Battle Report - Berlin 1945 revisited

The other week my family was away on a skiing vacation, and we took the chance to get a whopping big game in.

Daniel was umpire and stayed close to Berlin, just as last year. As usual based on a real battle, in this case the battle of Wriezen, April 17 1945.

The board from the Russian edge

Daniel and I set up the gaming board the night before, and were ready for action in the morning. Small houses, a woods and some fields, a factory complex, a town, railwaystation and a canal with bridge.

The road leading to the bridge and city centre

The woods, we see the factory in the background

First to come was Jonas, and he and I got the German force. We had some limitations as to where we could set up and knew there were Volksturm somewhere, but we would not know where until we had set up. Mostly hastily set up defences with a wide variety of troops. All our troops were set up hidden, mainly a thin line defending the outskirts of the town. We had some mobile reserves in the town square and a depleted battery of 81mm mortars near the bridge.

Last bread served

One concern was the limbered 88 that we desperately wanted to move back through the main road and emplace in the town centre.

The road to Wriezen

Roos, Fredrik and Mikael dropped in and were given command of the Russians.

The battle starts slowly with Russian smoke and cautious advance.  A short fire fight between recce forces leaves one Italian made Autoblinda 41 in flames and one BA 64 immobilised.

You're supposed to find stuff with your recce troops, but this.... This photo is taken a second before a panzerfaust takes out the BA-64.

Two SU-76 advances, and one is lost while trying to cross a road. Bad die rolls followed by a Hetzer shot. They really got flimsy armour…The other one meets the same destiny later.

The hordes advancing, but all armour in flames

Bad rolls (and more than a bit stupidity on my part) killed a Hetzer in an infantry assault.

Our mortars get into action placing some well-aimed shots in the middle of the bunched up Russian infantry. We also get requests from units on our flank for mortar support, and we give them the most of our fire missions.

Do you notice the lone Russian Big Man. Our sniper noted him...

We have two snipers on the board and they manage to take out two of the scarce Russian Big Men, and another falls from a mortar round. With only one Big Man left, they are in big trouble.

A flanking force of scouts suddenly appears behind the German lines, but they are cut down by cross-fire.

We get radio messages from the units on our right flank that it looks really bad there (it later turns out that our mortar support buys us some time on our right flank, something that probably saved our day). We make the decision to immediately draw back all of our troops into the town, to be able to defend the bridge.

That withdrawal works rather smoothly, but we lose some infantry to machineguns and artillery.

We get frantic calls from our flank that the defences there have broken. The Russians are coming!

 Out of ammo, the mortar crew picks up their rifles.

One squad vs an 88, a StuG, a Stummel and assorted infantry. 

Stummel lost to artillery fire 

And they come rushing over the bridge, but as we have redeployed they are cut to pieces. T-34:s materialize on the other side of the river, starting a fire-fight with my hull down Hetzer.

About here most all players have left hours before, only Daniel and I fight it out, just to see what happens. We call it a night. A very late night…

 A Hetzer retrea... eh, redeploying

Pictures by Daniel as my camera and family were on the same vacation.

German Big Men in 20mm for IABSM

The first batch of new big men for I Aint Been Shot Mom. The idea is to represent a level 1 man with one figure, a level 2 with two, etc up to four men for the highest ranking Big Men.

I have already converted some old figures into level 1 Big Men, simply by placing them on square bases, as opposed to circular ones for ordinary men.

These guys are newly painted.

First of the level 2 Big Men. Figures from Caesar German Army

Another level 2. Airfix German Infantry and Revell German Infantry 

A level 3 Big Man. Figures from Airfix Reconnaissance Set, unknown and Ceasar German Army.

Level 4 Big Man. The officer is a metal one I got from friend Daniel, and he was part of a group build. Great figure. Periscope from Revell German Armoured Infantry. The man with rifle is Caesar German Army, and the one with a SMG is from the Airfix Reconnaissance Set. The man with the back towards us is unknown.

Battle Report – On the road to Stalingrad – or “Hey, what’s the chance of me rolling another double 1?” - Part 3

Continued from Part 2

 The 222 has a slight accident…

…and halftracks assaulting an anti-tank gun supported by anti-tank rifles is…sporting…

 The anti-tank gun is still going strong…

 …but they are stormed by angry grenadiers and the AT-line is annihilated. Most German soldiers are wiped out in the process. Close combat is generally short and very bloody.

