The Relief of Vilnius

Like many, I've recently picked up Rapid Fire Reloaded, since it's very cheap, and I'm an old RF die hard.

I was never a fan of RF2 (over the original RF 'green' book), as to be honest, I hadn't considered tank crews wandering about the battlefield since the days of Squad Leader (2-3-2 or something?), but RFR has returned to the spirit of the original Green Book philosophy - where the rules are simple, fluid, yet give a great game - while being hard to master, and easy to hack.

Infantry fire now resolves itself without a table, based on number of figures firing. For even more simplicity, I assumed a company 'stand' with 8 effectives, using a little dice to record casualties. We used this system for Vapid Fire, this time last year, and it worked really well here. The company stands are 3" x 1.5". The system works very well.

Vehicle fire is also simplified in the new rules. In fact, barring the hex variant, a lot of the new system is very akin to the simplified rules we adopted last year for Steve's Kursk campaign. Absolutely brilliant set, and always give a great game.

Only complaint is that 20mm does create a bit a 'car park' at times, so we're thinking of removing lorries in future games after dismount of their carried infantry.

 

Scenario was the perennial favourite - the Relief of Vilnius. Pre-blog, we played this to death with RF#1. The Germans have never won...yet.

 

The defenders on the outskirts of Vilnius - will they make it this time?

The relief column from 6th Panzer.

A tight perimeter, already under threat from Soviet scout elements.

The nearby village of Vievis is full of Lithuanian Partisans.

...and Soviet armour recon elements are already heading west from Vilnius toward the relief column on the German right.

the smoke rules are very easy to use in this version, and for once, I remembered them...really makes a big difference, in this case masking the Lithuanian ATG.

Major flanking axis on the German left.

As ATGs position themselves on the high ground. This would prove pivotal at game end.

The Soviet armoured thrust takes damage from STG IIIs on the right flank.

...as German infantry from the covering group secure the village, and form blocking positions. They will be the last to withdraw.

The relief truck column pushes through, well covered.

'Taxi anyone?'

A powerful blocking position at the crossroads, but Sovs are coming...

Dismounting infantry to foil the Soviet infantry in the woods by the crossroads. I don't imagine these guys actually got away in the end.

Elements of 3rd Guards Tank Corps arrive and push toward the crossroads at the perimeter. That's a lot of T-34-85s.

Shot for shot, reserve fire making a big difference, and the Panthers get some very lucky kills.

GO! GO! GO!

Realigning, Soviet armour and infantry make for the high ground in an attempt to cut the road ...though those 75mm Paks from earlier come into their own now.

More Soviet reinforcements in the form of lend-lease Shermans on the German left ...but there is a Panther screen awaiting them.

The attack and escort column takes a lot of damage, but not enough to render it completely ineffective.

In the end, the thrust from Soviet armour is stopped by a very well thought out, stepped defence in depth.

A great new version of Rapid Fire - really enjoyed this. A lot of potential with these new rules, and aside from Field of Battle WWII, which is a level up, it's hard to find a set that gives a better result in good time.

I also think a modern version of this scenario, perhaps set in the middle east in the 1980s, would be superb. I believe there was a version of this available on the internet ages ago.

Yes - it's a sped up version of Manowar's 'Sons of Odin'.

Yes - that sword is far too big for physics.

Yes - I am taking the p*ss (though they weren't a bad band at normal speed).