Two More Russian Front Games in the Bag

 Two AAR's today, as I played a small 28mm solo Barbarossa game on Wargames Wednesday, then a larger scale game using 15mm figures at Andrews on Friday - and we have a larger reprise of Andrews scenario coming up tomorrow at Barrys - all go on the gaming front here at the moment, that's for sure!

Game One was an all-infantry affair - three sections of attacking German infantry taking on two defending Russian sections.

24 cards including a black Ace and King representing German reinforcements of an HMG and mortar respectively, whilst the red equivalents would deliver the defenders an MG and an extra infantry section when they came out.

The Germans automatically got turn one

A general advance into the ruins of a devastated Russian village

Turn two and the Russian defenders edged forwards to defend the streamline bisecting the settlement

On turn three, the German HMG arrived as reinforcement

And not to be outdone, on turn four, the Russian HMG arrived!

On turn five, the first shots rang out, as the Russian sniper put two hits on the leading Wehrmacht section.

Turn six was the third Russian activation in a row. Return fire from the Germans put a hit on the right-hand Red Army section.

Turn seven went to the Germans and they continued their cautious advance through the rubble.

On turn eight, the Russian section successfully rallied off the point of shock they were carrying

Turn nine saw the German advance continue, with the HMG moved up to provide fire support

On turn ten, the Germans mortar arrived - this was to be a pivotal advantage for the attackers.

On turn eleven, the Germans successfully rallied the shock off the centre section, and the mortar made its first contribution, putting two hits on the left-hand Soviet section.

Turns twelve and thirteen went to the Russians and they managed to put a couple of hits on the Germans

On turn fourteen, the German infantry and mortar crew combined to put the left-hand Russian unit on four hits, the maximum before they are forced to retire if they fail to rally.

But on turn fifteen, the Soviets succeeded in rallying one hit off!

Turn sixteen was German and very eventful. Firstly, the right-hand section went to four hits again.

Then, the Russian sniper was spotted - and killed!

Meanwhile, the left-hand section had failed to rally and, carrying four hits, pulled back from the defence line.

On turn seventeen the Germans rallied their HMG and pressed forward against the faltering Russians

The sniper is dead and both sections are carrying four hits!

On turn eighteen (forgot the marker!) the Russians rolled double six for their rally and so removed ALL the hit markers from one section - urrah!

Whilst on the following turn, the Russian king was turned over, bringing on an extra section of infantry

Meanwhile, the right-hand section managed to rally one hit off and ceased retiring too!

But the Soviet recovery did not last long. The German mortar struck again, putting the section back up to four hits.

And the following turn, the Germans had the central Russian section on four hits too!

This time, there was no miraculous recovery, and the right-hand section left the battle space

Despite having taken a battering (carrying three hits), the central German section was now in possession of the crossing over the stream and poised the exploit forwards onto the Soviet side of the town.

The Russians, having lost two sections and their sniper, and with the remaining section on three hits, were forced to concede control of the town to the victorious Wehrmacht infantrymen

Game two was at Andrews place on Friday after work and featured action at the other end of the war, as the Red Army roll towards Berlin in early 1945.

I took command of the Russians, attacking from the bottom edge of the table above.

The Russians had a significant numerical advantage, particularly in armour

In total I had six companies of infantry, with 4 HMG and 2 mortars as support, as well as seven T34/85, four SU100 SPG and four T34/76 standing in for SU76 which I do not have in my collection

The Germans ............ had somewhat fewer vehicles! They also had four companies of infantry.

The Red Army went first and also second but between the two moves, the Germans placed markers for where their assets were hidden

The Russians could choose to fire at a marker and if they scored a hit, the marker was revealed (some were blinds). The risk to the Russians was, if a genuine enemy was revealed, it could then do a return fire (the "reconnaissance by fire" would cause no damage to the Germans, it would simply reveal what the marker represented, if a hit was scored)

The Germans scored a half point for every Russian vehicle destroyed, the Soviets scored one point for every infantry company that exited the German table edge. The Russians gained no points for destroying German units, they could only score by continuing the advance!

I had decided to more or less ignore the left flank and go through the centre and the right - looking again at the table, I am not sure why I did that - the left flank probably looks more open!

Recon by fire immediately revealed a couple of "big cats" lurking in cover

And pretty soon, Russian vehicles started burning!

And so it continued! In the first three or four turns, the bulk of my central tank force was wiped out! I think I had two survivors out of eight!

Another Koenig Tiger was hiding in the small village on the German left flank

The two survivors retire towards their comrades (neither Andrew nor I had any "smoke" at the game, so destroyed vehicles either had their turrets put at a weird angle or were turned onto their side!)

The small town in front of my right wing proved to be strongly held - in addition to the King Tiger, there was a battery of PAK 40 plus two companies of infantry with HMG and mortar support.

At least my tank force on this wing managed to survive the first few turns relatively unscathed!

The Tiger in the German centre was engaged in a long running duel with my loan surviving T34/85 in that part of the battlefield.

The Soviet infantry heroically assaulted the German held village but were repulsed.

Meanwhile, despite losing a couple of vehicles, the flanking tank force was getting into position to eliminate the German defenders

My T34/85 finally won the dual with the Tiger I!

The Germans erupted from the village, supported by a Wirbelwind 4 barreled 20mm flak tank, and assaulted one of my command elements!

But the commanders are all Party members, supported by the regimental commissar, and the fascists were sent reeling back - Urrah!

A bit of congestion around the defended village - it's looking at this scene that makes me wonder if I should have picked the other side of the table to concentrate my breakthrough efforts?

A purely "eye candy" shot - the Jagdpanther and T34 did not engage - the T34 legged it!

The Wirbelwind crashed through the field and assaulted an infantry company

We had to record these dice rolls! Andrew fired his Pak 40 battery at me in the open - adding 2 to any score - and rolled a double one. My return fire was also plus 2 (the T34/85 has a plus 3 gun, but the AT battery was in cover) - and I also rolled a double one!

We called the game at this point, mainly because we wanted to go and get some Chinese for dinner! The Germans had been slammed, and I had destroyed two Tigers, two King Tigers, two Puma armoured cars and a Wirbelwind, plus two Wehrmacht infantry companies had retreated off the board - but Andrew had 5 points from destroying 10 of my tanks and I didn't look close to even getting one Russian infantry unit off the German side of the table, so it was a German win - a somewhat Pyrrhic victory but then post Kursk and D Day, they all were, really.

It will be interesting to see how our game goes tomorrow, as the Friday game was a "test of concept" for Andrew - and we will be basically playing the same scenario but with two or possibly three players per side and larger forces on a MUCH larger table - should be fun and hopefully I have learned some things from the Friday game to help with my tactics tomorrow! An AAR on that game will follow in a few days' time. Thanks for your visit and double thanks for all comments left.