Another Set of WWI Rules and a WiP Picture

Since I first read this post on Little Wars Revisited, I have been looking for a copy of Wargames Illustrated #235. 

It came up on eBay now and again, but the price was always too high for my tastes.

Then a few weeks ago, I received a $5 off coupon for any order over $10 from eBay. And I found this lot for sale and even with shipping, with the coupon it was too good to pass up. They arrived yesterday:

Issue 235 contains a set of rules for WWI trench raiding:

 The other issues are just a bonus and all are a joy to page through.  I look forward to reading them all. Each one is full of history (I mean the ads, not just the articles).

For as long as I can remember, I've had a love of magazines. Periodicals are always my favorite part of going to the library. In grad school, for my collection development class, I did a project on scientific journal selection for academic libraries that included both a VBA script and a song on my acoustic guitar that explained the methodology (Dhawan's journal selection model). 

The point being, this is like heaven arriving in the mail!

And just for fun, here's what's on the paint table:

The Austro-Hungarians are basically done - they just need some touch up on their bases. The middle lizard is the one I posted previously but it's serving as my painting reference for the  others. The Foreign Legion coats are a little darker than I'd like but that's the blue I have, so that's what I'm using. The figures in the back, all Dollar Tree acquisitions, well I don't know. 

I have no specific plans for them yet but I think the purple thing from Monster's Inc. could work as some kind of character figure on Venus, while the other two may end up as martial arts heroes or possibly end up in a Weird War II scenario. In any case, my collection of 54s is lacking representation of women beyond two Toy Soldiers of San Diego Soviet snipers and Lady Pennington and the price was right. Although they are a bit taller than I'd like, I think they will still work fine in whatever role they are assigned.

Fictional Citadel: July 7, 1943 Part 2

 As PanGermania faced off with the Soviet 1st Tank Corps and 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division (SGRD) (see Part 1),  Phantom Division found itself again embroiled with the 2nd SGRD, aided this time by the 3rd, in the region west of Yakarlevo.

The Soviets had orders to capture and hold the village (center) and settlement to its North as a way to deny the Germans this sector, while Feuerbach set his sites on capturing the two bridges that spanned the river that snaked through the region. That he should have chosen instead to capture the southern bridge and the hills flanking the road north of his position, while bypassing the northern bridge entirely, is still debated by scholars of the period.

Blavatsky's 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division's 4th and 5th Rifle Regiments moved quickly for the village, unaware that 3rd SGRD was facing delays in their efforts to move southwards to link up with his force. His artillery situated itself atop a hill located north of his position.

The  lead elements of the German force - 5th PanzerGrenadier and 1st Panzer Recon - secured the bridge with ease. Fate smiled on Blavatsky when 1st Panzer Recon was driven off after attempting to advance on the the 5th Rifle Regiment occupying the village - which was also serving as Blavatsky's HQ.

Feuerbach, seeing the difficulty capturing the village, kept his force west of the river and planned to approach the northern bridge from the west. 5th PanzerGrenadier, supported by 2nd Panzer, led the way, moving north of the woods, before turning west. They managed to get close enough to credibly threaten Blavatsk's artillery.

But around 11:00 AM, elements of 3rd SGRD (7th and 8th Rifle Regiment, and 3rd AT Battalion) arrived from the north on what was the flank of the western moving elements of Phantom Division. Under heavy and accurate fire from artillery, 5th PanzerGrenadier was rendered combat ineffective and. AT fire from the newly arrived forces threatened 2nd Panzer, repeatedly driving them from their protected positions in the woods.

Artillery from both sides played a significant role in the fighting that followed, with the Soviet 7th Rifle Regiment nearly destroyed under bombardment, 4th Rifle Regiment repeatedly forced to abandon its position north of the village,  and 2nd Panzer permanently forced to abandon the woods.

Although the Soviet 8th Rifle regiment would ultimately suffer substantial casualties at the hands of 4th PanzerGrenadier and the 1st Panzer Engineer battalion, it was not before Feuerbach had stretched his force beyond its limit.

Forced to fall back to at least hold the southern bridge, the Germans continued to fight but they could make no further effort for the northern bridge. Unable to unseat the Soviets from the village without great risk even the position at the southern bridge was tenuous.

