Situation 4, German delaying action near Minsk, Game 1

German delaying action against a mobile force during Battle of Minsk, July 2, 1944.

This is the first "long" board scenario I've played. Because the board length end-to-end is 66 inches (5 1/2 feet), I'm using just the first two boards to get started. May not need the last board (Board 1).

Setup

There is no setup for this situation, both forces enter the board on their first turns.

Turn 1

Russians come in road march order. Lot of units.

Germans move to establish a blocking position as fast as possible, with the 88 mm parked in Golod, along with a 76 mm ATG.

Turn 2

Russians moving forward, but getting kind of clogged up. There isn't enough cover to go around!

German direct fire is getting some dispersals. Some of the direct is tacked in the table below. Got a kill on a T-34 c (at 3:1, not shown), also dispersed some infantry (which was spotting) at 1:3 which lets the ATG (G31) potentially get off another shot.

Moved the Hummel and the Wespe towards Opustochenia.

Turn 3

Russians didn't have any decent shots, pure movement turn, but the armor is slipping past Golod.

Germans knocked out another T-34, continued to pull back slowly. Probably need to retreat a lot more in the next couple of turns.

Turn 4

Russians are finding it hard to move without getting caught out in places. However, they do have some armor on Board 3 now. No fire, all move this turn. It's getting interesting, too, lots of tank destruction close at hand.

Germans are going to lose the the ATG gun on Hill 129, however, took out a truck carrying rifle company. Got some overrun action to eliminate another rifle company.

Turn 5

Russians need to figure out what to do, because they're all stuffed up trying to get by Golod. Hence, Russian armor deploying around Golod to get rid of that pesky 88. I think it's too early to say, but the all the Russian towed ATG is in the rear moved by halftracks. It might have been better to move these forward for some areal denial.

No direct fire this turn, all movement and close assault.

Germans whack another T-34, this one had been dispersed on a previous turn by German infantry, which stayed around to spot for the Nashorn lodged in Grabyosh. Starting to pull back on towards Zabvenia.

Turn 6

The Russians just realized they have less time than they thought (that is, there are 10 turns in Situation #4 instead of 12 turns), which puts a bit of a different light on the current situation. One of the play-by-play articles for Situation #4 noted that getting the Russians bogged down was a great way for the Germans to win. So, time to get a move on.

Direct fire phase at German ATG in hilltop forest: roll 6, no effect. Cripes. The CAT which followed on didn't work either.

Russians are really bunching up around Golod, the 81 mm needs to be taken out to clear a path on to Board 3.

Now it's feeling like the Germans are in trouble! The Wespe was able to take out a rifle company in Golod, but not much else had any effect. The 88 mm in Golod is a goner, modulo a roll 6.

Turn 7

The 88 in Golod is gone. Russians now have a lane for getting on to Board 3. CAT on German infantry blocking end of gully gets a dispersal.

Germans are definitely in trouble. Repositioning this turn. Can't fall back too far.

Turn 8

Russians need to kill some German units to get victory conditions. This turn sets up for spotting.

Germans mostly blocking now. Run the clock and don't lose units for a win.

Turn 9

Russians pouring through the breach. Now have plenty of units on Board 3 to not lose decisively.

Germans have no direct fire opportunities, moving and blocking to set up massive Russian exposure (hopefully) on the last turn.

Turn 10

Russian final move, everything possible on board 3.

Germans need to clean up as many units as possible, not that many exposed. Was only able to destroy trucks in gully.

AAR

Russians destroyed 10 German units for tactical victory.

Germans limited Russian advance to 23 units for marginal victory.

Russians win with marginal victory.

The following fire table may not be complete. This is the first one, and it's an experiment to see how well it works. If it interferes with game play too much, I won't use it for every turn.

In the meantime, it will help me master the game board.

turn	firing	from	to	target	type	range	odds	results
2	G42	2D4	2K2	R953	D	7	2:1	D
2	G31	2H7	2G1	R933	D	6	1:1	D
2	G183	2H7	2I6	R145	CAT	1	1:3	D

The table as formatted on iPad for taking notes during game play turned out to be really inconvenient for playing. It worked fine for 1-1 unit combat, but not very well at all when multiple units engaged for combined odds. Creating a table formatting shorthand which would work well on iPad is an opportunity. Another opportunity is creating an application which stored game play on the device, and emailed the results when the game was finished.

Blunders

Monumental blunder setting up this scenario: two German submachine gun platoons got added into the OOB. This has serious consequences because I have 5 infantry companies trying to CAT an ATG in the woods, from slope positions. This is equivalent to having 10 units tied up for victory conditions.

German had opportunity to CAT an SMG unit at 1:2, did not do it.

Russian blunder trying take out ATG in woods on Hill 129.

Russian continues to double stack 0 mf ATGs, which permanently emplace these units. This is especially inconvenient in towns preventing infantry from moving into towns.

German blundered putting JgPz IV in range of too many tanks, suffering a (lucky) dispersal defending 3:1.

Balance

Situation #4 feels well-balanced.

Variants

• For players constrained by table length, the victory conditions could be adjusted to play the scenario on two boards. For this first game, no units made it on to Board 1.