Victory is Near, WWII Campaign - Week 4 battle 2

The second battle of this turn saw us returning again to the Russian-held river crossing that marked the German start-line for the campaign. As this as the German's third attack on this table they received a heavy artillery bombardment and +2 point of reinforcements.

Regular readers will be familiar with this table by now - the shallow stream has two bridges and a ford, with scattered woodland and fields covering most of the ground.

Table from the Russian left

Table from the Russian right

Expecting the Germans to have amour the Russians went for 2 * medium AT guns as their reinforcements. The Germans opted for a mortar, a StuG III and an infantry squad. The Germans picked the StuG as they are beginning to suspect the Panzer IV could be cursed as it seems to rapidly in every battle!

The Russians plan was largely to react to the Germans deployment and try to ensure their precious AT guns could fire at the StuG as they had no other AT capabilities. The Germans for their part spread across the table with the StuG in the centre and infantry overloaded on their left flank opposite the foot bridge.  

Germans deploy on their right

Germans sneak forward in the centre

German infantry on the left flank 

And finally the STuG 

Sensing an infantry assault on the German left the Russians responded by placing additional and both their Maxim's to face this threat. The preprogrammed artillery bombardment rained-down on the Russian's front line but on this occasion fell mostly wide of the mark and caused little damage.
  

Russian hordes on the right

The all important AT guns - centre piece of the defense 

Russians near the central bridge

The Russians on the left

Seeking to shift the axis of attack the StuG moved from the centre to support the assault on the German left. As it pushed across the table it came under flanking fire from the Russian AT guns deployed near the road bridge. The German's run of bad-luck with their amour continued as the second shot penetrated the side of the StuG and brewed it up.

Germans press forward as the STuG repositions

Boom!

With this set-back the Germans paused for a re-plan and began to lay down fire on the Russians whilst seeking positions from which they could later launch assaults.

Germans base of fire in the centre

The ford still under Soviet control

The STuG well ablaze

The superior German firepower began to chip-away a the Russians but it was a slow business and the time was ticking-away towards darkness, which would leave the Soviets in possession of the victory markers.

Russians on the right

Germans mass for the attack against the Soviet-held hill

Sensing their moment may be slipping away the Germans launched a series of attacks across the line against the weakened Russian forces. Assaults on both flanks were repulsed due to some poor German rolling. The attack in the centre was pinned-down as it tried to capture the hill dominating the centre of the Russian position by flanking fire from Maxims and AT guns.

Desperate struggle on the German left 

The attack stalls under flanking fire

The main attack grinds to a halt

  
So a third defensive victory for the Russians at the river crossing but a tense game. Its certainly true that the Germans were unlucky on the melee dice but perhaps they were a little slow in getting their assault underway which meant they did not have time to develop their attack fully. Loss of the StuG and accurate Soviet flanking fire.   

Victory is near, WWII campaign - Week 4 game 1

The first battle of round 4 featured the Russians attacking the dug-in Germans defending their last line of tables. The Russians attacked this table in the last turn but were unable to break through, so received an additional 2 points of reinforcements.

The Germans again went with 2 * 75mm AT guns and a Panzer IV. The Russians shifted tactics slightly and went with more infantry using 1 * SU-76, 1 * T34-85, 1 * medium mortar, a scout squad and an engineering squad.     

Table from the Russian left - German bunker visible in the centre

Table from the Russian right

The core of the Russian plan was to overload the right flank, attacking with 5 squads of infantry and both the tanks, preceded by the pre-game artillery bombardment. The centre would be screened by the scouts and a smaller force of infantry would threaten the left.

The battle stared with the Russians deploying both tanks and a sizable infantry force in the fields to the right. Partly this was to ensure a rapid advance and partly it was to try and draw-out the Germans tanks  and AT gun, so they would be vulnerable to the pre-programmed bombardment. This proved highly successful with the Russians making rapid progress through the fields and the German AT gun perishing in the bombardment - advantage Russia.

Russian attack deploys

Germans counter with their Panzer IV

The Pak-40 succumbs to artillery fire  

With the Panzer IV forced to stay on overwatch in case the Russian tanks moved, the Russian infantry pushed forward in two waves. The first was initially pinned but the second was able to launch a successful assault by moving through their comrades. Commissar Boss-ski purred with delight at the successful execution of a "pepper-pot". In the same turn the Soviet engineers snuck through the woods and opened-up with a flamethrower on the unfortunate Germans, pinning them.
     

Russians attack

Engineers open fire on the Germans

Meanwhile in the centre the Soviet scouts advanced through the fields towards the German squads holding the German centre and right. The scouts are low on firepower but are veterans and count cover one level higher. As a result they proved very tough to shift and were able to distract 2 valuable squads of Germans.
 

Scouts with a maxim in support

With the infantry assault made the Russian tanks popped-out from behind the hill where they were sheltering and attacked the Panzer IV. The fire fight left the SU-76 damaged but the Panzer IV was destroyed, opening up the right flank to attack. The infantry assault smashed through the isolated Germans, turning the flank of the position.  