Rather than risk annilhation, Phantom Division withdrew south to link up with the German 1st Infantry Division.

******* Campaign Notes ******

Once again, or if you're just joining us, this is being fought with The Portable Wargame.

This game was probably the most fun I've had this campaign. I fully expected a blow out as underpowered Phantom Division (18 strength points) was going against 24 points of Soviet might. 

When it was all over, the Germans lost 6 strength points to the Soviet's 9!

At the end of turn 8, both sides could only afford to lose two more strength points. The Soviets got the better of it though, and managed to knock out the Germans.

The downside of such an exciting game is that I got so absorbed in the game, I forgot to take pictures once things got going!

The only thing not standard in this game was a 12 entry random event table I created. Very generic with 1/3 negative events, 1/3 no effect, and 1/3 positive. Each side would roll after they turned over their card for their action points that turn.

I decided to give it the honor of rolling for each side's random events to my venerable 12-sider from my very first set of polyhedral dice acquired in 1983 or maybe early 84.

 Like all dice of the era that I am aware of, it was hand colored with the white crayon included in the package.

In any case, here's where we are at the end of campaign turn 3:

Things aren't looking good for the Germans as the Soviet wall seems to have stiffened finally.

Planning for the Rest of the Year and Beyond

One of the many enjoyable aspects of our hobby is planning. Of course, planning leads to lead and plastic piles, so it's fraught with danger and one should proceed with caution. One definitely shouldn't shop on ebay while taking pain medication for a tooth extraction.

As I hinted at in a previous post, I have some new projects underway. One is a French & Indian War  project - this has no defined parameters but I do know that I want to paint French regulars so that's what I'll start with.

The other project is a Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) project which will encompass both solo games and face to face games with a local 54mm wargamer. There are two of us in the area!

We have decided upon a game set on Venus. We'll likely use GASLIGHT to start, since it's one set we're both familiar with (I haven't played a lot of rule sets that aren't me just making stuff up).

That's what the French Foreign Legion figures from Armies in Plastic that I posted recently will be for - although I have both British and Russian colonial forces, French Legionnaires fighting lizard folk on Venus was my first venture into building proper wargaming armies (albeit in 15mm). The Earth colonial forces will play a small roll in the wars of the Venusian factions, so I don't need many of them, maybe 10 + a crew for a Gatling.

At least that's our current plan.

The aforementioned ebay shopping spree was not hypothetical but based on experience. I had two teeth extracted last Friday (not fun and not recommended, but the pain leading up to that was worse, so ...). The pain killer haze may have weakened my willpower. At least that's my excuse.

As a result, I purchased several boxes of Hat 1/32 ancients figures including: Roman triari, Roman hastati, Spanish infantry, and Carthaginians - they're short a few figures each but enough of each for  10-12 figure units. Except for the Gauls, these will make up one of the Venusian factions (for my own notes, I'm calling them Asterians). 

Hastati not pictured - they haven't arrived yet

But wait! What about lizard folk? 

Ah yes, a classic Venusian trope and one of my favorite D&D monsters to boot 

For them I am thinking a mix of 28mm (hear me out!) and 54mm figures. 

The latter are exceptionally difficult to come across in any quantity or a price I could afford in any quantity more than a handful.  However, SCS Direct sells a figure that will pass for a lizard warrior and is available in relatively inexpensive packs of mixed creatures. It was seeing them painted up on Quantrill's Toy Soldiers that sold me on them. One pack yielded me 6 such figures (10 is my starting goal):

By their smooth skin and serpent necks, I have inferred that they inhabit seaside marshes and are fond of Venus's vast oceans.

Size comparison to an Armies in Plastic Russian.

For a leader type, I picked up a 54mm figure from Iron Wind - a lizard shaman. I guess Iron Wind has a game about magic-users or something and a whole line of figures for it. To be honest, this figure's existence inspired the idea of uniting different tribes (read: figure scales) of lizard folk as my original plan was just to field a force of 28mm lizard warriors. I'm still awaiting delivery of this one, eagerly at that!

