Publisher/Date:
Advancing Fire (2022)
Product Type:
HASL/Historical Module
Country of Origin:
Italy
Contents:
5 x 37.4" x 22.8" historical maps (which join to form a 3.4" x 114" map area), 1 x 36.8" x 22" historical map, 1 x 30." x 24" historical map, 1 x 24.8" x 16.7" historical map, 14 scenarios, 1 campaign game, 34 pages of rules, 4 die-cut countersheets with 96 5/8" counters and 140 1/2" counters each (for a total of 560 counters).
Prokhorovka!, though it may sound a tabby coughing up a hairball, is actually a large Kursk-themed historical module published by Advancing Fire, the one-man Italian ASL third party publisher which debuted its first products in 2019. Coming only two years after Brevity Assault and Biazza Ridge, this ambitious product takes on one of the largest–and most infamous–armored clashes that occurred during the battle of Kursk. Prokhorovka! comes in a flimsy box that is heavy with contents.
Advancing Fire’s first two products, released at the same time, were interesting and ambitious (one even debuting an “operational” metagame), but suffered from a number of problems with its components, including too-thin maps, too-thin scenario cards, too-thin rules, counters printed “backwards,” and (some) maps with dark terrain. The products were also playtested by a very small number of people. Prokhorovka! improves in some of these areas but unfortunately still contains many of the problems that the first products had.
The area of greatest improvement is in the countersheets, which this time are printed right-side up and are thus compatible with regular ASL counters. The die-cutting seems decent and the graphics are good. The major problem with the counters is that the Vehicle/Gun IDs are way too small; your humble author cannot read them with or without his glasses. A magnifying glass would be needed. This might not be relevant for many products, but it is relevant here, because some of the scenarios are huge, involving a large number of vehicles. One needs to be able to see Vehicle IDs without a lot of trouble. The vehicle/gun names could also be bigger, but it’s the IDs that are the real problem.
The first countersheet is all Soviet, featuring standard Soviet infantry squads (though no half-squads), plus some “Assault Engineer” squads. A few dozen SW are also included, as well as some leaders. The rest of the countersheet has nearly 100 T-36s, which gives you an idea of the size of some of the actions here. The second countersheet provides 64 more Soviet AFVs, some Assault Engineer half-squads, some more Soviet SW, some German vehicles and guns, 58 acquisitions markers, some “Burnt Out Woods” markers, and some replacement counters for Brevity Assault and Biazza Ridge. The third countersheet features German vehicles, guns, squads, crews, leaders, and SW, plus a miscellany of other counters. The final countersheet mostly duplicates the third sheet but features the German counters in black for people who fetishize black SS counters. Unfortunately, there is also an “air leader” counter for the self-promoting unrepentant Nazi pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel.
Overall, the counters are much improved over the counters from Advancing Fire’s first products. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rules pages and scenario cards. Though the rules are attractively laid out, and are printed in color (and the quality of the English seems pretty good as well), they are printed on loose sheets of super-thin glossy paper with no holes (although the thin paper would easily rip if there were holes to use with a three-ring binder). They are very fragile and have to be handled with kid gloves. The best thing to do is to scan these rules or make color copies of them as soon as possible. The scenario cards are also printed in color on glossy paper that is only very slightly thicker than the rules. They are not printed on cardstock and are not sturdy. Again, players are advised not to use these but to make scans or copies of them. It is disappointing that Advancing Fire did not use better quality materials for the rules and scenarios.
