Combined arms - Battle over the Crimea Campaign Turn 2

  The battle hardened Wehrmacht had broken through and secured the fortified position at the Kerch Straight, Luftwaffe interdiction flights had spread themselves thinly whilst the Red Army airforce concentrated their own flights to defend the factories at Mariupol, now it was time for the Panzerwaffe to assault said factories while the S-boat Flotillas towards the water side flank of Sevastopol sallied out to attack the raiding Flotilla of the Soviet Navy. 

Turn 2's battle are in the bottom right (BA) and top left Cruel seas

Battle at the Mariupol factory complex

 The game rolled for was Sectors, players fight to control the 4 quarters of the map with each 'Flanking' Sector worth 1 VP and the opposing Deployment zone worth 3 VP, our campaign objective was centred on the industrial city of Mariupol so I setup the map to be and industrial and Urban zone with relatively mirrored terrain.

Both sides got their preliminary bombardment, the Germans got a lucky 6 on the AT Gun and Commissar killing the Commissar, everyone else got plenty of pins. The Germans got less pins on average however a lucky hit on the Panzer III blew it up! a lucky early boon for the soviet defenders.

The Germans snapped to action to run away from the Incoming artillery barrage called in by the Forward observer, activating two infantry squads and the light tank (some may say why is that Panzer Luchs in 1941 Russia? Nay that is a Panzer one, by proxy).

The Panzer I reversed up the road to get away from the artillery barrage only for an AT rifle team to Ambush, pass it's order test, score a hit, score a penetration and roll a 6 to blow it up! Tank division no longer.

Turn 2 the Waffen SS assaulted the church and cleared out the Anti tank team on the bottom floor, in response the forward observers called in the artillery strike onto their own position.

The Soviet reserves began to march onto the board, moving on they scored 8 hits and 0 wounds on the Heer veterans. Turn 3 the artillery barrage came in, pinning the Flamethrower team, Pinning the Heer Veterans, Lt and Medic. The barrage Pinned the forward observers but it annihilated the Waffen SS in the church!

In the above picture the Heer LT snapping to action lead an assault on the Soviet regulars, the Heer Veterans with 5 pins went down instead and so he and his batmen went alone getting killed for no losses on the soviet side in combat.

Moving on to the table the Heer Reserves pushed up into the ruins, killing an AT team and firing on the conscripts hiding amongst the ruins.

The Soviet regulars finished off the Heer Veteran squad with brutal shooting.

Turn 4 - The Soviet infantry Pour across the factory into the German Quadrant ending the game 27 to 7

The Soviets then rolled to destroy the German armoured unit and rolled a perfect 4 to destroy!

Confrontation at Sevastopol

''The sky sways. sways over me and underfoot the deck is shaking, who hasn't tasted salt , who hasn't tasted the jock can't be called a real sailor!'' - Let it sway, Soviet Navy song

Using the scenario generator from the Cruel seas - Close Quarters supplement we got Escalating engagement, ship move on in 3 groups starting with the fastest to slowest and victory was determined by victory points. The 1000point fleets clashed off of the coast of Sevastopol, G-5's swept out ahead of the main force which was running in 3 echelons seeking out the German forces, looking to sweep the coast so sailors could land and raid the communications centre near Sevastopol.

Soviet Fugas class Minesweeper

The Flagship of the Task force was a Fugas class Minesweeper, Supported by 6 Bronekators in and a trio of G-5 Torpedo boats supported by 2 Free aircraft generated from a bonus card played during the combined arms game, The Kriegsmarine force was composed of S-38 Schnellboots, a Verpostenboote and a Siebel ferry.

Using the terrain generator we had a drifting hulk near the Soviet deployment zone on the right, a shoal in the centre, a sandy island in the bottom left and a minefield in the top left near the German deployment zone. Rough weather conditions meant no full speed this game and a crew test to go combat speed as well as firing torpedoes.

In this scenario deployment zones are random for the 3 echelons of ships coming on, so turns One and Two had little going on as the two fleets deploy far from each other, the Soviet D-3's swept around the light house intending to catch any large ships that came onto the board from the south with their torpedoes, their HMG's scoring a rudder damaged result on a closing S-boat. The German second echelon arrives from the north.

Turn 3 saw the two free planes I got from playing a card in the campaign come on, using their rockets and bombs they successfully damaged an S-boats and sank another.

The S-boat with the Rudder damaged result veered right, straight into the wreck of their comrade.

The German heavy hitters arrived from the North, their big shots ineffective due to the rough weather and distance.

The Soviet Fugas (proxy flower corvette) arrives, its small arms and 37mm pummel the Verpostenboote whilst the 4'' gun blasts an S-boat on the right flank closing with the Bronekaters.

The 3 Bronekaters fired and missed the closing S-boats generating 3 water plumes.

The 4'' gun barks again and sinks the S-boat whilst the MG's and 37mm continue to pummel the Verpostenboote, the Bronekaters join in and the Verpostenboote comes out with only 13 hull points left.

