The Black Witch: Part 2

We return to the desperate struggle to capture or recover lost German tank crews, the downed Soviet pilot and the German officer.

Losing their transport so early had cost the Waffen SS dearly, allowing the sniper to pick off their light machine guns and keep them pinned.

Only the SDKfZ 232 continued the fight on this side of the field, as the Pioneer unit had to support the right flank, as a dust trail was spotted by the commander from the area where the Zis gun had been.

Suddenly the Siberian Veterans appeared, using that captured Opel Blitz from the previous battle.

It was now that one of the German surprises rumbled out of the shadows, kicking up a dust cloud of its own!

Using the Rad 8 as cover, the Waffen SS saw the officer in the river, who was directing them to head towards the wrecked Panzer and its crew.  He would sacrifice himself to save his tank crews, who had taken on the dangerous mission of capturing the Soviet pilot at his request.

Now the second surprise made its presence felt as the Pioneerwagen fired a direct shot from the squeeze bore howitzer.  It blasted a Ghaz truck to pieces, much to the shock of the Soviets who thought they were relatively safe on this part of the battlefield.

However, the smoke of the blast seemed to create even more cover for the waiting Soviet infantry, now getting even closer to capturing the German officer.

It was not long after the smoke settled from this scene of destruction that the Panzerbusche scored a hit on the T-34!  While it did not take it out, it did cause the crew enough strife to make them spend several minutes to catch their senses again.

The Pioneer unit began its move forward, hoping to counter the 3 Soviet units.  This would be problematic, since the mortar was not able to take down the machine gun crews across the river.

Any crossing attempt would be near suicide.

However, the Pioneers were able to utililze their tremendous close range firepower to decimate the raw Soviet recruits!  The last man standing was then taken down by the coaxial machine gun of the Flammpanzer.  

Not even Royanovich could save them.

At the same time, the Beast of the East fired a gout of flame at the Opel Blitz, which had now been revealed to be employed by the Siberian Veterans.  

The petrol immediately caught fire, and it promptly exploded.

The celebration did not last very long, as the T-34 crew regained their morale and destroyed the Rad 8 on the other side of the river.

The veteran Heer unit dove out of the cabin and headed into the river, as they saw their comrades huddled in the wreckage of the Panzer 1...

The Soviets attempted to destroy the transport half track with their small arms, but only managed to immobilize it.  This would now act as a shield for the survivors of the Pioneer unit.

As the German officer was overwhelmed by the Red Hordes in the river, the time lost by the Waffen SS to the destruction of their transport proved too costly.  They could not win the race to the wreck of the Panzer 2.

It was now that Comrade Royanovich took matters into  his own hands, and attempted to steal away the objective at the last moment.  His bravery managed to turn the contest into a draw, but did he ultimately survive?

We shall see the next time these bitter enemies meet on the field of combat.  The battle will now shift to a different part of the Soviet Union.  But the carnage certainly shall remain the same!

The Black Witch: Part 1

In the latest installment of our Barbarossa campaign, the fighting continues over the tiny village of the Island Church.  However, the objective has changed entirely!

No longer interested in the town itself (it has since been bypassed by the Wehrmacht armored columns!), an elite force of German troops must try to capture a downed Soviet pilot.  She is part of the Black Witches squadron, and she is known to be in the area.

The Soviet forces are trying to rescue her before she is captured. This mission was deemed to be of such importance that a German officer and a recon unit of tanks was sent in to find her.  Those vehicles had been knocked out by growing Partisan activity, and he finds himself stranded in enemy territory!

It is anticipated that this mission will be very difficult, so the hardiest of Waffen SS units will be tasked with recovering the stranded officer and capturing the enemy pilot.  They are few in number, but it is thought that they could slip back into the town less noticeably than a larger force of regular army.

Some new reinforcements have arrived in the town, among them Siberian veterans.

The terrain was far less ideal for the German deployment, as they were now attacking from the opposite side of town.  Not long ago, this had been a Soviet deployment zone...

