Copyright © 2016, HexWar Games Ltd. & Decision Games.
Kursk is basically a two-player game. Each Player moves his units and executes attacks in turn with the objective being to destroy enemy units, while minimizing Friendly unit losses. Combat is resolved by comparing the strength-numbers of adjacent opposing units and expressing the comparison as a simplified probability ratio (odds). A die is rolled and the outcome indicated on the Combat Results Table is applied to the units being attacked.
| Symbol | Unit-size |
|---|---|
| II | Battalion |
| III | Regiment |
| X | Brigade |
| XX | Division |
| XXX | Corps |
Kursk, is played in turns. Each Game Turn is composed of two Player Turns. Each Player Turn is composed of three Phases. A typical Game-Turn would proceed follows.
Repeat Phases 1 through 3 for the Second Player, who uses his own units.
C. Players indicate the passage of one Game Turn on the Turn Record Chart. Each Game Turn represents two days real time.
The game lasts six Game Turns; at the end of the Second Player's Motorized Movement Phase of the sixth Game-Turn, all movement ceases, and the Players' performances are evaluated in terms of the Victory Conditions.
During the Movement Phases of a Player's turn, the Player may move as many or as few of his units as he wishes, Each unit may be moved as many hexes as desired within the limits of its Movement Allowance, the Terrain Effects Chart, and the Zone of Control Rules.
Procedure: Move each unit individually, tracing the path of its movement through the hexagonal grid.
(A) Movement is calculated in terms of hexagons. Basically each unit expends one Movement Point of its total Movement (Point) Allowance for each hex entered. To enter some types of hexes, more than one Movement point is expended. See the Movement section of the Terrain Effects Chart for a full list of these different `entry costs`.
(B) In any given Movement Phase of a Player-Turn, the Player may move all, some or none of his units (with the exception that only motorized units may be moved during the Motorized Movement Phase). Movement is never required, it is voluntary.
(C) Units are moved individually; in any direction or combination of directions. A unit may be moved as many or as few hexes as the owning-Player desires as long as its Movement Allowance is not exceeded in a single Movement Phase. Unused Movement points however, may not be accumulated from Phase-to-Phase or transferred from unit-to-unit.
(D) No Enemy movement is permitted during a Player's Movement Phase.
(E) No combat (Enemy or Friendly) may take place during a Movement Phase.
(F) Friendly units may pass through or onto other Friendly units as long as there are never more than three Friendly units, of divisional-size or larger, in the same hex at the same time. In other words, a unit may not pass through a hex containing three (or more) other divisional-sized Friendly units (see Stacking Rule).
(G) Units may .never enter or pass through a hex containing Enemy units.
(H) In a given Movement Phase, once a Unit has been moved it may not be moved again nor may it re-trace and change its move.
(I) Units may move over different types of terrain-hexes in the same Movement Phase as long as they have enough Movement points to expend as they enter each hex.
The effects of terrain on movement are cumulative, i.e., moving from an Enemy Zone of Control to another Enemy Zone of Control, ordinarily three plus two plus one for the movement of one hex, or six in total, would cost eight in a fortified-line hex.
The effects of terrain on combat are not cumulative, i.e., the attacker can never be forced to subtract more than two from the die roll, and one Close Supporting Aircraft Element negates all terrain effects on combat.
The six hexagons immediately surrounding a given unit (or stack of units) constitute that unit's Zone of Control. These are semi-active Zones of Control which have an inhibiting effect upon Enemy movement, but do not affect Enemy combat. Hexes upon which a unit is exerting its Semi-Active Zone of Control are called controlled hexes.
(A) All units must expend three additional Movement Points (MP). above and beyond the ordinary movement cost, to enter an Enemy controlled hex from another, uncontrolled hex. They may not enter an Enemy Zone of Control (and thus be able to attack) unless they have the three extra Movement Points to expend.
(B) It costs two additional Movement Points to leave an Enemy controlled hex. above and beyond the ordinary movement cost,
(C) If you move directly from one controlled hex of an Enemy unit to another controlled hex of the same or any other Enemy unit, it costs five additional Movement Points (three plus two, as outlined in Cases A & B).
Example: If a German Armored unit were to enter a Soviet Zone of Control in the forest, it would expend five Movement Points in moving one hex: three for entering a Zone of Control, one for moving one hex, one additional for armor moving the forest. If the same unit were to leave one controlled hex for another controlled hex, it would expend seven Movement Points (three plus two plus one plus one).
All effects of movement inhibition are cumulative. in certain situations units may be prevented from moving altogether, due to accumulating penalties.
