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I'm a long time wargamer. Can eventually play most games pretty well. I bought the original winter storm and found it very frustrating to do well (memory a bit hazy now as to why but I think it had to do with hard to control units and close on russian armor successfully (yes I would scout ahead etc etc). But I see all these positive reviews of Kharkov. My question: did anyone have the experience of not liking winter or finding it hard to do well but instead really like Kharkov? Put differently are there significant differences between the two that might make Kharkov a different experience for me?
Tactical/Operational WWII games I did fine at -> Combat Mission, Steel Panthers, Campaign series and more.
Sorry to be so vague on my experience with the original but maybe the questions are clearer...

I have all the games you mentioned.  I think overall Combat mission series is the best but really didn't care for winterstorm.  Kharkov has alot of improvements added to it since the release of WS.  Also you can play the WS scenarios if you have both games installed.

Plus Kharkov has a great random battle generator now.[:)]

ORIGINAL: lparkh
did anyone have the experience of not liking winter or finding it hard to do well but instead really like Kharkov? Put differently are there significant differences between the two that might make Kharkov a different experience for me?

I thought WS was kind of bland with everything white. When hosting miniature games at conventions through the years we had all sorts of color terrain, snow, summer, and desert. The summer green terrain games always got the most players. It just feels friendlier even if it is war.

Outside the random campaign and scenarios engines one of the big differences is that in PCK infantry last longer. On average it takes 3 damaging hits to kill a squad in PCK not just one as in WS.
Another addition is several kinds of smoke.

Thank you gentlemen!