Hitler had declared Warsaw-Praga a fortress, keystone to the Vistula line. The city was to be held at all costs, but this was neither likely nor realistic. The Waffen SS veterans assigned the task of holding the city held no illusions as to what such a defeat would mean. The recon troop of the 2nd Polish Tank Regiment was not looking for a fight as it searched out a route to the Most Slaski Bridge but it found one. . .
Attacker: Russian (2nd Tank Regiment, 1st Polish Armored Brigade)
Defender: German (SS) (13th SS Anti-Tank Company)
11 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:6.0 D:8.0
AFVs: A:6
T-70 x 6
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:2
3.7cm PaK 35/36 x 2
Misc Rules:
D: HIP setup incl Roadblock; AT guns and HMG may be Bore Sighted.
I was quite skeptical about this scenario, as I assumed it would hinge too much on single die roll (SSR4 diversion roll). In our game it indeed effected the game as it allowed Russian to exit one T-70 without need to run the gauntlet at the end of the boards. However, the scenario offered several strategical options and turned to be quite enjoyable experience.
As the defending Germans I left two squads offboard thinking that as good balance. I set my roadblock at 21R1/S2, HMG on 2nd floor of 21K4 and AT guns at 21H0 & 21H10. I placed my other units mostly around on the potential exit hexes 20I1, 20I10, 21Y1 and 21Y10. My opponent played it rather conservatively in the first turns keeping the infantry with the tanks (note T-70 is tankette, so no raiders, even if picture on the Scenario Archive shows T-70 with raiders). This suited me fine as I did not have any of my units far out as an advance guard.
The action started only on round five when the Russian tried to exit tanks via 20I10 where a SQ and a HS made a valiant effort in stopping it. The HS sacrificed itself by advancing in the middle of the road of I10. Being vary of PFs the T70s did not dare to overrun the HS, but reserved shooting at it. This reduced the number of tanks possible to make the exit to two (round 5 is the last turn to when you can be sure that your exited tanks will be back to counted for the VC) and one of those was destroyed by a freshly revealed full squad next to the exit hex. The squad had two PF and needed to use them both to get a kill. So, one T70 gets away and rolled a secret die roll of 6, so that one tank was safe.
Now running out of time the Russians left their infantry behind started dashing toward the exit area. That was complicated by a HIP squad at 21R6 destroying (by ATM) one T70 bypassing the hex and by a roadblock on the north edge requiring one tank to make trail break through a wood hex (getting bogged but managing to get free with only a minimal loss of MPs). As Germans moved to counter the trail break the rest of the Russian tanks made a dash for the now weakened south side.
On the north side the lonely T70 was destroyed by a south side AT gun (both AT guns were bore sighted to hex adjacent to the _other_ AT gun) as the north one malfunctioned.
That left only two T70, which both needed to exit for Russian to win. What followed was a mad dash of two crew exposed T70 driving full speed through the street of Warsaw while being bombarded with plenty (totally ~20) IFT, TH, CC attacks requiring a dice roll of two or three. Only one three was rolled, but if for an attack which would have required a snake eye. So very narrow win for the Russian.
2021-11-16
(A) M T
vs
T.L.
Russian win
I attacked perhaps too slowly at first, advancing the AFVs at pace with the infantry, and made a break for it later in the game - this resulted in my T-70s having to drive CE for a while, which of course exposes them to unnecessary risks with HIP infantry and ATGs around. In the end I managed to exit three vehicles, with one lost to a PF shot, one to an ATMM attack and one to an ATG shot. Only managed to use SSR4 to exit a single vehicle through 20I10, but luckily rolled a 6 for the dr, which resulted in securing that AFV for the VCs with my opponent having reserved 2 MMCs for offboard duty.
I enjoyed the scenario more than I initially thought I would, there are enough different avenues of approach to make it interesting and we had a tightly contested battle right till the end. It also served as a good refresher course on rules related to infantry attacking AFVs. Perhaps my main concern with it is that a big part of how the scenario flows is hinged on a single dr (the one associated with SSR4).
Of note for newer players is that the T-70 is a Tankette and therefore can not accept Passengers (D6.2) . This is easy to miss and I think also very significant to how the Russian player approaches the scenario.
2021-07-26
(D) David Garvin
vs
Loic Gourdon
German (SS) win
Gave the Soviets the balance. German win. Loic exited his forces and rolled 3. I had 2 squads off so I was able to have my squads in place along the potential entry routes and my Panzerfausts made short work of his tanks.
Notable was his path that he took ended up about to plow into a HIP AT Gun. I was able to pivot, find an APCR round and made short work of him. My plan was if I missed to try for the Stielgrenate, and if that, then just AP. The old sleaze of three rolls. But I got him on my first attempt. Also, last Panzerfaust shot was from a building (ate the back blast). Blew him up but also took a K/1. My leader rolled HOB and battle hardened. Poor squad was cut in half, however.