The last scenario of the first chapter of Winter storm. In our last game, a platoon of Soviets made it to Pokhlebin before the Germans cut the road. Pokhlebin is now encircled and the Germans must take it before the attack towards Stalingrad can start and Operation Winter Storm really begins.
I got to play the Germans this time and tried to get as close to the buildings as possible in the patrol phase to minimise the amount of time the Germans would need to cover the open ground.
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| Not as close as I would like |
A German squad deployed to the west of the road but found that approach blocked by an entrenched squad of Soviets.
A second Soviet squad deployed in the forward building west of the road and the Soviet sniper found a spot in the outhouse. A third Soviet squad deployed and moved to take up positions in the forward building east of the road.
My German squad was quickly taking casualties form all those Soviet troops.
I rolled lots of 5's, 4's and single 6's, but eventually some mechanised support arrived!
Too late to save the German squad, which was broken and fortunately retreated out of Soviet line of sight.
The Soviets now concentrated their fire on the German vehicle. With devastating effect!
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| Multiple 6's when firing on a soft skin vehicle is bad news |
It only got off one shot before being destroyed.....
I decided to commit all remaining Germans to an attack on the area to the east of the road and managed to deploy a German squad which started laying down fire. After a long awaited double 6, I deployed my support engineer squad in the open,
and engulfed the Soviet occupied house in flames.
Forcing the surviving Soviets to leave the building. The engineers then quickly moved forward to engage a Soviet squad which had deployed in another building.
The Soviet squad took out 2 engineers and caused some shock, but the flamethrower guy survived and tried to set the building with the Soviets on fire. However, not enough 6's rolled meant his third and final attempt (using a full chain of command dice to interrupt) had to be succesfull. Unfortunately for the Soviets it was and the squad had to exit the building, carrying a wounded junior leader.
Meanwhile the last German squad deployed, ready to take advantage of the hole burned in the Soviet lines.
Their task completed, the surviving engineers got out of the way so the other Germans could fire on the Soviets exposed in the open in front of the burning building. The Soviet junior leader was wounded a second time and the squad was hit hard.
A lone surviving LMG gunner dragged the twice wounded junior leader to safety.
The German senior leader now ordered the German squad to fire on the Soviets that escaped the first burning building and were trying to cross the road.
In the open, taking fire from two German belt fed LMG's, only the two leaders survived, the junior leader wounded. Soviet force morale was now down to 1. The Germans were still going strong with a force morale of 7, so we called it a day.
The loss of the vehicle and German squad early in the game got me worried, but fortunately the plan with the engineers, supported by a base of fire provided by a German squad worked.
