Back to Stalingrad: Scenario 5, Hill 154.2

 

After an extended break it was great to be back in our happy place, battling over the grim Eastern Front. This time we'd made it to the fifth scenario in Warlord Games Campaign Stalingrad. Commander Roy had selected a veteran Heer infantry platoon to defend the hills. I had got carried away with the description of the soviet force and had got fixated on the "Human Wave Tactic" and "Siberian Veteran" elements mentioned in the scenario and let that dictate my army list picking. I plumbed for three platoons of infantry and one of mortars. the general plan was to advance steadily across the whole battlefield, shooting with one squad and leap frogging them with the other. the Siberian vets in the middle making a beeline towards the objective. the first set back was that my Siberian vets had lain unpainted for around five years, so task one was to get them painted up 

The Battlefield

The Germans were all deployed dug in across all the hills, with some artillery on the right flank

Turn One

With a nice run of luck, most of the German side was activated before the Russian horde made it on to the table top. I tried to stick to my tactic and advance on with LMG squads and firing to see if I could get some pinned units and then ran past them with the next units. This seemed to work initially with pins being received by the first units and the fresher units finishing relatively unscathed.

The above showing the entire Russian horde and the distance they had to cover against the well dug in enemy

Turn Two

Turn two began with some hopeful Mortar fire, I figured I might be able to reduce the squad holding the objective to a less imposing size. This was to prove quite difficult, my mortar fire was quite poor, but perhaps saved the day in moral factors later on.

the advance was going well in the centre

Although my right flank was getting an absolute pounding from a well placed artillery piece and MMG.

Turn Three and four

The mortars once again opened up and caused no damage, but were thankfully getting closer. after rereading the rules again we had judged that the hills would constitute difficult terrain so my charge range would be reduced to six inches. this meant another turn of running from my entire force into heavy fire. Certain squads were getting increasingly close to breaking. A very enthusiastic commissar begun polishing his pistol, ready for some inspirational encouragement. Thankfully, I had taken a captain and had him placed in the centre of my line. I figured I had almost a company out there so some senior leadership would be expected. This proved to be very useful and very little went wrong with regards to morale with the Russians over the whole game.

By the end of turn four the Russians had managed to get a veteran Siberian squad to the foothills of the objective Hill 154.2. The squad guarding it had eventually suffered some minor mortar fire but were now zeroed in

Turn Five

The turn started with Soviet mortar fire and the recipients choosing to go down to minimise the casualties. Along the rest of the line, furious fire opened up to attempt to further wound the defenders or stall the inevitable assault. On the right flank, disaster struck the usually fervent defenders, a FUBAR roll caused a relatively healthy squad to run off the table, exposing the artillery and weakening the whole flank. 

With a stirring speech the Captain ordered everyone around him to attack the 'Downed' defenders on the main objective.

The last order was to the assaulting Siberians, who easily pass their order test with a combination of the Magic Flag and the captains leadership. They are finally allowed to unleash the fury that they have built up over four turns getting shot at. With two veteran squads clashing over such a highly sought after prize we took to the books to make sure we correctly performed our first close assault in 3rd edition in ages. It was a high risk charge as we couldn't remember if the defenders get to either react by shooting all the LMGs or getting first swing in. As it turned out, the reaction shooting was impossible as the charge was declared under six inches away, but it was looking like the defenders would get a first swing as the attackers had to assault over difficult terrain. Then we noticed one fatal flaw, the defenders had chosen to go down earlier under accurate mortar fire. This meant the fight would be simultaneous, and with the Siberians being tough fighters, it was likely to go only one way. 

Thankfully for the Siberians, when the dust settled they were the only unit left on the hill

 

Commander Roy seemed to take it well 

Further pressure was applied on the left and right flanks, and both the hills were cleared.  Point blank SMG fire could be quite effective, who knew? 

Final Turn Six

At this point it was looking unlikely that I'd be able to get troops onto either of the secondary hills in time, despite clearing one of them, the other had a full squad of double LMG toting fanatics.

The secondary objectives defenders held on for grim death whilst mortar fire dwindled their numbers but there was no way the hill was being lost today.

On the primary objective the Heer defender attempted a brave counter charge, firstly generating as many pins as possible with close by units and then charging with the HQ unit, guns a blazing. Unfortunately, we remembered from earlier on, that the defenders would get to attack first and  almost completely wiped them out before they could even utter some strongly worded German fighting talk.

