kharkov 1942 (cd version)

[viridomaros]

Scenario title/version : kharkov 1942 cd version
Scenario author : Doug Bevard
Era/turns : ww2, 12 turns ( can go up sometimes), 1 day turn
Location/map scale : East front, 10 km per hex
Balance notes : scenario very well balanced, in my oppinion both side have a decent chance to win but for practical reasons i would recommend the weakest player to play as the russians. though russians rifle divisions can evaporate easily if used in a wrong way, russian units have less movement points than the german, russians have much more forces than the german have.
Entertainement notes : one of the more enjoyable scenario i have ever played, there are many options for both sides, though playing german is a bit more fun because they have more movement points so that they have more strategies to try.

 

[viridomaros]

Introduction :Background: "In the spring of 1942 the attention of both sides was focused on the great bulge of Izyum, south of Kharkov, the fateful setting of future decisive battles for the Germans as well as the Russians.

For the purpose of gaining a proper starting-line for their planned summer offensive of 1942 toward the Caucasus and Stalingrad, Fuehrer Directive No.41 had ordered that the Soviet bulge on both sides of Izyum should be eliminated by a pincer operation. The Germans had made a simple plan: the Sixth Army under General Paulus was to attack from the north, and von Kleist's Group with units of the First Panzer Army and Seventeenth Army was to attack from the south. These forces were to pinch off the Izyum bulge and annihilate the Soviet Armies trapped in it. The code word for this plan was "Fredericus."

But the Russians too had a plan and had prepared an attack with strong forces that they hoped would decide the outcome of the war. With five Armies and a whole armada of armored formations they intended to strike from the Izyum bulge and, north of it, from the Volchansk area, and burst through the German front with two wedges. In a big outflanking operation the city of Kharkov, the administrative center of Ukrainian heavy industry, was to have been retaken. Simultaneously they would repeat their earlier attempt of snatching Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava from the Germans. Through these two traffic centers ran the roads and railways and all supplies for the German Armies on the southern wing. Their loss would precipitate a disaster.

The question was merely: who would strike first, who would win the race against time? The German timetable envisaged 18 May as the day for the attack, but the Soviets were quicker. On 12 May they mounted their pincer operation against the German Sixth Army with surprisingly strong forces".

 

[viridomaros]

Description of both armies :Forces in the theater: -axis: 23 divisions- 3 infantry romanian divisions, these are are the weakest divisions of axis forces, mainly because they are at 40% profeciency 50% readiness and 50% supply, these divisions are made of 3 infantry regiment, 2arti regiments and an hq unit

- 18 german infantry divisions, these are much better than the romanians ones, from one hand they are at 80% or 90% profeciency ( 79th, 294th, 297th, 260th, 298th, 389th, 380th are at 90% and the rest is at 80%) most of these divisions have full supply ( except the southern divisions). A german infantry division is made of 3 infantry regiment, an at btn, an artillery regiment and the hq unit.

- 2 panzer divisions: these are obiously the best german formations, both are at 90% profeciency level and have full supplied, unfortunately, these are locked during turn 1, a panzer division is made of 2 panzergrenadiers regiment, 2 panzer regiment, 1 recon btn, a panzer at btn, a panzer artillery regiment and the hq unit.

- lutwaffe: 2 fighter units and 4 bombers units 207 fighters(me109 e/f, me109 late) and 309 bombers (ju87-88).

 

[viridomaros]

Soviets: they have 21 formations => 14 corps=> 6 armies, the corps formations are made of 3 infantry divisions ( 2 corps have one infantry division less and a motorised brigade in place of it)

-2 tank brigade, an artillery division and a hq unit, these formations have 75% profeciency and are supplied at 90%

-5 cavalry corps made of 3 cavalry divisions each

-1 motorised division made of 4 tank brigades and a motorised brigade.

-airforce: 4 fighter units and 5 bomber units, 238 fighters and 303 bombers

Conclusion : the soviets are much stronger on the ground at least when the scenario begin, they have 40 infantry divisions against 21, the ratios is rather equal for the tanks ( german have stronger units because of regiment size,). In the air forces are rather equal although german will gain airsuperiority without too much difficulty because of the superiority of their aircrafts.

reinforcements : the soviets have none, the german receive 2 infantry divisions and one panzer division on turn 4, then 2 panzer division, one motorised division, 2 infantry divisions, 2 bomber units and 2 fighter units on turn 5, to end this they receive one last infantry division on turn 6. To totalize the german reinforcement they are receiving all in all 9 divisions, so if you add this nine divisions to the 23 from the forces in the theater, you have 32 divisions, this is still far from being equal to the soviet forces. it is important to keep this in mind because it means that the soviet will remain the stronger force as long as they don't suffer too much casualities.

