Author	Tambu (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2024-01-27
Language	English
Scenario	PaGr017

Thought that we'd give this not-yet-reviewed and barely played ancient scenario a try. I played the defending Russkies in what turned into a wildly exciting, and bigly fun, decently balanced, shoot 'em up on 3 map boards that took us all of 7 sessions to complete on Vassal, usingl with the stinking FOW optional rule after the 8th turn. We started this 24-turn battle last November on Veteran's Day. Heck, what's 9+ weeks over the holidays among friends and very old Reservists with too much beer on hand!

This was one of those all-or-nothing scenarios with strange victory conditions based on step losses (>20 for the Germans to lose, and >33 for the Soviets to lose) OR town hex control (27 hexes for the Germans to take vs 22 for the Soviets to control on Map 2). We had one heck of an armored shootout beginning on turn 16, which extended to the very bloody end. This battle was in serious doubt until the Jerry tanks showed up, and the Soviet senior leader got himself killed on the same turn!

The final step losses were 41 for the very stubborn, but doomed, Soviet defenders and 7 leaders KIA -- and a very near run -- 19 and 5 leaders for the madly running Jerries. The Russians just plain ran out of troops trying to held the big darn town on Map board 2 and had forward deployed too much of their stuff in open terrain dugouts trying to delay and keep the Germans away from the big town on Map 8.

Battle description to be continued when the darn grandkids leave . . . if I can recall what actually happened. Too many distractions, too little time.

I give this combined arms brawl a rating of 4, though it does need editing and a rewrite. I recommend it for solitaire or shared play.

On the 6th of July 1941, the German 10th Motorized Division was surprised by an early morning crossing of the Berezina River by the Soviet 117th Rifle Division. When approaching the supposedly already captured and overrun city of Bobruisk (now Babruisk in Belarus), the German vanguard of the occupying forces, suddenly saw an onslaught of Russian units, rushing towards the city from the south. The whole German column speeded towards the city to arrive there first when the eagle eyed Lt Col von Boxlaer suddenly noticed tanks among the Russian assailers. Immediately the orders for a general disembarkment sounded along the whole German column of trucks, leaving only the most forward elements of the column being able to reach the city. Russian tanks moved swiftly between these leaderless units and the rest of the column, cutting the Germans in the city off from support and supplies. Meanwhile, the whole of Bobruisk gets flooded with Russian troops, the ATG and 76mm rushing towards the eastside to protect the city from the tanks of the 3rd Panzer that already “liberated” the city a week before. The Germans on the other hand , tried to reach the surrounded units in the city, but failed to connect, losing a valuable Captain in the process. For the next 2 hours, the German infantry assault the Russian defenders non stop, but they simply can’t breach the stubborn Russian lines. Little by little, the German casualties stack up while the Russians can pull back into the heart of the city to regroup and resupply. At 7 AM, the German 105 batteries suddenly explode when a lucky Russian obus finds their ammunition truck, and when a few moments later the surrounded Germans still in the city succumb under the constant barrages of Russian direct fire, German morale takes a tumble. The German Lt Col immediately decides to halt the assaults on the city, sends some troops to silence the pesky mortars on the nearby southern hill, and moves his troops around the outskirts of the city to meet up with the due to arrive Panzers coming from the east. But those Panzers were clearly not in a hurry, only arriving at 9 AM, way to late to mount any decent attack on the Russian ATG line. To make matters worse, right at that moment, the Russians accomplish their own victory condition. A turn later, the German player realizes that he doesn’t have the fighting power to attack the city in earnest and orders his troops to surround the city and await further reinforcements to oust the Russians back out. The Germans only inflicted 9 steps and could never seriously threaten the Soviet occupation of Bobruisk. The very late arrival of the German tanks combined with the accurate Russian dice from the get-go, was a bit of a let down for the German player. Mind you, it could have been “game over” after only 2 turns when 6 Russian tank formations had a bead on a target rich column of fully loaded trucks, but luckily the Germans managed a perfect initiative roll to save his troops from a massacre. So overall, we would rate this scenario a 2,5. It could have been a 3,5 if the scenario would have a higher chance of the Panzers arriving earlier, or maybe already supporting the column from the start