Conclusion

A great deal of fun was had by both sides, ultimately with double the points on the Russian side, it was always going to be a tough job for the defenders, perhaps more lesser quality troops to increase the fire power might have swung it. For now though, onto the next scenario - Downtown Stalingrad.

Campaign DDay: Overlord, Scenario 4 Gold Beach

The 8th June saw six plucky commanders and one confused looking GM hosting a D-Day commemoration Bolt Action scenario. I had proposed a scenario from the Battleground Europe that sounded interesting - Scenario 4, Gold Beach.

 

The premise was fairly hard going for the British, the board is split into twelve-inch sections representing deep water, shallow water, beach and then dry land. the British gain VPs by moving off the board or finishing in the German deployment zone, and both sides earn points by destroying units. My biggest concern was that the Germans would get a couple of turns to destroy as many landing crafts as possible as the British had to start off table and all be mounted on flimsy landing crafts.

One thing that did seem to go well was using two separate dice bags for axis and allies and a third bag that contained coloured cubes. Each side had a number of cubes equal to their remaining dice divided by three. I then pulled cubes out of the mixed back and handed a random three order dice bag of the matching side. Seemed to make sure everyone had a go and one side wasn't left waiting too long.

Germans

Commander Roy - Leutnant Hans Hoch, 1944 Atlantic Wall Resistance Nest Platoon

Commander James - Leutnant Fritz Lawnmover, 1944 Atlantic Wall Resistance Nest Platoon 

Commander Ed - Leutnant Hanz Gruber, 1944 Atlantic Wall Resistance Nest Platoon

 

British

Commander Roger - Major Donal, Lieutenant Tate, British Commando Platoon

Commander Neil - Lieutenant Linn, 1944 - Normandy Platoon 

Commander Chris - Lieutenant Chesterfield, British Beach Assault platoon

 

Deployment and Preparatory Barrage

The Germans choose to keep the majority of their infantry squads off table along with vehicles, once the smoke had cleared from the initial bombardment, they had a smattering of pins and one casualty. The bunkers had paid for themselves, and the British had been quite unlucky, this is despite them being able to roll two dice for preparatory bombardments

Turn One

A couple of surprises in the first turn, both the 88s missed the landing crafts and the Germans planned their first Artillery strikes to hit the water between as many landing crafts as possible. Both sides were to get a Artillery observer for free, this observer could also call strike after strike for as long as he lived.

Turn Two

Both Artillery strikes are delayed and moved closer towards the beach. on the Germans right flank, the first 88 strikes out and obliterates the landing craft carrying a DD Sherman. Thankfully the Sherman has brought some water wings and is propelled out the front of the landing craft to bob happily in the shallow water

 

The British in the middle strike out for the beach and issues another run order. First prize for hitting France goes to Commander Neil.

The rest of the landing craft approach more cautiously or are stalled by failing order tests due to the incoming fire and the accompanying fire.  I had initially assumed that crafts would only receive pins on 50/50 roll, but it quickly pointed out that open top vehicles receive pins no matter what is fired at them.

We are also all scoffing lunch at this point, kindly provided by Clare Gaming

 

Turn Three

We start seeing some progress in the middle section for the British, Commander Neil managed to get a squad off the landing craft into shallow water.

 

Commander Chris loses an entire landing craft and practically all its occupants to another 88 round. The sole remainder is one man of the light mortar team, who makes it to the beach and hits face down.

The Germans continue to pour on a horrendous amount of fire. They are joined by most of their reinforcements at this point, including a particularly scary quad anti-aircraft gun.

With the armour held up on a landing craft in the middle and the pins stacking up, it doesn't look like the Flail Sherman is getting out this turn

The first of the Armour hits the beach, and it’s a formidable one, with an ARVE the Germans will really have to worry about bunkers being busted. Although it’s got quite a few pins on it at this stage.

Turn Four

 

Disaster strikes on the British, accurate artillery bombardments have taken out landing crafts holding the majority of the commando force, they are all forced to dismount and wade for shore.

 

The drone of incoming aircraft is soon heard, could this be the chance the allies desperately need. Apparently not, we had hoped a cheeky intervention would help out the British, it wasn't to be though, the aircraft targeted Commander James’s 88 and feeling quite protective of it, his AA guns tore the planes out of the sky before any damage was done.