(D) If a hex is controlled by more than one unit, it still costs only three additional Movement Points to enter such hex. This is true for all movement costs, e.g.. entering a hex with more than one Zone of Control never costs more additional Movement Points than entering a hex with one Zone of Control (including the single hex Zone of Control exerted by an interdicting aircraft unit).
(E) For movement purposes Enemy Zones of Control do extend into hexes occupied by Friendly units. For supply purposes Enemy Zones of Control do not ext'nd into hexes occupied by Friendly units. See Supply Rule.
(F) The following units do NOT have Zones of Control: Soviet Artillery Corps and Anti-Tank Brigades; German non-divisional Armored units; all air units (both Ground Support and Aircraft Elements).
(H) Any unit with a bracketed combat factor and any non-Divisional/Corp units do not have a zone of control. KG units do have a zone of control.
(more than one unit per hex)
German units: as many as three divisions plus one non-divisional unit may be stacked together in the same hex. Russians: as many as three corps plus one non-corps unit may be stacked together in the same hex.
(A) Stacking limitations apply at all times (even while units are being moved).
(B) The German player may stack a maximum of four units in a hex of which no more than three may be divisional sized units. (Note: Stacking more than two non-divisional units would normally be an error as most non-divisional units require an equal or greater number of divisional units in a hex to avoid being reduced to zero combat factors).
(C) The Russian player may stack a maximum of four units in a hex of which no more than three may be Corp sized units. (Note: Stacking more than two non-Corp units would normally be an error as most non-divisional units require an equal or greater number of divisional units in a hex to avoid being reduced to zero combat factors).
(D) Air units are the equivalent of a division (in the case of the Germans) or corps (In the case of the Soviets). The two counters which represent a given air unit (The Ground Support Element counter and the Aircraft counter) are treated as ONE UNIT for stacking purposes.
(E) Friendly units may pass into or through a Friendly stack as long as if at no point in the procedure is the stacking limit violated.
Units must be able to trace Supply lines leading from their position to a railroad which leads off their friendly map-edge (west edge for the Germans. any edge east of the Soviet Fortified Line for the Soviets). Supply lines must be free of Enemy units and/or Enemy Zones of Control. Units which are unable to trace a line of supply are penalized with respect to movement and combat ability.
Units are determined to be `in supply` for movement purposes at the beginning of each Friendly Movement Phase, and may move their full Movement Allowance if they are in supply at such time; for combat purposes they are determined to be in supply at the precise moment of the combat, i.e., if a defending unit had been in supply at the beginning of the Enemy Combat Phase, but another preceding combat had forced the retreat of some other Friendly unit through which its supply line was being traced, it would be adjudged `out of supply` at the moment of attack.
Supply lines may be traced through as many as ten hexes (of any type of terrain) in order to reach the unobstructed rail-line over which the remainder of the supply route must be traced. Once the rail-line is reached, however, the supply route may not `jump off` the rails again. The supply line(s) may be as convoluted as is necessary in order to avoid Enemy units or Zones of Control.
(A) Units out of supply have their Movement Allowance and Attack and Defense Strengths halved (lose fraction).
(B) Units may remain Out of supply indefinitely, i.e. units are never lost through lack of supply alone.
(C) Any number of friendly units may be supplied through the same path of hexes. Any number of paths may be traced to supply units in different locations, Supply lines may be traced through any type of terrain and through any number of Friendly units.
(D) Supply lines may be cut in any of the following ways:
NOTE: Enemy zones of control do not interfere with supply lines being traced through a hex containing a Friendly unit, i.e., the presence of a Friendly unit in an Enemy controlled hex negates the effect of that Zone of Control (on supply, only!).
(E) Units may deliberately move into hexes which will leave them out of supply.
Combat occurs between adjacent opposing units at the discretion of the Player whose Combat Phase it us. The Player whose Combat Phase it is, is considered to be the Attacker; the other Player is considered to be the Defender.
Total-up the Attack-Strengths of all the attacking units involved in a specific attack and compare it to the total Defense-Strengths of the unit(s) in the hex under attack. State the comparison as a probability ratio: Attack Strength-to-Defense Strength. Round-off the ratio downward to conform to the simplified odds found on the Combat Results Table; roll the die and read the result on the appropriate line under the odds. Apply the result immediately, before going on to resolve any other attacks being made during that Combat Phase.
(A) During the Combat Phase of his turn, a Player may only attack those Enemy units to which Friendly units are adjacent. Only those Friendly units directly adjacent to a given Enemy unit may participate in the attack upon that Enemy unit.
