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!