Campaign start from the Soviet perspective Now we had out first campaign battle after building terrain, painting figures and most of all, talked about how we wanted to do it for... nine months or something! So we decided to have somewhat of an extravaganza, a Big Chain of Command about the centre of the struggle - the western train station in Stalino! Two platoons on each side and a whole day of gaming! We played a scenario we named "Encounter Battle", which is more or less the same as the "Patrol" scenario, but you roll 2d6 for support instead of 1d3. The Soviets - thats me and my comrade Willi, took the following forces (or, that's what hit the table, the support we did not deploy have to stay secret to our enemies so we can´t give it away here): Motorized Rifle Platoon 1941 Ranking Officer Medic Molotov Cocktails 8 extra SMGs (and eight support that never made it to the table) Green Tank Platoon - 2 KV-1, the Senior Leader is a Tank Ace Two Infantry Squads Senior Leader (and two support that never made it to the table) We faced one platoon each of German Gebirgsjägers and Italians. Here is the aerial photo we used to set it up and our table: With only one platoon for the patrol phase we deployed to a central position and got badly flanked by the Italians on our right. We decided to try to stall the Italians and crush the Germans with our tanks and the majority of our forces. The game began cautiously and as a surprise we deployed not one but two KV-1. We built them this Spring and have kept them out of sight from our opponents for the campaing! The German and Italian players were a little puzzled, but thought that the models were nice. We occupied the rail station (the big red building) with two squads, and the two officers tied to the infantry platoon. One KV-1 started a duel with two PAK-36 in the railroad warehouse, the tank getting the better of it. The other tank turned left and started attacking the Germans. Then disaster struck, a German flame-thrower torched the railstation and we were forced to evacuate. The captain was badly hurt in the attack and could not move out of the burning building! But our opponents were very chivalrous and let us take him out after being attacked by the flame-thrower once more, an attack he survived. The medic could then patch him up. This evacuation left the Soviets in disarray. We started to anchor up the defense against the Italians with one more squad and the other evacuated infantry followed the KV-1 that attacked the Germans. This was an hazardous run through MG-34 fire from the rail-yard but after some chaotic manouvering the were in place to engage the Germans who tried to extend their flank over the rail-yard, probably in an attempt to get away from the punishing tank fire. After this we had to wrap up long before the game had come to a conclusion. So we agreed to a draw as both forces were high in morale and it was more down to the lack of time than one force needing to withdraw. Something of a anti-climax, but I think thats what you get when you make this much preparations! But we got to test our new tanks (their armour was thick enough!) and look at all the nice terrain we built. And since the game ended in a draw we'll get to play on the table again, nice!
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WW2 Campaign BlogThis blog follows the second Chain of Command club campaign, set in the intense fighting over Stalino in October 1941. Archives
January 2018
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