 

The British right flank has joined the fight on the beach and has a couple of relatively untouched squads disembark. the Tank is to remain stationary for the next couple of turns as it keeps failing order tests due to its accumulated pins.

Although with a great deal of squads now on the beach, the toehold can be strengthened

The British in the centre receive a barrage that leave every soldier on the beach nearby extremely rattled and all the squads receive many pins

The excellently converted Flail equipped Sherman is finally able to leave the landing craft when it is pinned out, only to have reached its maximum pin count too and be destroyed

At least Commander Neil can smile about his beloved tank being destroyed

A solid defence on the German Right flank is keeping the Commandoes in the water with continuous fire and accurate artillery strikes

Some progress is made in the Centre with a squad moving towards the german section of the table, the initial squad in the water has not been able to move

On the british right flank, the hope that came with the ARVE is dashed as an extremly accurate panzerfaust takes it out before it can be much of a nuisance. Commander Roger begins the long and arduous task of rallying the troops under heavy fire from a determined enemy

 

The disembarked flamethower on the British left flank, removes an entire squad for being too curious and coming too close

The British Artillery observer is now on the beach in the British left flank, cunningly disguised as a Civilian Sketch Artist, good old British ingenuity from Commander Chris

At this point Commander Neil runs out of pin markers to add and must borrow them from the opposing commander, oh the shame! The light mortar team has become so concerned with the amount of fire they are receiving from the quad AA gun that they fubar and run back into the sea for safety.

Turn Five

Commandoes finally start moving towards the beach

In a surprise move, the British in the centre get frustrated with shooting and charge into the flak wagon, completely destroying it and end their move on the German deployment zone

In an equally exciting manoeuvre the Germans attempt to take out the remaining light mortar crewman and fail miserably

The central 88 is targeted by two artillery strike, will this be enough to neutralise it?

Commandoes finally make it to the beach

Turn Six

Centre British force are now solidly built up and ready for the attack

Turn Seven

 British Artillery is applied throughout most of the centre German’s force, unfortunately with an extra devasting hit, the British forces also receive some destruction

The Civilian Sketch Artist is revealed to be a British Artillery Observer all along and calls down a strike on the nearby 88, meanwhile the DD Sherman is still languishing in the shallow water but with a rally order removing pins it may still see action yet

The British pull off an incredibly plucky order test and charge the closest 88, thinking it may give the British some sorely needed victory points and on consolidation move , potentially get them near the table edge 

Sadly it wasn’t to be, the British failed to score a single hit on the veteran crew of the 88 and are destroyed very quickly. a similar story is played out beside them when the sniper team is also assaulted.

The flame thrower team on the British left continues its rampage and takes out the team in the nearby bunker, unfortunately it then runs out of fuel

The commandoes have largely been removed under the weight of fire at this point

 

Turn Eight

 

Although the game was scheduled to go on for nine turns, it was largely finished at this point for the British

At the start of the turn the British had a final change of luck when the artillery strike accurately hits the 88 and takes its out

British still advancing on the Left flank

Alas a quick count on the dice accumulated on each side shows that it has been a very convincing win on the German side. 

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day, there was a small amount of frustration on the Ally side on having everything so heavily weighted against them but everyone was very sporting and played well. there were some lovely forces on display and I'm kicking myself for not taking time to photograph each of them before deployment. 

A little bit annoyed that I had had concerns early on about the issues the British might face and didn't seek to change anything about the scenario, I had assumed it might be ok once underway as sometimes you never can tell. the biggest issue seemed to be getting the forces to the beach. there is no other way to transport them other than flimsy landing crafts and the open top rules punish the occupants horribly, particularly the tanks.

 I had asked the team for recommendations for possible improvements if we were to try again or to recommend to other players. many thanks to the player, particularly Ed for these

 1. Allow the Brits 500pts of reinforcement starting at the shallow water mark on turn 5/6

 2. Allow the Brits ongoing artillery observer to be off board and capable of firing throughout the games

 3. Consider not allowing tanks to be pinned if on board a landing craft hit by small arms fire (the craft and troops inside still take pins as normal) or allow tanks to fire over the door of the landing craft with turret weapons

 4. Allow troops within 6 inches of the shore to fire

 5. Change the amount of water so its 1/3 shallow water, 1/3 beach, 1/3 land

 6. Allow the Assaulting force to deploy up to 12" in

Many thanks for reading, if you have played this scenario also, please comment on how your game went