Saturday Solo Stalingrad Skirmish Squads!

 I set up the Stalingrad So Far tank factory ruins in the garage last night and played a quick solo game using the standard AS9 rules I favour currently. 

Three squads of Germans against three squads of Soviets, plus a command squad each. Both sides had two support turns randomly hidden amongst the activation cards - for the Germans the ace of spades would provide a round of mortar fire and the ace of clubs a Luftwaffe attack - for the Soviets, the ace of diamonds was an artillery barrage and the ace of hearts - an extra squad of infantry.

The Germans had a slight advantage of having MG34's in each squad, so had a plus 1 on all firing (to counteract the minus 1 because virtually everyone was in cover almost all the time) whereas the Russians only had one MG, attached to their command group. Both the Germans and Russians also had a medical asset attached to their command group - this could be sent to join any unit and give them a plus 1 on all rally rolls.

The initial set up of the factory - I added some extra terrain after this image was taken, as you will see when the action commences below!

A couple of shots from different angles just to "show off" my scratch-built building!

Turn 1 was the Russians and all three squads plus the command element moved into the tank factory. These figures are my 28mm early Plastic Soldier Company hard plastic Russians. (I have the same set in 20mm - yes, I know - I have 15mm Command Decision ones, too!)

The Germans had turns 2-4, entering and moving forwards towards the Soviet positions

On turn 4, the Germans opened fire, but things didn't go too well - they put one hit on the Soviet unit top right, but in the bottom left, Russian return fire put two hits on the Germans!

As the Germans had had three turns in a row, turn 5 was automatically a Russian one. They opened fire but with even worse results than the Germans had in the previous turn, as can be seen by the distribution of hit markers!

In turn 6, initiative returned to the Wehrmacht. With the Soviet squad in the top right now sitting on 4 hits, the nearest German squad charged in to initiate close combat. If a unit carrying 4 hits is beaten in combat, it is destroyed and removed from the game! (this is a new rule introduced by Andrew the rule writer recently)

Turn 7 saw the close combat take place - with the result below!

I made an instant house rule that if a unit carrying 4 hits wins a combat, it removes one of the hit markers!

The Germans were pushed back to their start point, to lick their wounds!

But on turn 8, another German initiative, German fire put the Soviet squad back up to four hits, and the same German squad charged back into assault them a second time.

Sadly, the Russian infantry could not repeat their earlier heroics, being soundly beaten, and were removed from the action.

The central Soviet unit now had Germans on their right flank!

The Germans having had another run of three activations on the trot, turn 9 was automatically a Soviet initiative.

Attack being the best form of defence, the next Russian squad charged in against the Germans to their right - URRAH!

But the dice were nothing for the Soviets to cheer about, and they were bounced back to their starting point.

At some point around about now, the Germans got their Luftwaffe support and two of the remaining Soviet units, one being the command squad, were up to 4 hit points!

The Russians managed to get a couple of activations and spent them attempting to rally off hits, but without much success

The fresh German squads moved in for the kill, with two assaults going in against the teetering Soviets.

Nearest the camera, the Soviet squad was defeated and rolled high and retired out of the factory!

In the second melee, a fresh Wehrmacht squad smashed into a battered Soviet squad .... 

But against the run of play, the Red infantrymen prevailed, and the Germans were pushed back!

Turns 12 and 13 were Soviet initiatives and sitting on three hits each, the squads contented themselves with rally attempts and no firing, due to the risk of incurring casualties from return fire.

On turn 14, the Germans came in again!

But first the command squad .........

....... and then the last remaining rifle squad, prevailed in the bitter hand to hand contest!

By this point, the Germans were becoming disenchanted; having thrown everything at the Soviet defenders, they were more or less back at their starting point! One squad (top left) was on 4 hits and in danger of having to retire from the contest altogether.

Turns 16-19 were all Soviet and they spent them attempting to regain some composure after the hectic series of close quarters battles.

On turn 19, the Soviets got their support card, Not, unfortunately, the extra reinforcement squad that they really needed, but the Red artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga thundered into action, and the German unit in the bottom left took two hits, taking it to a total of 4.

Next turn, an exchange of fire put the top German unit onto 4 hits as well, were the Russian defenders going to snatch victory after all?

But the Russian squads were also in a pretty dire state.

Neither of the two German squads were able to rally off any of their hits

But in the following turn, the one in the left centre did succeed.

Only to suffer a casualty in a fire fight with the Soviet command squad and go back up to 4 hits again!

On turn 24, neither of the two German units carrying 4 hits was able to rally, and .....

.....  they both rolled high for their retire move and exited the battle space!

It was now two German squads against two Russian squads, albeit the latter were carrying a lot of hit markers!

The first combat was close - but not close enough - the Soviet squad carrying 4 hit markers was destroyed

Now, the Soviet command squad was the only Russian unit remaining in the factory. Carrying two hit markers, they were assaulted by a totally fresh German squad.

First combat - a draw (the command squad gets a plus 1)

Second combat - the Russians win (with that +1) and the Germans are pushed back again - it's really desperate stuff at this point!

Turn 25 - yet another German initiative - the infantry squad fires, getting a hit and putting the Soviet command squad on four hits. Then, the German command squad charges into close combat .....

The Reds roll well - but the Germans roll better!

And the game is over - the Germans have cleared the Soviet defenders from the Red October tank factory, but at the cost of 50% of the attacking force destroyed.

A few closing shots of the victors from various angles!

I checked the cards after finishing the game - the Germans had two runs of 3 cards in the first 8 cards drawn - and overall, they had 15 activations to 10 for the Russians. Looking ahead, if the Russians could have held on in turn 25, the next three cards were red and then the fourth card was the ace of hearts, which would have been a fresh Russian infantry squad - so near, and yet so far!

Well, I had fun playing that game; even though the Russians had a lot of bad luck, they also pulled some important successes out of the bag when they needed to, to keep themselves in the contest - and around turn 23 I was beginning to think they might actually be able to pull off a come from behind win - but it was not to be - this time!

Hopefully this was an enjoyable read and worthy of a comment or two from you wonderful people!

Now, it's back to the Soviet Militia on the painting desk!