Game of the Week, June 2 to 8

Hi everyone,

It’s Monday again, and it’s time for Game of the Week!

This week’s Game of the Week is Panzer Campaigns: Kursk ‘43. After the loss of Stalingrad and a retreat almost to the Dnepr River, the Germans planned for their third summer offensive in Russia. Their aim was to wrest the initiative from the Soviets, and hopefully pocket the large Soviet forces in the Kursk bulge, emulating the successful operations of summers past. The Russians had anticipated such a move and prepared to meet the invaders from the safety of the largest defensive structure built on the Eastern Front.

Panzer Campaigns: Kursk ‘43 covers the full Battle of Kursk from July 5-13, 1943.

Panzer Campaigns: Kursk ‘43 is the new 4.05.3 version, and our product description encapsulates this campaign well:

It's the summer of 1943 and the line has stabilized with a huge bulge in the lines. Hitler can't resist one more drive, one more push to pinch off a bulge and capture a mass of soviets’ troops in another pocket, like in the early years of the war. But the Russians knew that script, they knew where the Germans would strike, and they waited. Hitler wanted his new "superweapons", the Panther and the Elefant, to debut here. Consequently, the start date of early May was pushed back, and then further back, until it ended up in July. During all this time the Russians dug in, deeper and deeper, on both shoulders of the salient. By the time the attack started, there were seven defensive lines, including dug-in anti-tank strongpoints, anti-tank ditches, and millions of mines had been laid. This was to be the biggest battle of the war, if not in all of time.

The game comes with 35 scenarios which include all the historical forces that were allocated to the campaign.

The longest campaign scenario is 121 turns, with most scenarios a very playable sub-30 turns.

The master map (114,380 hexes) covers the entire area from Orel in the north to Volchansk and Belgorod in the south.

In addition to the aforementioned scenarios and campaigns, Panzer Campaigns: Kursk ‘43 includes a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. The included scenarios are a good mix of small (Division), medium (Corps) and large (Army/Army Group) engagements. 

The Order of Battle has 5,000 units from the German, German-SS Luftwaffe, Hungarian, Russian, and Russian Guards forces that participated in the campaign.

We have included a lot of historical documentation and notes with this title. You can review each by clicking on the links below. 

Design Notes

Situation Map 1

Situation Map 2

Situation Map 3

Planning Map

There has been a range of books covering The Kursk battle in 1943. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the campaign. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

Valeriy Zamulin is a leading Russian scholar of the Battle of Kursk, whose detailed books on the Kursk Battle are indispensable.

The following title has a huge number of photos from the Soviet perspective.

If you can find this series of 6 books by Remy Spezzano - grab them. The restoration and identification of images is superb. Everything RZM Publishing sells is worth consideration for the serious wargamer.

Now for video content:

Leigh58 has published this gameplay video:

If you have never seen it, there is no better film to sense the scale of the battle, than the Russian movie Liberation, Film 1: The Fire Bulge.

Following are some historical background videos, worth your time:

From Real Time History:

And Military History Visualized:

Following are some in-game screen shots of what to expect. Each image can be clicked for a full-sized view.

As mentioned, the build we are making available today is a the new 4.05.3 version. A range of new features have been included, and you can read the Changelog here. All new purchases will be this latest version.

If you don’t already own this title, what are you waiting for? You can buy it directly from the dedicated product page.

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week. Like all WDS titles, there is a lot of game play included at a very attractive price.