Eventually I plan to order some Wargames Atlantic 28mm multi-part lizard warriors. The box includes  parts for 24 figures for less than $35 usd which is quite a bargain, although you do have to assemble them yourself. Much like Ikea costing less because you have to do the tedious part.  

The figures come with a variety of head and weapon options but i'll be sticking with classic melee weapons. Sadly they don't come with bows or any warriors with shields. For those, I'll probably pick up some Reaper figures - Bones or Dark Heaven.

In any case, to my mind, the 28mm figures make fine pygmy lizard warriors.  

I have some Reaper Bones lizard folk to serve as proofs of concept:

A 28mm Reaper Bones mini next to an Armies in Plastic Legionnaire.

 As an example of what I intend visually, I painted one up quickly last night. I'm pretty pleased for what amounts to a single rushed paint session. Although in close up I am finding so much to fix!

The gloss is subtle on these figures perhaps due to the general lack of smooth surfaces?

And another comparison example:

In Space: 1889, the Russians have a force on Venus and they wear the white tops / green trousers. He probably should aim lower.

The SCS Direct set also includes harpie figures that I think will serve nicely as Parrot People (they are found in the jungles of Venus. Duh.),  to be supplemented by the Hat Gaul figures (one of the poses has a winged helmet and one pose is naked, good enough for Parrot People for me!) and maybe some Chin Toys Aztecs. Those latter aren't cheap and they only provide eight in a box.

What about all of the other figures in the assortment? Some will be painted, many will end up in my son's toy soldier bin.

Yes, all of this represents exponential growth of my plastic pile. And painting queue.

On the plus side, my Austro-Hungarians and Italians are moving along nicely and their portion of the pile is steadily decreasing. Hopefully this weekend I'll sneak in another game of Trench Hammer.

Wooden Houses and Iron Men

While picking up a prescription at Target the other day, I came upon a 3-pack of wooden house silhouettes that looked about perfect for abstract games where forces don't need to go into the building.

They are $5 USD for the pack.

Here they are pictured with some Germans that I had to re-glue to their bases The widest building is just slightly wider than 4" which makes them suitable for just about any grid-based game I"m likely to run.

In the picture below, I've turned the building side-ways to illustrate how narrow they are - about 1.25"

Since the photos were taken, I've primed the buildings with the intention of giving them simple, toy-like painting.

They also had some pre-painted buildings in a similar style but sold individually. Although I love the ceramic light up buildings I got last year at Christmastime, they can't be tossed willynilly into the terrain bain like these slabs of wood can.

Anyone with a modicum of woodworking ability and appropriate tools could probably knock out a whole city rather easily. However, as I have neither, these will do!

My Own Private DragonCon

This post is a bit overdue but I just got around to writing it up.

Although I had purchased a badge for DragonCon in those heady days of Spring, when it seemed we might be turning the corner on the COVID thing, when the time came for the event (Labor Day weekend), I was not particularly enthused about being in confined spaces with thousands of strangers. The nail in the coffin was that my son, who is 10 and too young for a vaccination, would have to get a COVID test before attending and he hates getting them done. 

So, we opted to do our own mini con at home. Admittedly, we missed out on some things, but on the other hand, the lines were short.

On the days he was in school, I managed to play the two battles for the 2nd campaign turn of my Fictional Citadel campaign (documented here and here)  as well as do a lot of painting (for me at least): I finished 5 figures and one MG crew.

One of my son's favorite things is video games (we usually spend a lot of time at the arcade at DragonCon), and so we played excessive amounts of Minecraft together. 

I stand by my assessment that if you like old school DnD, it's worth giving Minecraft a chance (play in survival mode). It's somewhere between a hex crawl and a dungeon crawl but you don't have to wait until 9th level to build a castle. My son plays in creative mode while I play in survival mode so he can heal me when things inevitably go awry.

Playing RPGs is one of the highlights of my Con experience, but unable to entice my son to play anything I felt ready to run (he really wants to try Delta Green but it's a bit much for him subject wise I think), I turned to my neglected stack of rule books. 

I read several, including Usagi Yojimbo (the Fuzion version) and Call Catthulhu, which was an enjoyable activity even if not playing an actual game.

 

 

However, I then did a quick review of Metamorphosis Alpha and went on to play a solo adventure. "The Long Hard Mile" put out by Goodman Games. 

