For our final game of WWII before beginning our ECW campaign we decide to use one of the very few scenarios I've not played from Charles Grants "
scenarios for wargamers". In this battle the Germans were attempting to capture and destroy a radio transmitter, guarded by 2 platoons of Russians
Scenario details
The following apply to the attacker
- There are 4 Jump off points (numbered 1-4).
- Teams are assigned a turn to arrive, max 4 per turn
- Dice for each team: 1-4 they arrive at that JOP and 5,6 they are delayed until a future wave
- Troops may not be attacked the turn they land
The following apply to the defender
- All teams are on overwatch until they fire or are attacked
The Battle
The Russians deployed with a platoon in the village, 2 sections plus 2 maxims guarding the radio transmitter and a section plus 2 light mortars in a near by pumping station.
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| The transmitter sitting on a hill with a JOP in the foreground |
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| View of the hill from the village |
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| The defenders dug-in around the transmitter |
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| The village on high alert |
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| The pumping station |
As dawn broke over the Russian positions a low drone overhead heralded the arrival of the German para's first waves of troops drifting silently from a cloudless sky. Most of the Germans ended-up landing to the north east or north west of the radio station. The former coming-down close to the village and the Russians defending there.
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| Germans creep into the stream bed |
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| Germans to the south - soon they would be under heavy mortar fire |
The Germans moved swiftly into a convenient stream bed and began a gloaters-style action as they poured fire into both the radio transmitter and the village.
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| German main position in the stream bed |
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| The defenders are thinned put by German MG fire |
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| Germans ready to move off |
This had the desired effect of weakening the transmitters defenders and pinning the bulk of the Russians in the village. This allowed the Germans to manoeuvre troops into the woods near the transmitter and launch a series of assaults into the defenders. The Germans landing to the south through fared badly as they were decimated by accurate mortar fire from the pumping station.
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| The first assault goes in |
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| Follow-up attacks rout the defenders |
With the position desperate, the Russians in the village staged an attack of their own, but it was too late to prevent the destruction of the transmitter.
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| A morale boosting Russian assault |
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| The transmitter falls |
The Verdict
These types of games are tough to balance and its easy to write something where the attackers have no realistic chance to win. So I perhaps over compensated here by making the Russians RAW troops. This meant they were easy prey to the Germans fire even when dug-in. So that would be something to fix in a future scenario.
Also we found the Germans were not terribly inconvenienced by the jump itself so perhaps a higher chance of troops being late or landing off-table next time?
I think the German Paratroops tended to jump with weapons heavier than pistols & SMGs in separate canisters, perhaps they should operate at reduced firepower until they retrieve the heavier weapons. Would give you a chance to model some nice canister and parachute tokens.
ReplyDeleteIf look carefully you will see that the JOPs for this game were those very canisters ;-)
ReplyDeleteMust look more carefully next time, well done Stu.
DeleteWell Ian is right as the canisters were there at the dropping point. athe weakness of the scenario was that the Germans were nit discommded by any of the landing points, in fact it helped them to be dispersed. All he landig points were in range of the objective and because the Germans were landed at points around the target tgeir MG 42s could and did interdict any moves by the Russians to support the men at the radio station. As Stuart says it is diffcult to write senarios that are balanced to both sides. Had the Germans landed, say all to the pumping station side then the men in the village could have perhaps reached the radio station to relieve it. Perhaps the Russians could have been given a mobile force to attempt relief which could have arrived at a random timing after the German frst firing....with a light tank perhaps?
DeleteI think that some games don't really work when playing as two vs each other, sometimes they work better when run by a GM. That does mean however that one person can end up sacrificing some of the fun of playing.
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