Stalingrad! All-Day Christmas Game (Part 3)

With the central building between the Russian held factories now firmly in German hands, Hauptmann Schewardt's pioneer platoon began to form up for their assault on the vulnerable Kraplinov Tractor Factory.

First of Schewardt's squads begins their assault

 

With an attack also coming from the sewers, the Russians are forced to face off against two opposite threats

Germans enter the Krapinov coming under an intense hail of machine gun fire.

 The unfortunate lead assault in to The Kraplinov blundered into the naval troops' specialist defence unit. Thirteen troops each equipped with an SMG. The ensuing combat pitched The Russian defenders on a massive 77 dice against the encroaching Germans on only 16!

The attacking German section is wiped out to a man.

 As you'd expect the German assault ended in total destruction, but exacted such a heavy toll in Russian leader casualties that Komrade Kapitan Leitchiski's naval troops Force Morale plummeted to ZERO and the Kraplinov fell to the invader.

Butcher's bill for the first factory.

Hauptmann Seebrucke's platoon emerges from the sewer to destroy fleeing Russian stragglers in fierce hand-to-hand combat under the crane.

 

Germans signal the capture of the central building to the Luftwaffe





A minor inconvenience as disproportionate losses force the Pioneren temporarily back into the sewers.



Germans in the Kraplinov office block also signal their capture to the Luftwaffe.

Surrounded on three sides, morale falling rapidly and in the knowledge that The Kommisar had perished in the attack on the neighbouring Kraplinov Tractor Factory, The remaining Russians holding out dissolved away to seek out reinforcements for tomorrow's inevitable push to reclaim this particular part of Hell. 



Marking the ruined roof of The Viagra Chemical Plant with their swastika the German victory, at least for today, is complete.

But who knows what tomorrow will bring? URAAAH!

 

 

Stalingrad! Christmas All-Day Game (Part 2)

The Russians deploy Svetlana Bosseyedovic, a sniper trained by the German Sniper School at Zossen, in a vantage point up in the tower crane. THIRTEEN shots later, she makes her first kill.

 



Blissfully unaware of the Germans below them, Russian Sailors deploy to the upper storeys of the Kraplinov to provide overwatch cover for the troops before them in the trenches.

While their Infantry colleagues do likewise in the Chemical Works covering the ruined fuel storage.

As casualties mount in the Fuel Silos, the Russians consider withdrawing having achieved their goal of holding up the German advance.

After softening up the defenders, Schewardt's Pioneren assault Russian positions in front of The Kraplinov Tractor Factory.

However, their left section are ambushed by an HMG as they skirt the signal box.

Despite losses from the HMG ambush, The Pioneren sweep the Russians from their entrenchments.

Russian dead litter the trenches, as the survivors retreat in disarray back toward The Kraplinov.



 

Desperate measures. Before: Up steps the Kommisar to stem the tide of retreating sailors.

 

Desperate measures. After: The Sailors shock is reduced by only ONE point.   

 



Succumbing to heavier firepower and confident that The Kommisar is elsewhere, the withdrawal begins in the fuel silos.



Waiting until an optimum opportunity presents, The Russians unleash their flame thrower in ambush on the pioneren moving through the central sewers. The attack results in only minor disruption and the German advance continues.

As they withdraw, Russians take unexpected fire, Downing their Kaporal and thinning both sections.

 

The unexpected fire is from the MMG with a sweeping view of the whole Russian withdrawal.

The German Pioneren assaulting from the central sewer clears the sailors from the forward building between the factories, severely weakening the Russian left flank. Both Pionere platoons mass to attack the Kraplinsky.

Having only just made her first kill, Svetlana is spotted and slotted by German LMG fire.

As Russian forward resistance ebbs away, the Germans turn their 75mm Infantry Gun in preparation for the final assault on the factories.

With the impending threat of assault, the Russians in the Viagra Chemical Works stiffen their defences in preparation.



As outlying troops begin to swarm back in from their forward positions the noose tightens around the Russians necks. Can they hold the factories long enough to receive reinforcements?.....



Stalingrad! Christmas All-Day Game (Part 1)

This year’s all-day at Earlswood Club was a bit extra special. After drooling over it since it’s completion in May, we finally got to game over Al’s UNBELIEVABLE Stalingrad terrain.

Our game pitched three German platoons with 20 support points attacking factories held by two Russian platoons with 14 support.

Kapitan Deaconev's Infantry Platoon (me) was defending the Viagra Chemical Works on our right flank

As Russians we had chosen in support 1 x 76mm Infantry Gun, 1 x man-pack Flame-Thrower, 1 x 12.7mm HMG, 1 x Sniper and for a bit of fun, 1 x Commisar.



Kapitan Leitchiski's Naval Infantry platoon (Bob) was defending the Kraplinov Tractor Plant on our left flank


Our German opponents commands lined up as follows:

Hauptmann Schewardt's Pionere Platoon (Al) took their right flank opposite Bob

Hauptmann Seebrucke's Pionere Platoon (Vlad) was in their centre

While Hauptmann Speiche's Infantry Platoon (Spike) was opposite me in the chemical works

The Germans chose an extra Senior Leader for each platoon, 1 x 75mm Infantry Gun (attached to Spike), 1 x man-pack Flame Thrower (Vlad) and 1 x MG34 MMG (Al). They had also clearly hatched a devious plan while Bob & I were despatched to make drinks in the kitchen.