My mountain goat mutant died in an encounter with a mutated plant but it was a fun to try out the system for the first time despite having the rules for a few years now. I think Metamorphosis Alpha would work great in solo play using the Mythic Game Master Emulator because there is a lot of exploration and your character really is kind of oblivious to the workings of the starship, or that it's even a starship.

Another highlight of Con for me is the vendor hall (stuff!), and so I gave myself permission to spend a little money. 

I ordered the Call of Cthulhu (CocC) starter set and got it before the weekend was over. So, I played the included solitaire adventure therein - thus making two RPGs played.Which is two more than I've played in about 5 years now.

My investigator, antiquarian Elias Barnes, did not survive, but it's Call of Cthulhu so that wasn't surprising. The solo adventure is often compared to Choose Your Own Adventure but really it's more like Tunnels & Trolls solitaire modules or the Steve Jackson game books - you have a character and there are game rules that exist outside of the story and the outcome of skill checks or combat or what not can determine which paragraph you read next.

The starter set is for 7th edition CoC which is new to me but it's been out a bit now I think.

I used to have 6th edition CoC, and played in a few one shots, and then sold my rulebook because I didn't really need the book to play a character in one shots. 7th edition has some interesting? changes - like half and fifth rolls. I don't know if I'd invest in the full rules because the starter set provides enough info to create characters and run adventures as is. I suppose the price lists for 1920s goods and chase rules could be helpful, but I'm not sure they are $70usd helpful (for both the Keeper's Guide and the Investigator's book).

I also ordered a Usagi Yojimbo trade paperback (book 1)  to go with the re-reading of the RPG rules I mentioned above as it's been awhile since I've read any of the comics. 

An earlier order placed with Armies in Plastic arrived over the weekend as well, so although not a Con purchase, its arrival was timed perfectly. Two packs of regulars for the French and Indian War, one pack of French Foreign Legion, and one pack of Woodland Indians for some new projects.

A tiny selection of the AiP figures, because this is a toy soldier blog after all.

Nerd related movies seemed a good choice for our weekend, but in the end we decided on Phineas and Ferb's Marvel and Star Wars extended episodes, available on Disney Plus. We've seen both before but it had been awhile. The Star Wars episode is supremely funny with lot's of callbacks to the Star Wars movies.

I did try to screen Beastmaster for him but that didn't last long. I saw it in the theater when i was 10 but it's been a long time since and movies have come a long way. It looks low budget even for its time -like it was shot on VHS. My son immediately noted the hero's Luke Skywalker haircut. We got maybe 15 minutes through it before we decided an episode of Teen Titans Go! would be more enjoyable (it's easily my favorite comic book related animated show).

A couple of episodes of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, featuring Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws (it's my favorite gaming related podcast - it's RPG focused but they cover so many topics in an intelligent way with great humor. I highly recommend it) provided us with our convention "panel sessions".

Finally, we ate drive thru Taco Bell, not once but twice, ordered pizza, and went to Waffle House. Because at DragonCon you eat in the food court at the mall generally so this was my way of replicating that. Plus no dishes to wash because chores are definitely not part of Con weekend.

I am not convinced I'll invest in a DragonCon badge for next year - it's tempting as a point of hope for  being among my fellow nerds but at the same time, I don't think my fun was in any way diminished this year.

Fictional Citadel : July 7, 1943 Part 1

On July 7, 1943 PanGermania advanced to capture Berezovka and collided with the 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division supported by elements of 1st Tank Corps. 

The Germans advanced quickly into the town - 1st Recon followed closely by 1st PanzerGrenadiers with support from the division's armored elements. The artillery deployed on the hill south of Berezovka.

Division Commander Ouspensky provided all three of his tank brigades to General Novikov who would be commanding the attack. The three tank brigades descended on the town to meet the invader's armor.

1st Recon moved to protect the perimeter from advancing Soviet rifle divisions and 1st PanzerGrenadier was tasked with pushing back the 1st Tank Brigade. Intense fighting in the streets and alleys raged and possession of the town was up for grabs for several hours.

