Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024

We continue our series of wargames and discussions commemorating the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk.  Today we’re switching to the northern shoulder of “Operation Citadel” using is Mark Ritchie’s 15mm Tactical Combat to recreate one of the assaults on the Soviet town of Ponyri, 10 July 1943.

Although the northern “jaw” of this huge German pincer attack was actually weaker than their southern drive, there were some incredibly powerful units engaged, some of which will feature in today’s game.  For example, we’ll see the head-on clash of some true World War 2 heavyweights, the Porsche “Ferdinand” tank destroyer for the Germans and the SU-152 for the Soviets.

These were massive tank destroyers and assault guns, both making their battlefield duel in the gigantic Battle of Kursk.  The Sturmpanzer IV “Brummbär” also makes an appearance, along with some very dramatic German mine clearing vehicles.

We continue our series of wargames and discussions commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, switching to Avalon Hill’s classic “PanzerBlitz” system.

We’re now a few days into “Operation Citadel” – the gigantic German pincer attack aiming to slice off the Soviet-held Kursk Salient. Along the southern German attack axis, Panzergrenadier Division “Grossdeutschland” spearheads the XLVIII Panzer Corps / 4th Panzer Army, grinding through successive belts of Soviet defenses and now forcing a way across the Pena River at the town of Verkopenye.

Badly-mauled Soviet defenders of the 3rd Mechanized Corps (1st Tank Army, Voronezh Front) are maintaining a coherent withdrawal … barely … but now the Soviets have released the 6th Tank Corps as well, who are rushing forward to mount a local counterattack at Verkopenye.

We continue our series of wargames and discussions commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, completing our 15mm uber-game of abridged Battlegroup by Ironfist Publishing and PSC.

We’re recreating part of “Grossdeutschland” Panzergrenadier Division’s assault on Cherkasskoye, a Russian village on the southern shoulder of the Kursk salient held by 67th Guards Rifle Division.

The Germans have finally cracked the Soviet minefields, but Soviet mine-dogs make their infamous debut!

Today we’re starting something of a miniseries of wargames and discussions commemorating the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, an absolute MONSTROUS battle fought on the Eastern Front of World War II.

To start with, we’re featuring a 15mm uber-game of abridged Battlegroup by Ironfist Publishing and PSC, recreating part of “Grossdeutschland” Panzergrenadier Division’s assault on Cherkasskoye, a Russian village on the southern shoulder of the Kursk salient held by 67^th Guards Rifle Division.

This game also features the very first time the famous PzKpfw V “Panther” tank was used, although the machine’s battlefield debut was hardly auspicious, as our game will show.

It’s the classic “unstoppable force hitting an immovable object.”  Which will prevail?

This week we’re stepping WAY back through history, using the De Bellis Antiquitatis system to try out some ancient warfare.  Specifically we’re putting some Republic-Era Romans up against the Parthian Empire of the modern-day Iran.

De Bellis Antiquitatis is a light, fast playing system that allows ancients or medieval combat between armies across a vast swath of history.  Players can often easily get two or three games into a productive afternoon.

We hope you like this episode, where the Sitrep Podcast is trying to broaden our range a little and cover a wider stretch of military historical wargaming.

In this episode we feature a “winter wargame” recreating part of the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, where elements of the German 5th Panzer Army are trying to outflank stubborn American defenders at the Belgian village of St. Vith.

Combat Command “B” of 7th US Armored Division is trying to hold open the last road to St. Vith, but they’re now under flank attack by an elite German “Begleit” brigade, including a battalion of sturmgeschütz assault guns.

Can the “Lucky Seventh” hold open this last lifeline to the vital American position?  Or is St. Vith about to fall?

The system being used is “Tactical Combat” by Mark Ritchie in 15mm.

Join us as we complete Oriskany Jim’s massive 25-hour ubergame of Panzer Leader, recreating ALL of the Omaha Beach landings in Normandy, France on the morning and early afternoon of June 6, 1944.

So far the Americans have taken dizzying casualties, in places even higher than they took historically.  However, a far better success rate with getting DD- and dozer-equipped Sherman tanks on the beach have also helped them crack huge gaps in the German defenses.  Draws off the beach have been opened, and American armor and infantry is (in places) pushing inland.

American fire support is beginning to dry up, however.  The P-47s supporting the landings have exhausted their bombs, rockets, and even machine guns, and naval gunfire takes much longer to call in now that most available German targets can no longer be seen from the sea.

Can the Americans redeem their horrific butcher’s bill and achieve their D-Day objectives here at Omaha?

Just how big can a game of Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader get?  How about a scenario encompassing the initial assault landing across ALL of Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944?  That’s both 1^st and 29^th US Infantry Divisions taking on coastal defense positions of the Germans 352^nd Infantry in a full-scale recreation of that legendary “Day of Days.”

The game is handled down to the platoon and section level, with historical locations of every German bunker plotted, along with the PLANNED assault sectors and landing waves.  In all, this uber-game winds up with a gameboard encompassing 3000 hexes, 20 turns, 450+ units, and took 25 hours to play (boiled down into two 30-minute videos for you guys).

With all the miniature play we’ve been featuring lately, we wanted to get back to some more classic wargaming for those of you who enjoy this kind of content as well.