After five months of siege, the new year saw STAVKA order the Lubyan Offensive to break Army Group North's stranglehold on Leningrad. The focus of the attack was the seam of the German 1st and 28th Armies. Several small penetrations were achieved at high cost and the Soviets pushed everything into the breach around the town of Pogost'e.
Attacker: Russian (285th Rifle Division)
Defender: German (Infanterie-Division 254; Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 677)
6.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:20.0 D:10.5
AFVs: A:5
KV-1 M41 T-34 M40 BT-7 M37 x 2 KV-1 M39/40
AFVs: D:4
StuG IIIB x 4
Guns: A:0
50mm RM obr. 40 x 2 PTRD-41 ATR
D:1
5cm leGrW 36 PzB 39 ATR 8.8cm FlaK 18
Misc Rules:
GS, Grain hexes are Soft and vehicles must pass Bog check to exit. D: StuGs have HEAT
I drew the defending Germans in this early AG North clash. The alternate VC force you to defend most of board 65. Jim attacked building 65CC6 and pushed to exit around hexrow P. The two-pronged attack kept my defenders spread out. Jim quickly reached the G9-O5 gulley in strength and the main fight was keeping him from crossing the I8-U2 road. (Don't overlook the O4-O5 crest line depression hexside.) Jim pushed the red MP KVs hard, using ESB successfully 3x and driving two off for exit VP. The pillbox changed hands twice and Jim got MMC into 65CC6 putting my back against the wall. By the end of GT6, I was hanging on to 65CC6 with a wounded 8-0 and one 467 against six Soviet MMC, two Leaders and a Hero! Jim got 16 exit CVP including two KVs, and I broke the last two squads he needed to exit. but I couldn't pin or break all his MMC in 65CC6, so he locked my last 467 in Melee for the win [per A.7]. A CR result on his final 3:1 [-1] CC attack left me with a 247. Jim: An excellent scenario with tons of ASL drama. Every die roll mattered: HoB, Malf, Repair, CH, CR MC but none were decisive, and the fight continued. Any game that goes down to one last Melee is great!
2024-06-29
(A) Jon Jaramillo
vs
Scott Thompson
German win
We rolled for sides and I got the attacking Russians. Once we noticed that the scenario seemed heavily in favor of the Russians, Scott offered to find something else, but I took the challenge as playing better players in lopsided scenarios can only help me hone my game. After viewing Scott's setup, I decided to disregard trying to capture the building and instead worked on getting off the board. I setup nearly my entire force on the opposite side of the board and entered from offboard. Scott got a nice long range -3 shot from said building which put a few of my units in immediate trouble. After a few turns I was making decent progress up the board edge, eliminating 6 of his 8 dummies, but unfortunately found all his wire and his 88L gun. Luckily, I eliminated his 88L with a crit before he did major damage, only burning one of my AFVs. One of Stugs got a nice DI shot on another one of my AFVs and I lost another to a Stug. I was able to exit one off the board in turn 4 and another in turn 5. My last hope was handful of infantry that I had assembled near the level 1 hill, but Scott pretty much ended the game on turn 6 with a couple of First Fire shots that knocked enough of my infantry down to where I figured I just didn't have enough to get 10 more VP off the board against a force that was effectively blocking the exit hex now. I conceded in turn 6 and we discussed what the Russians could have done differently but with no smoke available, very little cover and Scott covering the approach from level 1 stone buildings it was determined that the Russians would have needed a bit more good fortune on their side to win this one. All in all, pretty fun, a lot of action. A good time was had by all.
2023-08-05
(D) Kermit Mullins
vs
Dan Best
German win
Game was over by Turn 4. All of the German STUG's were knocked out along with the BT-7's and one immobilized KV-1. The Germans mauled the Russian infantry with no losess to their number. The 88L never had to fire, before the Russians were forced to concede due to massive ELR and the Russian Commissar (added by Dan to replace one of the 8-0's shot down a squad and half while never rallying anyone. Tough game for the Russian Player.
