Victory is near, WWII camapign - week 3, battle 1

As we enter the third turn of the campaign both sides are on the attack. The Germans are still trying to cross the river in square 9 and the Russians are assaulting fortified positions in square 1.

The first game was the Germans renewing their attack on the river crossing. For this game we increased the pregame bombardment to 6 rounds of fire from 3. The Germans went with a single Tiger as their reinforcements. The table was as before - heavily wooded with three crossings, but the river assumed to be mostly dried-up.

Overview of the board from the Russian left 

As with previous games the Germans spread their forces across the table, with infantry on both flanks in the woods and more infantry plus the Tiger in the centre. The pregame bombardment proved wholly ineffective, either hitting the wrong place or missing the target by too wide a margin.



The central attack forms up

Russians advance to hold the river

Germans sneaking around the left flank

The German right - largely static

Some German sniping

After some initial caution the Germans eventually deployed their ace card - the Tiger - right in the centre of the table ready to lead the advance. It headed straight for the main bridge across the river in the centre of the Russian position.    

The Tiger advances

Tiger's eye view of what awaits

This was a bold move as the Russians had laid a trap with both their AT guns concealed in woods and trained on the bridge.

The trap is laid

Bold is not always wise though and as the Tiger trundled over the bridge and into the heart of the Russian position some exceptional dice were thrown. Three 10s in a row from the Russians left the Tiger brewed-up in the middle of the road.

 

Boom!!

With their main attacking weapon destroyed the Germans then relapsed into a long period of exchanging fire with the Russians deployed opposite them. This actually proved surprisingly effective with the Soviets slowly worn-down and the German left flank largely cleared of Russian infantry.

Germans in the centre form a base of fire

Russian right exchanges fire

Russian left

Germans clear their left flank

As the light faded the Germans advanced across the rover forcing the Russians to redeploy their last reserves to block the attack on the German left that penetrated deep into the Russian position. This was sufficient to stall the attack but the Russians were thinly spread and with more time the victory could have been the Germans. In the end a 6 - 2 win on points to Russia.

Scramble to the flank

Germans stall on the river assault

Russian centre stands firm

This was certainly the best of the German attacks to date and should have been a win for them but for two factors. Firstly their infantry attack could have been made earlier and in greater strength thus allowing time for this to effect the outcome of the game. Secondly the Tiger charge was fairly suicidal and so took this powerful asset out of the game far too early.



Tiger Tiger burning bright...

 A rule change we discussed was to allow some coordination between fire teams all shooting at the same target so there is a cumulative effect. The following rule is proposed

Optional: Instead of firing individually, up to 2 fire teams may provide supporting fire to another. The supported team receives +1 for each supporting team, maximum +2.

So in the case of a standard team supporting another (e.g. deploying a whole squad) you get the same score as you would for a large fire team, as now. You may still choose though to fire as two teams in the hopes of doing greater damage.