - hence the mixed heavy weapons company for the Germans.

Although I have played them for at least two dozen games, there are still things missing and it's a living document (for instance air-to-ground rules are missing, as are mine fields. Both of which will be added eventually). These are intended for playing WWII on a grid with a regiment to a division+ per side in a smallish space.

A German divison (GrossDeutschland in the scenario, but could be a generic Panzer Division) advancing against a Soviet rifle regiment (199th but could be any) in trenches- one tank unit has already been destroyed (off camera bottom right). There are three scales of vehicles in this picture, for those following along at home.

They work for One Hour Wargames scenarios as well, at least in my limited tests (mostly I've been playing GD at Cherkasskoye - a table layout and scenario based on a historical battle.) However, expect most OHW scenarios with OHW sized forces to play in about 8-10 turns (not unlike OHW rules in my experience).

From a OHW scenario. I adjudicated the game, but little monkey (he's 8, so maybe not so little) controlled both sides.

 Please accept them in the spirit they are intended.

1/43 Madness

I recently decided to check out 1/43 vehicles (hence the title) for my wargaming needs. A lot of vehicles just aren't available for the larger figures except in 1/35 model kits and I am not a model builder (I have little patience). Classic Toy Soldiers offers a very limited range of vehicles in 1/38. Those that are availabled in 1/50, are die-cast and cost an arm and a leg to ship to the States. While1/43 vehicles are delicate like 1/35 models, there is quite a variety avaialble, and they cost closer to toy vehicle prices.
 

Motorpark.

The Sdk. 222 looks good in this group, but is tiny compared to my 1/38 tanks (works fine with my 1/48 - 1/50 tanks, but I can't afford a t-34 in 1/50, let alone three or more of them. 1/43 is possible but I already have 1/38) . It's even small next to the Detail kubelwagen. I may mix scales when fielding a recon battalion - 1/32 armored car, 1/32 kubelwagen, 1/43 everything else..

Motorized infantry.

The above illustrates how the vehicles scale with the figures.

I could easily fit this combination into a 6" square with space left over, or with the infantry side by side but less extra room, for grid games. Placing the vehicle behind or next to infantry/guns facing forward or backwards could indicate statuses - like infantry embarked, gun deployed, etc, in non-grid games.

 Here's what the same vehicle looks like next to a CTS 1/38 PZ. IV .

Eastern Front German vehicles.

This works pretty well to my eyes - minus the windshield falling over on that half-track because it broke within a day (I did say they were delicate, right?). The transports will function more like markers in my games - they aren't units in and of themselves - and thus don't need to dominate the landscape.