The Soviets 1st Guard Rifle Regiment took up positions in the woods East of Berezovka and engaged 1st Recon. From their position they were able to call in artillery support to devastating effect. Meanwhile 2nd and 3rd Rifle Regiments cautiously advanced towards the fighting via the two roads leading into the town.

In close fighting, 1st Tank Brigade managed to push 1st Panzer Grenadier South of the town. With the Germans pushed out of the fields East of the town as well, Novikov turned cautions and opted to use his armor to hold their positions while the infantry caught up.

Fichte brought up his PanGermania Fusiliers who had been held in reserve, along with the 1st PanzerJaeger battalion. The armor battle continued on the German right, and Tank Brigades 1 and 2 combined their efforts and rendered 1st Panzer combat ineffective, leaving only 1st StuG battalion.

Unfortunately for the Soviets, 1st Tank Brigade suffered extensive losses at the hand of German artillery and were forced from the field.

1st PanzerGrenadier drove the Soviets from the woods and then, along with the Fusiliers, engaged in fierce combat with the 2nd Rifle Regiment East of Berezovka.
 

General Novikov held 3rd Soviet Rifle Division in the fields north of the town in preparation to counter attack should the Germans make some headway, while sending 2nd Tank Brigade to engage the German artillery in an attempt to end their harassment.

With support from their AT battalion, the 2nd Rifle Regiment drove off the Panzer Grenadiers and engaged in a wrestling match with the Fusiliers for possession of the fields and farms.

In an effort to flank the Soviet infantry, Fichte sent his engineers to take up positions in the woods from where they launched repeated attacks on the Soviet AT battalion.

However, Fichte was running out of army to command. Although his force had caused quite a few casualties, they had taken more themselves. 1st StuG battalion made a last valiant effort to gain a foothold in Berezovka and engaged 2nd Tank Brigade in a close range shootout but were overwhelmed, they were forced back. The German attack ran out of momentum and Fichte was forced to order PanGemania's withdrawal.

Berezovka was in Soviet hands, but as the scene of most of the days fighting, it was mostly rubble.

******* Campaign Notes ******

This was fought on an 8x8 grid on my 4' x 4' table (since I was combining Soviet forces). The rules again are The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery. The only changes I make are for initiative (i use the solo card activation rules but I don't shuffle the sides together, instead they dice for initiative and then draw from their own card deck) and MGs/Armored Cars roll 3d6, but instead of all hits counting, if 1 or more die hits, it's a single hit total.

Both armies had exhaustion points of 9SP. The game lasted 13 turns, with both sides losing 11 SP. The Soviets lost 3 of those in turn 13!

For the Soviets, just more than half of the losses came from 1st Tank Corps. Division Commander Ouspensky, already peeved that Novikov was tapped to organize the attack, is now even more annoyed. 1st Tank Brigade was completely eliminated, 2nd Tank Brigade has 1 SP remaining and 3rd Tank Brigade has 2 SP remaining.

Although I left it on the table, the 1st AT battalion only went into the battle with 1 SP and was eliminated. I had forgotten they were starting from a weakened state due to the fighting on July 5.

However, because I let the Soviets combine their force, both division sized forces are still in relatively good shape, although they must allocate recovered SP between the two units. We'll see if Ouspensky can lobby for a greater share of the replacements.

PanGermania is in bad shape despite their successful encounters on 5th and 6th of July. In this battle, Fichte lost his recon, 1st Panzer, and 1st Panzer Grenadiers, plus sustained damage to 1st StuG and the Fusiliers. That's a lot to ask of the recovered SP.

Phantom Division will face its own challenges against 2nd and 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Divisions the next time I get a chance to play. That will be Part 2, but I don't know when I'll get to set up the table next.

Oh, and for those interested in such things, here is the map after the movement phase at the start of campaign turn 3:

Austro-Hungary Responds to Italian Escalation!

Not to be outdone by the Italians, the Austro-Hungarian army has equipped its forces along the Southern Front with newly acquired machine guns of their own.

Astute readers will note that these are not the standard Schwarzlose but rather are models based on the German MG 08. 

Once again, this is a model available from Irregular Miniatures in their 54mm WWI line. The gas mask head is an option. I just like the way they look (for the same reason I have always liked the 1/72 Strelets WWI figures as they all have gas masks for all sides).

