15mm late WWII action today, with a scenario involving an encounter battle SE of Berlin, between forces of roughly equal strength. Due to a late cancellation, Barry joined Andrew and me commanding the forces of Fraternal Proletarian Liberation, whilst Mark, Rick and John took the Fascist Oppressors!
Deployment was interesting, with very little of the table unavailable for one side or the other to occupy from the off. The two sides faced off along a roughly diagonal split from table corner to table corner. Victory would be attained mainly through damage inflicted on the enemy, but also via control of three strategic points on the battlefield.
Here is how it played out - warning, you are entering an image rich environment!
The table, Russians can deploy up to the line of the red markers, Germans the yellow markers. The roads to Berlin in the bottom left corner and from the east in the top right corner, plus small BUA in the centre, will gain 2 VP for the side completely controlling them at the end of the game
KV85 tanks ready to roll
Russian infantry
Part of Marks command
Ricks Big Cats in the German centre
John faced Andrew with a lighter force
Marks recon deployed against my force on the German right flank - the roads to the east are in front of the buildings
Mark had these heavy STUG's facing Barry's advance
PzKfw IV in support of Ricks Tigers
Johns Germans on the left, nearest the roads to Berlin, and facing off against Andrew
Andrew had our heavy armour - JSII tanks!
Soviet gun battery could hit any target on the table if under FOO observation.
Each side had three air strikes available for the game, called on at the discretion of the CinC
Things quickly got heated around the roads to Berlin!
Here comes another Luftwaffe attack!
I can't remember what these were - possibly KVII, or they may be an upgunned variant.
Soviet artillery supports the advance
Barrys infantry, left centre, advances on Marks position in the woods, whilst my force moves to turn his flank
Same view from behind Marks lines
Marks SPG's engaging Barrys force
Ricks heavy armour facing off against Andrew in the centre
A flight of Sturmoviks hits the German armour
And the Luftwaffe replies in kind!
John repositioning a battery of FH105 guns
Johns' infantry confronting JS II tanks - echte Männer!
Andrew has lost A LOT of armour!
But he still has the potent JS II's in action
By this stage, the only undamaged armour Barry had were these SPG's
I still had my four KV85's
Andrew advances with infantry and tanks!
Barrys Russian mortars did some significant damage to Mark
Late in the game, and Barry and I put in an infantry assault to try and clear Marks Germans out of the woods, with mixed results.
Johns FH105 rained destruction down on Andrews remaining armour
With most of the opposition burning hulks, Ricks heavy armour rolled slowly forwards
The last Luftwaffe strike came in against my force, putting one hit on a KV 85 and knocking out a towed 57mm AT gun.
Mark was finally withdrawing his reconnaissance forces but was replacing them with heavier armour.
The lone surviving IS II
We called the game at this point - the Germans were way ahead of the Russian in kill points - we pulled back two because I had control of the roads leading east, but unfortunately Andrew had been unable to clear John out of the area around the roads to Berlin. Final score was 17-12 to the Germans, but if we had carried on, they would have just pulled further and further ahead - this score makes the game seem closer than it was! Man of the match was definitely Mark, who accounted for about 10 of the German kill points himself.
An enjoyable game but one we probably should have done better in - I think our tactics were flawed - too many of our vehicles were sitting out in the open, making them easy targets for the concealed Germans. Scenario-wise, although classified by Barry as an "encounter", effectively the Germans defended, and we were obliged to attack - but with basically a force equal in strength to the enemy - never an easy task and one most militaries work very hard to avoid!
Thanks for visiting and I look forward to reading all the comments left here!
