Kursk – Battle at Prochorovka : accès anticipé / petit prix = grand jeu ?

Telle est la question, caricaturale, il faut le reconnaître, que l’on pourrait se poser en découvrant le nouveau titre d’une série intitulée Battle Series East Front et dont le développeur indépendant Yobowargames est aussi le distributeur. Kursk – Battle for Prochorovka se présente en Early access sur Steam depuis le 09 mars dernier et devrait paraître en version finale autour du mois de juin prochain.

Déjà parfaitement jouable en mode chaises tournantes (hotseat), apparemment très stable et complet selon les quelques commentaires disponibles, le titre, dont la patte graphique retient immédiatement l’attention est cependant encore dépourvu d’IA mais cela ne devrait plus trop durer. Tel qu’il est présenté par son développeur, Lance Craner, Kursk – Battle for Prochorovka reprend les bonnes recettes éprouvées et appréciés des jeux de plateaux d’Avalon Hill, y compris des marqueurs rappelant fortement ceux d’ASL, ainsi qu’une superbe carte aux effets peinture manuelle d’un très agréable cachet. Ces graphismes particuliers peuvent être admirés sur la page du blog développeur et vous pourrez également avoir un bref aperçu du jeu dans son ensemble au travers de ces vidéo officielles.

Communiqué

A New addition to the Eastern Front Battle series – Kursk – Battle for Prochorovka
Following on from the successful launch of « Operation Typhoon – The Battle for Moscow » come « Kursk – Battle for Prochorovka »

A fan of the old Avalon Hill/SPI WW2 strategy war games? Like to think about your next move rather than having quick reaction times? Battle Series Eastern Front – Kursk – Battle at Prochorovka is the game for you.

Battle Series Eastern Front – Kursk – Battle at Prochorovka, covers one of largest single tank battle in the history of warfare. Approximately 1000 tanks and assault guns met head to head near the town of Prochorovka, in a battle that became a desperate close range shoot-out which would decide the ultimate success or failure of Operation Zitadelle.

The 2nd SS Panzer Korps began it’s attack on July 3rd, and spent the next 8 days breaking through the dense Russian defensive positions. During the late afternoon and evening of the 11th, they broke through and repulsed a counterattack by the Russian 31st Tank Corps. Reorganizing during the night, the panzers struck northward before dawn on the 12th. As dawn broke, the lead German elements ran head-on into the lead elements of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army and the battle was on. It was to last all day, in confused and savage fighting at close ranges.

This game recreates that day with the player being able to play both as the Russians and Germans or against the AI.

Key Features:

• Turn Based with each turn having a Move and Attack phase
• Units are at battalion level and represent the units present on the day of the battle
• Units have an Attack, Defense and Movement Allowance
• Artillery units also have a Range allowance
• Map represents the key features at the time with the embanked railway line and river causing the fighting to be fought almost as three separate battles
• I wanted to create a game that takes me back to my youthful days of playing hex based board games. Where I could happily spend hours planning out the next move.

Many computer games today only allow you to play against the AI, take a long time to play to conclusion and have seemingly a high learning curve. These games will be designed to hide much of the rule based complexity but still allow you to enjoy the strategy part of the game. They will also allow you to play both sides at the same time.