Hull Down

  The Russians make their assault plans. If we put a ship here success is guaranteed! Russian Turn 5 Start points. The Germans have less of a defence than 'pockets of resistance' The rallies were a mix. A self rallying NKVD squad came back (with a broken side of 10 that’s not a major surprise) and two half squads over in the West of the Hall. The Russians (this turn at least) have an equally serious shortage of squads so flipped straight to movement. The rallied half squad with the Demolition Charge from the administration building attempted to force fire and failed then an NKVD 6-2-8 moved next to S22 in T22 in an attempt to use the interior wall to force HTH again. The S22 squads could not see them but the squad with MMG in  R21 could and it broke them and rated. Unfortunately for me the shot also caused a smoke stack sniper who then pinned the 1st line MMG squad in S23 Next the second available NKVD unit moved into the debris between the halls at T23. This could be seen by t

Why is everyone standing in the open... Russian Turn Four Not many rallies really and all unsuccessful. What was more successful was the powerful Russian prep fire phase. In the East of the factory both the forward German defenders and Lieutenant Freitang were broken by prep fire. This allowed Commissar Ramzon and the squad he just rallied to sprint out of the factory and move behind the newly broken squads. The remaining unbroken German squad in Z26 failed to prevent this with a lovely 11 roll on a flat 4 attack. Yuck. In one fell swoop the NKVD have stabilised the East of the factory and will wipe out almost the entire force there and I had such high hopes for the indomitable officer there... In the West of the factory things continued to be bad with the flamethrower officer breaking. After more Russians moved to the center of the action the German defensive fire phase was almost a damp squib. A succession of decent firepower shots caused some decent morale checks (3MC!) and the Russ

 Russian Turn Three The sudden realisation that loads of units should have gained concealment was retrospectively applied (this game is so complex and easy to forget stuff) and then the turns rolled on. Russian shooting was pathetic as ever but during the movement phase the Germans were equally ineffective - not bad shots though - plenty of threes and fives,  but this time the Russians were passing their tests. It also generated no less than four sniper rolls with two being the more effective (and funky) smokestack snipers actually managing to break an 8--3-8 in Q22. Its quite thematic, the smoke stack sniper, and more effective than the normal. By the end of the Russian movement Soviet units had managed to move next to no less than six German squads so bar an unexpectedly horrific defensive fire phase should be able to generate favourable combats and at least whittle the Germans down.  During the German phase I decided to self break the flamethrower squad. Lightning is unlikely to str

Continuing my 'slow and detailed AAR' we now cover turn two. For those who have forgotten the previous post is here . The Russians went all in turn one with a furious attack which was primarily repulsed. The advantages gained from the slaughter were the NKVD getting into Hall 4 (the Martin Oven) and the Russians getting a toehold at the Eastern end with the Germans broadly holding the center and surrounding southerly halls.  Russian Turn Two Rallies went well for the Soviets with a large percentage of broken units coming back. The Germans had a 'worse' phase managing to unblock the Heavy machine gun but rally absolutely no units. This meant the Soviets could apply pressure again. Bar the ineffectual kill stack and the equally ineffectual foxhole based 6-2-8 in the road at Y27 all the Soviets available infantry moved to try and drag fire and things went well. In the West of the factory the German heavy machine gun armed 8-3-8 in N21 could have badly damaged the attacking

  What a crap place to fight Change in blog report style here. I will be writing a detailed AAR (more detailed than normal) but to avoid reader fatigue will be reporting in half turns or full turns at most so there will be multiple smaller updates. It will be interesting if people like (or hate) it.  Anyway I do love a Stalingrad Campaign map scenario and this medium sized scenario has a small zone of operations and a funky setup structure that nicely enforces the mess of attack/defence that city fighting could get to. The scenario uses a more complex phased set up structure with firstly the basic defenders being forced to setup all over their defensive factory. The German defenders get to setup next and they can populate any factory location which is more than 1 hex away from any Russian (and over hex 20). This means if the Russian in step one does not step out then the Germans can popup behind them, above them  basically all over the place - perhaps the Russians would desire this but

  We are returning to this scenario, which I have played once before ( here though I note I gave it the wrong scenario number), as we continue inside the Hatten campaign scenarios. I am the controlling the defence and this time am trying out the potentially more risky forward defence. My flanks are basically open and should the American attackers wish to sweep round either then that is fine. I would switch to holding the more forward victory buildings.  Setups Yet another thrilling setup shot.  The American do look like they are concentrating on the more open left side with plenty of nasty smoke opportunities looking likely to come my way along with a nasty kill stack in M12 (2 6-6-7s+medium machine guns and the 9-1) US Turn One to US Turn 2 In my last play of this scenario the US attacker took his time amassing massive firepower and force advantages and slogged his way through the town. In the end this approach was too slow and I won that. This opponent has followed a very different