 

[viridomaros]

Special events : Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Belgorod (26,5).
Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Taranovka (22,18).
Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Liptsy (26,11).
Axis supplies reduced if Soviets capture Denepetrovsk (6,40).
Axis supplies reduced if Soviets capture Poltava (2,17).
Chance 6th Romanian Corps will be withdrawn if Soviets breakthrough Romanian position ( that means soviet taking pavlograd).

 

[viridomaros]

strategy with the soviets :
-turn 1: here we go we have discussed everything which was important to know before to begin the scenario so now we can start, the first step is to make a plan, to have a good overall strategy that needs to be followed until the scenario ends ( as a chessplayer, i give you this well known sentence: better to have a bad plan that none). So how to make a plan??? First you have to consider the vp concentration as it is what give you victory or not at the end of the scenario. There are 490 vp in this scenario
-in the northern part of the map there are 150 vp: at the begining you control 10 vp and the axis control 140, note that the city of kharkov and subburbs have a value of 100.
-in the southern part there 340 vp: soviet control 110 vp and the axis control 230 vp

using the victory calculator program , here are the victory levels:
0-76 draw
99-196 marginal victory
197-294 significant victory
295+ overwhelming victory
when you start the scenario you are at -250 that means you need to get 125 vp at least to get a draw ( when you add 125 to your vp you minus 125 vp to your opponent so that equals 250) 175 vp are needed for a marginal victory, 225 vp are needed for a decisive victory, and over 275 vp for an overwhelming victory.


note for the picture:

enormous dot is 70vp
big dot is 50 vp
standard dot is 20 vp ( petropavloska is 30 vp)
small dot is 10 vp.

 

[viridomaros]

1) frontal attack towards Lyptsy
the first option you have is a frontal assault by taking Lyptsy on turn 1, then going on attacking towards kharkov, you have two army corps against one infantry division, odds are 6 infantry divisions 4 tank brigades vs 1 infatry division, so it shouldn't be too difficult to push away this division. especially because these units are on minimize losses setting ( all the german units are on this setting for turn1) and that the terrain is open. (here are two screenshots)

this is the situation at the end of turn one in my game against siberian heat, note that siberian heat used only one corp to attack towards lyptsy, while he used the other to secure his flank and to support the attack on belgorod, even with attacking only with one corp, note he is already next to the suburb of kharkov, i have absolutely no idea if it is best to attack with 2 corps or to do like siberian heat did, i think both options can be played, in fact there are inconvenients and advantage for both strategies.

end of turn one in my game against heinz57, i used one corp for the attack and i kept the other in reserve just behind, unfortunately i didn't have as much sucess as siberian heat had, i will explain later why i prefer keeping one corp in reserve rather than protecting the flank. ( screenshot3)

 

[viridomaros]

keep in mind that on turn 2 german can freely deploy ( and also attack with) his 2 panzer divisions, most of the time he will deploy his 2 panzer divisions there, i have played about 5 games with soviet on this scenario and also several on the german side, i can say that i can't remember a game in which german didn't deploy his two panzer divisions around Lyptsy. so don't forget your opponent can start a counter attack in this area starting on turn 2, the power of this counter attack will depend mainly of the succes of your first assault, if you didn't damage the german units enough on turn 1, you can expect a strong counter attack, meanwhile if you had a succesfull first and second turn you can expect your opponent to be more cautious with counterattacking and if he decide to counter attack in this situation, you won't face much difficulties into stopping him. here are a few screenshots of the german counter attack.

end of turn 5, 23 panzer division has been deployed north of Lyptsy, in this game i was playing soviet and i had quite a good first and second turn, my opponent try a small counter attack but he hadn't sufficient forces to success, furthermore he left the road open to kharkov ( screenshot 4)

end of turn 6 in my game against heinz 57, in this game i didn't have not a good first and second turn ( the first was good but second poor) see the difference, german have strong forces around Lyptsy, he has started the counter attack with the 23 panzer division and the situation begin to become dangerous for the soviet units, my offensive has been stopped and i have lost the initiative in this area of the map. (screenshot5)

in this game i was playing german, see how the counter attack can be effective, in this game i destroyed the two soviet corps ( 1 army) around Lyptsy, this was possible because of the bad start my opponent had, and he also didn't play enoguh aggresively, so this kind of situation is rather rare ( only once in all the games i played) but keep in mind that such situation may arrise if you don't pay attention to the german counterattack, once you are encircled it is often too late to escape (screenshot 6)

the conclusion is that the attack towards Lyptsy should last for two turns at least and then depending on the result you'll go on attacking or go back to the defensive, most of the time you'll be on the defensive in this area after turn 2 if the german player deploys well his two panzer divisions, so try to establish good position before he can counterattack. you should take Lipsty at least because of this event :Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Liptsy (26,11) . Also notice that the town in itself worth 20 vp not that bad.

