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Thursday 8 March 2018

Battlegroup Kursk game

This is a Battlegroup Kursk game with Soviet infantry and T-34s taking on a mixed bag of panzergrenadiers, Stugs and Panzer IVs.  The Russians are from Will's collection and the Germans are Steve Hann's.


Quite a simple table with some low hills, woods and a small town/village at the German end of the table.  If I remember correctly (this was played in January) the Germans had 500 points including defences, while the Soviets had 600 or maybe 700 points.



The German infantry dug in on the edge of the village, while the armour lurked menacingly behind the cover of the buildings in the village.  The Soviet infantry fanned out and advanced on a broad front, while their tanks decided to advance on the German left flank, shielding themselves from German fire with a low hill and woods.  Being wise to this, the Germans bided their time and waited putting their vehicles on ambush fire or reserve move.



Once the Russian tanks got within range of the Stugs and Pz IVs, there was a flurry of long range gunnery, with the Germans obscured and the Soviets largely in the open.  This was only going one way.  The Stugs, with their limited ammo loadout, needed frequent resupply - fortunately there was a truck standing by.  He led a charmed life, avoiding any serious pinning issues from the Russian mortars.



In revenge, the Soviets shot up the front line defenders, raining down mortars, which whittled away the defenders.and KO'd the observers Kubelwagen.



The Soviets had lost almost all their mobile armour by the end of the game, although their infantry was largely untested.  The Germans had lost significant amounts of infantry and had some bad luck in chit scores.  When we called the game, the Germans were close to their BP, while the Soviets were only c. half way to their BP, so we agreed a Soviet victory, although the Germans grumbled about the devastation inflicted on the Soviet armour.


Another fun game.  Thanks for looking.



2 comments:

  1. Pretty cool Andy, and I would have grumbled if I was the Germans, too! Okay Reds, you’ve got no tanks and I’ve got no infantry, but go ahead and send your infantry across all that open ground and see what my tanks do!

    V/R,
    Jack

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  2. Thanks Jack,

    The Soviets can always play the numbers game. Their ability to soak up losses that would stop a British or US force in their track is awesome. It wasn't referred to as a Soviet Steamroller for nothing, I guess.

    Cheers, Andy

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