The wheeled vehicles would find it rough going, which meant that the deployment areas were even further restricted.

These Russian villages seem to be ideal for the defense, with each log cabin and shack presenting an excellent hiding place.

The Red Army already has the stranded German officer in their sights.  Obviously the T-34 which knocked out the lighter Panzers in the previous engagement is still hiding in its lair...

Somehow this small but determined group of German soliders must hold off these advancing hordes and rescue the surviving crews of the knocked out tanks!

As usual, the Soviets slog through the gullys and streams to hide from the Axis firepower.  One of the Black Witches is in view, attempting to paddle to safety in one of the discarded German rubber boats.

A Zis field gun has been brought in to cover the troops, and it claims a victim on its very first shot!  The Opel Blitz goes up in flames, and the Waffen SS passengers must bail out  to avoid burning to death themselves.

They attempt to take cover behind the tiny bridge house, but the deadly sniper Sletlana is waiting for them in the top floor of the lumber mill.

The flame and smoke unleashed by the Zis gun must have betrayed their position, making it easy for the mortar observer to direct a well placed shot into their midst.  Even with Great Patriotic War, what remained of the crew chose to flee the field.

With the threat of the direct howitzer shot now gone, and the potential for the mortar to deal with the machine gun teams in the nearby building, the veteran Heer unit surged towards the river, and the Black Witch pilot.

Perhaps this is why the shattered Zis crew chose to exit the stage... the rumbling of the Flammpanzer!!!

As we have seen all to often on the Ostfront, the hapless 'free' squad of raw recruits is directed toward the enemy as cannon fodder.  With the new Commissar Royanovich nearby, they had little choice but to move into the teeth of enemy fire.

This covered the advance of the regular units of the Red Army, but on the right flank, they chose to hold their ground and let their own superior firepower deal with the scattered Waffen units.

They were being whittled down by the sniper, who managed to take out both light machine guns.  This would mean a nearly free hand for the Russians to clam the wreck and the captured officer.

Seeing this threat, the Rad 8 chose to risk the hazard of the T-34 and fire its autocannon into the mass of Soviet troops hiding in the stream.  Apparently the water makes for some great cover, and the shots nearly always missed.

The Red Hordes close in on their primary objective... rescuing their heroic pilot.  Will they bring her back to the aerodrome for more heroics, or can the elite of the Wehrmacht manage to fend off an army twice their number?

They have a few surprises for their enemy, so we shall see what happens in episode two!  Stay tuned...

Also, if you want to see video battle reports, you can check out my France 1940 videos on my YouTube Channel.  I have 4 of them posted already!  Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LgWEoymVQw

The Second Front

The deadly battle for the outskirts of Nouvion continues!  When we last saw the intrepid defenders, they were attempting to push forward into the German line of advance to blunt their progress.

Despite the presence of the Panzer 38T and the anti tank rifle, the Lorraine transport drove right into the teeth of enemy fire and dropped off the veteran squad into the nearest building, obviously at the direction of the officer nearby!

The German forces now saw the convoy of Laffly transports coming up behind the Lorraine, and the deadly machine gun mounts on each of them...

Each of the transports had to canter to the right in order to take cover behind the buildings and reposition to outflank the tank, Hanomag with its own passengers.  They could only go so far at this point, since the light howitzer had still not been dealt with!

You can see what was waiting for the French troops here.  Not only was there a squad in the half track, another one was waiting in the Opel Blitz.

The howitzer had moved a bit to get out of the line of sight of the heavy French artillery.  This also gave it an improved line of sight to the street, preventing an easy advance by the Laffly transports.

As the light began to fade in Nouvion, the French officer decided that he must gamble anyway, and drove the trucks into the street to pour fire into the waiting howitzer.  Even if it could not be destroyed, they could at least keep the crew cowering behind their gun shield!

The Germans saw their opportunity to counter strike, and attempted to blast the Laffly WTC15 from point blank range!  Apparently auto cannons are designed to be used at much longer ranges, because each shot flew past the very relieved crew of the anti tank truck...

