Fire & Sword, scenario #27: Attack from the South.

First let me state, the Mire special rule killed this scenario for me, as the attacker will have little chance for success especially if the other side have minefields. So I will not play scenarios 24-29 with the Mire rule. I played this scenario and forgot the Mire rule on page 38 is optional and played with it this time before I realized it was optional. It just takes too long, 4 turns to get a vehicle un-mired, just to get stuck again on the next movement hex. No fun at all!

The Soviets have three victory objectives in this scenario and depending on how many they achieve or don’t achieve determines the victory level for each side. The German Force is about half the size of the Soviet force but have entrenchments, minefields a JgPzIV/70 unit and Panther tank reinforcements on turn two. The Soviets have twice the Infantry force and ISU-152 & ISU-122 Guard units and a dice roll for air-support each turn, both sides have off map artillery support.

Because I used the Mire rule in this scenario, my Soviet armor had to go down the road until it hit mines and had to exit into the clear mire hexes where most got stuck and picked off. The Soviets Infantry made it to the main line of German defenses where they were blunted. On their right flank, they were barely able to exit 10 steps of Infantry steps off the north edge of the map, avoiding a German Major victory but giving the Germans a Minor Victory as the Soviets lost three times as many steps and did not control all of the east-west railroad.

I think if I had ditched the Mire rule, this would have been a closer match and certainly more fun scenario. I’ll be interesting to see other players take on the Mire Rule.

The German defence was of course concentrated around the hamlet in the centre of map 54. To the extreme east of the railway line, a 105mm artillery gun threatened the right flank of the Russian attack. The western part of the railway line would be defended by one of the Panthers, which would take up position on the small hill to the rear. Mines protected the hamlet and the bridge where the two maps separated.

As we played, we corrected the error in the mud rule. Mechanised vehicles are only immobilised on a die = 1. Even so, the Soviet player attacking to the west had a lot of immobilised vehicles in bad shape. The JpzIV/70 was happy to turn them into scrap heaps. As Russian losses mounted, the 1st victory condition quickly became unattainable. As the third victory condition (control of the entire railway line) was itself extraordinarily difficult for the Soviet player, the deal was done and German victory assured. This scenario is undoubtedly too favourable to the German player (60-40 pro-German).