| Onward to Berlin, Comrades! | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
This is the first scenario of the "Battle for Germany, 1945" campaign. I created 3 new leaders for each side, and will follow their progress using the leader advancement "role-playing" rules. Here are my protagonists: German
Soviet (Guards)
In this scenario, a weak battalion of 7/6 morale Volksgrenadiers, stiffened with a platoon of PzIVs, must hold the east-west road and towns on three boards in the face of a strong battalion of 8/6 Soviet Guards infantry and about a battalion of heavy armor and assault guns. The Germans set up infantry in trenches and in towns at key points along the road, hoping to force the Soviets to deploy and deliberately assault each location and therefore slow their advance. By contrast, the Soviets planned to rapidly assault the first defensive position along the road with two companies of infantry, while a force of armor and infantry advancing in parallel over open ground would advance deeper to hit the German defenses farther back. Their focus was on a rapid tempo and pushing past German speedbumps. The Soviet road assault force, Including Lts. Peshkov and Severin under a high-morale captain, with Lt. Ossipov leading the mortars and 76s, made a direct approach to the first town. As they entered direct fire range of the German defenders, the captain became demoralized, and within 15 minutes had been shot for cowardice by Comrade Kommisar. Suddenly on their own, Lt. Peshkov led an assault into the town while Severin's company moved to cut off German retreat or reinforcements. Peshkov's assault made progress but he became disrupted, then demoralized. The town defenders were led by Lt. von Nitwitz, who became disrupted before being able to join the assault, so his captain led the German counterattack. Severin's company chased von Nitwitz out of town and completely sealed off the German defenders. A Soviet captain from the other force arrived to take command of the assault and he and Severin finished off the Germans. Peshkov began to recover after a pep talk from the kommisar, but sat out most of the rest of the battle. The Soviet heavy tanks found the German panzers hiding in a copse and dispatched them handily, then plowed on toward a small town along their axis of advance that von Nitwitz had led a platoon of infantry to. Lt. Gluckwunch's "gluck" failed him entirely, and in no time his mortars were demoralized, then fleeing, then dead. Gluckwunch himself was reprimanded for cowardice after the battle. This Soviet force rolled on up the middle of the board, with German defenders seemingly melting before them. Back on the east-west road, Lt. Severin was making heroic efforts to keep the assaults against a series of entrenched positions moving forward, culminating in the combined-arms assault on Lt. Schnitzengruben's position. Schnitzengruben was the last German leader on the board before he, too, succumbed to the might of the New Soviet Man. The entire Soviet force gathered for the final assault on the last German trench swept it away. The Germans were wiped out to a man. Conclusion: This was a fun scenario, and I particularly enjoyed using the character leader rules. I think they add tension and excitement to the game, and encourage you to think twice about desperate attacks or last-ditch defenses if one of your little cardboard lieutenants is on the line. The Germans were pummeled, but consistently rolled well on bombardment and direct fire attacks which forced the Soviet leaders to work hard to keep their men moving forward. This was one of the first scenarios I have played where the Soviets had better morale than the Germans, and where I was able to see the Soviet doctrine of relentless advance in action. The results for my 6 characters were:
So The Germans will need two new leaders for the next scenario in the campaign. Until then, the roster looks like this: German
Soviet (Guards)
Doug McNair kindly pointed out that any one leader can earn no more than one medal per scenario, so I updated my records and this AAR to show that Severin only earned one medal |
||||||||||||
| 0 Comments |
You must be a registered member and logged-in to post a comment.