  
Introduction
I recently had the chance to purchase and play a game of SSI/Matrix
Game's Korsun Pocket computer
game. Korsun Pocket is part of SSI's "Decisive Battles of WWII" series
of wargames. It's an in-depth hex-based wargame that depicts a historic
battle on the Russian Front during WWII. The game has numerous features
and has earned multiple accolades. you can read reviews on Korsun Pocket
elsewhere on the net but I thought it would be interesting to put the
game through its paces and post an After Action Report. Hopefully this
will give you a better feel for the kind of decisions and gameplay that
is involved. The game is not for everyone, probably only grognards and
WWII geeks will find the depth in Orders of Battle, Combat Results Tables
and supply factors interesting. However, if you meet any of these criteria
I think you will find a very well-done highly-polished game that's a
lot of fun.
History
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| Russian T-34 tanks in action |
Late in 1943, the Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were locked in
a life-or-death struggle on the vast steppe plains of the Ukraine.
Near a town called Cherkassy, the Germans had been beaten back from the
mighty Dnieper river except for one salient. This salient jutted out
like a sore thumb and was a prime target for getting cut off from the
rest of the German Army. Which is exactly what happened. From the East
and the West, powerful russian blows severed the thumb from the rest
of the German army and formed a pocket of troops around the small village
of Korsun and its airport.
The Germans tried a desperate relief to try to reconnect and extract
the trapped troops. At the other end, the troops in the pocket, led by
General Stemmerman geared up for a breakout from the pocket back to German
lines... In the ensuing melee, only about 30,000 of the tens of thousands
of troops trapped in the pocket escaped, hounded by Russian horse-cavalry, T-34
tanks, and Soviet troopers. All their heavy equipment was lost and
many lost their lives in the freezing Gniloy Tikich River they had to
cross to reach friendly lines.
Setup
I had the privelege of playing GP, a worthy opponent met over the matching
board at Matrix Games. GP picket
the scenario - Last Stand at Korsun which depicts the last 6 days of
the Korsun Pocket campaign. He was the Axis player and I was the Allied
player. Korsun Pocket ships with about 7 scenarios covering everything
from the breakout to the whole campaign. The game also comes with the
whole Ardennes Offense campaign (Battle
of the Bulge).Our particular scenario plays out over 12 turns, each
turn represents about 12 hours of "real time". We were playing
a Play by Email (PBEM) game.
Our campaign begins...
[intro][next] Turn 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Finis
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