Kharkov '43 try 2

[larryfulkerson]

I had too much free time on my hands ( and I knew that because I started to get into trouble ) and thought I'd take on another PBEM
game and Wilhelm has been after me to playtest the Kharkov '43 scenario so Dan Phipps ( General64 ) and I thought we'd do the
scenario quick before it changes yet again. Wilhelm tells me that there's another newer version in the works but it won't be ready until
Sunday at the earliest but Dan and I are ready to go now so we're going to use the version we have.

I'm looking at the map and I don't see any mountains and it's mostly rivers and roads and rails to deal with. The Soviets enter top right
and are moving to the SW and the Axis units enter from the left and lower right. So one of the Soviet strategies might be to grab all the
entrance hexes along the bottom of the map to prevent some of the Axis units from getting into the game. But that's unlikely. Most of the
objectives are on the left side of the map so it's up to the Soviet player to traverse the map to Kharkov and take the city all in about 40
turns or so.

[Oberst_Klink]

OK, well then... I hope it's the one with at least the updated .EQP file. It has been extensively tested by our German friends from the SI-Forum and you might come to the same conclusion as them... well, good luck to both of you, you need it *best played with the AAA-bug fix though*.

Klink, Oberst

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink
OK, well then... I hope it's the one with at least the updated .EQP file. It has been extensively tested by our German friends from the SI-Forum and you might come to the same conclusion as them...

Hey there Wilhelm.......we're using the only copy you sent to me so it's probably the original eqp file I'm guessing. What conclusion did
they reach?

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink
well, good luck to both of you, you need it *best played with the AAA-bug fix though*.
Klink, Oberst

Yes, we're playing w/ the AA-patched exe.

Here's the top right of the map. The first thing I noticed was that there are no recon elements for the Soviets. D'oh. So I'm going to
have to designate some throw-away unit to do my recon jobs I guess. I'm not near any objectives here so I'll just go after the German
units.

[Telumar]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink
OK, well then... I hope it's the one with at least the updated .EQP file. It has been extensively tested by our German friends from the SI-Forum and you might come to the same conclusion as them...

Hey there Wilhelm.......we're using the only copy you sent to me so it's probably the original eqp file I'm guessing. What conclusion did
they reach?

That the scenario is unbalanced towards the Axis side (well, okay.. they did win this battle). That the Soviet player is not able to reproduce the historical capture of Kharkov, instead he got stalled at the Donets. That 1st Panzer Army, heading into the map from the Stalino area (SE corner) is way too strong and partially arriving too early (one PzDiv (27.) in the scenario actually even didn't participate but was disbanded in the Mius river(?) area at the same time). Such things. The Oberst has (with my assistance) heavily redesigned all Axis armored formations. (this happens if one relies too heavily on HPS OOBs/TOEs..they're all crap! Sorry for mentioning.. but i've seen their Salerno and Anzio OOBs and they are not good. I've seen their Kharkov OOB and after a short web based(!) research found that it's crap. Not entirely, just not well researched and too generic. I mean, if one finds out that the OOB is not well researched by simply looking at a scanned German situation map.. that tells quite something about HPS. ).

[Telumar]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson


Here's the top right of the map. The first thing I noticed was that there are no recon elements for the Soviets. D'oh. So I'm going to
have to designate some throw-away unit to do my recon jobs I guess. I'm not near any objectives here so I'll just go after the German
units.

Who needs recon? Just attack! You're the Russkies. [:D]

In the version i have (not the latest, above mentioned update) only the Guards Rifle Divisions have recon units. I have a later version btw, i recognize it by the Belgorod exclusion zone which is much bigger in my version.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Telumar
Who needs recon? Just attack! You're the Russkies. [:D]

In the version i have (not the latest, above mentioned update) only the Guards Rifle Divisions have recon units. I have a later version btw, i recognize it by the Belgorod exclusion zone which is much bigger in my version.

In your expert opinion should Dan and I wait for the new improved version he's working on even as we speak? This version we have
is probably the original version and probably has lots of things in it that's been changed already. Should we start over w/ the newer
version. Wilhelm said something about working on it this weekend ( today is saturday ) and he estimated he would be done w/ it on
Sunday. Tomorrow. I'm not sure I can sit still that long w/o playing TOAW.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the view a little bit south of the previous view:

[larryfulkerson]

And here's the southern view:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T2: Dan is pushing units into my path all over the map. He's intending to defend forward I guess. Works for me.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a closeup of the northern part of the front lines. Dan is attacking the Soviet group in the middle of the map intending to destroy
my group and he's got a good start on surrounding them. Several of my main units are in the red already and I don't like to attack w/
units that are already tired. Dan will likely make some progress here. The black units are SS and they are advancing to block the Soviet
path and this looks like it's going to be a protracted fight.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the supply situation: overall pretty good in spots and poor in spots.

[larryfulkerson]

More notes on the front at the north end.

[larryfulkerson]

Not much of an air war going on. I've got two squadrons of fighters and they are both on AS missions.

[larryfulkerson]

At least all my aircraft are still in the green. I haven't gotten around to setting the missions for the squadrons yet so some of them are
still sitting on "rest". I'd appreciate a game engine that would put the squadron back on the previous mission after a strike. TOAW 3.5
does that for you. I wish 3.4 did too.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys: I just got an email from Dan saying how this is his first AAR and he's kind of intimidated by what to do or say etc. If you
guys could give him some encouragement to post something it would really help out a lot. Some kind of "rah rah you can do it" kinds of
things would be great. I'm trying to get him to see that it's his AAR too and we would all benefit from his input. What do you say guys?

[larryfulkerson]

This is the typical condition of my combat units. None of them are combat ready and yet they are on the front line. I'm going into defense
mode until they rest up a bit. Maybe Dan will cooperate by not attacking them. LOL.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the stuff due to arrive in T3:

[larryfulkerson]

I did one attack and I wish I hadn't because I got the worst part of the deal. My guys need to rest a bit I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T3. You have to squint to see the change in positions. The units don't get to move all that much off-road. And
a lot of them are off-road so they don't change their positions very much. This is probably a hint to me to stay on the roads as much as
possible. I'm not sure I can make it all the way to Kharkov in 40 turns much less w/ some opposition. We'll see.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a closeup of the northern edge on the east side: