Martí Cabré
Terrassa
Catalonia
-
This was a PBEM VASSAL game played with
played during October 2011-January 2012.
In sight of the Volga features a battle that took place in Stalingrad on September 14th, 1942. The 3rd Bn, 194th Infantry Regiment led by Gerhard Meunch tried to cross the shattered ruins of downtown Stalingrad to get to the Volga river and close the main ferry landings. Facing these seasoned troops there was a motley crew of Russian militia composed of factory workers and the NKVD garrison.
The scenario has 10 turns and the Germans need bring their troops to the "factory", a big building on the edge of the map. The Russians have ammo shortage but will receive random reinforcements of elite troops that represent the advanced elements of Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Division that come to the rescue of the Russian militians.
Eloi took the Germans and I took the Russians.
This is our setup:
I deployed the Russian troops in depth. My idea was to trade space for time covering the obvious paths of advance with a mix of real and dummy troops to force the Germans to advance cautiously and make him lose time.
My HIP units were on the last line of defense, hoping for "rear" shots on the infantry to make them fail to rout. The gun covered the main street leading to the factory. I put the trenches around the factory to provide cover for the reinforcements.
The Germans deployed in a line along the southern part of the map, except for a small stack on the north edge. With 25 squads and 10 leaders representing a whole battalion, he had leaders available for creating killer stacks, flanking squads and explorers.
The German advance by the center.
Instead of pushing hard on only one side of my defense, the German player advanced slowly on a wide front strategy, picking up my defenders one by one and leaving units mopping up my routed militia squads.
He found a weak spot on my center and pressed there only with the units on the spot, with the result that the German line started wavering with some units much further forward than others. As I needed wait for point blank fire in order to hurt the German units, I anxiously waited for opportunity shots but the German player wisely avoided all kind of unnecessary exposure, using dash movements and smoke grenades whenever available.
The Germans push towards the factory.
The Russian sniper had a SAN of 7 and the SAN was rolled a lot of times, but there were very few effective shots. But closing Turn 3 a lucky shot killed the leader of a meatgrinder and broke the three squads stacked with him. Lucky shot!
As early as Turn 4 some German units reached the outskirts of the factory. A berserker unit got inside the outer defenses and a couple of squads got into position for exiting the map and reducing the Russian defenses. My HIP units fired ineffectively and were beaten back by the overwhelming German firepower. The low quality of the Russian militias was taking its toll.
The good news for the Russians is that both the left and right flanks of the German advance were stalled by concealed units. I think the German should have bypassed these units and help put pressure on the center, as the victory conditions focus only on taking the factory.
Some Germans exit the map while the rest of the battalion approaches the factory.
The Germans did not catch the momentum they had with the squads that had reached the factory. A couple of squads exited the map but the rest just waited in good defensive positions for the left and right flanks to close in the factory. I did not try to save the units guarding the German flanks as their mission was to slow them, even if that mean being routed or eliminated.
Meanwhile some Russian guard squads entered the map to give much needed relief to the hard-pressed defenders. I tried to devise forward defenses for the factory but any exposed Russian unit fell time and again under the German fire so finally I just abandoned the first hexes of the factory.
Firefight erupts inside the factory.
The dreaded German assault came on Turn 9, one turn too late, I think. Four infantry stacks advanced (unit by unit) inside the factory. They were units from the German center and some from the left flank. In this flank my units had finally killed some German squads that went for the map edge, but once exposed they were broken in turn.
The German right flank had not arrived yet to the factory (in nine turns!), and they carried some heavy MGs, so that gave me the opportunity to still cover the southern side of the factory.
If in this moment all the German battalion had closed in on the factory, it would have been impossible to hold it.
Russian reinforcements arrive timely.
The fire unleashed by the Germans on their Turn 9 was devastating. Only the Russian commissar was able to rally some militiamen back to work, these factory workers and NKVD garrisons that seemed incapable of containing the German horde.
But some work they did. And they were not alone. By this time half a score guard squads were in the factory or near it. I was counting the number of German squads in victory condition positions and the number of Russian squads that were forced to enter the factory to achieve a win.
