Now, it was a big game, and so it became a two-parter...
Again, Rapid Fire Reloaded gives such a seamless game, with lots of 'stuff' on the table. With younger players, and seasoned grognards, this is just the kind of game that really works for us.
"Halt Hans! I need a coffee..."
Now, again, I use a base marked with infantry and a dice to record casualties - which helps adjudicate hits and morale check level(s), much more easily than the older methods - and REALLY speeds things up for infantry actions. Also, and key, it allows me to put a panzerfaust infantry figure on the base, then remove him when the 'company' has fired same.
Back to the action:
A STuG escorts the recovery convoy through Vievis. Soviet reinforcements have not arrived on the flanks yet.
Excellent 'PanzerBusch' positions along the ridgeline
We used the 'ambush fire' rule (previously reserve fire) a lot!
Soviet mortar position - rendered quiet in the end
German left - Panthers approaching the March Battalions
A brave StuG gives good account of itself
PAK front on overwatch
Rescue trucks arrive - loading up
...just as Soviet reinforcements in the shape of deadly T34-85s arrive on the German right
'Here they come!!!'
However, the Panthers, having assumed superb overwatch positions, reduce the Soviets to so much scrap metal - very quickly...
Panther counter-attack
Excellent move as they come off the ridgeline to destroy the Soviet attack
...as the first of the rescued battalion exists the table...
The Soviets take massive armour losses ...they have more reinforcements to enter the table though
Finding themselves badly positioned, the Panthers on the left flank suffer badly, though it is too late for the Soviets
...because they have got nowhere on their own left...
Hell's (other) Highway
We have played this scenario six times over the years - and this is only the second time we have had a German victory. Great game!
So, in keeping with the 1980s movie theme from the last post...in this case, we have Germans heading east before rescue (check), and attempting something they say can't be done (check), with a long way to go (check)...and a short time to get there (check)? Why ...it sounds like...
A return to the fast play action of 'Rapid Fire (Reloaded)' with the D&D guys; the tried and tested 'Relief of Vilnius' once more on the table.
I have played this scenario five times since it was first published in the early 90s in the now famous 'Russian Front' 3rd supplement.
Set after Bagration, with 6th Panzer and Grossdeutschland elements trying to rescue the remnants of the 'Valkyrie' regiment stuck in a Soviet pocket, the game always provides excitement, massive tank battles, highs and lows on both sides, and a tense nail-biting finish, as Panther regiments lead a spearhead to grab the survivors of the pocket; as trucks, full of fleeing troops, try to make it home; as German units cover, turn armour into scrap-metal, and become surrounded and eliminated in piecemeal fashion.
This is part one of what promises to be a multi-parter. I should also add, that the Germans have only ever won this outright on one occasion in my experience. Let's see what might happen this time.
A recent podcast by the Yarkshire Gamer, which has both RFR authors in it, re-kindled the enthusiasm for this superb game once more.
Tank Park - there's a lot of plastic in this scenario..steel, I mean steel.
'It's fine comradeski...the hated Germans never win this 'ere scenario...'
Looks like we got ourselves a convoy...
Cheeky German players lead with the Panzer III unit - seems like waste of the observer trait, though it works in the end as Partisan AT units are a bit crappy...
The village of Rukantai, German Para and Regular March battalions trapped inside...
'Partisans!'
A limited, and early, armoured advance with T34s on the Soviet left...it's only going to end one way, though the Russian crews give good account of themselves...in that they take a few turns to take first hits..
The Partisan AT gun finds its end
the base of the ridgeline, is as far as the Soviet attack is going to get...
German assaults on the village of Vievis are pushed back...initially.
Partisan units uncovered in nearby wooded areas, flushed out by infantry.
Panther in this scenario - not in short supply, for once
German units in the road convoy; armour guarding the softskins.
Repeated assaults on the Partisan positions in Vievis (and Vutthead?) are largely ineffective, and the Germans take considerable casualties. Having fund the local forces however, substantial use of tank HE shells convinces them to disperse en masse...
A T34 brews up - an advance on the German right doomed to failure...
View of the German advance: Panthers take the ridgeline; Soviet reinforcements have yet to arrive on the right and left flanks...
View from the Soviet left.
A great game and RFR never fails to impress. Part#2 in two weeks...
'it looks like we got ourselves a convoy ...Komradeski...!'
