14/05/09: Camp Cromwell Firestorm Battle 1 Turn 3

Firestorm Battle 1 Turn 3

Jim's Tankovy attacking from Rudina v. Richard's Spevverband in Vitebsk.
Encounter Mission, 1500 points on 6x4 table.

Soviet Firestorm Troops: Heavy Battery + SMG + A/cars + Off table Art.
German Firestorm Troops: Pioneers.
Germans were out of supply & dropped to 1200 pts + F/S but had Festerplatz defences.
The minefields & wire caused the Russians to take it slowly, deploying Sappers, SMG, Heavy Art & Rockets with the armour in reserve.
The Germans deployed Paks, 88s & 2 infantry, with 105s, Hetzers & 2 more infantry in reserve.
The terrain was pretty close with hills, woods & villages restricting lines of sight.
With disadvantages of numbers it was a difficult task for Richard. The Soviet command took no chances and systematically used their numbers to grind the Germans down, winning by Army Morale Test.

Camp Cromwell 08/05/09

Jim's Bersalglieri v. Rich's Indians.

2000 points Cauldron on 8x6 desert table, Ities defending.
Rich was content to sit tight while gathering his forces before attacking. 3 Infantry & an HMG deployed around the Cauldron waiting for 8x25pdrs, Valentines, Matildas, 2x4 2pdrs & the RAF.
The Ities in the Cauldron (2 inf, HMG & 4x75's kept their heads down waiting for the cavalry to arrive 2x5M14, 6L6, 4 Semo47's & 4 Semo76's.
The cavalry came on in a rush. The L6s doubled towards the 25pdrs on their left, the M14's charged the infnatry near their edge of the table & the Semos headed around the right to support the Cauldron. The L6's drew the 2pdrs to the flank away from the action. The M14's & the infantry mutally destructed. The Valentines attacked the line, made a hole & were then blown away by the 75's. The Matildas were then destroyed by the Semos & 75's. The Indians had to throw HMGs then 2pdrs forward to get within 40cm of the objective - only to see them mown down & the battle lost anyway.
A very enjoyable battle though, with lots of silly hats and choice of silly accents. I do love the desert & it's the best place for the Cauldron Mission.

Tuesday 05/05/09 at Camp Cromwell

Firestorm Battle: Turn 2 Battle 5 - Russians attacking Vitebsk.

Mark's Tankovy v. Steve's Sturm troop in No Retreat with Festerplatz. Supply dice 1 = down 1 morale step.

Mark put in a pretty good attack. The line of minefields & wire was a real problem - especially when the sappers got pinned down by mortars & stayed that way. But he cleared most of the defence with tank fire & pressed on ove rthe wire. Enough tanks got through to take the objective, but the Germans blew them back off it, mostly with their artillery which had deployed out of reserve. The Soviets took it again, but again got blown away & this time failed army morale. A 5:2 victory for Germany & the heroic Vitebsk garrison held off the third attack on them.
The first pic shows the wall of Ivans line dup for the attack, the second shows the burning wrecks around the objective.

This was the last battle for the turn - we now go to the strategic phase between turns 2 & 3.

Practice Battle:

Byron's 7th Arnour v. Richard's Spevverband in 1500 pts Breakthrough.
The battlefield was pretty open giving the German 888's & Hetzers great lines of fire. Byron couldn't find a way around that & it was a comfortable German victory.

Nick in Launceston

Nick vs Rob. It was Rob's third or fourth game. He had a beautiful British armoured force he borrowed vs Nick's 12 SS Panzers from Cobra. Unfortunately Nick arrived at the club late, so the only table left was in Sci-Fi colours! The battle was a cauldron. The hero was a Luftwaffe 88 in the middle of the cauldron -- it took out 5 tanks! The SS Panzergrenadiers were pinned by flamethrowers, and never unpinned. But the SS Panzers methodically took the British apart platoon by platoon.

Camp Cromwell Firestorm Campaign Turn 2 Battle 4

James' Tankovy attacking Bobruisk v. Richard's Sperrverband (from Berizina)

Mission: Cauldron with Festerplatz defence.
Firestorm Troops: Soviets - 2 Artillery, Germans - Pioneers.
The Cauldron was ringed with minefields & minefields defended by a Sperr Inf, a Sperr Pioneer, a Pioneer & 2 88's. The Germans had Stugs, Hetzers, 105's, Sperr & Mortars in reserve.
The Russians put their 2 Firestorm heavy batteries & their Sappers on the table with T34s, Shermans & Honeys (10 each) in reserve.

The Soviet sappers cleared the minefield where it passed thru a village & formed up the Honeys to charge through, but the Stugs came on, fired down the road & the road became blocked with a pile of burning Honeys. So the sappers had to get to work clearing another minefield as the Shermans & T34s tried to supress the German fire on them. The Germans 105's & Hetzers arrived a bit late, but soon made their presence felt destroying the Shermans & making a hole in the T34s. But the Soviet artillery was making a big difference - for a change. They had popped the 88's early on & evetually 2 Stugs, 2 105's & 2 Hetzers as well. James had belatedly realised that the shit fight wasn't right place for the Honeys & they swept around the German's left to finish off the 105's. The T34/85's finally finsihed off the Hetzers, then the last pesky Stug. This left the Germans in a hopeless position. The Soviets could just stand back & blast away until the Germans' failed Coy Morale & there was nothing the Germans could do as they had with no artillery or Armour or anti-tank left.

