February 18, 2025

Armchair Dragoons Reviews Smolensk ’43 from WDS

Peter Robbins, 21 October 2024

The latest release in the Panzer Campaigns series from Wargame Design Studio, Smolensk ’43 takes players to the heart of the Eastern Front of WW2 for an expansive game with a massive array of scenarios, terrain, and game options.

Overview

  • Designer: Daniel Asensio (see: notes.pdf in /manuals for full software credits)
  • Publisher: Wargame Design Studio
  • Topic & Game Scale: Front Scale, Multiple Army, World War 2, Eastern Front
  • Unit Scale: Battalion by default. Lower by splitting or scenario design.
  • Turn Durations: Default is 2 Hour Daytime, 4 Hour Nighttime turns.
  • Typical Scenario Turns: Some are under 30 turns which is much more approachable for a WDS novice; while, several are over 140, which is massive, but may be more to the tastes of any long time WDS grognard.The Gettings Started scenario is 6 turns.

 

Reading Materials

Yes, we give out homework at Armchair Dragoons! One thing that WDS is great at is giving the public transparent access to all of the manuals for a given wargame. And Smolensk ‘43 is no exception to that rule.

  • Start Here
  • Go way to the bottom right, and click on the Updates & Downloadable Files header section.
  • Then click on each of the links to gather up the documents.

click images to enlarge

 

The quickest way to get up to speed on what is included and involved with Smolensk ‘43 is to read its Getting Started, Changelog, and Design Notes. I would recommend you read those three files first, and then move on to the User Manual, which describes everything and the kitchen sink that is the WDS Panzer Campaigns series set of features. It is completely worthwhile to take the time to read them all.

RTFM? Never?! They are quick reads, and very well written throughout. I used to be one to think, well, if the game is intuitive enough I shouldn’t need to read the manual. Well, sure, but there are a bunch of good tidbits in the manual that are based on the interpretation of the parameter data, so it’s worth diving in for. Another golden nugget is the buried manual under Help / General Help, which is basically almost a “cheat sheet” as in a board game. Really gets quickly to the nitty gritty of the modifiers involved. Also of worth is understanding the Parameter Data help doc.

Sample From General Help

 

Sample From Parameter Data

 

Sample Order Of Battle Edit

 

Full Change Log (Worth Reviewing)

Varied Menu Screens

Ok, before I dive fully into the game; this may seem trivial, but I do appreciate the dynamically changing menu images. It’s a small upgrade to the engine, but it’s just nice to see. It makes the game feel a little fresh as you restart it from time to time.

 

What’s In The Box?!

Brad Pitt Eat Your Heart Out

From the game’s description on the WDS Site:

Smolensk ’43 includes 74 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI.

The master map (101,492 hexes1 ) covers the entire area from the Drut River in the west to Smolensk, Yelnya, Vyazma and Kirov in the east. The Smolensk ’43 map is 26,000 hexes larger than the original Smolensk ’41 map.

The order of battle file covers the Axis and Allied forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.

Order-of-Battle, Parameter Data and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.

Sub-map feature allows the main map to be subdivided into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.

Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes and sources the design team used to produce this simulation game.

Smolensk ’43 provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by Email (PBEM), LAN & Internet “live” play as well as two player hot seat.

The master map included in Smolensk ‘43 is tremendous. I thought it was particularly nice that the developers included it as a large planning map for your personal use. That is a nice touch.

You get a scenario editor, an order of battle editor, a sub-map editor (make smaller areas from the master map shown above), parameter editor (tailor make the wargame rules as you want them to behave, very powerful amount of parameters to edit). I mean, come on, this is a huge amount of content for a wargame box. Yes, tried and true system, rinsed any repeated for decades now; but you get so much included with Smolensk ‘43 that has been provided here for historical operations.

The provided editors expand you into many many many more What-Ifs as long as it occurs within the confines of this tremendous master map area. And see the Changelog images further above. WDS don’t just repeat their wargames, they constantly improve them in major strides; and best yet, they normally are able to map those upgrades to their most popular titles in a given series within a year’s time. I don’t see many wargaming production companies that do this with consistency, but WDS does.They understand their user base, and they treat it very well. That makes me a repeat customer. While (as in this case) I’ve been provided a handful of press review copies of their wargames, I am also a paying customer; and will continue to be so for decades to come. WDS gives you a lot in Smolensk ‘43 and they don’t charge much for the privilege of owning it. Better yet, at least one time a year, most of their titles go on a 25% sale. Their newest titles from that same year are not included, but almost all of their series lines otherwise go on sale. This is an outstanding wargaming company.

