Soviets Retake the Stalingrad Red October Tank Factory!

 I got the Stalingrad factory ruins back on the table tonight and played through a Soviet assault to regain control of the strategically important building, having lost it to the invaders in a hard-fought battle last week.

Workers militia battalions, as well as regular Red Army infantrymen, will be involved in the battle. Having been read Stalin's order 227, none of the Russian units will fall back when they reach four hits - the Germans must engage them in close combat and destroy them to remove them from the game!

The Germans start with two units (from the previous game) on the table. The Russians have two militia units and two regular units, with reinforcements arriving from the 64th Army at a randomly generated point in the game. An ace of hearts will bring on two regular units, from the flanks of the present German position, whilst an ace of diamonds will be an artillery strike. Both black aces will provide one unit of reinforcements for the Germans. The first action of the game is a Soviet pre assault artillery barrage on the two German units in the factory! 

The initial set up 

I have added a few extra 4-way internal wall pieces since the last game (I just can't stop tinkering and adding stuff to this terrain!)

A few left over spare T34 turrets have been painted up in bare steel to lie around the tank factory!

The Russian bombardment was a success, putting two hits on the German command unit and one on the other unit

The attackers automatically got the first turn, and the two units of militia led the assault on their former place of employment

Turn two saw the militia open fire but without much success.

Turn three went to the Germans, they failed to rally any hits, and their firing was also ineffective, although the militia had some success with their return fire

In turns four and five, both German, the defenders were successful in rallying off some of the hits they were carrying - they scored two hits on the militia with accurate fire - but the Russians returned the favour with two hits on the Germans!

After three German turns in a row, turn seven would automatically go to the Russians - BUT - the ace of hearts came up first, so two units of regular Red Army infantry appeared on each flank of the defending Germans - and then, it was automatically the Russian turn!

After ineffective support fire from the Peoples Militia, both the regular units charged the Germans - if they were successful, this could be a short game!

But the defending Wehrmacht troops prevailed in both hand-to-hand combats!

Turn seven went to the Russians again - they failed to rally any hits off, but the militia put a double hit on the German command unit, bringing it up to three hits

Turn eight saw the Germans with the initiative. The command unit pulled back and the other unit fired but caused no damage to the Russians

Turns nine and ten went to the Russians, who rallied off a couple of hits....

... and caused some hits on the enemy with accurate rifle fire. 

One of the militia units charged forward across the debris strewn ground, but were driven back after fierce hand to hand combat with the enemy infantry,

Having successfully driven back the Reds, the German unit rallied off a hit and then executed a strategic withdrawal to align with their command unit.

The Germans also had turn twelve but made little impact, with no successful rallies and not hits on the enemy.

A black ace was turned at this point and one of the Germann reinforcements arrived, at what was a very opportune point of the game!

Gaining turn thirteen as well, the German command unit failed to rally (AGAIN!). The recently arrived unit executed a quick relief, swapping position with the hard-pressed command unit, which retired again.

On turn fourteen, all five Russian units moved forwards, whilst the final Russian unit arrived on the table, making the odds 6 to 3 at this stage.

The Germans now managed to rally off one hit but their firing at the advancing Soviets was ineffective

A few mid game close ups from various angles!

The Russians regained the tactical initiative, and several units opened fire, this time both sides were quite successful with hits from both Soviet fire and German return fire.

The Peoples Militia then charged forwards to assault the German unit ahead of them. The combat was intense, with multiple rounds of fierce close quarter battle, but after a 9-9 (draw with one hit each) 6-6 (no effect) and then 10-10 (same as the first one), the militia finally came out on top with a 10 - 8 win, and the Germans were obliged to retire 5"

The Germans now had the initiative, and as always, the first action was rallies. This time, it might be critical, with the German command unit sitting on four hits. the first two units failed to rally any hits off.

Then the command unit rolled a double six and removed two hits (this has changed recently; it used to be all four!)

After ineffective firing from two German units, the third sprinted forward against the Soviet militia, desperate to redeem themselves and regain control of the position they had recently had to cede to the enemy.

But the militia held firm, and the German unit, rolling high for their fall back, were forced to leave the table!

The next card was the ace of diamonds and the Soviet artillery thundered again, putting a hit on the German command. The very next card was the second black ace, and the final German reinforcements arrived - just in the nick of time, to be fair!

In turn eighteen, the Russians seized the initiative, rallying a point off each of the regular units carrying hits, but failing to rally either of the Peoples Militia units. One of the regular units close assaulted the forward enemy unit, but they were repulsed with losses.

Turn nineteen was again a Russian initiative - some successful rallies but ineffectual firing was followed by two more Soviet charges - both of which the Germans repulsed!

Turn twenty saw the third Soviet initiative in a row - I checked the remaining three cards - and they were all RED! I decided to "give" the Germans an extra turn, rather than just letting the Russians run rampant for six turns in a row!

Once again, the officers and commissars motivated their troops, and two more attacks went in on the beleaguered German positions

In both assaults, the first round was a "score draw", putting one hit on each side. The militia attack was subsequently driven off, but the female infantry unit was able to overcome the Fascist resistance and bundle them right out of the factory!

Turn twenty-one proved to be the last turn of the game (a total of twenty-four turns plus the four aces had been programmed in the card pack)

Firstly, one squad fired on the German command and scored a double hit, even though the enemy were already on three hits so could only go to four,

Two assaults went in on the remaining Germans

The first result - the German unit was defeated and routed off the table, thanks to a very high roll for the distance they had to fall back after losing the melee.

Then, a relatively fresh Russian unit smashed into the shaky German command, the last formed body of Germans remaining in action inside the tank factory.

Urrah! The Fascists were obliterated, and the Red October Tank Factory is back in Soviet hands.

Now, as you will have noticed, the recent birthday present Peoples Militia took part in this action, so here are some close ups of the twelve figures recently painted.

And finally tonight, this T34/85 has been done for a couple of weeks

It is the last one I will be getting from local supplier Pot Belly Miniatures, because very unfortunately, the guy running the business has discovered he is allergic to the ingredients used in 3D printing and is having to quit doing it - which is more than a little annoying for me, but I expect even more so for him!

NZ Post managed to damage it slightly in transit bit it wasn't really very effectively packed, so I can't really blame them too much - I decided the missing front guard could just be a bit of battlefield wear and tear 

I left one hatch open and added in one of the Warlord resin tank crew

That's it for tonight - if you have made it this far - well done - I think that was around 80 photos in total!