Played a Sharpe Practice Napoleonics game at the club yesterday: Austrians had to attack a position defended by Italians.
Since I don't have any Napoleonics in my miniature collection, I enjoyed the opportunity to play with a colourful, well painted army.
My side (the Austrians) did however lose the battle. I must remember to pick an extra deployment point as a support option next time when playing with an army consisting of lots of units.
Operation Winter Storm continues with the attack on Verkhne‐Yablochny. I looked up this village on Google maps to get an idea of the terrain. I guess not much has changed since WW2 over there:
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| View south from Verkhne-Yablochny |
The Germans attacked across this featureless plain in 1942 en will do so again in our game. The scenario map does provide them some scrub and a few trees as light cover this time however.
SPOILER ALERT:
If you haven't played this scenario yet and still want to play it don't read the rest of the post. It is more interesting to play this with an umpire and players that know only their own objective and victory conditions.
Still here? OK!
The German attack is actually a feint to tie down Soviet forces and allow 11th panzer regiment to circle around the village and attack them from the North. Their objective is to commit as much as the Soviet force as possible. The Soviets' job is to keep the Germans from taking the village, but if they only manage this by committing their entire force, they only achieve a minor victory.
For this game we didn't have an umpire so my opponent and I both knew this.
As usual we rolled the dice to determine who would play the Germans and who the Soviets. This time I got the Germans.
I didn't manage to gain a foothold on the western flank so my plan was to have a squad move to the area of scrub and bring the jump-off point forward with a Chain of Command dice.
I deployed a German squad in the center area of scrub which was immediately receiving HE fire from the T34.
A second German squad moved across the open plain towards the western area of scrub, but the T34 fire wounded the junior leader.
The rest of the squad reached the area of scrub and took up positions, dragging their incapacitated leader with them. Auftragstaktik at work.
A Soviet squad deployed in hard cover but immediately lost a couple of men due to the fire of the German squad in overwatch.
Finally a 1 on the command dice! I deployed the infantry gun (the only German AT weapon available for this game) and started firing at the T34.
Although the infantry gun kept hitting the T34, no significant damage was inflicted and the tank kept pounding the nearest German squad until only the LMG gunnners were left. Fortunately the German senior leader was able to deploy and remove most of their shock.
The last German squad was deployed on the eastern flank. The Soviet squad now faced fire from 3 sides and was rapidly losing men.
Morale was dropping on both sides when junior leaders received wounds. The Soviet squad broke, but the T34 incapacitated the German junior leader directing the infantry gun fire.
Although the infantry gun was unsuccesful in putting a dent in the T34, I wanted it to keep firing, so I moved the German senior leader towards it.
Another full Chain of Command dice allowed me to end the turn, removing the broken Soviet squad from the table and reviving one of the wounded German junior leaders.
In a bold attempt (with the help of a double phase) to capture the Soviet jump-off point I sent the revived German junior leader with the 3 remaining guys of his squad towards the village.
My opponent skillfully used his full Chain of Command dice to interrupt my double phase and shot the group to bits with the T34.
Only the wounded junior leader remained.
Meanwhile on the eastern flank a German squad had decimated the second Soviet squad occupying one of the buildings but had taken some casualties themselves, including a heavily wounded junior leader.
The Soviet squad broke and evacuated the building, only to be replaced by a Maxim team.
This proved too much for the German squad. What was left of it had to retreat.
The infantry gun kept hitting the T34, still failing to take it out, so I deployed the German MMG in the hope that it's fire would help cause enough shock to have the crew bail out.
Morale was now dangerously low on both sides. If only the Germans could take out the T34....
Finally some decent hits!
The T34's targeting sights were damaged and it's hull MG inoperable, but it still kept dealing out death.
More excellent hits, but also more excellent saves...
My opponent decided to give his T34 some more protection and put it behind one of the buildings, where it still was able to hit the German MMG position.
The end came when my opponent ended the turn with a full Chain of Command dice, removing the broken German squad from the table and reducing German morale to one.
The Soviets had committed more then half of their support options so the German objective of tying down forces was largely achieved, albeit at great cost (2 squads destroyed, 1 junior leader killed and 2 wounded). A slightly better than minor victory for the Soviets, but a Soviet victory nonetheless!
Again an exiting and tense game. The next few scenarios in the campaign are tanks vs tanks. I'm curious how this goes with the Chain of Command rules.
