Thursday, October 20, 2016

Ponyri Station Soviet Order of Battle: RAPID FIRE

After alot of thought and pondering on the subject, I've decided that the rules I want to pursue for "large battles" or battles "in the grand manner" are RAPID FIRE.  First of all, I love tinkering with the OOBs and converting the real life troop strengths with the numbers in the game, secondly, I love how the game flows more and more, and I enjoy the fact that I can build out HQs and support units and they actually have uses.

Anyways, the last few days I've been mulling over all of the units involved in my hair-brained Ponyri Station Mega Battle and converting them to RAPID FIRE tables of organization and equipment (TOE).

Feel free to check out and use at your leisure.  Believe it or not, this is not going to be a huge lift in terms of painting or modeling.  The entire Soviet 307th Rifle Division will get about 263 painted Russians and somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 16 tanks?


5 comments:

  1. Would the Russian artillery really have OPs to call in indirect fire as per Rapid Fire rules in this part of the war?

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    Replies
    1. Dylan,
      That's a good question - probably not but I need to check. First off, I don't have the Rapid Fire supplements 1 or 2 covering the Eastern Front. The OOB in the rule book only covers the late war period and is only a Tank Brigade.

      I'm using the actual OOBs from the Nafziger pages as well as the 1946 US Army "Soviet Forces Handbook"

      I will dig into the Artillery and see what I can come up with. Stay tuned.

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  2. Hi Dylan,
    So in looking at my "Soviet Tank Formations on the Eastern Front 1942-1942" OOB for Rapid Fire and the Nafziger materials, I believe the OP for the battalions are justified, since it looks like WW2 Soviet FOs were taken straight from the batteries/battalions they called from (the British model). Maybe this could be reduced somewhat but I do believe allowing a 2 figure OP per battalion is OK. Just my thoughts - open to suggestions.

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  3. I agree wholeheartedly with your 'Rapid Fire'reasoning. I recently did their Barrikady Stalingrad battle with RF and it worked a treat for all the reasons you mention. It seems reasonable to be quite prolific with Russian FOO parties as they considered artillery the 'god of war'. The RF original rules, as opposed to RF2, are adequate to the tasks, calling in, beaten zone and misses/duds etc. The lads and I will be following your action closely as it was one of the scenarios we considered next. Please keep us up to speed and the best of luck to you.

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    Replies
    1. Yes the more I read about Rapid Fire the more I'm taking a liking to it. The simplicity of the rules is appealing as are the results of the battles, and the fact that I can use all my "toys" on the tabletop.

      You are welcome to use my Ponyri OOBs if you like. It's one of my favorite battles, not only of Kursk, but really all time. RAPID FIRE will allow me to play it in 2 segments on my tabletop - the fight for Point 253/1st May Collective, and the fight for Ponyri station itself. Playing with an entire German Infantry Regiment, and a full Soviet Infantry Division, Artillery division, and a couple Guards tank brigades! What's not to love?

      Perhaps i will play some practice battles to see what's needed and how they go.

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