Friday Night Solo - Lindenhof Farm 15mm Late WW II Game.

With a last-minute game cancellation on Thursday evening, my next game isn't scheduled till Wednesday, so I decided to do another small WWII Ostfront solo game on Friday evening.

The Soviet advance into Esat Prussia continues, in a follow on from the previous encounter (in my head, at least!) I had 24 cards, 12 each red/black plus an ace of each colour to define "an event". Despite LOTS of shuffling, the events ended up being together and virtually the last cards to come out.....again!

The quiet before the storm - Lindenhof Farm on the high ground to the left - the Russians will enter from the right.

Led by a lend-lease armoured car, lorry borne infantry move down the small East Prussian road.

To add some "friction" I decided to generate the Germans randomly. Each turn, I rolled a D6 and if a 6 was scored, an ambush would occur. Next, roll another D6 for location (as above) then a third for the asset - 1 = 88mm Flak, 2 = 88mm Pak, 3 and 4 = 75mm Pak, 5 = Panther 6 = Tiger 1.

On the second turn, an ambush was sprung and a 75mmPak appeared in the woods numbered 1. 

A shot rang out and an armour piercing round slammed into the leading vehicle, brewing it up instantly!

The infantry immediately debussed and deployed into the adjacent wheat fields.

At the same time (move three) a Russian T34/85 rolled down the road - the Pak took a shot, but the round bounced harmlessly off the sloped armour.

 Next turn, another ambush! This time, a Panther appeared in the woods at number 3. Both the Pak and the Panther fired at the lone Soviet tank - the Pak again made no impact, but the Panthers 75mm KwK 42 L/70 gun scored a hit. 

In return fire, the 85 mm ZiS-S-53 put a round straight into the German tanks ammunition storage, and the big cat exploded!

The Russian advance continued apace, with the infantry clearing the woods where the Panther blazed, and two more T34's advancing into the battle space. The original T34 and Pak exchanged fire, but both missed.

No new German forces joined the fray, but the Pak scored a direct hit on one of the newly arrived Soviet tanks!

The infantry advance down the left flank continued, and small arms fire from the platoon in the wheat field drove off/killed the Pak crew.

A second wave of Russian infantry arrived down the main road, as the T34's and first two platoons continued the advance on Lindenhof (I was rolling very poorly for German intervention, even though I reduced the required score to 4-6 in a German activation!)

A couple of general views of the battlefield at the mid-point of the game.

On turn 14 a Tiger appeared in the same woods where the Panther had earlier arrived.

An 88mm shell screamed across the field towards the lightly armoured rear of one of the T34's.......but the gunners aim was off, and the round flew harmlessly past the exposed Russian vehicle.

I obviously got a bit tied up in the game at this point - because between turn 15 and 23, I have no images! I know this because turn 23 was when the Russian aircraft turned up when I turned over the red ace!

Soooo...... in the missing turns, German infantry opened fire on the Russians from both buildings at Lindenhof Farm, a T34 hit the Tiger, the Tiger rallied off the hit, the other T34 fired HE at one of the houses causing a hit on the German infantry, the second wave of Russian infantry dismounted and joined the assault on the farm, the Germans got an event card which was an artillery stonk, which caused multiple infantry casualties AND destroyed the T34 that had been supporting the assault on the farm! Despite all this, the Russian infantry was able to get both German infantry units to four hits each, and they were forced to retire 3 x D6 cm, which took them off the table. Then, the Tiger destroyed the final T34/85!

So, turn 23 - the Russian event....... was a non-event, as the Ilyushin Il-2 schturmovik failed to hit the Tiger in the woods.

Turn 24 was a red card, so the Russian infantry advanced and took possession of Lindenhof farm, and in the final German turn, the Tiger retired from the field, to fight again another day.

Another fun little game that took maybe 90 minutes to set up and play through - I really am starting to get a taste for solo gaming to be honest, and using the 15mm collections means I can get a reasonable amount of stuff on the 3 x 3 table.

My next post is likely to be two completed GNW Russian artillery crews - they are basically finished now to be honest but still need to be based, so they can wait till next time!

Thanks as always to all who have made the effort to visit and read my ramblings, I hope you have enjoyed the report on this small action. I think I may carry on playing semi-linked late war games like this for a little while - apart from anything else, it's quite a good way to get Andrews rules fixed in my head!