Halt the Russian tide BGK game.

Our first game of the year saw my WW2 Russian and German forces get run out after abit of an abscense for a defensive line battle, I roughly used the scenario from the BGK book with a couple of added extras. As the German player I was unsure what armour would be arriving from reserve, When turn 4 arrived I would have to roll a dice to see what armour was available. I picked the armies in advance, basically the Germans had dug in around the out skirts of the train station and village. Anti tank guns in the shape of a 88mm and two PaK 38 and a platoon of infantry and a mortar battery is all that would stand in the way of a heck of a lot of T-34's and Russian infantry until the reserves started to arrive,if they arrived in time that is.

88mm A/T gun dug in in the wood with a  German MG38 and grenadiers behind the trench line

The German 80mm mortar battery to provide some much needed indirect fire support. They did manage to slow the Russian infantry advance from pinning hits but despite finding the target on numourous occasions I was failing to get any direct hits.

The road is the area the German armour in will be arriving from. Anything from Panzer III or IV's,Stug G platoon or a Panther platoon ( I would need a 6 on the dice for these beasts to turn up)

The Russian mortar battery was to prove useful in support of the advancing Russian infantry and tanks as it repeatedly pinned the German A/T guns. The chits I had to take as a result of unpinning the A/T guns was to prove very costly at the end of the game 

The Pak 38's engage the on rushing T 34's but despite some fine targeting I keep failing to penetrate the armour of the T 34's.

A Russian infantry platoon dismounts forms it's trucks and runs behind the cover of the hill towards the German trenches, when they came into view from behind the hill the German Grenadiers opened up from heavy fire and halted the Russian infantry 

 

On the Russian right flank the bulk of the armour was attacking the German trench line along with a infantry platoon in support. This platoon was to bear most of the indirect fire from the German Mortar battery. 

With the Getman A/T guns proving ineffectibe the T 34's covered the ground quickly using the Starl Starl Starl rule and knocked out the German A/T guns with a barrage of machine gun fire as they reached the trench line.

The Arussian attack on the right flank in full flow

Mortar rounds drop around the Russian infantry pinning the advance but causing no real damage, the Russian armour still pushes forward not effectived by the mortar rounds.

When the German armour arrived ( I rolled a 3 on a D6 so I got 4 X Stug G's) my dad managed to pull a aircraft chit so the Russian fighter plane headed straight for the Stug's.however the bombs scattered wildly and missed their target. The Stug's then became involved in a fire fight with the T34s at the trench line. Finally some Russian armour started to go up in smoke although the Stug's where surviving by a fine margin as a few times my dad equal led my armour value.

However the remaining two Stug's didn't last to long as the Russian SU-122 was on fine form and put two rounds from long range (6's required both times) into the Stug's easily knocking them both out

The remaining Stug's ammo was all but out so the supply truck got into the action reloading the Panzers 

However despite the remaining Stug's fully reloaded they are helpless to stop the Russian machine as the T34s storm over the trench line and the poor HMG dugout bottom left of the picture.

Finally the German BR was broken and the Russians had proved victorious. They had broken the German defence line and the German reinforcements were pinned in the village. 

The train station was now to fall into Russian hands and the use of a vital supply line had been lost by the Germans. What was was left of the defenders retreated away from the village as more T34s rolled in.

It was always going to be a hard task for me to try and stop all those t34s and T70's but the ineffectiveness of the anti tank guns proved very costly as I was drawing high chits to un pin them ( the first 4 chits accounted for 17 br points). My 88mm was out of position to really have an effect on the game as my dad choose to attack the opposite flank and the my dad used the Stal rule to good effect with his T34's closing the distance very swiftly. If I had managed to knock a few of those Russian tanks out as they advanced onto my position it may have given the Stug's more of a chance to counter attack. Great game to kick start the year, and with out doubt man of the match was this monster below, I'm sure it only fired twice and it recorded two kills..deadly!

Somewhere on the fields of Kursk

Russian tanks and cargo head towards the battle raging on the fields of Kursk

German mechanics repairing a Panzer IV ready to meet the on coming Russian hordes

The fields somewhere on the edges of Kursk, I took command of a German armed division to take on my Dad who was in command of a Russian armoured division. We decided to have a tank only battle of 600 points aside to see who would come out on top. The church was the only objective in the middle of the table. Aircraft chits would count as a one to your battle rating and low on ammo chits could be played on tanks (yes this would come back to bite me). As a little gimmick I had made one of my Tiger 1 tanks a panzer ace, if my dad could destroy this tank I would have to pull two chits instead of the usual one as it would have a demoralising effect on the rest of my Panzers.

Starl Starl Starl, The first wave of T34 tanks waste no time in rushing towards the initial German forces firing a few HE pot shots as they advance.

German Panzer III tanks head down the road towards the objective, taking it at the end of he turn.