The return on investment is high on this wargame, as in each entry in the Panzer Campaigns series. This wargame gives War In the East a run for its money, with maybe a quarter of the micromanagement, in a quarter of the turn execution time.

For me, that is Smolensk ‘43′s main selling point, and for that matter just about any WDS wargame, it’s detailed but approachable. I’m a broken record saying that in almost every review I do; but any wargame that I can utter those words for, is gold for me. It’s the nirvana of wargames. You get a lot of control if you need or want it, but it otherwise executes pretty simply. Click, stack, move, get some support, assault, clear a few mines, etc. It’s all relatively intuitive, but there is an extremely thoughtful underbelly to all WDS titles, and Smolensk ‘43 is no exception.

To do well you need to understand the Parameter Data and the General Help cheat sheet logic well, and be able to get ahead of the AI’s OODA Loop as a result. Avoiding your own units getting spotted, and readily spotting the enemy’s is one of the key factors on large front-scale wargaming of this type. As the User Manual points out “Maintaining concealment while revealing the enemy units can be the difference between victory and defeat.” If you can hide the slew of unit counters you have just bristling with anticipated assault from the enemy’s eyes, and bring to bear that combat power in a main effort swiftly; with reserve and plenty of support in tow; you will “likely” succeed. Nothing is guaranteed in virtual warfare.

A moment to talk about the sound effects in Smolensk ‘43: Get a good headset on when you play this game. The audio effects throughout, are outstanding. I don’t know who they got to be the sound engineer for this one, but it’s really noticeably well done. The stereo effects of attack audio are some of the best I’ve ever heard.

 

Game Mechanics

The basic mechanic of Smolensk ‘43 is to click on a hex to show what is stacked there. Then you either double-click it to auto select everything in the hex, or you click on the individual unit graphics in the top left of the user interface to individually highlight them. Their background coloring will brighten to show that the unit has been selected. Hence, you have the opportunity to select one or more of the possibly many in the stack. This is useful for moving one or more infantry while keeping for example horse drawn artillery units from having to switch to Travel Mode to move, etc. 

Those are the basics. You then just left-click an adjacent hex where you want them to head to and you keep doing that to move them along an intended path. There alternatively are several auto-movement or semi-auto-move combinations described in the manual.

You can switch between Move and Fire modes. This makes your clicks either indicate a move or assault, vs a fire mission. If you are in Fire mode and right-click on a target you then are able to fire (if allowed) on enemy units by switching to targeting mode, and clicking on a target hex (you can only target what enemy units are currently detected / in line-of-sight.

 

Deferred AI Movement

Deferred AI movement is a rather neat function of the Panzer Campaigns series of wargames. You first make sure to have the Highlight Org button pressed. Then you double-click on a stack, and then all of the units that are a part of that org will be highlighted You then initiate a Deferred AI Move by using ALT+Left-Click on the intended destination hex. Then, as the End Turn button is used, the AI will basically auto-move that org as logically as possible towards that destination. It’s kind of a poor man’s OPORD, at a holistic level at least.
I kind of wish you could also set SOP or ROE and other attributes for that Deferred move, but alas. I think this is a great movement in the direction of supporting OPORD approach wargaming at a front/army level, which is exciting for me as I hate micromanaging if there is just a basic intent involved for ordering the regiment or brigade at hand.

Once you are satisfied with plotting out your AI intentions, then you use the AI menu to initiative the AI moves.

This is somewhat similar to how assaults are handled. For Assaults, you add however many attackers to the target hex by moving the unit pieces into it, then if there is any reason you can not take part in the assault, the game will warn you. Once you’ve reached a limit of forces involved. In the Panzer Campaigns series, there is no separate Melee Phase like there is in the Civil War or Napoleonic wargames by WDS.

The best way to describe playing Smolensk ‘43 and other Panzer Campaigns titles by WDS is: It’s like playing a full-scale front-level board game, but not having to remember how to roll with modifiers based upon the rules. If you enjoy stacks of counters along long lines of fronts/armies, but in this case actually have a full on Fog Of War, this is your game. Now, with this said, you’ll want to dig into the General Help cheat sheet doc, which gives you a great amount of the logic/rules to play by. This will help you be successful. But just playing it from intuition alone is do-able. You just won’t do well.

 

What Does It Do Well?

