Historical Background:
19-feb-1943: At the start of 1943, the German Wehrmacht faced a crisis. A Soviet attack crossing the Donets River liberated the cities of Kursk, Belgorod and Kharkov. It threatened to cut off the entire German Army Group South. Erich von Manstein was put in command of Army Group South to organise a counter offensive to allow the remaining troops around Stalingrad to retreat. Von Manstein’s plan was to conquer the area around Kharkov and Belgorod in a combined attack by several Panzer forces moving through the area from south to north and the Leibstandarte infantry division moving from west to east. This manoeuvre would switch the positions on the front of infantry and armoured divisions without pulling forces from the front, bringing armoured divisions in position for Operation Citadel. This plan was called “Von Manstein’s Castling”.

The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. Can you change history?

Briefing:
Axis player: take 5 cards. You play first.
Allied player: take 5 cards

Conditions of Victory:
6 medals
The town of Krasnograd is a temporary objective medal for the allied forces.
The two field bunkers are each a temporary objective medal for the axis forces.
Each axis armored unit that exits the board through the exit marker, counts as a permanent medal objective for the axis player.

Special Rules:
Standard Units (Troops 1), Specialized Units (Troops 2),
Forests (Terrain 3), Hills (Terrain 6), Rivers (Terrain 8), Bridges (Terrain 9), Sandbags (Terrain 10), Town and Villages (Terrain 14), Wire (Terrain 15), Field Bunkers (Terrain 22), Marshes (Terrain 28)
Exit Markers (Actions 23)

Special weapons assets (late war) (SWAs 4)
The units with a engineer badge follow the SWA rules. In addition they
- may ignore one flag and are attacked by armor and infantry with one less die when they benefit of no other terrain protection.
- if they did not move, they hit on a star rolled against armor units

Neither side has air superiority: both players roll one die on air power

Scenario Bibliography:
Wikipedia: the third battle of Kharkov, some maps on the internet

Warning:
Please note that this scenario was not approved by Richard Borg or Days of Wonder, so you have to check yourself about playability, potential gaming issues, etc.