Preview – Panzer Campaigns Smolensk ‘43

Hello everyone,

Friday the 13^th, could be lucky for some!

We are only a week away from the release of the 31^st Panzer Campaigns title – Smolensk ’43. With that in mind we thought we would give you a little more background on this title, so you know what is included.

Firstly, Dani Asensio is the designer for this title. Dani created both the Rumyantsev ‘43 and Orel ’43 games. Dani continues his great love of the Eastern Front in 1943, and those that have played his prior titles know that they are both interesting and competitive due to the very equal forces on both sides.

Smolensk ’43 falls into a very similar time frame to the other two titles. The Orel (Kutuzov) operation ran from 12 July to 18 August, while Operation Rumyantsev ran from 3 August to 23 August. The Smolensk (Suvorov) campaign consisted of three operations that followed closely after each other. The first offensive began on 7 August and finished on 22 August. The second was from 28 August to 7 September, while the third kicked off on 14 September till 3 October. These three offensives saw both sides fight and then pause due to exhaustion, only for new forces to rekindle the confrontation. The Soviets were more likely to have additional forces, with the initiative squarely with them. Ultimately, the Soviets advanced to the west liberating the major cities of Smolensk and Roslavl.

The resulting finish lines were essentially static until the launching of Operation Bagration (see Panzer Campaigns – Minsk ’44), eight months later in June 1944. Bagration was to be the offensive that left little doubt that Germany would lose the war in the East.

The Smolensk operation was designed to maintain the pressure on Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Center), post the Kursk and Orel offensives. Most of the forces on both sides were not involved in the Kursk/Orel battles (with the exception of the Western Front’s 50^th Army), so were reasonably unscathed. The Germans were reduced in strength, having to find forces to reinforce the units fighting at Kursk and Orel, and were dependent on the fortifications they had built to hold back the Soviet attacks.

In the past, we have mentioned three games in the Donets Front series. Smolensk ’43 is not the third title. Currently, it is distinctly different to both the operations on the Donets and Dnieper rivers.

There are 74 scenarios shipping with this title. There are three campaign-scale scenarios included with the game:

The other significant engagements included are:

There is no overarching campaign from August 7 to October 3. We decided not to include that as both sides paused for a week between each offensive phase, and there was little we could do to force players to pause during this period. The net effect is that we have a range of reasonably short duration campaigns that increases the playability.

Though many of these battles are little known, they had a critical impact on the 1944 battles that followed.

The game map (102,000 hexes) covers roughly the same area as the Panzer Campaigns – Smolensk ’41 game.

Three orders of battles are included covering the three offensive phases. Only the Germans, German-SS, Luftwaffe, Russian and Russian-Guard forces are included. The SS only have one unit included: the Reichsführer SS Brigade, a fairly mediocre formation. Mobile formations are also at a premium with both sides only fielding a small number of mobile ‘impact’ units.

Dani has written a 75,000 word (!), 77-page designer and historical notes document that will ship with the game.

We have the Getting Started document available, and you can have a look at it here: Getting Started link

Following are a few more screenshots:

Finally, we have already shared many of the code changes included with Smolensk ’43. The 4.05 version has been further updated since our reports to you in these previous blog posts: Quarter Two Update & 4.05 Deep Dive.

You can expect further enhancements to the Organization dialog including unit strength.

Limited time objectives are now identifiable in the command report (click for location, shown within 10 turns of expiry)

Limited time objectives also now show on the map with the victory point value and expiry turn (after the colon).

Rubble clearance has been reviewed and adjusted. The base level of half the digging in percentage is modified by the engineer unit’s size. A battalion (or three companies combined) is 3x the rubble clearance percentage, two companies combined are 2x and a standalone company 1x. Importantly, each engineer unit in a hex, attempting to clear rubble gets a clearance dice roll. So, having an engineer battalion and an engineer company clearing rubble in a hex would roll twice, with the battalion having a 3x base percentage.

Further AI tweaks including revised movement for HQ & artillery near the front line, minefield entry and clearance as well as improved ‘general AI’ or non-scripted AI.

Changes to vacated fortifications, where units in travel mode passing through entrenchments do not trigger vacation and reduction in their defensive values. This was brought in specifically to allow roads to be defended by fortifications, but to also allow reinforcements and other forces to pass through without impacting the defenses.

There are other minor changes, and we plan to share the full version 4.05 Changelog soon.

We are excited to be in the ‘final countdown’ to release. So many people are involved in every new title, whether they be designers, programmers, testers or artists and we hope you all enjoy and respect the fruits of many, many hours of labor.

Thank you for all your ongoing support – bring on Friday the 13^th!