(B) Units adjacent to Enemy units are not compelled to attack, nor does the attacking Player have to utilize every adjacent unit if he does decide to attack. Attacking is completely voluntary.
(C) No unit may attack more than once per Combat Phase. No enemy unit may be attacked more than once per Combat Phase.
(D) Soviet Anti-Tank brigades may only be used to defend (this limitation is symbolized by the small `D` on the counter). In order to be employed defensively they must act in concert with at least one regular Soviet corps which must be in the same hex. Example: If two Soviet Armored Corps were stacked with two Anti-Tank Brigades, then both brigades could contribute their Defense Strengths to the total Strength in that hex. If there was only one regular corps present. then only one of the Brigades could contribute its strength in the defense.
(E) Soviet Artillery Corps may only attack (this limitation is symbolized by the small `A` on the counter). In order to attack each Artillery Corps must be stacked with Soviet Corps unit which is participating in the same attack. Example: Two Soviet Artillery Corps are stacked with one `2-4` Infantry Corps. In such a case only one of the Artillery Corps could contribute its Attack Strength to the total attacking force (the other Artillery unit could not be used).
A Soviet Anti-Tank Brigade and an Artillery Corps could both be stacked with one regular Soviet unit and both could use the same regular unit to fulfill their respective- requirements for employment.
(F) The German non-Divisional Armored units whose Attack/Defense Strengths are enclosed in parentheses may only employ that strength when stacked with a regular German combat unit. In order to be employed in an attack, each non-divisional unit must be matched with at least one separate regular unit participating in the same attack from the same hex.
Example: Three non-divisional armored units are stacked with two regular divisions; only two of the non-divisional units could contribute their strength to either an attack or a defense.
Note that there is one German Motorized Infantry Brigade which is considered as a regular unit (the "1-8" Mant.),
(G) The Soviet and German units described in Cases D, E, and F are called Limited units. Limited units have no Zone of Control, may not participate in combat without regular units, and if caught by a regular Enemy unit, when not stacked with a Friendly regular unit then the limited unit is automatically eliminated when attacked (without having to roll the die). An air unit Ground Support Element does not fulfill the requirement of being stacked with a regular unit, with respect to limited unit employment.
(H) More than one Enemy-occupied hex may be attacked by a given attacking unit (or group of attacking units); that is to say, different defending units on different hexes may be treated as the objects of attacks which might be made by a one-hex group of attacking units if the attacking unit happens to be adjacent to 'two or more Enemy-occupied hexes.
(I) An Enemy-occupied hex may be attacked by as many attacking units as can be brought to bear. Conceivably, as many six stacks of units could be brought to bear against an Enemy-held hex.
(J) Not every unit in an attacking stack must participate in the attack.
(K) Combat odds are rounded-off in favor of the Defender, For example: An attack of 26 Attack points against 9 Defense points would round-off to a `Two-to-One` odds situation.
The effects of terrain on combat are not cumulative, i.e., the attacker can never be forced to subtract more than two from the die roll, and one Close Supporting Aircraft Element negates all terrain effects on combat.
Attacks at greater than 9-1 odds are resolved as a 9-1 attack; attacks at less than 1-3 odds are resolved as an 1-3 attack.
AE - Attacker destroyed, all units that were attacking are removed from the board, but not units in same hex not involved in attack.
AR - Attacker retreats. defender removes all attacking units back one hex; they must be retreated in direction of their supply line; units that cannot be moved back because of stacking limitations, or are only able to move back into enemy zones of control, are destroyed instead.
BR - Both Retreat; defending units are retreated one hex in direction of supply, if possible, first; then the attacker is retreated by the defending player one hex; units are eliminated if unable to retreat, as outlined in `AR`.
DE - Defender destroyed. All units in the defending hex are destroyed.
EX - Exchange; all defending units are removed from the board, and the attacker must remove combat strengths equal to, or greater than, the defender's losses; the attacker chooses which units he loses.
1/2EX - Same as EX, except attacker need only remove one-half of the defender's losses in terms of Strength Points.
In all of the above cases, if the Combat Results causes a vacancy in a hex, whether by retreat or destruction, the opposite side, whether attacker or defender, may immediately advance into the thus vacated hex, if that hex is not an enemy fortified line hex.
This is an exception to the rule that one side may not move during its own combat phase or the Enemy turn sequence.
Air units, in a given Game Turn, are capable of either flying aerial missions or changing the location of their base of operation (by moving the appropriate Ground Support Element in the same fashion as any regular non-motorized ground combat unit). Aerial missions either affect combat or Enemy movement and supply lines.
