Scenario 3/20: Falangist Honor – Soviet Masses launch night attack

The main objectives: Soviet 1. Control both main towns by the river. OR 2. Control the northern towns and road. OR 3. Control the southern town and road

Spanish 1. Stop the Soviets and inflict casualties.

Time = 15 hours (60 turns)

Note: Score will be denoted by (x-y), where x=Soviet casualties, y=Spanish casualties.

THE BATTLE

Night, snowing. Snow on the ground. River is frozen. Visibility = 2 hexes.

Midnight. Soviet forces arrive in the east a few kms east of the frozen river. They advance en masse where the Spanish wait in northern and southern towns.

The Soviets close in. They stay at maximum visibility in the north engaging in direct fire while in the south they move in for assault.

Artillery begins to fire from both sides. (3-1)

Soviet armour heads towards the Spanish mortar position.

Spanish 37mm crews are eliminated. Soviets take huge casualties from close (adjacent) fire and artillery strikes!

Just after 0200 and casualty count has leaped, Soviets have already lost 8 full platoons (16-4)

Spanish fire and 2 more Soviet platoons are lost in both the north and the south! (24-4). But the Soviets counter attack and Spanish suffer devastating losses of their own losing 1 and a half platoons, 75mm battery and a Captain. Soveit HMGs move into the southern town.

Spanish mortars are being overrun by Soviet armour.

In the north, Spanish troops are demoralised as their Teniente is killed. They rally but lose morale and men when hit by further artillery.

In the south, the sides trade losses, which is not good for the outnumbered Spanish. (27-11)

Nearing 0300 and the Spanish are hurting in both towns but continue to inflict casualties. Both sides bolster the assault in the north as one Spanish platoon flees into the nearby woods only to be blown up by Soviet artillery. (34-17)

Spanish reinforcements arrive in west. Soviet armour moves north to assist in the assault of the northern town.

The Kommissar begins eliminating Soviet troops who fail to rally.

In the South, Spanish suffer terrible losses. An infantry platoon is eliminated while a HMG platoon flees town demoralised. Again, it is quickly eliminated by the heavy Soviet artillery and mortars. The Spanish are down to a single platoon in the south while the reinforcements race from the west to relieve them.

Spanish have already lost 7 officers. (38-22)

0400 Spanish are holding out as Soviet command is faltering (a couple quick Fog of War turns). Soviet artillery hits Spanish reinforcements in the south. (43-24)

0500 Spanish Bicycle reinforcements make it to the outskirts of the northern town They eliminate some Soviet infantry but are hit very hard by Soviet artillery.

In the southern town the Spanish are dwindled down to half a platoon. (54-30)

Almost half of the Soviet foot have been eliminated (lost 27 full platoons, began with 56)

0600 The Sun is beginning to rise. Spanish 105mm reinforcement picks off some Soviet T60s in the north. Soviet air has its first successful air strike.

The southern town is finally taken. The Spanish Teniente flees north and spots the Soviet mortars in the woods. He directs Spanish artillery against them. (61-36)

Halfway (7.5 hours, 30 turns in)

The next hour passed by quickly with few casualties as Soviets attempt to regain command structure. (quick FoW rolls) (37-62)

Spanish artillery begins picking off Soviet demoralised platoons and the Soviet 105mm is eliminated. Mortars respond by killing the Spanish Teniente who was spotting for the artillery.

The northwestern village is hit hard by Soviet artillery. (39-68)

Again, the next hour sees few casualties as the snow limits Spanish spotting. Soviets begin making their way west in the southern half. (40-69)

Soviets begin to approach the dug-in Spanish in the southwest and are hit by artillery. (42-73).

Spanish are down to 4 platoons in the southwest, 4 in the northern town and 1 platoon in the northwest village. Soviets have not yet obtained any of their objectives.

11 hours (44 turns) have passed. Nearly 3/4 time.

Soviets begin shelling the Spanish in the southwest. Over the next hour the dug-in units are demoralized and unable to recover under the constant shelling. They are eliminated! Two platoons remain in the woods overlooking the road.

In the northern town the solitary Spanish platoon is lost. The Spanish resistance remains with 3 platoons locked in an assault that neither side wishes to initiate. (48-78)

In the southwest woods the Soviets initiate an assault with 3 platoons. The Soviets are devastated but they manage to demoralise one of the Spanish platoons which flees and is picked off by Soviet artillery fire.

In another stroke of terrible luck, the remaining Spanish platoon is reduced when hit by friendly fire! (51-79)

This last half platoon holds out for another 45 minutes until it is finally eliminated by Soviet artillery after the Soviet infantry was destroyed. The Spanish captain tries to hide but is eliminated by a second artillery strike. (52-83)

With 2 hours (8 turns) remaining, the Soviets have clear rein to claim the southern east-west road and the Spanish admit defeat.

SOVIET VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

Spanish forces remaining: 1 Inf in northwest village. 3 platoons and Lt (20 Firepower) holed up in the northern town.

Official final casualty count was 53-84, which was almost the same as was tallied. (I’m never sure how accurate my running total is, but it appears I was quite good at remembering to click the counter this time).

There were a few pivotal factors which impacted the result of this battle.

First, the low visibility allowed the Soviets to not only advance under the cover of darkness, but even more importantly it allowed them to retreat into the darkness whenever they became demoralized. This “saved” them from further attacks/artillery and allowed them the chance to rally.

Second, Off-Board Artillery. Artillery is King. This was very strong for both side. The Spanish had 55 and 21 factor attacks while the Soviets had two 42 factor attacks (and another 30,24,24 from on board artillery and mortars). This resulted in serious poundage to anyone not in urban protection. As stated above, the Soviets were lucky they could melt into darkness. But when the sun began to rise, the Spanish artillery was relentless against demoralized Soviets.

Fog of War: After their initial advance, the Soviet command structure became quite fragmented. FoW would usually end the turn pre-maturely and sometimes quite early. The Spanish almost always got to activate everyone they wanted.

Kommissars: They eliminated about 5 Soviet steps and rallied one. Because of the above, they rarely activated (and one was killed early by Spanish artillery).

Soviet Leaders: Soviets had 18 leaders. 14 had 0-0 stats. Only for had a single +1 modifier. Frankly, they stunk! This made morale checks and recovery for the Soviets very difficult.

Overall, this was a great battle, and until the Spanish in the southwest took some unlucky artillery strikes (and the assault in the woods) I didn’t know who would win. It turns out I was pretty good in keeping the casualty tally updated, so it was more accurate than I thought.

Scenario Rating: 4/5. Another great grand battle. Soviets need to decide how to advance and the Spanish get to be opportunistic and kill a lot of Soviets. The length feels balanced, as it wasn’t until 85% of the way through “time” that the scenario went from a draw to a Soviet Major Victory. They Spanish almost held out!