 

[viridomaros]

Attacking towards Chuguyev and Balakleya :
you start with one corps against two division infantry (44th and 71th) and the therrain is quite bad ( forest and hill) as soviets are not so stronger in this area ( only 3 tank brigade which german don't have) i wouldn't recommend to assault chuguyev right now. So what to do with this corp? sit there on the grass? obviously not!! this would be a mistake. (screenshot1)

one of my opponent decided to attack on the hill, but while i respect this strategy i think it is not the best, because of the terrain it hasn't much chance to succeed and there is no strategical interest in doing this, the only hex which is open is hex south of Chuguyev (28,16) furthermore it seems interesting to make such a move look at the next screenshot

my idea is to encircle and then to destroy two infantry division ( 305 and 44) you might think it is a good theorical idea but not possible to do it on the battle field, i'm going to try to show you it is in fact possible to do this with success.( screenshot3)

you can obtain this situation by only moving units without launching any attacks, just divide the cavalry units and advance to surround Balakleya, put one cavalry unit on hex 26,20 then advance with the infantry division on hex 26,19 then advance the tank brigade on 26,19 then on 26,18. it is important to respect this order cause you won't be able to move your tank unit until there if you don't move the infantry unit first, once you have made these moves you should focus attacking hex 28,16 to try to close the pocket, probably you won't manage to close it totally, but i can assure that even if you only succeed in taking hex 28,16 but not going further, that would already be very annoying for the german player as he won't have any way to retreat without suffering disendgagement penalties, german infantry regiment have 6 mp so the movement restrictions occasioned by the encirclement should prevent the german to retreat as well, don't forget to dig in at the end of the turn as he will surely try to break out the pocket by counter attacking, ( screenshot 4)

situation at the end of turn 1, these two divisions are trapped in the pocket, actually that's a bad example because i forgot to dig in my units in this game, but look how this kind of strategy can be effective. because once you have destroyed those two divisions, nothing can prevent you from crossing the river and attacking Kharkov, obviously your opponent will bring some troops there to prevent you from invading the city but if he bring forces here that means these forces have come from somewhere, and your task will be easier where the german took some of his troops away to go for defending Kharkov, he might use a part of a panzer division to do this, but if he does so you won't have to worry about a counterattack on Lyptsy anymore. of course you can customize this attack at your will but i definitely think that's the best way to use the troops around chuguyev and Balakleya.the inconvenient of such a strategy is that you are using some units of your western division that means you will face more difficulties to attack toward Semenovka which is the next step.(screenshot 5)

 

[viridomaros]

Attack on Semenovka

Semenovka is defended by the 113 th infantry division and you have two corps to attack it so once again soviets are much more numerous than the german. the terrain is to the soviet's advantage because it is open terrain.

( screenshot1)

the goal of this attack is to clean the road Lozovenka-Taranovka, semenovka will also give you 10 vp if you capture it, while capturing Taranovka give you 10 more vp it is also important because there is the event related to his capture: Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Taranovka (22,18). capturing Taranovka on turn 1 won't be easy, i never managed to do it, it seems you need some luck to do this but i already managed to clean the road so that i'm ready to invest Taranovka and kharkov subburbs on turn 2

(third screenshot is a possible situation at the end of turn 1)

 

[viridomaros]

Assaulting romanians

(screenshot 1) this is the situation at the start of the scenario, usually when you have to attack you want to attack where your ennemy is the weakest, you see these yellow indicator? that means that these romanians are poorly supplied, furthermore they have a poor profeciency as well, so it is quite obvious you have to attack there at first, i think this should be your first attack, i don't know why but i played a game recently as german and the soviets didn't attack romanians on turn 1 as a result i was able to consolidate the position with reinforcement and the romanians were able to restore their supply level. Keep in mind there is a possibility for the roumanian korp to withdraw if you take hexes 19,30 19,33 or 16,30. you should first put the artillery in position by using tactical reserve setting then you should take your strongest infantry divisions to launch an attack on the romanians, you should obtain a few retreats before combat ( 2 or 3 even more if you are lucky) then you can decide to hunt these units or to wait for next round to set up normal attacks, here is an example of how you can hurt the roumanians

situation at the end of turn 1, see that romanians are now made of 1-1 very weak units which you can overrun most of the time.(screenshot 2)

the strategic goal of this attack is to reach the marsh north of dniepopetrosk to prevent german reinforcement from reaching the front ( especially Petropavlovka which is worth 35 vp) siberian heat showed me how this strategy work well

(screenshot 3) notice how the reinforcement are stuck in the marshes, and as the river east of Dniepopetrovsk is a super one controlling the bridge with soviets mean that german will face heavy difficulties in reaching the front.

the problem is that you have to be very fast for achieving such a goal, masterising the number of rounds you can have is a key, i never managed to acheive this goal, the german reinforcements had alaways the time to come to the rescue, anyway as Dniepopetrovsk give 50 vp the german cannot leave an open road to this city so he will need to protect this road, this means fewer forces to go for Petropavlovka. i hope i have convinced all of you that you really need to attack those romanians on turn 1.