Aircraft units may fly aerial missions over specific hexes which may be as far away from the ground support element as the aircraft unit's Range of Allowance permits, The routine of execution depends upon the specific type of mission being flown. Aircraft units are not affected by terrain considerations when in flight.
(A) An Air unit is composed of two separate counters: the Ground Support Element, and the Aircraft Element. These two Counters taken together constitute one Corps-equivalent for stacking purposes (or one division-equivalent in the case of German Air units). There is no limit to the number of Aircraft Elements which may be flying in the `air space` over a given hex.
(B) Only one Aircraft Element may be based in a single Ground Support Element, and only that Aircraft Element having the same identification number as its parent Ground Support Element may be based in that particular Ground Support Element.
(C) When the Ground Support Element is moved, it must have its Air Element in it (`or the ground`). Ground Support Elements are moved in the Initial Movement Phase only (as if they were non-motorized units). Ground Support Elements suffer the terrain-movement costs as if they were MOTORIZED units: i.e., they must pay an additional Movement Point for each forest or swamp hex which they enter.
(D) Aircraft Elements may be used to fly any one of five possible missions in a given Game Turn (assuming of course that their parent Ground Support Element is not moved).
Aircraft flys to a hex containing Enemy ground units which are to be attacked by Friendly ground units in that Combat Phase. The presence of a Close support Aircraft Element has the effect of raising the subsequent die-roll of the attacking ground force by two; e.g., if the die-roll were `3` it 'would be raised to `5`. If, due to terrain, the Attacker is forced to subtract two from his die-roll, then the presence of a Close Support Aircraft Element has the effect of negating that subtraction (and the face value of the die is used). If the attacker, due to terrain, is forced to subtract one from his die-roll, then the presence of a Close Support Aircraft Element has the effect of cancelling this subtraction and raising the die-roll by one. Only one Aircraft Element may fly a Close Support mission in a given Enemy-held hex. Close Support missions are landed immediately upon the resolution of the ground attack. Ground combat results do not affect the Close Supporting Aircraft Element,
(2) Interdiction (Aircraft Element takes-off at the end of the owning-Player's Motorized Movement Phase and is returned to its base at the end of the ensuing Enemy Motorized Movement Phase: i.e., it remains `in the air` over a specific hex during the entire Enemy Player Turn.):
Aircraft Elements flying interdiction missions over a given hex have exactly the same effect upon Enemy supply and movement as if a Friendly Ground unit were exerting a Zone of Control in that hex. Just as with ground unit Zones of Control, the presence of an Enemy unit in the interdicted hex negates this effect upon the supply lines (but not upon movement). More than one Aircraft Element may fly Interdiction in the same hex, but this does not in any way increase the interdiction effect. Interdiction missions are subject to Enemy Interception.
(3) Combat Air Patrol (Aircraft Element takes-off at the end of the owning Player's Motorized Movement Phase and is returned to its base. at the end of the ensuing Enemy Player's Motorized Movement Phase: i.e., it remains `in the air` over a specific hex throughout the entire Enemy Player Turn.):
Any number of Aircraft Elements may fly Combat Air Patrol (CAP) in the same hex. As long as Friendly Aircraft are flying CAP over a hex. Enemy Aircraft may not fly Interdiction or Close Support missions in that hex. If the CAP is completely driven off by Enemy interceptors, however, then other Enemy Aircraft Elements may, in the same Player Turn, execute a Close Support mission in that hex arid/or initiate an Interdiction mission over that hex.
(4) Air Superiority (Aircraft Elements take-off at the end of the owning-Player's Initial Movement Phase and return to base at the end of the owning Player's Combat Phase.):
Air Superiority missions are flown against Enemy Ground Support Elements in an effort to destroy them from the air.
Each Friendly Ground Support Element defends against Air Superiority attacks with a Defense Strength of `1`. Each Enemy Aircraft Element on CAP over an Enemy Ground Support Element adds `1` to the Defense Strength of the Ground Support Element. Each attacking Aircraft Element has an Attack Strength of `1`. Determine the odds of the attack in the usual manner (just as in land combat, rounding off the odds in the defenders favor.). Roll the die once for each Air Superiority attack and determine the results using the Air Superiority Table:
Note that whatever the result of the air superiority attack, there is no effect upon the CAP units nor upon the attacking Aircraft Elements. Aircraft Elements can only be destroyed by destroying their parent Ground Support Elements (either in land combat or through an Air Superiority attack).