Strike one to the Russians, my Panzer ace in the Tiger tank becomes the first casualty. My dad was forced to take a morale chit thanks to me taking the objective, my dad draws a low on ammo chit which we are allowing to be played on tanks tonight. The said chit is placed on my tiger ace and on the roll of 6 the tiger ace was completely out of ammo so decided to quit the battle field in search of more!! My two chits later saw 9 points wiped off my battle rating, I was getting a bad feeling about how this game was going to be heading!

               ( han's we seem to be out of ammo, best call it a day )

As the tiger ace leaves the field a second tiger enters the game in support of the Stug III platoon 

The second wave of Russian tanks enters the left flank in the form of  3 SU-76 tank hunters and some T-70 light tanks.

The Panzer III tank defending the objective 

A T34 advances to tne cover of the walled field and makes light work of the Panzer III but suffers the same fate as a second panzer III returns fire and moves into securing he objective again.

The Stug III platoon becomes involved in a long range fire fight over a few turns with 5 T34's, after a few rounds of firing and pinning one another a StuG manages to destroy a T34 before it suffers a direct hit and is destroyed. One of the other remaining StuGs has to fall back to the memo truck to be re supplied . 

The Panzer III in the back of the picture fails a morale test while pinned after suffering a glancing hit from the T70 and the crew abandon it and a second Panzer III erupts into flames from a direct SU-76 shot. The command Panzer III does manage to destroy the T70 in return fire in the lol owing turn.

 

A T34 is flanked by a Stug who some how fails to spot his target (must be because of all the smoke from the burning German tanks). The T34 returns fire pinning to Stug.

Some return fire over a few moves sees a t34 and the Panzer III command tank knocked out and a SU-76 destroy a tiger with a roll of eleven on the armour penetration roll, my Germans were all but broke by this stage.

The final nail in the coffin saw my final Tiger tank hit and pinned and then roll a morale of one, again leading Germany's finest Panzer crews to abandon there Tiger and LEG IT!!!!

Well that was me comprehensively beaten, my break point of 41 was passed with the chit drawn for the running tiger crew, I had lost a full squad of Tiger 1's, two of whom abandoned their tanks as the T34 shells bounced off the Tigers armour. I had suffered some terrible luck during the game finding it hard to roll high enough to penetrate the Russian armour and the less said about my morale throwing the better, I also had picked high chits at an alarming rate but to be fair to my dad he kept my fire power limited due to consistently pinning my tanks forcing me to take morale chits to un pin my units as his tanks advanced, especially neutralising my a tigers deadly 88mm guns.

 In the end it was a big and glorious victory for the red army.

The victorious Russian armour heads down the road as German Panzers burn all around them, victory was had today but plenty more Panzers still lay ahead...

Back to the eastern front

The weekend saw us return to the eastern front for A  500 point Battlegroup Kursk game. Featuring three objectives, two of which were a village in either sides deployment zones and a train station in the middle, the side who controlled all three would win the game. I took command of a Russian infantry division and my dad picked a Infantry based force for the Germans with a platoon of Stugs and a 88mm for good measure.

My force in the picture above included a platoon of infantry with an additional squad and anti tank gun, a reccee foot patrol, sniper, 82mm off table mortar battery, HQ, Observer, KV2 and a supply wagon and a KV1 platoon and a priority 5+ additional artillery.

My break point was 29 and the Germans around 40. 

The game saw us both hold our village objectives throughout the game and tussle over the train station, initially the Russians held it but were forced to withdraw under heavy German fire. Although the Russian armour started to edge the duel against the Stugs my infantry suffered heavy losses towards the later stages of the game from some impressive German MG fire and put me on the brink of defeat. The final blow came when a well placed 82mm mortar round landed directly on top of my 45mm anti tank gun knocking it out, the following morale chit saw the Russians surpass their break points so the Germans took the spoils comfortably in the end.

Here are some photos of he game,

Civilians file past the rail station as the German forces arrive

A Russian KV-1s and supporting infantry squad pass through one of the villages

A Stug III enters the game, ready to use its reserve move to push forward. 

The deadly 88mm quickly deploys to cover the rail line and readies itself on ambush fire

Russian Partizan troops (i use them as my reccee infantry squad) scout ahead to try reveal the German positions 

As the 45mm anti tank gun deploys the KV-1 and infantry squads rush towards the train station

After using its reserve move to get into a better position the Stug III fires a round or two at the KV-1 causing it to explode into a ball of flames

German infantry arrive from reserve and pass the windmill with a Stug III in support

The German infantry command squad contest control of the station after destroying the occupying Russian infantry

After using its reserve move to flank th KV-1 the Stug III cores a hit but only pins the KV-1. In the following turn I used a tactical co-ordination with my HQ to sucessfully un pin the KV-1. A fire and move order later The Stug was on fire and the KV-1 was in reverse heading for safety before the 88mm could avenge the Stugs destruction.

After a back and forth fire fight with a Stug the massive KV-2 out of ammo is reloaded by the ammo wagon ready to continue the fight

Seen the Stug also been reloaded a KV-1 sneaks through the corn field to take a shot at the rear of the German tank, a direct hit results in the Stug becoming immobilised.

The game ending direct hit from the German 80mm mortar round destroying the anti tank gun with a direct hit.