 

[viridomaros]

Assaulting Petropavlovka :

this town give you 35 vp that means that you really need this town if you hope for a good result, this town is only defended by an infantry division (298th) which you can surround it easily in two truns, you don't need to crush this division on turn 1 as german don't get reinforcement there before turn 4. so you have a bit of time ahead, it seems some players prefer to take the town on turn 1 rather than to encircle it, for my part i think encirclement is best

( screenshot 1 situation at the start)

( screenshot 2) Situation at the end of turn 1, look how the infantry division has beend weakened, and it is sure to be encircled on turn 2.

 

[viridomaros]

Strategy for the south east :

(screenshot 1) when you see this situation i have no idea about what you are thinking about, but for my part ( you should begin to know me ) i immediately start thinking about encircling some more divisions (3) how?? look to the next screenshot

(screenshot 2) this is my plan

(screenshot 3) and here we go for the realisation, once again i did this only by moving units, the screenshot is not perfect as in this case i let my flank open, and i risk to be encircled ( cavalry units) but you can reinforce your breakthrough by sending an infantry division and a tank brigade.

 

[viridomaros]

Well ok for turn 1 but then??

Depending the combat results you should go on attacking to weakened german forces until turn 4 at least, once you see some german reinforcements be prepared to stay on the defensive. When you are attacking avoid using ignore losses setting with infantry divisions, in a game i lost three infantry divisions due to this. Try to keep the initiative where you can, even with a bad supply situation it is important to keep the pressure on your opponent, after turn 5 or 6 your supply situation should be pretty bad better to know it when you start the scenario.
When i start this scenario with soviet forces my strategy is always the same ( may be i'm going to change now ) to go for taking kharkov by encircling it. When you start the scenario encircling kharkov seems to be very difficult and why should i encircle it if it has a supply point?? My answer is: if you can encircle kharkov that prevent the german player to send reinforcements to defend the town but what makes the encirclement so effective is that the german player won't think/ worry about it too much as there is a supply point, also the encirclement can provide you some flanking attacks which can be very deadly. Last thing is about overstacking penalty, if you can ecnircle the german, they will suffer overstacking penalty and i can assure you many of their units will evaporate. I didn't invent this strategy, i just copied it from siberian heat which did it in our game

(screenshot1) here is the screenshot of the kharkov encirclement in my game against siberian heat, end of turn 10, siberian heat took the town the turn after and won the game.
i was really impressed how this has been effective so i decided to give it a try and to my surprise it worked!!

(screensot 2) this is the situation at the end of turn 6

(screenshot 3) end of turn 8

(screenshot 4) end here is the encirclement completed on utrn9, i managed to destroy these forces and to capture kahrkov beofre the scenario ended and i won this game. Note how the units from the panzer division are stuck outside the town. Now i don't say this strategy always work but it can be so effective that is worth it to give it a try. In fact this strategy works very well if the german go to the rescue of the infantry division of belgorod with their panzer divisions, that's why i think it is important to put the pressure on belgorod as soon as turn 1 but i prefer keeping 1 corp in reserve ( look at the beginning of the article) because if you put too much pressure on belgorod the german player might think the situation is too bad to hope to change anything and since you want him to send his panzer divisions here it is better not to put too many pressure on Belgorod.

 

[CyberGeneral]

Special events : Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Belgorod (26,5).
Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Taranovka (22,18).
Chance of additional Soviet replacements if Soviets occupy Liptsy (26,11).
Axis supplies reduced if Soviets capture Denepetrovsk (6,40).
Axis supplies reduced if Soviets capture Poltava (2,17).
Chance 6th Romanian Corps will be withdrawn if Soviets breakthrough Romanian position ( that means soviet taking pavlograd).

I hope you know that none of the above works in the original CD version as the designer failed to note that 1st force is NOT the side that starts the game but rather the second force starts the game.........Complicated to explain for those not up on designing scenarios.......The REVISED version of the game plays correct....the only changes made were the switch in the Event Engine for all events relating to 1st force now pertaining to to 2nd force.........