Russians deploy two sections into forward positions among the ruined fuel storage

While sailors take up position in the upper floors of the office block and the forward trenches by the rail lines.

Hauptmann Speiche's Infantry begin a prolonged firefight with the Russians in the ruined  fuel storage (their orders had been to distract the Russians from the hidden advance through the sewers against their centre).

Meanwhile on the right flank Hauptmann Schewardt's Pionere begin their assault on the forward Russian trenches. One section advancing toward the signal box, another right-flanking while a third took up overwatch positions in the ruins behind them. 

As the advance toward the factories from both flanks began, Hauptmann Seebrucke's Pionere platoon, accompanied by their flame-thrower support advanced unseen through the central sewer toward the vulnerable gap between the defending Russians......

Jonny & the Diggers (part 2)

With just under six weeks to go until OML3 "The Lardest Day" I took the opportunity at last night's club to have a dress rehearsal for this year's Sari Bair-A Ridge Too Far Gallipoli game. I'm lucky enough to have been lent a great deal of the scenery and figures needed, but this would be the first time I would actually get to see both Mike Hobbs' and Alan Sheward's kit mixed together. The object of the evening was not so much sort out the final layout, but to see if there were any glaringly obvious omissions which would need to be sorted before the event.

View from the Anzac approach. There's about a 20"(50cm) rise from the near edge to the top of the slope.

I already had a plan in mind of how I wanted the table to look. 6' x 6'. A long sloping rise, based on two foot square tiles with a cloth overlay. Gallipoli is surprisingly much more verdant than would first be assumed with plenty of vegetation (cotton bushes, long grasses & even pine trees!) as well as the pale rocky soil. I found some more useful items while packing away at the end of the evening which I'll probably find use for on the day.

Another view from the bottom of the slope. I've hatched a plan to try to make it a little steeper (hopefully still allowing the figures to stand!)

Mike's trenches would form the Turkish line at the top. The trenches were often short, not too deep and not necessarily joined. so I'd opted for two 24" lengths on either flank with communication lines running to the rear on both sides.

Turks pour fire down on the approaching Anzacs from their trenches.

I'll be trying to make the dry stream bed at the foot of the slope more obvious and the lighter hills will maybe end up beneath the cloth too. There are more grass tufts to use on the day also. Again, the conundrum will be to provide more scenery without necessarily increasing the cover too much. I'm hoping that the folds in the ground will be the biggest source of concealment.

View along the Turkish lines.

Although I'm acutely aware that the Chain of Command mechanics for this stage of WW1 may provide a tad "vanilla" gaming experience, I'm hoping that the challenge of the terrain, objective and scenario may encourage the use of some of the less obvious options of approach to each phase. It differs hugely from the WW2 CoC game format. Most of the troops being armed with only rifles. No LMG's, little in the way of grenade usage and no fire teams! At this stage in warfare battles were still being conducted on a company level at least. So this will form only part of the picture as a couple of Anzac platoons are on table with the smallest manoeuvre element being 8-9 man sections. The HUGE Turkish platoons (83 men strong!) will only be represented in part also.

Anzac sections begin the long, unenviable slog up hill under heavy fire.

I'll be giving a lot of consideration to support choices too. A defensive machine gun or pre-assault bombardment can totally skew a game for either side. so it'll be a fine line to tread I fear.

This will need some thought. Maybe some "jamming" rules will be introduced? :^)

Lots more reading up should hopefully help in shaping the finer points of the game. overall I'm fairly happy with the way it's moving. It's all about making it playable from here.

Finally, the view from the top.

As always, please excuse the quality of the photos.



Jonny & the Diggers (part 1)

 No, not some long forgotten 50's rock & roll act but the forces facing off on the Gallipoli peninsular in 1915. So, with the Sari Bair game looming large on the horizon for OML3 the time was right to re-visit my old Battle Honours WW1 Turks who'd been languishing in a box in the garage for 10 years! I decided that the forthcoming game was the motivation I needed to lavish some long overdue attention on the little fellas.

After a quick inspection I decided I'd got far more than I needed (surprise, surprise!) and I'd paint a half-platoon of five 9 man sections, a senior leader and a junior leader with two maxim MMG's - although not all would actually see service this time around. I'd also need to make 4 jump-off points and some shock trackers. There were quite a lot of duplicates among them  so I decided to use some of the excellent Woodbine Designs range of separate heads to mix things up a little.


1st section with a couple of head  swaps on the bottom left figures.

2nd section with a well-fed junior leader and  head swaps on the two behind him.

3rd section - again a couple of fez head swaps.

Section 4 - straight out of the mix

Section 5 - again just the fez swapped

Two Maxim MMG's with dice frames in the bases for tracking crew losses and shock.

Shock trackers (casualties by Woodbine)

Jump-off Points using baggage from Grand Manner's WW1/Colonial range.

Senior Leader and Junior leader for the machine guns

Next up are the Anzac jump-off points and shock trackers which are based and ready to paint later this week.