Flames of War at Rich's

Jim's Panzergrenadiers v. Rich's Soviets

The rain having washed out school soccer Rich was free for a Saturday game.  We played the Surrounded scenario, Germans defending.

In this mission, the defender deploys in the middle 1/3 of the table with 1 immediate ambush.  The attacker deploys at each end of the table with 2 objectives inside the defender's zone. 

The Germans have placed a panzergrenadier platoon around the objectives on each side, artillery on the right, Stugs & Pumas in the centre & Paks in immediate ambush on the right.  Their HMGs are attached to the panzergrenadiers.  The Soviets have 2 Strelk coys on the near left, a big battery on the near right, Straff & T34's behind the wood far right & a mixed HQ unit next to them.

The Germans felt a bit insecure when the artillery took out 2 Stugs on the first turn.  The remaining 2 Stugs & the Pumas moved to the left & witht he help of an HMG and poor saves decimated the RH Strelk unit.  The survivors hunkered down around the house by the road.  The Stugs then moved back into the village to engage the T34's which have moved to the centre (behind the houses near the table edge).  On the right, the Straff assaulted the guns but were driven back by support from the panzergrenadiers.

 

The Stugs & Paks disposed of the T34's.  The Germasn then felt the panzergrens could hold off the Straff on their own so moved the Paks to fire on the artillery & the Stugs to support the other flank.  The Strelk on the left tried to assault the objective, but were stopped by the panzergrenadier's firepower.  The panzergrenadiers then moved up on the other Strelk with support from the Pumas & Stugs.  The Strelk broke and that was game over.

The Germans used the classic central position tactics of switching mobile reserves between fronts to good effect.  A couple more good salvoes from the Soviet artillery might have fatally hurt the Germans, but they used up all their luck on turn 1.  Maybe they tried to change targets too often.