After looking at he OOB for the this scenario it looks like the Soviets have quite the attacking force force for taking the towns. With an impressive onboard and offboard artillery contingent one would think that they could just pummel the Germans and quickly assault the towns. This was not the case with our play.

As the Soviets were entering the board a lone German Captain was able to inflict a OBA loss on the Soviet Major in charge of the OBA. This removed the main firepower for attacking the towns. The onboard artillery is plentiful, but the quality is low and most town bombardments result in low odds attacks. This left this infantry to attack good order German troops with plenty of time for OP fire. The Soviets try to organize to assault but repeat high and low rolls by the Germans keep the Soviets at bay. With German reinforcements moving on the board and the Soviets disrupted and demoralized they start to withdraw.

As far as the scenario goes, we agreed that the loss of the Major did not allow us to play to its full potential. The Soviet attack stalled as the German positioned could not be attacked with the remaining firepower. This also showed that for this scenario, the number of units you have is not the only formula for victory.

I normally write an AAR here that is almost an exact copy of the AAR in my own records. However, having played this over Skype with my now regular opponent and a fast developing great friendship with Alan Sawyer, I could'nt but help write something of a tongue in cheek resume of the 'incident' as this was, rather than a battle

I chose this scenario as I have been working through the MoL module, and I fancied a scenario where a few beleaguered Germans would have to face a veritable horde of Soviet troops. I wanted to see how they'd fare. ...... But things didn't quite work out how we thought. Here is the story

The Tale Of The Mga Fiasco

The Opening Situation

German forces were sparse and scenario SR's forced them to set up over two boards. Their mission was to hold off large Soviet forces from the towns of Mga and Mikhailovskoye. There was no way that this sprinkling of Wehrmacht troops could deploy across the gap between the two towns and they threfore set up two 'hedgehogs'. The first hedgehog situated at M'skoye consisted of 2 kompanien of infantry (6 platoons) and the best Leutnant in the Bttn. In the other town, Mga, about 1.5km further on, just a kompany of infantry supported by a kompany of HMG's and some ordnance prepared themselves should or when M'skoye be overrun.

The 2 whole battalions of Russians with a squadron of cavalry and some supporting tanks would advance from the east. These troops, from an elite Soviet Mountain Division were also well supplied aplenty with ordnance for bombardment (99pts worth). Behind them, a way back would even follow a third battalion and other pieces. But the piece de resistance was the 70pts of OBA assigned for every turn of the 7 1/2 hour battle (30 turns).

Assigned as the spotting and delivering officer for this OBA was Major Sawyerovski (pronounced Sav-yee-rovski : remember a W is pronounced a V in central to east euro languages). His orders were clear, and quite frankly a doddle !- Before leaving his Colonel had told him in that slow dep gargly Russian accent (and no doubt a sporting a pair of Brechznev curly eyebrows) "Sawyerovski, do not get involved in the shooting war today. Find yourself a hidden vantage point and pound those invaders all day by calling down our blessed artillery. I am entrusting you alone for this job as ordnance shells are precious right now and can not be frittered away blindly. You Sawyerovski will win the day for Mother Russia" (In game terms this equates to the one Major on the board is the only Soviet leader that can spot for OBA - So look after him)

Oh Dear!

So the large amount of Red troops began the advance. And what an advance it was to behold. On the Russian left, one battalion of infantry pushed forward, unseen from the town of M'skoye in a beautiful ordered linear formation. Resembling something from the Napoleonic Wars or the 18th century, these men were carrying out a textbook, parade ground advance. But rather than being amongst their men, the officers in charge of this advance were gaily shouting orders from behind, making sure their men kept their order and cohesion. And just who was amongst these officers....... The redoubtable Sawyerovski (despite what he was told not to do).

Meanwhile, the German commander, Herr Husen sent one of his captains forward to a wood covering the Russian left. As this captain made his way through and then to the edge of the wood, he parted some branches from the bush he had crouched in and looked out to the distance. What he saw was beautiful spectacle of those advancing Russian troops. Having been trained at Potsdam many years ago, this old Prussian was certainly impressed with what he was observing. Raising his binoculars, he spied, behind the men, and stepping robustly and proudly, Major Sawyerovski, barking out his orders. Sawyerovski, by now was strutting around like Colonel Blimp.His chest puffed out like that of the proudest of peacock's and probably believing himself to be a new 20th century Kutusov. Gone from Sawyerovski's mind were any thoughts of O-in-C of artillery spotting. Instead, he alone (and his battalion) were going to drive Hitler and his army out of the USSR.

