WW2 Mini Campaign

A little background. Our group is doing a WW2 mini campaign. Germans/Russians. It is modeled after the first few battles of the 1941 invasion by the Germans. The figs are the 10/12mm. Basicly, it is a serioes of 5 battles. The Germans can afford to only lose 1 in the series otherwise it would be a Russian campaign victory. This is the first battle in the campaign:

After Action ReportOn Turn 1 the Germans got 6 Stuka air strikes they could use anywhere on the board. Taken by surprise, the Russians were not allowed any antiaircraft response. The airstrikes did better than usual this game but then our Germans normally havent rolled too well for aerial attacks in our game experience.This time they destroyed an AT gun, AA gun truck, arty emplacement with 76.2mm gun inside, and killed some personnel caught in tents in a camp outside of the town. They pummeled some entrenchments too but no Russians were inside them.Then the attack went in. The German recon battalion raced their armored cars across one bridge where the gallant Soviet border guards beat off one rush only to get gunned down on a second. Though taking the bridge easily, the Germans did get stretched out very badly on the road due to command roll problems. In the center the German infantry battalion paddled their first wave across on boats and only lost one boatload of infantry to enemy fire. Then they took a small woods and the main central ridgeline on the Russian side of the river. There was quite a fierce firefight on the ridge with some Russian borderguards. I was a bit surprised when they didnt use any smoke to cover the crossing as they had been alloted some. But it worked.Finally on the second bridge, the main German tank effort drove across that without incident. Soon after the Russians began bombarding the bridge with a dug in 76.2 howitzer in an effort to knock down the bridge. Though the Russians got some hits, the bridge remained up.The Germans then engaged a large Russian pillbox with tank fire and an infantry assault, causing the Russians to abandon the pillbox. Finally the Russians armor support showed up, streaming down one road in a piecemeal effort (command rolls not cooperating). There was an armored battle and the Germans formed a firing line compared to the Russians long column on the road. By the time some Russian vehicles scattered then advanced they ran headlong into quite a lot of German tank fire. The Germans killed Russian AFVs at a 6:1 ratio. Russian morale cracked eventually and what was left of the defenders abandoned the town and fled down all three roads off the board. A definite German victory.Overall I thought the Germans played it quite well. They did bring up halftracks right into the front line in an infantry firefight and - as the real Germans did - soon found out these vehicles are quite vulnerable. They lost a couple to infantry.By the end of the battle the Germans had killed Russian infantry at a 5:1 ratio. Lopsided but realistic.The Russians fought bravely and did their best given a tough scenario though their armor tactics weren't imaginative. In their defense, Russians are clumsier with activations and they didnt roll all that great.Probably quite realistic given the 1941 scenario.So at the end of Game 1 the Germans lead 1-0 in a 5 game campaign.

What's Been Going On!

Well since my last post way back in June, I am pleased to report that I am back to blogging and gaming! First of all, I didn't have to do anything to my hobby work area. I was real fortunate that I had no damage, just some water on my carpet. I have indoor/outdoor so all I had to do was shop vac the water up and turn on the fan to dry things out.

As for gaming, well I managed to game a couple times since my last post. I have been busy with summer activities and work. I will post a battle report written by one of my fellow gamers next. I have managed to get a good portion of my Union fellows I purchased re-mounted and touched up. I still have the Rebs to do, but with summer, I haven't been as active in getting them done. To some extent, I am looking forward to fall and winter. Oh I don't mind summer, but I pretty much had enough at the end of June:)

I had planned on an ACW game this past weekend, but work got in the way so I had to cancel. I figured I would end up working late and true to Murphy's Law, I did.

Well this is it for now. I hope to get another gaming report out soon. Next week is historicon so there will be no gaming for me as a few of the guys are heading out to Pennsylvania.

Till Next Time!