Author	Capt. Chaos (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2023-04-17
Language	English
Scenario	PGUM003

Tank Incursion

Tank Incursion is Scenario Three of the PG Uber Mentoring Scenarios. It is short scenario and basic in its scope. It was designed to demonstrate the assignment and masking of tank leaders. It also gets the trainee used to configuring multiple maps. The maps consist of varying terrain such as forests, a river, a road, fields and hills. As such is good for demonstrating the hiding and unhiding of units along with the requisite maneuvering associated with it. I still find it beneficial to my progress to be alternating the PG Uber Mentoring Scenarios with the An Army at Dawn scenarios.

The Soviet’s objective in this mentoring scenario is to hunt down and eliminate 6 German steps with tanks counting double.

The German objective is to kill 5 Soviet steps with T34-a’s counting double.

I played Tank Incursion as the Soviets.

Background

Stalin’s paranoia threw the Soviet’s developing modern tank doctrine out the window. With the Soviet officer corps’ initiative crushed, the Red Army threw its formations into battle with little imagination and, more importantly, no flexibility. This situation was much worse in the Soviet armor corps. Tanks were disastrously committed against the well led combined arms formations of the German invaders. In Tank Incursion, Soviet armor attempts to engage an unscouted German position supported by armor and aiti-tank guns.

Played on maps 4 and 5, the Soviets chose to enter on the eastern edge of the map.

Game Length: 5 Turns First Turn: 1100 Hrs Other: Town Hex on map 4 treated as woods. A road connects Hexes 0610 to 0810.

Germans: Set up first At least 5 Hexes from east and west map edges Units setting up in limiting terrain may begin hidden 3x INF 1x HMG 1x 37mm AT 1x 50mm AT 2x PzIIIh 2x Truck

Leaders: 1x CAPT, 2x LT, 1x SGT Morale: 8/6 Initiative: 1, -1 if 3 steps lost OBA: None Special Rules: None Soviets: Enters on turn one from west or east sides of the map 4x BT-7 3x T-34a

Leaders: 4x Tank Leader Morale: 7/6 Initiative: 0 OBA: None Special Rules: None

This scenario is played with the optional initiative rules of rolling dice after 3rd turn to determine the initiative

Soviet Objectives: Hunt down and eliminate 6 German steps with tanks counting double

German Objectives: Kill 5 Soviet steps with T34-a’s counting double

Engagement

The Germans set up as follows:

• The Germans set up hidden in the hills and fields north and south of the road on map 5.

The Soviets entered as follows:

• The Soviets entered on the east side of map 5 in a fairly balanced broad approach.

• A T-34a taking cover in the woods in the northeast corner of map 5 north of the road and east of the river.

• A T-34a and a BT7 taking cover in the eastern 2 Hexes of the wood in the southeastern corner of map 5, with the T-34a in the Hex directly north of the BT7.

• 2 BT7s made a broad approach entering on the eastern edge of the east-west road in the center of the maps, traveling west with one BT7 on the road and the other in the adjacent Hex directly north.

• A T-34a followed along the road two Hexes behind those two BT’s.

• A BT7 entered to the south of the woods in the south-eastern corner of map 5 keeping even with the two leading BT7s on the road to the north.

As the leading Soviet units along the road moved to contact by pressing west, the Germans on the hill to the north and the field to the south became visible.

At this point the German units on the hill to the north of the road, including PzIIIh’s, 50mm, and 37mm AT guns, engaged and destroyed the two leading BT7’s…the one on the road leaving a wreck blocking the road.

The southernmost Soviet T-34a left the cover of the forest and headed due west to the south-eastern corner of the southern field and engaged the PzIIIh north of it in the small field immediately south of the road, disrupting it.

The remaining BT7 from that same forest maneuvered west and joined that T-34a forming a 2 stack in the same Hex southeast of the southern field.

The remaining BT7 moved to the west south of the southern field and entered it on the south-western corner, flanking the PZIIIh in the small field to the north.

The T-34a that was in the forest Hex in the northeastcorner of the map crossed the small river and flanked the hill to the north.

The T-34a on the road engaged and demoralized the destroyed the PzIIIh in the small field south of the road.

The T-34a flanking the hill to the north endured a withering assault from 2x German INF Platoons, disrupting half of them.

The maneuvering in and out of cover and concealment continued for both sides as the German PzIIIh redeployed from the hill north of the road to the small field south of the road, and the Soviet T-34a and the two BT7s that were south of the road maneuvered to the north crossing the road on the western edge of map 5 in an attempt to flank the hill and small field to the south of the road on the west.

Movement and contact between both sides continued until the Soviets met their objectives. At this point we continued the scenario until the last turn to keep practicing the maneuvering in and out of cover.