This game was played over Skype in a brisk 90-100 minute session of play. Tony chose this one from a list of many he desired to have a go at and so, I was able to 'cross-off' another scenario from this monster pack of 112.

This battle depicts a mainly all armour affair where Soviet monsters of the time, KV1 and T34's backed up with lightweight BT-7's take on a German force mainly composed of PzIII's, but with a couple of IV's and even a puny II and some SdKfz 251's. They have a handful of infantry too. What DOES need to be borne in mind by the Soviet though, despite his heavier armoured beasts is the 5 v 2 initiative advantage of the Germans. To win, the Germans must knock out 6 Soviet steps whilst the Reds need to knock out either 4 armoured steps or a 7 step combo .... To battle !

The German forces were moving eastwards and they had placed a company of infantrymen and an MG platoon on the road to Sabinovka (incidentally led by one of the regiments finest Leutnant’s). They were also supported by 2 x platoons of PzIII tanks. About 800 yards to their north were 6 more platoons of tanks (1 PzII, 3 PzIII and 2 PzIV) shielding 4 x groups of APC’s. The Soviets to the east were deployed on the edges of Sabinovka itself.

0900 hours: The German infantry went forward along the road with their 2 x PzIII platoons breaking off to the south. The Soviets advanced west from Sabinovka towards the Germans, but their whole company of BT-7’s came under long-range fire from the enemy PzIII’s 1800m away. Six German salvoes rung out aimed at the BT’s. This destroyed a couple of them (1 step) and demoralized the rest of the platoon. With this small but initial success, the 2 x platoon of PzIV’s edged cautiously forward keeping in mind the distant T34’s and KV’s.

0915 hours: The PzIII’s that had opened fire continued raining their 50mm rifled AT fire against the distant BT’s but with no effect. Meanwhile, the 2 platoons of PzIII’s that had broken off from the infantry continued rounding southwards. The harangued BT-7’s opened up on these flanking enemy tanks but also without any success themselves. The Soviet tank commander in charge of the T34’s feared these southbound Panzers were setting up for crossfire shots on his ‘monsters’ side armour and in response, withdrew in order to prevent this trickery. Regardless, the PzIv’s to his front advanced to a nearby hillock to continue their threat, but worse still, the T34 commander had unwittingly pulled up in front of the advancing German infantry company coming up the road and his tanks were now in peril. The KV’s had to be content with trying to lumber toward the action.

0930: The battle began to unravel for the Soviets quickly. The German infantry swarmed all over the two T34 platoons that had stumbled into their path. The fight was swift and deadly. Initially destroying a quarter of the T34’s (1 step) in close assault, the rest of the Soviet tankers (yes I said tankers),obviously believing they were going to be destroying weaker enemy tanks that day rather than being mauled by masses of infantry became immediately demoralized. In a shambles of an escape attempt, (enforced recovery and failure) the remaining T34’s became victims to grenade bundles under their tracks and on their fuel drums, as well as schmeisser bursts down their hatches. They were completely and utterly destroyed (3 steps). The BT-7’s remained without further harm as the distant enemy firing still failed to hit any more of their number and the main Soviet hope rested now on the lone KV platoon.

0945: All hope was lost from this point as the KV now became the centre of the German attention. Those German PzIII’s that had moved south now managed to loose off shells on ‘The Beast’s’ flanks. Reacting to this believing to be under serious attack, as the KV’s swung round, the two PzIV platoons that were positioned on the hilltop announced themselves with their bellowing 75mm guns. Half the KV platoon was now no more (1 step) and the game was up ! To the KV credit, the remainder of the platoon stayed in good order and now began to withdraw. The Bt-7’s also withdrew into Sabinovka town.

1000-1015 hours: The finale of the battle took just 30 minutes to be completed. The German infantry pressed on Sabinovka forcing the BT-7’s to open fire in their own defence. With the BT-7’s committed, PzIII’s drove into the town behind them. The infantry assaulted both town sections containing these tanks and whilst engaging them, the PzIII’s finished them off with close range AT fire. All but 1 step of Soviet tanks had been eliminated and without any loss to German numbers at all over just 6 turns.

It sounds like a harsh defeat and maybe it was ? Tony, I'm not sure had realised the effect of having such a lower initiative. When we have played the other 3 battles with 44 Yanks v Germans or even Indians v Italians, I think he may have been used to an initiative advantage himself. One thing in PG that is perhaps not always highlighted in chat is the difference in playing tactics and styles when subjected to such a lower initiative rating ... Hopefully, he didn't take too much note of the effects :-) I rate this a '3'. It was fun, a bit chess-like, and perhaps one for a complete newbie to take as his second game ?