Games and Reports

It was back to the Stalingrad game this week.

As things were standing the Russians were approximately 50% of the way to their morale limit while the Germans were slightly better off.

The situation was that the Germans were still assaulting the tractor factory while along the rest of the front both sides had hunkered down and were taking pot shots at each other.

The Germans had moved a Stug 33B into position ready to open fire (only 24 of these beasts were built and all were used in Stalingrad) carrying the heavy 150mm gun.

The Stug 33B targets the centre section of the flats that it knew was holding a command group and spotters, after all you cannot miss a building can you. The Stug 33B later suffered a “breakdown” and became immobilised (the Russians drew a lucky Battle Rating chit) but at the time it was parked next to its ammunition truck so could keep firing for the rest of the game.

The crossroads at the centre of the board was held by a Workers Militia AT tank team armed with Molotov cocktails and the dug-in T34. Somehow both these survived till the end of the game.

A section of the Workers Militia and Platoon HQ were still holding the left flank of the Russian line while the heavy fighting was continuing at the Tractor Factory.

The Naval Infantry platoon AT gun waited patiently for a target but none appeared so started taking “pot shots” at the German infantry holding the buildings opposite.

While on the Russian right flank the assault on the Tractor Factory continued with the German armour advancing in force with infantry support.

To counter this the Russians moved the last of the Naval Infantry platoon into the factory to support the T34 and the KV8.

The T34 in the factory “took out” another Pzkw IV that was closing the range.

On the Russian left flank time had also run out for the T34/76 (named after Timoshenko) as the Stug IIIF fired and took it out.

But the Russians soon had their revenge as the StuG IIIF moved the KV8 lurking in the factory took it out (I think it was the KV8, but there was also a AT rifle taking pot shots at the time).

KV8 with its mighty 45mm gun celebrates another success (although the rules still show the 76mm gun which is incorrect). The 2 “red counters” on the building show that it had lost 2 out of 3 “structural integrity” points another 1 and the building would collapse!

As time was running out the Russians had snuck a T70 into the factory and this managed to knock out the Pzkw IIIJ lurking near the factory gates.

The German sniper now had a nasty surprise as 3 sections of Russian infantry suddenly emerged from a “hidden cellar” where they had been lurking since the beginning of the game. However, much to the Russians disgust on the first turn all 3 units failed their “experience check” and would not close assault the sniper. After taking fire from the sniper next turn however one of them succeeded and the sniper was no more.

One of the Russian infantry sections that had emerged from the cellar now assaulted an infantry gun and wiped it out (I forgot to get a picture of that) and were closing in on an objective point much to the joy of their commanders. However as they prepared to advance on the objective a German Pioneer Flamethrower team appeared on their flank!!

One “whoosh” of flame and the section was no longer there, killed and broken, that’s two “morale” chits that had to be drawn one for loss of a section and another for coming under flame attack for the first time in the game.

Unfortunately, time had run out and we needed to call the game. No one had taken enough casualties to exceed their Battle Rating, no one had taken all five objectives so a  quick “tot” up was needed to see what the total Battle Rating losses for each side was. The Russian had lost 54 ot of 66 while the Germans had lost 44 out of 65. So a “Tactical Victory” for the Germans.

But more importantly for me had I found a set of rules that “worked” for street fighting and the answer was yes.