BATTLE SUMMARY

Soviet forces are prepared for their night raid. They have 5 hours to succeed.

They begin their attack in the west, centre and east. In the west they are thoroughly pushed back by mines and direct fire.

In the east they find some decoy minefields and advance on the Spanish trench. In the centre they suffer a few demoralizations but push onward.

Spanish artillery eliminates some Soviet infantry on the minefields.

Soviets initiate an assault in the east, but they are fought back and the counter-assault is fatal on the Soviet troops.

Soviets enter a second trench in the middle, but they can’t get enough firepower to bear (3xINF = 12DF). Spanish artillery continues to reek havoc on the Soviet reserves in the east.

Eventually after an hour and a half the eastern trench waffles their attack and the Spanish are reduced! The demoralized Spanish infantry flee. The first entrenchment is raided!

In the centre the Soviet infantry waits for the HMGs as their reserves are driven off by artillery.

Soviets make their way through the woods to the next entrenchment while the reserves rally and head west again. Soviets come under heavy fire and have already lost a third of their troops.

Soviets attack the next trench and meet disaster. Spanish counter-assault but their HMG is demoralized and flees.

In the west the Soviets brace the minefields and are reduced.

Back in the east trench both sides suffer casualties but the Spanish send over reinforcements from the centre and the Soviets are fought back.

In the west the Soviets are completely routed.

The Soviet Colonel flees and with 45 minutes to go, the Soviets surrender.

SPANISH VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

Soviets were soundly beaten back and only captured the eastern trench with a bit of good fortune.

Some things to note:

1. Soviets decided not to press their luck in the centre entrenchment. It is possible they could have fought the Spanish down. But with their reinforcements quickly depleted and only able to get to the “5” on the assault column, they thought better of it.

2. Minefields. Spanish received 10 mine factors. This is an old edition scenario. I replaced this with 10 minefield counters: 2 decoys, 6 “1”s and 2 “2”s.

Despite the difficult win conditions for the Soviets this scenario offered an interesting situation and some good special rules.

Scenario Rating: 3/5 – Interesting situation with minefields in a quick night assault.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Spain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Spain
Participants	Tankodactyl
Play Date	2023-02-04
Language	English
Scenario	BluD012

This was a 4-session play-through with Tankodactyl leading the rapacious Soviet hordes carrying out their well-armed night raid. I led the defending Spanish trying to hang onto the goodies sent from home. We played with the FOW, excess initiative, smoke/illum, consolidation optional rules. Both sides drew middling leaders. There were 7 FOW-shortened turns in this scenario. A frustrating, combined total of 16 combat 7-die rolls were thrown. Both of us were saddled with orders of battle that lacked tanks. More penance paid to the PG demigods . . . .

The Soviets approached along 3 separate axises, of which their column approaching from the west was repulsed by heavy fire and minefields in the first 9 turns. From the east, the process was repeated and this attack was spent by the end of game turn 11. Their central push did far better than the flanking movements, and this column's close assaults were the most successful of the 3 prongs.

There were so many Spanish minefields, that the attacking Reds were forced to stand in them as Spanish artillery cascaded down upon them. All three attacks were fiercely contested and bloodily repulsed by the end of game turn 16. The Spanish counter attacked successfully several times, each well-supported by their mortars and OBA, so only a single entrenchment was occupied & looted by the godless, and hungry, Bolsheviks.

Others have described this one in greater detail, so I will close by saying that the Red Army lost more than 60% of their infantry strength. The Spanish line bent big time, but did not break. Their counter attacks were inevitably successful thanks mostly to the lower morale of the Soviet Horde. There was a Soviet senior leader decapitation on during game turn 13, which caused a ripple of chaos through the remaining attackers. The final result was a clear -- but costly -- Spanish victory by the end of game turn 18, when my esteemed opponent threw in the towel.

I give this interesting - but seriously unbalanced in favor of the defending Spanish side - a generous 2. Too many minefields in this one for the Soviets to overcome in their raid! Only 1 of the 10 randomly-selected minefields was a decoy in our ferocious play-through.