Kursk: Burning Tigers
Scenario Preview, Part Six
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
June 2023

During the recent supply chain snarls, I made the decision to shift our boxed games to what we call the Playbook format, a complete game in (or more accurately, with) a book. That allowed us to print locally, with another small business.

To make that happen, we had to replace the layout of the scenario books, which gave me the excuse to re-write them and bring our older games to the same standard of our most recent releases. Kursk: Burning Tigers now has the chapter structure that’s become standard for Panzer Grenadier, and the battle games that tie together the scenarios of each chapter.

That allows the game’s scenarios to tell the battle’s story, and so far it’s been a very effective mechanism for that. The whole point of a wargame, a military history simulation, is to tell the story of an event that happened (or in some cases, could have happened). And so the elements of good story-telling need to be an integral part of the game design.

Let’s have a look at the story told in Chapter Six of Burning Tigers.

Chapter Six
Last Stand at Ponyri
Somehow, Maj. Gen. Mikhail A. Enshin’s 307th Rifle Division still clung to the ruins of Ponyri Station – a structure that hadn’t been very impressive even before being shot to pieces – along with the neighboring school and water tower. Ponyri controlled the road and railroad leading to the city of Kursk, the ultimate objective of the German Ninth Army. There it would link up with German forces advancing from the south, to encircle the Soviet defenders of the Kursk salient.

Constantly renewing their minefields and digging ever deeper, the Soviet infantry would not be pried out of Ponyri. The Soviet 13th Army provided a constant stream of reinforcements, and plentiful support from tanks, assault guns and artillery. Unable to make progress with its reinforced infantry divisions, the German Ninth Army committed the panzer divisions initially held back to exploit the expected breakthrough.

Scenario Twenty-Four
Toothless Panzers
6 July 1943
The 18th Panzer Division saw its first combat with the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, and had distinguished itself only by its reputation for looting, poor discipline and malingering. Maj. Gen. Karl Wilhelm von Schlieben took command on April Fools’ Day 1943, and just before the Kursk offensive he felt it necessary to order his officers to shoot any soldiers on the spot should they panic during the upcoming battle. After near-total destruction the previous winter, the division had been filled out with older men combed out of rear-area units, and operated only 69 tanks (just 30 of them long-barreled PzIV models). Only two companies owned armored personnel carriers and Schlieben had doled them out to two different battalions, failing to concentrate what force he had.

Conclusion
The commitment of tanks did little to shift the Soviets out of Ponyri; Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail A. Enshin’s division continued to take heavy losses, but dished out even greater punishment to the closely-packed panzer grenadiers attacking them. The panzer division had no better luck taking the station than the infantry, but the German high command demanded that Ninth Army continue its forlorn hope.

Notes
Tank battle! Actually it’s an infantry fight with tanks involved on both sides, so they’ll likely get mixed up with the foot soldiers instead of just blazing away at each other. Soviet defenses are robust, but this time the Germans bring lots of tanks despite all the poor-mouthing in the intro.

Scenario Twenty-Five
1st of May State Farm
7 July 1943
The German 292nd Infantry Division failed to make any gains on the 6th, even as the introduction of 18th Panzer Division narrowed its front. In addition to ordering another effort against Ponyri, Ninth Army also directed the 292nd Infantry Division to secure the 1st of May State Farm just east of Ponyri Station. This would at least help the Germans tighten the ring around the stubborn-defended ruins.

Conclusion
The capture of 1st of May State Farm would be one of the few German successes on the day, achieved only slowly and once again at a high cost in casualties considering the low priority of the objective. Possession of the farm gave the Germans another angle from which to attack Ponyri Station, where the defenders continued to defy them.

Notes
This is just a little scenario, one board and a handful of units on each side, and it also serves as the intro scenario for Burning Tigers (where we break down what all the scenario info means), since it’s the scenario that will get played the most by far). Simple victory conditions, few special rules. I like this little one.

Scenario Twenty-Six
Forest of Berezovy Log
7 July 1943
Just to the west of Ponyri, the German Ninth Army committed the 9th Panzer Division, formally part of the neighboring XLVII Panzer Corps. The former Fast Division of the Austrian Federal Army, it had fought in every campaign since the invasion of Poland, most recently at Rzhev west of Moscow. Some of those losses had been made good during a rest at Orel in the spring of 1943, but the division went into action with only 83 tanks. On the Soviet side, the 6th Guards Rifle Division, initially raised in this very region before the war, had shifted to defend this portion of the front line on the previous day and dug in to hold their home turf.

