 front row of the village but still hold all the rear houses.
Another view of the mainly German held village. This gallant defence has taken the Soviets by surprise who thought they would storm through it.
The T70 column before the artillery strike. Post strike the Soviets remember they hadn't fired their HE shots at the end of the'stal,stal,stal' move. A'stal,stal.stal' move is where this order is declared for a platoon or company and a D6 is rolled to see how many tanks move up to 2 moves and fore 1 HE shot. The Germans agreed the T70s could keep their HE ammo the Soviets hadn't used.
The T70 column in the distance after the strike. 2 T70's fail their morale and break and after further small arms fire the rest of the tank riders are dismounted and pinned. The previously pinned Soviet tank riders were rallied by the Soviets taking a token which turned out to be a Beyond the Call of Duty token allowing them to take a free action. This was played on the tank riders who fired on the German squads opposite. In the German turn they returned the favour and saw the Soviets off. Another token for the Soviets and this time it reduced their BR.
The Germans in the village are being whittled down. Only the MG squad holds the building bottom right of the village. The platoon HQ is still on ambush fire in the middle building. 1 token taken by the Germans for the now deceased infantry squad, and that token turned out to be a breakdown token. The Germans played this on a T34. The Soviets rolled their dice for effect and survived but were made immobilised.
A closer look at the devastated T70 column.
At last some StuGs arrive!
The StuGs cautiously move up waiting for the continued charge.
The German senior officer moves to a safer position.
1 token that turn and 1 from turn 2 for the Germans takes their 64 BR to approx 58. The Soviets 71 BR to moves down to approx 62.
More Soviets turn up in trucks who dismount sending the transport to the rear.
The T34 between the wood and the village was immobilised by the breakdown token played earlier.
The Soviet T34's break off their attack on the village and move around to support the T70s. A lone T70 sprints through the village and halts to the confusion of the Germans who expected it to move to take out their senior officer or mortar team. The answer comes ion the form of a second kayusha strike on the T junction behind the village. Crucially this strike takes out the German FOO. 1 token taken for the Germans.
The lone T70 with the T34s in the back ground bypassing the village and thus avoiding their own artillery.
The advancing T34's. Using a'stal,stal,stal' order they fire HE in to the village as they pass it.
The German MG team are routed from their prepared position. The T34's HE fire has successfully pinned a German infantry squad.
German reinforcements come on next to the base line village. The Panzer Ace moves behind the stream to cover the road through the stream village and offer side shots on T34s heading for the second village. In addition the assault howitzer arrives and moves to the outskirts of the village bottom left.
The German senior officer falls back further to safety followed by the German platoon mortar.
The StuG III F's move up towards the advancing T34s but do no damage with their shots.
A token for the Soviets this turn sees the approx BR score reduced to 68.
Surprise, surprise more Soviets poor on the board. The newly arrived T34s race up the left flank shelling the village and the pesky Germans at the end of the'stal,stal,stal' move, the command of choice for the Soviet tankies.
Kaboom! A T70 takes out a StuG III F making up for the T34 misses.
The T70s head straight for the second German village followed up by the SU122s. The T34 stay still to make their shots count and avoid the Panzer Ace.
The Soviet tank riders storm the German infantry squad house and fail to take it, but whittle the defenders down.
The Soviets take a token at the end of their go to roll a D6 to rally their pinned troops.
The German StuGs take revenge pinning 1 and destroying 1 T34, a 3rd rolls for morale from a hit and scores a Beyond the Call of Duty token which it uses to destroy the nearest StuG. A token each to reduce the BR ratings.
We use MDF tokens purchased from Commission Figurines.
More German fire pins some recently rallied Soviet infantry. The T70 that destroyed the StuG in the previous turn can't take anymore hits and flees the board after a failed morale roll. A Beyond the Call of Duty token is taken and played on the it's brother in arms but it doesn't get lucky. In hindsight this could have been played on the pinned T34 which would have unpinned it.
The Germans roll low for reinforcements and gain an armoured grenadier squad in a half track which races up the road behind the first village and debusses it's infantry in to the wood.
Half track at the T junction behind the first village.
The Panzer Ace punishes the T34's previous beyond the call of duty action by destroying it. Token for the Soviets.
View of turn 4's Soviet infantry platoon with it's infantry advanced and the supports still in the base line due to lack of command dice to get them moving. Command is a challenge for the Soviets due to their numerous units and poor ratio of officers.
Due to congestion on the Soviet start line the last motorised infantry platoon does not come on. The Soviet focus is on the first village and the left flank tank attack.
The Soviet tanks keep advancing and take out the final StuG III F. As can be clearly seen the Germans finally roll high and gain their missing Panzer III platoon. However I'd have preferred it arriving by the first village.
Another benefit of rolling high for reinforcements was the arrival of the rest of the German armoured grenadier platoon. Unfortunately it arrived behind the first village and was a little exposed. The red dice means a unit has been allocated an order action. I find this the best way to track how many orders have been used.
The half track that had arrived to deliver the German grenadiers in to the woods is taken out by the T70.
Finally the Soviet infantry move up, triggering ambush fire from the Germans which pins a squad.
Soviet T34s use their favourite order and HE the woods at the end of their move pinning the newly arrived Germans.
In taking a token to unpin their units the Soviets pick up a confusion token which they play on the Panzer Ace forcing him to take a morale test. He passes. phew!
In the background you can see the 50mm Pak38 armed half track takes out the T70 threatening the T junction. A panzer grenadier infantry and MG squads debus by the hedge.
The white smoke of pinned units in the background show the results of a mortar strike and MG fire from the newly arrived panzer grenadiers.
At the end of this final turn the Soviets have taken no objectives from the Germans. Both villages are held, one more strongly than the other. The Soviets have 8 mobile tanks left and a full infantry platoon more than the Germans. The Germans still have 4 tanks left including their Panzer Ace and a PaK40 has just arrived that can kill anything on the board, if it can hit it, which it didn't this turn. Plus they have all their mortars intact to suppress infantry. Having said that the Soviets have their horse drawn AT gun which is good, and they too have their mortars but they are not as powerful as the German's.
So who won. Based on objectives achieved the Germans, but the rules state that when times up the side who has the most BR remaining wins. The Germans had 32 BR left and the Soviets 43. This makes the Soviets the winners.
It was a great game with loads of tension as the Germans didn't know what was coming on when or where. The idea behind the scenario was that the Germans were in exhausted and in confusion being hit by the counter offensive of the Soviets. The design expected the first village to fall quickly and the rest of the game for the Germans made up of disjointed counter attacks as they extracted their troops from the Soviet onslaught. As you've just read this didn't play out like this, although the Soviets still won.
As a positive for the Germans the Soviets had lost 53% of their BR while the Germans still had 51% on the board. Since the Germans still held all the objectives and the Soviets offensive was slowing down the game was very close to becoming a German victory. This fact in itself illustrates how successful the Germans were in buying time.How big of a difference is there between TIF and JPEG quality 12, 10 and 8? I ran a bunch of tests, and the results may surprise you!
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