Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Korsun Pocket Russian Supports

In a somewhat foolhardy moment I decided to run a large game of Chain of Command at Gauntlet in July.  Foolhardy because I've only ever played the rules solo up to now. The game is one I've wanted to do for years - German troops, largely infantry, escaping from the Tcherkassy (or as the Soviets called it Korsun) Pocket.

I've done a little research and I'm in the process of determining which types of support will be available to the two sides.  As usual with Chain of Command, the reinforcements are sorted into numbered lists.  So for example a platoon with six points of support could pick three items from list one and one from list three or any similar combination.

First up are the Soviets:

I'm presenting these here so my fellow players have some idea of what toys they might usefully bring.   The German list will follow shortly.

I'm reasonably confident of the appropriateness of all of these for Ukraine in February 1944 but if you know otherwise....

4 comments:

Richard Naylor said...

February 1944 is too early for the 76mm Sherman's, I think production of them didn't start till May. Also the IS-2 wasn't available yet, perhaps include a KV-85 and/or IS-1 in the list instead? Other than those I think everything's okay. Other options for vehicles are SU-122's and SU-152's but obviously those and the KV-85/IS-2 will depend on what you've got or can build before July.

Cheers
Richard

Counterpane said...

Thanks, Richard. I didn't think to check the 76mm Sherman.

I've read a couple of (admittedly secondary) internet sources that say the IS-II was first committed to action during the destruction of the Pocket. Otherwise I'd certainly have left them out.

Richard Naylor said...

I thought they saw combat from April but by doing a bit more digging I've found them in combat in March and in the area of the pocket from February (see http://tankarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/first-is-2s.html) so I think that's justification to keep them on the list.

Counterpane said...

Yes, I've just done another post pointing out the huge variation of the sources I've found. Sadly the formatting is crap. I may have to delete it and try again!

Thanks for your help with this!