Taking on Bens suggestion from his comment on the post before last, yesterday evening I played the Red Army counterattack after the successful defence of their village. Given my lack of any Barbarossa era Russian kit in 28mm, I reduced the scale to 15mm - which also allowed the playing area to expand slightly. I placed the vehicles and infantry in roughly their finishing positions from the previous game, including the hits they were carrying.
A pack of 26 activation cards, 14 red and 12 black, including an ace and king of both colours. Russians got 3 x KV1 when the ace turned up and extra infantry for the king - the Germans got 4 x PzKfw III and an air attack respectively. (They started the game with a PzKfw III on the table. The Russians started with 3 x T34 to lead the advance)
As the Russians had the initiative, being the attackers, they went first and had 4 extra turns in total. They had 26 turns to drive off the Wehrmacht and make it to the far side of the table.
But before we move on the game report - a quick break for my impulse purchase!
Feeling like a break from the "excitement" of work yesterday, I sloped off to do some work-related visiting, but a tad earlier that technically necessary - and dropped into our local Hobby Event Centre for a bit of a browse, with nothing specific in mind.
After putting the world to rights in conversation with Andy one of the owners, I noticed a few neoprene mats I had not seen there previously, including a 3' x 3' one. Having asked the price of the guy at the till, I thought it over for a minute - but then went with "he who hesitates, is lost" and bought it!
A perfect size for my 29" square table, I had it in use within a few hours!
Table layout, with the Russians at the bottom. Most of the stuff seen here was removed before the game commenced
View from the German side - infantry, SdKfz 251 and PzKfw III in positions they ended the previous game in.
End of turn one, the T34's approach the ford where the destroyed halftrack from game one is still burning merrily!
Turn two, and hits have been made on both sides
On turn three, the right most Russian infantry unit is up to 4 hits and forced to do a rally next turn, but the Panzer has been knocked out by the leading T34. Not really a fair fight - the Panzer III versus the T34 armour is rolling at -2 modifier, whilst the 76mm gun of the T34 is +2!
The Russian T34 barges the wrecked SdKfz 251 out of the way and rumbles across the ford in the river.
The Russians get a third turn in a row, and it's the red ace - so the KV1's arrive at a randomly generated (by dice roll) entry point! Meanwhile, the adjacent infantrymen have succeeded in rallying off one of their hit markers.
The surviving halftrack is beating a hasty retreat ahead of the Russian armour - and who could blame them?!
The Russian advance rolls inexorably forwards
Tanks are now targeting the single remaining Germa infantry unit on the table......
...... and succeed in getting them up to 4 hits.
The Germans finally get a break when the ace is revealed, and their armoured reinforcements arrive - but there are 6 superior Russian tanks in the battle space now ......
Next turn, the black king comes up, and the Luftwaffe makes an appearance. Rolling with a +3 on the dice roll AND hitting all units within 10cm of the designated target, the bomber only manages one hit on the T34 but succeeds in destroying the KV1 behind it and putting hits on the adjacent infantry!
One of the arriving panzers takes a shot at a T34, the shell slides harmlessly off the Russians sloped armour, but return fire from the 76mm guns destroys the German tank!
With the river crossing blocked by the burning KV1, the last of the three Soviet reinforcements moves along the far bank of the stream, whilst his colleague puts a hit on another of the German tanks
With the Russian infantry in full control of the village and all their German counterparts withdrawn, the Russian tanks knock out another Panzer III
I decided to call a halt here. With ten turns to go, the Russians had certainly won, and the remaining panzers would be well advised to retire and possibly fight again another day! Checking the cards afterwards, there was only a solitary black card left, the remaining nine were all red!
A few close ups to finish off.
I didn't mention the two recce vehicles that had arrived on the other flank earlier. They actually succeeded in putting one of the Russian infantry units back up to 4 hits, but then pulled back, before inevitable destruction at the hands of the Soviet tankists!
So, another small solo game in the bag and another enjoyable one from my perspective. A hard game for the Germans and they didn't have much luck with the cards; if the panzers had arrived before the KV1's, they might have had a half chance, but as it was, they were pushing you know what up hill really. The Germans also got a lot of their cards early on, when all they could really do was attempt to rally (which generally they failed to do) and fire at the opposing infantry.
Its Easter here now so looking forward to four days of not doing very much at all - although I am off to Julians place tomorrow evening for the first time in about a month - so, another game report should appear here in a day or two ...... until then, thanks for your visit!