The battle looked a hard ask for the Germans, but as always they are tougher than they look. RIchard put up a good fight & the Stugs & Hetzers almost turned the game. In the end it was the Soviet artillery that won the day (good Firestorm choice by James). It was a 4:3 victory for the Soviets & Bobruisk falls. The Firestorm rolls lost the Soviets one of their Artillery, the German Pioneers retreated to Osipovichi. The Soviets can move their surving Art plus up to 3 other 4 Firestorm troops from Berizena to Bobruisk.

Pic 1: The start. Soviet batteries in the distant corner, Sappers lined up to clear teh village.

Pic 2: The Tankovy line up.

Pic 3: The end - the Germans still hold the objectives but have lost more than half their platoons & would have to survive at least 20 mg dice at 4+ to launch a counterattack .

Total War 02/05/09

Jim's Tankovy + Strelk v. James: Panzer + Spevverband in 3000 pts Total War on 8x6 table.

The Mission is quite different from the typical in that you accumulate a VP by holding an objective at the start of your turn. There are 6 objective - 2 on each side & 2 in no mans land. Support troops are separated from the Coys and combined, so in this case we each had effectively 3 Coys - Tank, Infantry & Support. The battle ends either at an aggreed time or when one side hads lost all the Coys or all but 1 Coy & all the support platoons.
The Russians attacked with armour on the left, Staff in centre & Strelk on the right. The Russian armour won through to the objective, but just 4 Hetzers supporting the infantry made it a costly & time consuming exercise.
The straff took their objective before being slaughted by HMGs as usual.
The Russian attack on the right went pretty weel fro a while, but German counterattack by grenadiers & Panzers stoped it and the Germans took both objectives on that flank. But Russian reserves in a town stopped further advance.
Back on the Russian left, the Tankovy finally disposed of the pesky Hetzers & were able to turn right and meet the Panzer counterattack.
At the start the Russians gained objectives & accumulated an advantage in VPs, but the Germans counterattacks reversed the match & they caught up & got in front. As we had all day to fight & neither side really got on top, the battle degenerated a bit at the end with both sides all but destroyed. The germans did finally fail morale after about 5 hours, but if their ahd been a time limit, it's anybody's guess who would have been in front when the bell went. Pretty much a draw really.

Firestorm Campaign Turn 2 Battle 3

Russians attacking Orsha from Gorki

James' Sperrverband v. Rich's Tankovy in No Retreat Mission - Germans defending with Festerplatz (Jim umpiring).

Two Sperr Platoons in the front line with just 105s in support looked a bit lonely when the swarm of T34s, Shermans, Strelk, Straff & Pioneers started forward with rockets flying overhead. But they did throw a 5 for out of supply so it had no effect), were entrenched with a good line of wire & minefields & a Pak ambush to help. The Sappers got pinned by artillery & didn't unpin for 3 turns The tanks tried to cross the minefields, lost some, but got enough across to assault on both flanks. On the left the Shermans drove the infantry back, but their commander got left on the minefield & they became pillboxes. On the right the T34's also drove the infantry back, but then Stugs & Hetzers from reserve plus the Paks destroyed them.

The Straff reached the minefields and were steadily slaughtered as they failed to lift it. This distracted the Germans long enough for the Sappers & Strelk to come up. The Strelk made a gap in the minefield & charged. They drove a Stug off the objective but were repelled by the infantry counterattack - though the German infantry then failed morale. But the Russian attack had run out of steam, their last 3 Sappers, 1 Sherman, commander & the rocket battery (less 1 truck) got away. The battle was a 5:2 victory for the Germans, but they threw 1's for Firestorm casulaties and none were lost by either side.

Pic taken from behind Germans. The Shermans are on the right. On the left the T34s have been destroyed, the Straff are hung up on the minefield, the Sappers pinned down left rear & the Strelk waiting their turn centre rear.

Firestorm Campaign Turn 2 Battle 2

Russians attacking Vitebsk from Rudina (at Barrie's)

Barrie's Speverband v. Jim's Strelkovy (Steve providing unbiased umpiring).

The Germans had the usual small army of desperadoes armed to the teeth with HMGs, Pak 40s & Panzerthingies, plus Heavy Artillery over the Volga. Then they threw a 6 for the out of supply dice & became fearless. It was agreed that the Mission would be a Not One Step Back city fight (for a change). The city fight table is only 4'x3' so 32 pts of fortifications went a long way.

The Russians were fortunate to get the first turn and the sappers were up to the minefields at the start and made some gaps. The KVs & Straff headed for the RH objective & the big Strelk + SUs headed for the LH objective. The rest of the army couldn't fit in the front line. The T34/85s were deployed hull down on a hill on the right with a good field of fire to take on the Paks. The KVs were beaten off by the Pioneers with 1 killed by Paks, 1 bogged & 1 killed by the Pionners failed morale & disappeared. The Straff took over the attack & died to the last man but just couldn't get there.

On the other flank the Paks knocked off the SUs before the T34's got them all, but the big Strelk worked its way forward & actually got to the objective, but the Germans had an occupied trench line behind occupied to dispute it. The T34/85s had finished their work on the Paks, but were too far back to help much & the Strelk were blown off the objective by HMGs & heavy artillery.

But the fascists were incapable of attacking the Russian objectives so the battle was a draw. The Russians lost 3 platoons to the German's 1, so VPs were 2:0 (Desperate Battle rule). No Firestorm Troop casualty dice was required. But the Fascists still hold Vitebsk.

Pic from behind Russian line at the start.