Chain of Command Eastern Front Campagin - Week 7

This week saw the Axis forces on the attack again having pushed-aside the Russian delaying action last week. For this scenario we revert to Capture an objective, which in this case was a small farm deep within the Russian defensive position.

The terrain was very dense with lots of small hills simulating rolling steppes with lots of hollows to hide in. The Axis troops had a central hill but a limited field of fire.

The Axis positions

The Russian commanders are poised to act

The game began in fairly cagey fashion as befitted the dense terrain - the Axis occupied the obvious cover near  their deployment area and the Russians brought on some infantry and the KV-1 to cover the objective. At this point the Russians spotted that they had forgotten to deploy a Jump-Off point on the objective, meaning that they would always have to move units to defend it.

KV-1 and foot-sloggers move to cover the farm 

Germans occupy a flanking position

More Russians, this time sheltering in a holl0w



The Finns make an appearance capturing a wood near their base-line

The first decisive intervention was the Germans deploying their armour, which moved up the hill and into position  to engage the KV. This was closely followed by an attempted Finnish flanking move under cover of the armour.

German armour

Finns hiding behind a hill

After a few rounds of fire the Germans managed to disable the KV without losing either of their precious tanks. The Russians countered the Finnish thrust by deploying further infantry and Maxims to cover the attack. This was enough to persuade the Finns to relocate to the centre, perhaps in the hopes of following the tanks into the Russians position.

 

Finns shift the axis of advance

More Germans appear to provide covering fire

Is that Bob Cratchit scratching away in the background? 

Secure, having safely dispatched the KV, the Axis forces then began a general advance, conscious that they had a limited time to capture the farm house.

Germans making their move

Finns supporting the Stug

With the Germans on the advance the Russians unleased their newly found secret weapon - the dreaded ambushing flamethrower. This is something which seems to attract a lot of attention on the CoC forums as its seen as too powerful a weapon. Given the Russians recent bad run they needed a boost, and it certainly turned-out that way. First it torched and Panzer IV and then it toasted an infantry squad.

Burn baby burn

Toasty

This was enough to cause a pause in the Axis advance while they regrouped. This delay was enough to deny them the  chance of victory and with the light fading fast the Russians had held the line long enough to claim a victory. So a rare Russian win that would allow them to launch a counter-attack next week.