If there is more than one Ground Support Element in a hex, each must be attacked separately using different attacking Air Elements. In such a case, the attacker first allocates which of his units will attack which Ground Support Element and then the defender may allocate his CAP Air Elements (if any) to assist in the defense. The attacker does not necessarily have to attack all the Ground Support Elements in a given hex,
Ground Support Elements stacked together do not contribute to each other's defense with respect to an Air Superiority attack. Terrain effects do not apply to Air Superiority Missions.
Friendly Aircraft Elements on CAP over Friendly Ground Support Elements are not subject to interception.
(5) Interception (Aircraft Elements take off, execute mission and return to base at the beginning of the owning Player's Initial Movement Phase, before any land movement takes place.):
Only Enemy Interdiction and/or Enemy CAP missions are subject to interception. Interception does not result in the destruction of either Player's Air Elements; rather it has the effect of forcing the Enemy Player's units to abort their mission: for each Friendly Intercepting Air Element flown against a hex containing Enemy Air Elements, one Enemy Air Element is forced to abort its mission and return to base. In effect one Interceptor negates one Enemy Air Element and causes both units to be returned to their respective bases immediately. If an interception mission is flown against a given hex containing Enemy Air Elements some of which are flying an Interdiction mission and some of which are flying a CAP, the Interceptors must first deal with the CAP Elements. After the CAP has been cleared from the hex, any remaining Interceptors may then deal with the Interdiction mission, Aircraft Elements flying CAP over a Friendly Ground Support Element, are NOT subject to interception
(E) Ground Support Elements do not have a Zone of Control (whether or not their Aircraft Element is in them). Whenever a Ground Support Element is destroyed, its Aircraft Element is also destroyed (immediately, no matter where it is or what sort of mission it may be flying).
Usually when a large German motorized unit was smashed in combat, there still remained a large enough force to be effective as a combat unit; these were called `Battlegroups` (Kampfgruppen`), and generally took their name from the temporary commander e.g., KG Schulttz. Although this was very effective in forming a battle line to resist enemy breakthroughs, it was very expensive in terms of losing remnants around which an entire new division could be formed.
(A) Whenever a German 4-8, 5-8, or 6-8 unit is destroyed and the unit is in supply, instead of being removed entirely from play, retreat the unit according to the normal rules of retreat, remove the unit, and replace it with a KG unit.
(B) If the unit to be replaced is a 4-8 or 5-8. replace it with an 1-8 KG unit; if the unit is a 6-8. replace it was a 2-8 KG. Only these units are replaced by KG units.
(C) The difference (in Victory Points) between the original unit and the replacement KG in terms of combat strength (a 6-8 less a 2-8 would yield four), multiplied by three, as in the usual Victory Points, is given to the Soviet Player; however, if the surviving KG is eliminated, Victory Points equal to five times the combat strength of the KG is given to the Soviet Player.
Although Russian units are symbolized corps-sized units, actually the Russian Army corps system in 1941 and not reinstated it by the time of the battle. The reason for this was the shortage of skilled or competent higher echelon officers capable of commanding independent organizations. Divisions were grouped directly under the command of the Army, which still did not have enough good officers, despite this concentration of responsibilities. To simulate the difficulties of administering these masses use the following rules.
(A) To be in supply, in addition to the ordinary restriction of being with ten hexes of a rail line leading off the east edge of the map, Russian Corps must be within a certain number of hexes of another unit of the same army; obviously, close track must be kept of the units position and especially their ID number by which a unit's army designation is known.
(B) Soviet 2-4 corps must be within three hexes of another unit in the same army to satisfy the requirements of Case A. 3-5 corps must be within five hexes of another unit in the same army to satisfy the requirements of Case A. These are `Guard` units were always somewhat better organized and supplied.
(C) This rule only applies to Soviet 2.4 and 3-5 units; all other units must satisfy the requirement for tracing a supply line to a rail line.
The Soviet Player sorts out his forces first and places them on the board where he wishes, on, or to the east, of the first Soviet fortified line; every hex of the first Soviet line must either be occupied by a unit, or be in a Zone of Control of a unit. After the Soviet Player has set up, the German Player proceeds to place his units; he also must have an unit or its Zone of Control in every hex of his fortified line (not the Hagen Line). German units may be placed anywhere on, or to the west of the German fortified Line.
No changes are allowed to deployment in the Historical scenarios.
Soviet reinforcements appear on the eastern edge of the map board at the beginning of the Soviet Player Turn; they may move in that Player Turn.