Conclusion
The Soviet defense wavered, but prompt intervention by their officers and especially the Kommissars steadied the men and they continued to inflict heavy losses on both the attacking tanks and their supporting infantry. In a situation where morale meant every bit as much as materiel if not more, a strong-minded political officer could be worth a platoon of anti-tank guns. As the fighting quieted for the night, the only change in the situation around Ponyri was the number of dead and dying.

Notes
It only gets tougher for the Germans: they have a very good panzer division in play with strong, modern armor. But the Soviet defenders are mostly Guards with morale equal to that of the Germans, strong tank support (though not as strong as that of the Hitlerite invaders) and well-entrenched positions (though not quite as formidable as in previous scenarios). There are a lot of forces in play in a small playing area – this is going to be a very hot fight.

Scenario Twenty-Seven
West of Ponyri
8 July 1943
After three days of failed frontal assaults against Ponyri Station, the German Ninth Army directed the 18th Panzer Division back into the fray, this time against the ridges west of the contested ruins. That would broaden the front from which the Germans could attack their objective, and perhaps finally allow a mechanized exploitation toward the city of Kursk.

Conclusion
While the Guards fought and died to hold their ground, the Germans had more success against this combat-tested division than they had against the supposedly less-capable 307th Rifle Division. Once again the Germans suffered terrible casualties, but they advanced across a mile of rough ground and opened a longer front facing Ponyri, but could not secure all of the ridges.

Notes
This is a big scenario, with a mighty force of German tanks and infantry crashing into defending Soviet Guards backed by a handful of tanks and a plethora of anti-tank guns. This is what wargames are all about.

Scenario Twenty-Eight
Counterattack at the State Farm
8 July 1943
The Soviet plan for defending the Kursk salient called for prompt counter-attacks whenever opportunities presented themselves. Large reserves had been put in place to carry them out, and before the exhausted Germans could consolidate their hard-won positions around the 1st of May State Farm, the fresh 3rd Tank Corps rolled forward to take it back from them.

Conclusion
After days of intense combat, the Soviets still managed to catch the Germans by surprise and overrun the 1st of May State Farm. While the setback only slightly impinged on German abilities to assault Ponyri Station, the fact that the Soviets could launch an attack at this point in the battle with newly-introduced reserves alarmed German Ninth Army commander Walter Model, who had no corresponding fresh formations of his own. It was time, he told his boss Günther von Kluge at Army Group Center headquarters, to call off the offensive.

Notes
This time the Red Army is on the attack, with a strong tank-infantry force crashing into an equally strong German tank-infantry force. There are a lot of units rampaging about on a fairly small playing surface, a sure recipe for mayhem.

Scenario Twenty-Nine
Hill 253.5
9 July 1943
Shaken by the Soviet stand at Ponyri and subsequent counter-attacks, the German Ninth Army needed the entire morning of the 9th just to re-group its assault divisions. They went forward again against Hill 253.5 east of Ponyri Station, now fighting not to break through the Soviet defenses but just to keep the defenders engaged while the southern pincer of the German grand offensive continued to grind forward.

Conclusion
The Germans took Hill 253.3, but the advance did little to bring Ponyri Station – and the road leading to Kursk – under their control. At this point, further German attacks only wore down the forces that would soon have to face a powerful Soviet counter-attack. The Battle for Ponyri Station had ended in a clear Soviet victory, with the German position itself now exposed.

Notes
The Germans are back on the attack, forcing their way southward on a narrow front. The forces on both sides are not as potent as in the previous few scenarios, but they’re still awfully strong. The German general was right; it’s going to be very tough for the Germans to meet all their victory conditions.

And that’s all for Chapter Six. Next time, we charge into Chapter Seven.

You can order Burning Tigers (Playbook edition) right here.
Please allow an extra three weeks for delivery.

Sign up for our newsletter right here. Your info will never be sold or transferred; we'll just use it to update you on new games and new offers.

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

Want to keep Daily Content free of third-party ads? You can send us some love (and cash) through this link right here.