Operation Map and Campaigns Description

A short description of operational area of the game and Russian and German campaigns.

Campaigns in ToW2: Kursk 1943

Both Russian and German campaigns in Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 last five days during the initial, defensive stage of the Kursk battle at the south face of the Kursk salient. Grossdeutschland division with assigned forces had tried to break through the units of the Soviet 67th Guards Rifle Division and 3rd Mechanized Corps in this area[goo.gl]. You can see the path of German units which moved from south to north, changing the direction of attack and trying to find a weaker spot in Soviet defense, just by looking at the locations of maps available in the game (white squares are borders of game maps, dotted lines are borders of far, unreachable zones around them):



After costly breakthrough through the first line of Soviet positions near Cherkasskoe, Germans pushed to the north-east along the main road, but after breaking through another defense line at July 8 near Dubrova they had shifted direction of the attack to the north along the bank of Pena river, eventually crossing it. Each passing day they’ve tried to break through in the direction of Oboyan and finally Kursk, until it became clear that the path to the north is blocked by superior
Russian forces and they faced the counterblow of fresh 10th Mech Corps near Kalinovka at July 10 and were forced to cease the offensive operations. In the end, German tactical successes couldn’t cover the offensive's illusive strategic objectives. Two dozen kilometers they had advanced had no meaning after cessation of the offensive first on the north and then on the south face of Kursk salient.

Completing the campaign will require you to either fight your way through the most of these maps (German campaign) or defend and counterattack at every possibility (Russian campaign). Two maps (Syrtsev and Dubrova, Southern outskirts of Verkhopenye) you may have already seen in demo.

Maps in the game were created using authentic archive maps used by Soviet HQs when available (names of some villages, their borders, roads and sometimes even landscape features have changed during the course of years passed). For example, here is the part of one of the charts encompassing three first game maps (the third one, Alekseyevka area, is not included into the campaign, but you may create your scenarios using it in in-game Mission Generator or editors).



Forces given to player at the start of the campaign are all what he has for the rest of the game in case of German campaign (Soviet player gets more or less steady reinforcements in addition to starting units), so losing many forces in one mission may have a serious impact on later ones. Some units, like Tiger tanks, are nearly unique.

During the campaign, your success in each mission is evaluated by the number of Victory Points you have in the end of the scenario if you’re successful. These Victory Points are awarded for destruction of enemy armament and personnel as well as completion of scenario objectives, but usually you can spend them to call for artillery or air strike or reinforcements you’ve selected before the battle.

Unlike ToW2: Africa 1943, in Kursk after the battle you can award and promote your men yourself (and increase their skills and assign to new tasks if needed, of course).

[BeZboZhnik☭]

Great work! Thanks!

[Hans Roths]

I'm back to this after quite a few years on other programs.. I am so glad I have made this return...This Kursk 1943 is really very-very good..Now I have the latest drivers, video card etc, I can have everything at "max" settings and enjoy a totally outstanding program..I have the complete TOW set, and this one is the best..I have made quite a few of my own missions, and find it really quite "real" and very annoying to stop, and go to bed......bummer..sadly a VERY under rated program..."Thank You", whoever brought this to life...

[Lt.General R Baldwin]

any more things like this any of the TOW out there

[Gunnyhighway]

Great game and great explanation of the maps

[71st_Mastiff]

love then stuff in it, as now compared to the first one, there was no pilots, now the planes are not empty any more.

[Macroeconomics]

Nice, have nearly same Tactic

[Tartessos]

Awesome !

[MarkoJager]

Excellent, I'll begin this one after I finiish Africa. More now that I know that it has a more structural history.