Prokhorovka mega tank battle AAR part 1 of 2

[Anatoli]

This weekend Peter and Mikael ran a gigantic tank battle multiplayer game. The guys had been preparing for this game for months, painting Soviet and German tanks by the dozens.

The army lists were historically researched and troops were represented in the correct sector facing their historical counterparts. As far as preparation goes, this was one of the most well organized games of this kind that I have played, with crib sheets of friendly and enemy tanks readily available and the table being divided into 3 sectors to make it easier to play multiple players per side without slowing down.

Essentially, if your troops crossed over a certain line, the guy next to you took over those units - so you could send and receive reinforcements from the friendly flanks. The divided sectors also allowed  for a very fast paced game where the opponents of each sector pretty much played an entire turn in their own pace and then waited for the others to finish.

IIRC Peter said they had some 17.000!! points per side - and the most impressive thing was that we were all done in roughly 4 hours of play (think we ended the game at the German turn 7).

Check out the army lists, pictures and how it went over at my blog.  I will be posting the second half of the pictures tomorrow along with my thoughts about the game.

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2012/11/flames-of-war-prokhorovka-aar-part-1.html

[Engel]

Impressive number of tanks but with a setup like that I cant but help to think of an megabattle in warhammer 40k. 
Thanks for sharing and I will check back for part 2 later on. Nice

[Anatoli]

Indeed, I will describe the shortcomings of the battle and FoW games when it gets this big in part 2, (there will also be some very cool pics of bucket loads of destroyed tanks burning to go with that).

[cuprum]

The epic battle. Excellent!

But the striking disparities in the number of Russian tanks. One-third of Russian tanks in Prokhorovka field were T-70. SU-152 was only 12 pcs.

2nd Guards Tank Corps possessed 139 combat vehicles, including T-34 - 84 pieces, T-70 - 52 pieces, MK-4 "Churchill" - 3 pcs
18th Panzer Corps had 164 tanks in the line, including T-34 - 68 pieces, T-70 - 58 pcs. and MK-4 "Churchill" - 18 pcs.

29th Tank Corps in battle used 192 tanks and 30 self-propelled guns, including T-34 - 122 pieces, T-70 - 70 pcs.

German army. Division "Adolf Hitler" and part of the Division "Totenkopf". Mueller -Gillerbrand leads their numbers on June 30, 1943 First - had 133 tanks, of which 13 are "tigers" and 35 self-propelled assault guns, the second - 145 tanks, including 15 "tigers" and 35 self-propelled assault guns. Although at the time of the battle, they will have already lost part of the tanks in previous battles.

In addition, the important role played in the battle of the German Air Force.

[Rod Robertson]

Anatoli:
That is certainly an impressive array of tanks and SPG's. The terrain lends itself to sitting on the reverse slope and just sniping at the opposition from hull-down positions. Why would anyone advance into that valley of death without lots of artillery and smoke? Hope the game went well.
Rod Robertson.

[Anatoli]

Anatoli:
That is certainly an impressive array of tanks and SPG's. The terrain lends itself to sitting on the reverse slope and just sniping at the opposition from hull-down positions. Why would anyone advance into that valley of death without lots of artillery and smoke? Hope the game went well.
Rod Robertson.

That is one flaw with the FoW rules, gun ranges are short. According to Peter the battle IRL was almost tanks only. There was a marginal infantry action going on, a preliminary bombardment and a bit of air support during the early part of the battle. But mostly tanks driving around in dust firing at its other at close range.

[Sarmor]

Now that's an impressive battle!
Though with all those tanks so close together it looks a bit like a parking lot... 

Is it just me, or do some of the SU-122s have Polish eagles? The ones here: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g183/Anatoli_2006/15mm%20battle%20reports/SAM_4038.jpg
That's certainly curious, especially coupled with the Russian slogan.

[Anatoli]

They do have the Polish eagle, though I didn't ask about it during the game. What does the Russian slogan say?

[cuprum]

Sarmor, be tolerant - this is just a game, not a diorama. It is hard to expect conformity to the smallest detail. Today, these models involved in the the Battle of Kursk, and tomorrow - can battle it for Berlin. These conventions, I think, is quite acceptable.

By the way - on the SU-122 with the Polish eagle coexists Russian slogan "For Stalin!"

[Sarmor]

I am tolerant - I was only interested if it really is a Polish eagle or maybe some Russian emblem I don't know that only looks similarly.
Though I think that the slogan should be in Polish rather than in Russian - I think the Polish crew would prefer to stress they're Poles. However I understand it's easier to find Soviet slogans, especially that I never saw slogans on Polish tanks.

[cuprum]

I agree that the Polish crew made an inscription in Polish. But this will have to do hard work with a brush - these decals I no saw.

But the fact that Polish tanks had different inscriptions  - no doubt.





http://www.wio.ru/tank/sov-pol34.htm