The game ends with score 6-3 - a soviet victory!

 Pouring up onto the rocky coastline under the guns of their ships the Soviet sailors pushed inland quickly overrunning the meagre communications centre garrison and securing the sensitive radio equipment and towers.

 The USSR controls the comms centre end of turn 2 and controls the seas.

Combined arms - Battle over the Crimea Campaign Turn 1

  Operation Barbarossa was the largest land invasion in history, the Crimea was the penultimate objective of army group south on their way to secure the Oilfields and cut the Volga. 

  In this campaign we'll be resolving battles using Blood red skies, Boltaction 2nd edition and Cruel seas.

First turn of the campaign saw the Soviets push forward and secure the Fortifications whilst the Reich countered with their own infantry assault. 

 

Stukas Dove in amongst the flak and crippled the soviet armoured column moving up the road to the right. The Assault on the Fortifications in the middle began in earnest.

Mission was 'No mans Land' so 1 VP for each destroyed unit, the Soviets preliminary bombardment failed to materialise whilst the German one successfully pinned most of the Inexperienced soviets and killed the Medic - A Bad start for the Soviets!

The soviets also lost an AT Rifle team - 2 lost units by close of turn 1!

'There's no Land beyond this point, If I don't get you the Sea will!'

Realising the Soviets needed to get some kills to succeed they began pushing but came under intense artillery fire on the left flank whilst small arms peppered the conscripts on the right. The soviet artillery strike rolled a 1 and scattered away from the juicy targets of the mortar and Sdkfz222.

'Forward for the Motherland!' The Commissar leads the charge after shooting 3 men for cowardice.

The infantry assaults on the Left and right Flank collapsed under wither German fire, despite the heroism of the Soviet conscripts, I called the game turn five 4-0 in Germany's favour.

Unfortunately the soviet infantry had no land hex to retreat thus was destroyed and the Germans secured the fortifications.

Things are looking shakey for the USSR! 

The Shadow of the Axis - Combined arms - 1944 Battle for Europe - Campaign Turn 1

1944 - June

The US assembles a massive fleet on the western coast in late 1944, Hundreds of thousands of Men and Millions of tonnes of supplies begin slowly moving across the Atlantic. The US looks at the Atlantic wall, the Reich stands to resist the invaders, the US determined to take Europe. Using exotic Rift tech the US army rapidly landed a force near Cherbourg whilst the USN secured forward positions in southern England to use as supply dumps for the larger landings along the Normandy coast.

 In this Campaign we'll be using combined arms board with the Normandy map board, we'll be incorporating rules and models from K47 in our games as well as the Theoretical Blood red skies cards from Lead Pursuit podcast.

The US drew the Forward positions Opening Gambit card allowing each player to place a unit forward and capture an objective whilst the Axis drew the Infiltration card giving the player who moves one of their units into the opposing deployment zone first an additional victory point.

The axis chose Inspired General for their national characteristic allowing them to draw an initiative card when escalating, whilst the US chose Great navy allowing them to move 5 spaces per ship move rather than 4.

Axis: Yellow US: Green

Turn 1 saw the USAF hitting the Axis Panzers trying to secure the airfield along the coast whilst the Axis launched an assault against the US bridgehead to dislodge them from the Factory.

Assault towards St.Lô

The US Army setup a series of trip lines outside the factory towards St.Lô, the US HQ was located at the crux of the trip lines and a spearhead of the advanced and horrifying rift tech monsters struck to cut the head off of the snake. This game we rolled for was: Demolition at 1250pts. 

Turn 1 the Nebelwerfer fires and Misses every target! 

The US Army pushes up the table on the German Left flank.

German sniper takes out the Flamethrower team.

Skipping to the end of Turn 2 the Wirbelwind moved up and tried to pour shots into the US heavy infantry squad but missed, the M3 halftrack and its accompanying infantry squad tried to rush the Wirbelwind.

The M4 Tesla Sherman destroyed the Nebelwerfer before the German Infantry rushed up the flank using the Bocage as cover.

Start of Turn 3 the Germans with Panzerfausts attack the Tesla Sherman destroying it.

Followed by the Wirbelwind making Swiss cheese of the M3 halftrack, killing 5 occupants

The US walker jumped in and charged the sniper team before consolidating towards the Objective, the German infantry fail their order test and go down end of turn 3, turn 4 they pop up and destroy the Walker!

End of turn 3 the Nachtjäger come in and wipe out the US infantry squad.

Board end of turn 3

Turn 4 the Wirbelwind pours shots into the heavy infantry before the Nachtjäger fly up and over the church landing on the other side.

US infantry squad moves to counter wiping out the Horrors!

Turn 5 the Wirbelwind moves forward and shreds the US infantry squad that killed the Nachtjäger.

The US infantry charge the LT and his assistant

... and miss every hit, losing 2 to the LT and getting wiped out!

The Wirbelwind charged up to the objective winning the game.