My "conversion" of the uniform to Austrian, besides the colors, was to simply paint over the boot upper as if it was a puttee. 

Assembling the MG took some effort, but then, assembling anything is not my strong suit (you should see me with Ikea furniture). I snapped one of the front support legs - thankfully it was only one, and it repaired easily with super glue. Attaching them at the correct angle nearly resulted in permanently gluing myself to the model. Twice.

In the end though, slapped over with paint and gloss, it looks the part.

I plan to buy one more MG team for each force again from Irregular eventually.  They are a great deal, even including shipping to the US, and they arrived quickly. However, I have more infantry to paint up in the meantime.

July 6, 1943: Phantom Division vs. 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division

 As PanGermania clashed with the 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division, Germany's Phantom Division led by General Feuerbach, was met by General Blavatsky's 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division.

It should be noted that on the map below, the Germans are entering from the South West, while the Soviets enter from the North East.

The Map.

Feuerbach directed his troops to capture the hills North West and North East of the bridge in order to secure the road for the next wave of the advance. 1st Panzer Recon lead the charge, securing the bridge without any Soviet resistance.

2 SGRD meanwhile brought up as many of their assets as they could to meet the advancing Huns. Having stopped the 1st PanzerGrenadier Division the previous day, morale was high and the expectation was that they would shut down the German incursion before the day was out.

1st Panzer recon captured the first hill objective while 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, with 2nd Panzer in support, moved up to reinforce their position. The Soviets quickly deployed their artillery and began bombarding the Germans on and around the hill.

Blavatsky, angered by the denial of his request to pursue the retreating 1st Panzer Grenadier Division, sought to break Phantom Division by not only denying them the hills but crippling their force. He personally commanded the artillery in their relentless bombardment of German units.

Portrait of a Soviet Hero: General Blavatsky.

For their part, 2nd Panzer Regiment and the division artillery hammered away at the Soviet 5th Guard Rifle Regiment who had taken up position in the woods South West of the village, supported by the 2nd Anti-tank battalion. The Soviets proved difficult to dislodge and considerable time and effort were spent driving them from the woods so that PanGermania could approach the hills East of the road.

The fight for the hill north west of the bridge intensified as 4th Panzer Grandier Regiment, along with 1st Panzer Recon, engaged in a tug of war with the Soviet 4th and 6th Rifle Regiments.

Blavatsky's artillery badly mauled the recon battalion. German crews were forced to abandon many vehicles burning on the battlefield with the hopes that they could salvage what they could when the fighting ended. Meanwhile, 4th Panzer Grenadier fought on, doing its best to hold the hill against assaults to it's front and right flank.

Some unpleasantness for 4th PanzerGrenadier Regiment.

Their luck ran out and 4th Panzer Grenadier, under weight of increasing casualties was forced from the field, with 2nd Panzer attempting to capture the hill and cover their withdrawal. The Soviets made repeated efforts for the hills east of the road, with little to show for their effort, staved off by 5th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and the German artillery.

By nightfall, both generals had exhausted the troops under their command, and the fight for the hills had ended indecisively with no one controlling the North West hill and the Soviet Pioneer battalion precariously holding the hills East of the road with 5th Panzer Grenadiers threatening.

Campaign Notes

A nail biter with PanGermania reaching exhaustion first in turn 12. The Soviets tried to capture the NW hill and end it in turn 13, but German artillery fire cleared them from the hill, which coincidentally triggered exhaustion for the Soviets. At the end of the 13th turn both sides had reached exhaustion.

Both sides took severe damage with the Germans losing 9 SP and the Soviets losing 10 SP. Those numbers are prior to recovery - they will automatically regain 1/3 and lose 1/3 permanently.

I fought this battle Friday morning and I'm still not sure how to proceed.

As I see it, I have three main options.

Option 1: Leave the forces where they are on the campaign map with neither unit able to move next turn. Then fight the battle again with the now reduced forces. This seems realistic enough but it concerns me from a long term campaign perspective. It's only day two. I'd hate for one of these units to kneecapped on the third day.