I did the count several times. And it was really tight.
End of the game. Lots of casualties in the last player turn.
After the German defensive fire in the Russian Turn 9, there were only two good order Russian squads in the factory. The Germans had six squads in victory condition hexes. So four Russian squads must enter the factory, or die in the intent.
The German player spent his Turn 10 prep firing with mixed results. Some broken squads were killed but the Commissar rallied the survivors on the next Player turn. By not assault moving and then advancing into CC against the final units, I was able to close in to the factory with the reinforcements units.
I launched every unit that could move against the factory. North, east and south. Even some Russian prisoners that had been liberated in order to avoid the CC penalties advanced against the German units inside the factory looking for some crazy luck in a CC.
The first units approaching the factory were all broken and reduced, but I had about 12 squads between reinforcements and the units that covered my flanks, and all of them tried to enter the factory. Four squads got killed and a couple more broken, but six squads managed to enter the factory and survive the first CC after a fiery blast of German machinegun fire keeping ROF and green residual fire markers everywhere.
The final tally showed that there were eight Russian squads per six German squads fulfilling their victory conditions, so the final result was a Russian win.
But the number of squads killed just in the last turn indicated that in Stalingrad winning was a meaningless word.
-
-
The German Assault from the North (Left) and then the South (Right) seem to do the trick, too bad about the luck sometimes.
If the southern troops had 1 more turn, It seem like they could do a more coordinated attack. That would be taxing on your militia.
BTW, I can't remember this scenario, but is the Factory a FACTORY? Is it Fortified as well?
Fantastic AAR.
-
Martí Cabré
Terrassa
Catalonia
-
alexisW wrote: The German Assault from the North (Left) and then the South (Right) seem to do the trick, too bad about the luck sometimes.
If the southern troops had 1 more turn, It seem like they could do a more coordinated attack. That would be taxing on your militia.
BTW, I can't remember this scenario, but is the Factory a FACTORY? Is it Fortified as well?
Fantastic AAR.
Thanks!
The factory is a normal factory (B23.74), not a Red Barricades factory. There are no walls inside the factory, it is not fortified and the Russians are not fanatic.
I think I should have set up the INF gun inside the factory, to blast the German infantry as they entered the building. Covering a street with a gun is much useless when all of them just dash across the street.
On the last turn I think the Russians had a 70/30 of winning, depending on the dice. If the Germans had bypassed the northern and southern Russian positions they would have been able to assault the factory one turn earlier.
Without a doubt, if there had been another turn the Germans would have blasted away all of the Russian troops. Look at the top of the board to see the tremendous losses that both players sustain in this scenario. And on the right side are the losses of only the last Russian turn.
As the defender I tried to find a balance between stopping the Germans, killing some of them but not losing all my troops in the intent. So I calculated the best moment for the reinforcement troops to enter the factory and grab the win, instead of entering it earlier and be subject to German prep and def fire for 3 or 4 Player turns.
-
DReaper Perrus
Spain
Madrid
-
Awesome report, thanks.
-
Mark Tomlinson
United Kingdom
Sheffield
Yorkshire
-
DReaper wrote: Awesome report, thanks.
+1
-
Eric Walters
United States
Norfolk
Virginia
"...the art of manoeuvering armies...an art which none may master by the light of nature. but to which, if he is to attain success, a man must serve a long apprenticeship." -- G.F.R. Henderson
-
Haven't played this one in over two decades, but I remember it well. Wonderful AAR that brought back quite a number of memories. Yes, we favored putting the Russian gun in the factory for the reasons you cite.
Well written and illustrated AAR; I sure hope you do more of these!
-
Martí Cabré
Terrassa
Catalonia
-
Thank you for your kind words.
I'm now playing the scenarios in Beyond Valor and Code of Bushido, maybe you'd like to read some of the AAR there.
This one was a blast to play.
-
skippen
United States
Greeley
Colorado
-
Great AAR. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
-
|
|