Smolensk ‘43‘s newer static Jump Map and Org Display are really nice improvements on a tried and true computer based board war game. The entire WDS line emulates board wargaming to a T, and makes it so much more approachable as a hobby. I, for one, am not very fond of larger strategic or front-level WW2 board games. They are just not my cup of tea. There is just too much micromanagement without a lot of maneuvering or fog of war involved. You see a huge line of enemy, you see your huge line of friendlies, and you just attempt a main effort here or there, and pray in some cases (at least for me) that your assaults will be a success.

Smolensk ‘43 answers all of the problems for a person like me that has not been keen on large stacks of counters, tweezers, and a magnifying glass in hand hobby play. Smolensk ‘43 takes care of all the heavy lifting, and then I have spare time to read and reread all of the feature descriptions in the rules I’m allowed to not worry incessantly as a board game GM and just let myself have a good time trying (key word) to beat the AI enemy.

The AI is very good in this game. It beats me more often than not. That, of course, is not saying much as again, strategic level wargaming is not my first choice in wargaming. I’m more of a ~battalion vs ~battalion-scale wargame lover.  I personally enjoy when there is more maneuvering involved, like in Armored Brigade 1 and soon-to-be 22. Smolensk ‘43 has enabled me to enjoy front-level wargaming, and it has!  Then I consider this, and all of the Panzer Campaigns series (and their Modern Series, which I do own one of with my own moola), a resounding success. I think you will greatly enjoy this wargame, no matter the scale you tend to play in face to face boardgaming.

 

What Could Be Improved?

I think it’s a good sign that I have trouble finding anything that it does poorly? I don’t say that lightly. I think the only thing I could possibly wish list is perhaps a setting to allow me to see its computations in action? Something that kind of gives me an idea of what factors its using in a firing mission or an assault would be wonderful. Maybe you would want to re-enforce NOT using that in a PBEM or online match, but for learning sake, I’d really love to see under the hood, kind of like in the Field Of Glory II PC game, or in Lock N’ Load Tactical, which are basically board game emulators all said and done, they kind of let you peek behind curtain a little closer.

The only other thought I have is including more intuitive controls for this and that via right clicking on the unit counters, but then again, with so much stacking potentially involved, I think that is not the best way to show things or interact with them. WDS have really taken this engine very far; and I think the changelog proves it still has a good amount of ways it could go. They also do improve the graphics here and there with each new title; and best yet, they try to map all of that feature goodness into the whole series as they can roadmap it back into them. Bonus.

 

Replay Value

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I could play this for a year and still have additional replay value. This is a wargame I will keep coming back to over and over again. Yes, occasionally, I’d slip over to Armored Brigade by Veitekka Studios, but when I’m not playing that one, I’ll be playing Smolensk ‘43 by WDS.

WDS is an outstanding publishing and development studio. I think the combination helps. They care, and it shows in the product. You can tell that everyone that helps make their wargames is a tried-and-true wargamer. They are making products that they want to play with. That is key in wargaming development. But they are making them dynamic and easily configurable. You basically at this point have so much control with the settings/options/parameter data, as well as all of the scenario, map and orbat editors, that if you want to, you could literally re-write an Eastern Front history with this wargame and fight it out for months on end. That is cool.

 

Multiplayer Options

There are both PBEM and direct play options. I’ve played PBEM with their Napoleonic Series, but I’ve yet to have a chance to play with their Panzer Campaign series. This wargame, Smolensk ‘43, makes me want to get back to the WDS multiplayer forums and Facebook page and find a willing opponent. I think a 40 turn or less scenario would be best for PBEM sake.

 

Impressions & Conclusions

Solid, Solid, Solid. Great jump map and org charting improvements. Sounds are amazing. A lot of WDS titles of late have had very much improved sounds, I don’t know if the existing sound engineers are just getting better 😀 or they’ve hired additional folks, but it’s outstanding. The stereo effects throughout just make you feel like you are there on the front lines with your troops. Bravo WDS – Smolensk ’43 is another solid addition to the Panzer Campaigns series of wargames. You have another hit on your hands here.

 

Scenario Screenshot Galleries & Slideshows

The Painful Road to Dorogobuzh

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The 49th Army Joins the Offensive

 

 

The Liberation of the City of Smolensk

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2nd Yartsevo, The Operations of the 31st Army Against Yartsevo

 

Other screenshots of the game

 

 


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Footnotes

  1. author’s emphasis
  2. Insert Gratuitous Plug For Vietekka Studios

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