The German troops advance all over the front. The factory is burning from an early Stuka-attack. Russian troops are retreating, but they are up to something…

The devious Russian defender had inquired about the stack of drums behind the factory. In my mind they were filled with pickled cabbage, but our umpire said it was a fuel dump. The sneaky Russians had spent a good while rolling fuel drums towards the bridge. They didn't quite make it.

 One way to stop the enemy – set fire to everything and swim/ford the river.

Russians retreating behind a ‘smokescreen’.

Our brave defender declared the game over, as he had no anti-tank capabilities left and all his troops had either fled/retreated over the bridge or were in the process of fording it.

There was much rejoicing in the German camp as they celebrated their victory. But the victory was bitter-sweet as practically all German foot-soldiers had perished and several AFV:s were left burning on the battlefield. The crashed Hanomags where an embarrassment but could be salvaged, as could the other damaged vehicles.

All in all a great game, and we hopefully caught a couple of new players. I enjoyed myself immensely as ‘Propaganda Officer’ (i.e., snaring unsuspecting passers-by, explaining rules and troops, taking pics and eating biscuits).

Next Con will be the desert, 1942 and LRDG, and I’ve got a spiffy costume for that J. Tally-ho!

Battle Report – On the road to Stalingrad – or “Hey, what’s the chance of me rolling another double 1?” - Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

 On the other front there materialised a lot of AT-rifles.

 First panzers, a mixed platoon of Pz II and Pz 38 (t). The recce unit is having a hard time, the crew has bailed out in the first two vehicles. Those ATR:s are bad news to flimsy AFV:s.

A 45mm Russian ATG is really bad news to early panzers. One down…

 Next platoon of grenadiers to the rescue…

  .. but rudely interrupted by a 45mm shell. It’s getting confused and bunched up.

The PSW 222 ‘spots’ another anti-tank gun. Behind that blasted fence…

 More panzers- this time Pz III. At the same time the Hanomags pining for action and a shoot-out between an ATG and a PSW 222. It is tense around the gaming table. How to take out the enemies behind the fence. A tank shock, maybe. With a halftrack… that fence sure looks flimsy….

No problem going through a flimsy communist fence. A tiny chance of getting immobilised. Two dice, don’t throw a double one…. Oooops…. 

 Everyone is angry! Close combat!

 Run for your lives….

Picture this: You’re the commander of a half-track and you see the enemy retreating. They are on the other side of a flimsy fence. If you would also be on the other side of that fence you could cut them to ribbons. That would be nice… 

Picture this: The German player, incidentally the same player who had rolled those unfortunate double ones earlier, saying loudly “Hey, what’s the chance of me rolling another double 1?”

Picture this!

Half the Con turned around to look at us when we shouted with laughter.

The anti-tank-flimsy-wooden-communist-fence…

To be continued.

Battle Report – On the road to Stalingrad – or “Hey, what’s the chance of me rolling another double 1?” - Part 1

Saturday was another participation game, this time at Incognicon in Skarpnäck, a suburb of Stockholm.

We used the IABSM v3 rules, and our game was set in Russia in 1942, on the road to Stalingrad, and it was based on the scenario  “Nice one Kirill” from Too Fat Lardies' Summer Special 2007. We used slightly different troops, mainly to fit what we had built.

Today’s objective – take and hold the bridge

We met at 10.00, and had set up and were ready to play at about noon. As usual we had one of us playing the defenders, in this scenario the Russians, and everyone who wanted had a chance at the Germans. We immediately got a bunch of interested ‘evil nazis’ (even though they seemed very friendly) to take us on.

As usual when playing IABSM we start with an empty board. The defenders set up hidden, and has to be spotted, actively, when you’re close enough or when they shoot at you. Attackers enter the board under blinds.

The board from the German side (Yes, we know there weren’t any FW 190:s at the eastern front at this time, but it was such a nice model. We had to use it!)

Farm in the background

 First group in was a recce-unit. Vorvärts! After them a blind (which turns out to be false, i.e., not having any troops under it – it represents maybe a motorcycle, a couple of scouts or maybe a cow. False blinds can move, spot and be annoying)

The hand of God points at the first Russians.

Next in to be spotted is a platoon of grenadiers in halftracks. Oops, Russkies hidden around the downed fighter. They fire at point blank range and damages the Hanomag.

 Attack!

Counter-attack!

 Where did all the soldiers go…? that was bloody!

Back to the recce. What’s that? It points towards us…

 Uh-oh…

Back to the Hanomags – hunting Russian pigs…

…and assaulting Russians in a house…

…but the barn was also filled with commies, totally wiping out the assaulting squad. (They are really inside the barn)

Oh, there are enemies behind the fence…

To be continued!