Panzer IV brews-up

A desperate struggle

The Russians pressed the advantage and pushed through a further two squads of Germans, thus capturing the whole right side along with its jump-off point and victory objective.

Russians assemble for a second attack

Soviets sweep through

Russians clear the right flank

With darkness falling both sides agreed that the Soviets had achieved a decisive victory - very fitting for the 100th anniversary of the Oktober revolution.

Russians celebrate

This write-up makes it sounds like a straight-forward victory for the Soviets but it was in fact a much more tense affair than that for several reasons:

• The Germans were unlucky with their AT fire and the Panzer IV could have easily done better. Had it survived the main Russian attack would have bogged-down rapidly.
• There was a key decision to fire on pinned Russian troops when going on over-watch may have been better to have a better chance of stopping a second team assaulting them.
• The scouts could have been ignored or at least blocked with a smaller force, freeing up troops for the flanks. 

So probably our bet game so far - genuine tension and historic tactics winning out.

T34-85 rumbles up the flank

German commanders lament

Chain of Command Eastern Front - week 1

The campaign opened with the German Fallschirmjäger probing the Soviet defences. The Russians were dug-in in a series of fields and woods covering the main road towards the besieged friends of the Germans.


The battlefield


The Germans made a bold move by deploying their armour (a Marder III) right at the start of the game.

 It was immediately ambushed by a concealed Soviet AT gun that ripped through the thin Marder armour like a knife through low-fat vegan spread.

Burn baby burn

Denied their armoured support the Germans now deployed their infantry in cover of the table edge. The Soviets reciprocated occupying the woods and fields opposite them.


German 1st Section

German 2nd and 3rd sections

Commissar Bosski encourages the troops

Russians sir, thousands of um

Yet more soviets

The game settled down into a fire-fight with Hitler's buzz-saws rattling away at the Russians. The Germans focused their fire on the Soviets occupying the woods to their flank. The combined fire of 6 MG 34's proved highly effective first pinning and then routing both an infantry section and a maxim. 

Tough times in the woods

However the scenario required the Germans to advance to try and exit the table edge, so undercover of the 1st sections MG 34's the 2nd and 3rd sections tried to storm forward to capture the woods.

Charge!

25% casualties

50% casualties

Feeling lonely

Yes gentle reader you guessed it, the combined fire of a maxim and 2 Soviets sections took a heavy toll on the Para's as they toiled forward across the muddy fields.

 

So with the Marder and 2/3 of the infantry out of action the German commander called-off the attack and they returned to the start line - first blood to the Soviets  

    

Chain of Command - bank holiday weekend game

As we've the luxury of a long weekend we decided to run a third game of Chain of Command. This contest pitted Oberst Kurt Stiner's fallschirmjäger against a platoon of Red Army infantry under Leytenant Nigelski

The Scenario 

We opted for a simple encounter scenario fought across Russian farm-land, so clearly before Steiner had made himself unpopular with the high-command.

The Patrol phase yielded a slightly better position for the German's, with them closer to the farm, however the Russians did have a decent flanking position.

The setup

 

The Battle

The game opened with the Germans deploying squads just behind the farm and in field covering their right flank. The Soviets responded with an infantry squad on their left flank in the woods and 2 * maxim MMGs in cover on their base-edge opposite the farm. In the early exchanges the Germans had the better of the shooting, damaging the Soviet squad on their flank. 

The early phases as both deploy their first units

 

German right flank opens-up on the Russians

 

A maxim covers the farm and the corn field

The Germans took the early initiative advancing their central squad into the farm-house and opening-up on the Soviets deployed MMGs. Their early fire was not especially effective though and they soon found themselves under fire from both maxims and a sniper team. Casualties soon mounted under this onslaught.

Germans capture the farm

 

German casualties mount

 

The maxims blaze away 

Eventually the pressure on the German squad in the farm-house became unbearable and they became first pinned and then broken. At this point Steiner showed his mettle and dashed across open ground to try and rally his broken squad. It left the gap open for the Soviets though who quickly deployed a squad and advanced it rapidly into the now abandoned farm.

Steiner rushes forward

 

The soviets stroll forward to the farm 

Sensing a clear advantage the Russians occupied the farm and advanced their flanking squad into a supporting position. They turned a maxim on the Germans in the corn-field and kept-up some pressure on the broken squad. A persistent failure to roll well enough for a turn-end meant though Steiner's squad was just about hanging in there and could not be routed.

In desperation the Germans deployed their final squad opposite the farm and commenced a lively fire. This was sufficient to push back the Soviets in the farm-house but was not enough to save the day as the final Soviet squad moved into a flanking position. We ended the game with a Russian victory - not bad for Leytenant Nigelski's first game    

Soviets occupy the farm

 

Soviets move into a flanking position

 

A consolation goal - the Russians lose a squad

 The Verdict

Another enjoyable game of Chain of Command with all agreeing it was a fun encounter, completed in about 3.5 hours. The decisive factor this time was that the Soviet maxims were well sited with good fields of fire - with some infantry and sniper support they accounted for two German squads. German shooting was perhaps a little unlucky.

The real winner was probably the farm-house which acted a bit of troop magnet and accounted for the better part of three squads.    

Steiner looks glum