Combined arms - Battle over the Crimea Campaign Turn 3,4 and 5

 

Reeling from the loss of the communications centre, the war in the air began to escalate, the inexperienced soviet air force now tried to defend their fleet and ground troops from the Luftwaffe.

 This campaign turn the weather was overcast, meaning airstrikes were far less effective with a -1 to destroy. Drawing from the deep reserves the Soviets threw their T28c's and more T26's into the grinder.

 Soviet Strategy was centred around control of waterways and choke points, Naval dominance allowed the soviets to quickly move reinforcements around the map protecting them from air attack with escorting warships and fighter cover.

The 3rd campaign turn began with a General offensive from the soviets, 3 land orders allows the infantry in the east to move south and board transports, in the north the Infantry at the factory used a move order to remove a blitz token (If infantry have a blitz token they cannot initiate combat) and the tank was concealed moving towards the airfield.

End of turn 3, Germany decided to reinforce whilst the soviets chose to battle. Seeing I was moving units into position still I chose not to initiate any battles.

Turn 4 saw a radical shift in the south as the assault fleet instead moved to secure the coms network as the panzers moved forward to recapture, no air orders were able to be played this turn, luckily for the soviets they got the scramble initiative card, allowing them to deploy 2 planes out of sequence without an order at the end of the turn. The Sturmovik's descended on the panzers threatening the communications relay, the Panzers decimated one squadron but lost to the second wave of bombers.

The Soviet tanks and infantry launched an assault on the defenders of the airfield and they were forced to withdraw but were not destroyed.

Turn 5 saw the Germans reinforce, the Soviets battled. First game out of the gate was Blood Red skies, we rolled for the scenario 'Bounced', the player with the largest number of planes is the defender and setups in the middle of the table with half of their force whilst the attacker setups 18inches away, the remaining defender planes are in reserve which you can see a little blue and red triangle in the bottom right of the board, that's where my reserves were.

The chase began straight away, the inexperienced soviet plans scattered into the clouds for cover.

The soviets counter attack out of the cloud cover

Soviet high cover finally came in and missed all their perfectly lined up shots, Soviets walked away as the loser after losing 1 plane and accruing 9 boom chits to the Germans 5.

The Planes then bombed and destroyed the Infantry unit next to the airfield, evening the odds for the ground battle.

Tanks vs Infantry battle near the airfield

The scenario we rolled for this battle was Surrounded, half the German army starts in the middle of the table whilst the soviets start off of the board and must move on in a first wave, remaining units left in reserve can come on any board edge so long as their opponent didn't use that board edge last.

Preliminary bombard hammered the German defenders.

The Conscript squad pushed forward scouting out the village, drawing German Infantry fire. The light AT set to ambush opened fire on the First T-28 that came onto the board, immobilising it but then being killed in turn by the Fusillade of MMG fire. 

The Truck rolled up the road and disgorged it's cargo of Naval infantry whom promptly despatched a Heer infantry squad.

Followed by another truck with a flamethrower team and a Naval infantry squad, the flamethrower despatched an MMG team whilst the Naval infantry assaulted and wiped out another Heer infantry squad before resolving into the shack.

Turn 2 saw the Flamethrower team move forward and burn the second MMG out of cover, before a squad of SS charged in from the Short board edge to get an easy kill on the AT rifle team.

The flamethrower team ran outta gas and was removed.

The two AT rifle teams used their ambush to open fire killing 2 SS men.

The Panzer III rolled up the road and took shots at the Naval infantry with its Hull MMG, whilst the main gun targeted A truck - But Missed! The BA-20 Armoured car with Flamethrower counter attacked and set the tank alight, it's crew bailing.

Finally with Soviet domination of the centre of the map and the single German unit in reserve failing twice to come on we resolved turn 3's air strike (destroying a truck) and called it a day. 

Rolling and failing to destroy the infantry unit, it retreated a hex and held the airfield. End of campaign turn 5 the Soviets and Germans both scored 2 VP's, Germany leads by 1.

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.