The Panzer 38T and the Opel Blitz moved well into one of the neutral sectors to score victory points and to machine gun the exposed French veteran unit.  A few managed to survive this barrage of fire, however.

The Opel Blitz drove as fast as it could to get past this maelstrom.

PinaPalooza continued, with the French units getting hit multiple times.  However, they were now well ensconced in both the neutral sector and even the German deployment sector.  

The enemy would be forced to kill them outright to tip the balance...

Even the mortar observer joined the march forward!  He could not see past all the advancing French units, so he almost had to move past them.

It was a very unusual method of spotting, as he essentially pointed to the howitzer just yards away and said, "laisse tomber ici, les gars!".

That's "drop it right here, lads!" to you Anglophiles.

As darkness began to fall, deadly hand to hand combat ensued as the Wehrmacht forces attempted to drive the French back.

But there were simply too many targets to remove all at once!  As night fell, the action fell silent, and both sides slipped away to regroup and recover.  For now, Nouvion remains in French hands.  Will it remain so?

Perhaps as daylight returns, new reinforcements on both sides will be thrown into the battle!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are hoping to make more regular "paint and play" trips to Grognard Games.  We think it will be a mid week thing, where we arrive early to play a game and then paint afterwards.

Once we get that settled, we will announce that on Facebook, etc

First, we have to do Reapercon, which is very close!  We will have Fort Wappel up and running, with plenty of live demos and mayhem!!

A New Battlefield

It's been a very long time since we have been to a game store.  A very long time in fact, close to 2 years!  There are many reasons for that, not the least of which the closest location is at least 45 minutes away in zero traffic.

That's not to say that there are not some very nice locations, such as Games Plus and Draxtar.  Since Cathy needed some new cards for Warhammer AoS Champions, we thought we would make a spontaneous trip to Grognard Games, and pick those up in person!

Lo and behold, a familiar face greeted us at the door, and it was a little like being back at the old GW Battle Bunker!

The layout was even more expansive than the last time we were here, with plenty of tables laid out with a great variety of terrain types.

I had brought along the French and German Bolt Action armies, along with the new buildings for Nouvion, which are still in the process of being finished.  It was really different to be setting up a table for us in a location that wasn't the basement!!

We thought this might be the appropriate time for Cathy's first genuine game of Bolt Action, with a real scenario, and an official army list.  She would take the German forces, since there were so many unfamiliar French units and rules to worry about.

The mission was Sectors, and right away the fixed artillery pieces set up across from one another.  The French seemed particularly interested in the grounded Stuka!

The French deployed an observer in the top floor of one of the buildings.  After so many games set in the Ardennes forest, it was quite different to be working with terrain this "tall".  Also, I had to start getting used to windows again, and just how many things can 'see' out of them.

It didn't take very long for people to start showing up.  In fact, by 6pm, every table had one game system or another in action.  The store remained full until we left not long before close at 10pm.  

It was kinda nice to see that much activity on a regular Wednesday evening that was not Magic related!

While the French had brought in a lot of artillery to guard the 'neutral' sectors, it would really be the German mortar team that would get off the most shots during the game.  Most howitzers and anti-tank rifles spent several turns in Ambush guarding key corridors of advance.

Knowing the Germans had the only tank in the field, the Laffly WTC15 Tank Destroyer waited patiently for its quarry...

However, the Germans did not oblige, and kept the armored car and Panzer 38T well hidden.

The Lorraine transport with its deadly cargo strode right up to the waiting anti-tank rifle and Panzer 38T, dropping them off into a freshly wallpapered building right on the edge of the Axis deployment zone and 3 points!  

It was still quite early yet, so time will tell if they will survive to claim that sector.

I have a how to article on the way to show how I created the wallpaper, so stay tuned for that!

Speaking of staying tuned, the second episode of this first Battle for Nouvion is coming up.  Can the French drive the German invaders from this village?