Thursday, December 2, 2010

Finally a win in a HPS Simulations game: Smolensk '41

Smolensk '41 is a rather sweeping John Tiller Panzer Campaign title. Covering the period of Army Group Center's offensive in the summer of 1941 to seize the crucial city of Smolensk during World War 2 the game offers the chance for players to make huge sweeping offensives and really slug it out. I have faced my opponent in PBEM many times and I had not beaten him yet but we were pretty evenly matched in most games.

Finally in a huge 25 turn scenario entitled Mogilev I won a hard fought minor victory. The scenario description read as

130km SW of Smolensk: On July 7th, 1941, the 24th Panzer Corps attempted to cross the Dnepr River near Mogilev. The Russian forces, the Soviet 13th Army, are well dug in around Mogilev, but strung thinly along the Dnepr River. The Germans must decide whether to take Mogilev by storm, or bypass this fortification and plunge deep into Russia and strike for the exit objectives along the east edge of the map. This is a medium sized Introductory Scenario covering a two and a half day period. It introduces players to controlling larger formations over longer periods of time.

I was certainly hard pressed to choose my route. What got me the win was a secret bridge crossing down south on the map at which point I swept north and bottled my opponent in forcing him to spread out at which point I was able to push him back into a pocket. It was a great game overall and really indicative of how well the Panzer Campaign series plays in email. Fun times. Below is the winning summary screen.

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