The Prussian captain chuckled to himself to see such a sight on a modern day battlefield. Chuckled that here was some 'mad' Ivan, detached from his men, but blatantly in charge, and blase enough to be holding in one hand what appeared to be rolled up maps and notes ? The Prussian, with teeth gritted, muttered "Auf Wiedrsehen Herr Oberst Ivan" and then promptly called down an artillery strike on Major Sawyerovski all alone (in his hex). The ground around Sawyerovski seemed to shudder and then infused into a maelstrom of heaven-bound dust, earth and metal fragments, accompanied by an ear-shattering number of booms as shell after shell rained down on the small area.

When it ended, the men of the battalion, having all turned around, could only see a number of bushes burning enthusiastically, crackling as they cindered away, bare of any leaves bar 5 to 6 stubborn ones limply and blackly hanging off. There were some pathetic charred papers blowing upwards, floating and fluttering from side to side and a single, solitary black officers boot still standing up. But there was nothing of Sawyerovski in it. The toe area now resembled nothing more than a sandal and emanating out from the top of the boot leg, like some ugly industrial chimney was grey-blue smoke rising upwards signifying that this proud officer had been blown to kingdom-come and jubilo. In a stroke, with the demise of Sawyerovski, the Soviet OBA had been taken out of the battle without firing a single round. And all this because the mad Major had decided to lead his battalion rather than following orders.

The Effect Of Leader Loss And Soviet Battle Shyness

The effect of this tragic demise was a serious curtailment of Soviet firepower, and as a result, the scenario took on a completely different hue to what it normally might. They had certainly been seriously blighted.

HOWEVER - This is the East Front. The East Front! A place where no namby-pamby western army doctrines are going to get you very far. As in the title of the book by Chris Bellamy, this is ABSOLUTE WAR ! A battle to the end between two ideologies. Soviet mass, numbers and strength to absorb hurt against the lesser German resources but determined and overly confident. There is no place for battle-shyness here. Only one of the 'isms' can win.

The Soviets spent too much time looking for firegroups and trying small on-board bombardments at the town when, perhaps, had the Soviets massed their troops at Mikhailovskoe (23 platoons of INF and HMG) and launched an all out assault, the meagre 6 platoons there would only have been able to defend with a platoon per section of town (hex). Being in assault would also cut the Germans off from their influential local commander. Yes, the Soviets would have taken losses, of course.

But the East is a place where a man's death is as inconsequential as the single flutter of a bird's wing, a place where the Iron Crosses grow in 1000's across its fields, a place where, if YOU do not slaughter, then you will be slaughtered. Today at Mga, we saw no Soviet elan, but only a sad exercise in lack of fighting spirit from the Higher Command on the day. Trials would follow.

Sawyerovski was found guilty in his absence of anti-Stalinist behaviour in a Soviet enquiry 2 years later. He was sentenced posthumously to a firing squad for the crime of gross battlefield negligence and disobeying his orders.His name was struck from the book of memories and he was also to be Officially Forgotten from Soviet Records

I rated this a 3. It was definately a fun scenario, but we neither got the true flavour of the scenario after that turn 4 incident and the fact that the Soviets conceded in turn 13. Others playing ftf will no doubt have a far different experience, but one final word if I may. Keep the Major reined in !!

Scenario depicts a Soviet attack on two German held turns, Soviets outnumber the Germans, have armour support and excellent artillery, what could go wrong. The Germans however have good leadership, armour and recon reinforcements and can dig in if not in towns or woods. The German deployment is fairly standard for these scenarios, have a -2 leader in the centre of each town ensuring 10 morale for the garrisons. Deploy a couple of speed bumps to the front to slow the Soviet steamroller and hang on. During the game the German player should launch local counter attacks on DEM Russian units using his MTC and A/Car units to keep the Soviet losses ticking over. The Russians attack is harder to manage not least because two large woods on Board 6 will split up the attack and slow it down. The key to success for the Soviet commander is to get his ENG units in to assault with tanks, HMG/INF and a leader thus nullifying the town bonus for defenders. In my solo game the Russian attack went OK but not OK enough, the OBDA needs to be lucky when shelling the town you really need X results if you want to make inroads, time is also against the Soviets, 30 turns may sound a lot but it will take at least 10 turns to get into position to assault the first town. I do not think that any Soviet attack will even reach the second town given average dice and German play. In fact its was not till turn 20 that I had cleared even part of the first town and the Soviet losses were significantly higher than the German losses. By the end of the game there were still German outposts in the town and the Russian attack had ran out of steam. *Not a bad scenario, however these early Eastern Front Soviet attacks rarely make much headway as German leadership is just too good, realistic yes, but you do get a touch of here we go again when playing this type of scenario *