Option 2: Both sides are forced to withdraw away from each other / towards their baselines, as if they lost, on the campaign map. Next turn they can move normally. Since they withdraw two spaces if they lose, they wouldn't be able to fight each other right away. This feels gamey but preserves both forces a little longer.

Option 3: Fight the local battles for the two hills - one between 5th Panzer Grenadier and the Soviet Pioneer battalion and one between 2nd Panzer and the 6th Rifle Regiment.

My thought for the 3rd option is to zoom in a bit, and fight two battles, with maybe a single battalion with support for each side (say, using One Hour Wargames force lists and even an appropriate OHW scenario). I am not sure how or if I would count losses towards the campaign -  not a huge fan of carrying fractional Strength Points forward. 

And, in the event of a split decision, I'm not sure what that would mean for the campaign map - it'd be the same situation. 

It's OK if the Germans get stuck here trying to break through of course. So, if the goal is only to see who ends up controlling the hills/campaign map space perhaps either of the first two make more sense?

Fictional Citadel : July 6, 1943 PanGermania clashes with the 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division

General Blavatsky  (2nd SGRD) was eager to chase the German 1st Panzer Grenadiers but his superiors ordered his move northward to support Gurdjieff's 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division which was maneuvering to engage PanGermania but now found itself flanked by Phantom division. 

Map positions after movement phase of Campaign Turn 2

Soviet General Gurdjieff set the objective for 3rd Soviet Guard Rifle Division (SGRD) to deny access to the Germans to the fork in the main road leading north from Cherkasskoye and further into the Soviet Union. 

Unbeknownst to him, General Fichte (PanGermania), with his sights set on Berezovka and Systeveo, had decided to concentrate on capturing the fork as well, with particular emphasis on the NW roadway, thereby setting the two divisions on a collision course.

Map of Battlefield

Overview

7th Rifle Regiment advanced using the woods for cover.

3rd SGRD’s 7th Rifle Regiment saw worst fighting of the day - after leading the advance they faced off against the majority of PanGermania’s force over the course of the fighting. Repeated attacks by 1st Recon, 1st Panzer, 1st StuG and 1st Panzer Grenadier left the regiment battered. Gurdjieff’s insistence at sending the artillery forward with 7th RR proved to be disastrous - PanGermania’s recon battalion easily overran their position behind the hills, once 7th RR was driven from the field.

1st Recon Battalion captured the fork and opened fire on 7th Rifle Regiment.

Once again, the part of StuG battalion is being played by a Solido Jagdpanther .

The 8th and 9th Rifle Regiments fared better, but marginally.

8th Rifle Regiment is on the hill to the Soviet left, and 9th is to the right of the bridge.

3rd AT battalion advanced to join 8th Rifle Regiment on the hill east of the PanGermania positions. There they would harass if not actually cause damage to 1st Panzer Grenadier.

Significant losses on the day forced Gurdjieff to retire his force eastward beyond the hills. Fichte’s division secured the NW road and PanGermania’s fusiliers and grenadiers moved out under protection of the division’s tanks and StuGs.

The Soviets reached exhaustion and could not longer afford to advance to try and capture the fork. Hopelessly outgunned by the more mobile Germans, there was little reason to continue the fight here.

A view of the retreat from behind the Soviet line.

***** 

Campaign Notes

Once again, the battlefield map was generated using Bob Cordery's Terrain Generator V2.

Both sides had different plans that I diced between. To my surprise both  ended up concerned only with the fork in the road.

I became fixated on the idea of getting the Soviet artillery behind the hills for their firing position. This was unnecessary given their range. Although I use a a house rule that requires a an artillery target be within 3 spaces of a friendly unit, with their range they could have used the woods on their side of the river for cover and left it at that. Instead they were destroyed. Lesson learned.

I Nerfed the armored car and preferred the result - they roll 3 dice to hit, but still can only inflict one SP loss at best.

The Soviets inflicted a total loss of 1 SP (to 1st Panzer Grenadier, which they got back) while losing a total of 9 SP, including the entire 7th Rifle Regiment and 3rd Artillery Battery. They got 4 SP (3 automatically and 1diced-for), with 2 SP going to the hospital. They lost 3 SP outright. 

Next up, Phantom Division vs. 2nd Soviet Guard Rifle Division