Advancing Fire’s Brevity Assault and Biazza Ridge contained numerous historical maps that also suffered from being printed on too-thin paper. The maps of Prokhorovka! are happily printed on a thicker stock of matte paper and are thus much more sturdy and usable, which is a significant relief, especially as the module contains a lot of maps: 8 maps, five of which join together to form a truly massive 37.4″ x 114″ battlefield. That’s a map nearly 10 feet long. The other three maps are all used independently of the big battlefield and each other; they represent other, nearby areas. This illustration, from the rules, show their relationship to each other:
The maps all use non-standard terrain depictions and coloring. While Desperation Morale is not opposed, per se, to alternative ASL artwork styles, it’s important that any such styles be functional and easy to use and play on. The maps do not use standard ASL colors for the different elevations, but rather start with a very light lime-ish green for level 0 that progresses through increasingly darker shades of yellow and brown up to a very dark brown level 6. This means that the huge 5-map battlefield is almost entirely a vast brown (usually dark brown) mass, with levels blending into each other. Moreover, all the hex numbers, even on the darkest levels, are printed in black rather than white. This makes for a rather murky battlefield. Playing in a very well-lit room would seem to be an absolute must. The color choices are also odd, in that the maps convey the impression that the combatants were fighting somewhere in a dusty desert rather than in the green farmlands of southern Russia in July. Players will also have to get used to different artwork for brush, woods, grain, and other types of terrain. Players may be confused by what appear to be wood and stone buildings occupying the same hex, but per the module’s terrain rules, all the buildings on the maps are wooden buildings, regardless of depiction. Building and woods hexes also have deep drop shadows, which will make tracing LOS frustrating at times. LOS is an issue all in itself in this game, as elevation levels are treated like Hillocks for LOS in some respects, plus there are other LOS rules differences, and Slopes thrown in as well. Trying to parse the examples gave your Humble Author a headache; hopefully, players will be able to do better.
It’s nice that the physical quality of the maps is better than in previous releases, but the graphic choices are not that practical (and the huge brown expanses are not very attractive).
Prokhorovka! ostensibly has a campaign game, but it’s not a campaign game in the sense that most ASlers would think of one. Rather it is a two-part monster scenario, which each part being from 17-20 turns long, with a refit phase between the two halves. There are no unit purchases. This endeavor uses the full five-map Prokhorovka! battlefield. It may have intended to recreate the entire attack of the 5th Guards Tank Army. The Soviets, for example, have around 195 AFVs. Yes, you read that right. How practical something like that may be is another story entirely; the ASL acquisition counter system (even if added to) simply cannot cope with that many AFVs firing on each other. Advancing Fire needed to include an entire sheet of specialized acquisition counters tied to each vehicle.
The module comes with 14 scenarios, but most of them are large or huge as well. Pretty much every scenario uses 2-3 sheets of paper. Most of the scenarios take place on one or more of the 5-map set, with a few scenarios taking place on the three other historical maps.
The first scenario, PRK1 (10 July), gives a sense of what a Prokhorovka! scenario is like. It uses most of Map 4 (of the 5-map set) and is 13.5 turns long. The attacking Germans have 46 squads and 42 AFVs. The defending Soviets have 44 squads, 14 guns, and 32 AFVs. Together, both sides have seven modules of OBA. Many of the scenarios are 10-20 turns long and feature dozens of AFVs, plus crazy amounts of OBA. Two of the only manageable-sized scenarios are Night actions.
Two of the scenarios are supposed to be ASLSK-compatible. Desperation Morale would love to hear from any players who’ve played either/both of them with the ASLSK rules.
The huge size of so many of the actions here really raises questions about playtesting and development. This product came out in early 2022, only two years after Advancing Fire’s first two products. The Prokhorovka! credits list only 8 playtesters (including the designers). It’s just hard to imagine how such few players would really have had the time to playtest such a large number of scenarios, so many of which are so long and have so many vehicles, in such a small amount of time (even if one ignores Advancing Fire’s previous products and assumes work was done on them before 2000). It’s hard to see how the math works out. Now, to a certain extent this may not matter with these scenarios compared to some other products, in that players who play an ASL action with more than 200 vehicles are probably playing more for the experience than for who wins or loses. But playtesting is about more than balance, of course.
While it would be nice to be proven wrong, this may be one of those ASL products that spends more time on the shelf than on the gaming table.
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