1945, Germany and Japan have been defeated! Americans and English are celebrating, their soldiers are eager to see their families again, entire armies are demobilised! But what's that roar? The Red army unleashes a lethal and decisive final offensive against their former allies!
Location and objective
The Red Army crosses the Werra river in order to secure the town of Gerstungen and especially the German munition factory. The allied command is aware of the danger and orders the allied forces in the area to hold the line! The battle will be tought but we need to slow down their leading columns!
Factions
The spearhead of operation "Red Tide" consists out of 2 infantry battalions of rather modest quality supported by an armoured formation consisting old T-34 and KV-1 tanks! Luckily for the Soviet tank crews the American forces defending Gerstungen are lacking adequate anti-armor weaponry!
The American force who's task is to hold the town of Gerstungen and stop the Soviet advance consists out of a single undermanned American Engineer battalion who task was to disarm the German munition plant. Armed with nothing more than a handful of riflerounds and handgrenades they make there stand at the banks of the Werra!
Luckily for the allies the banks of the Werra were already fortified with some antitank obstacles and trenches!
The game
Turn 1&2: The 2 armies are advancing toward each other with the Russian armor stopped by the concrete obstacles. Some fire is exchanged but no casualties due to the dugged in Americans.
Turn 3: The Americans are calling in some artillery support killing 3 bases of Soviet infantry but also destroying 3 concrete obstacles! The Soviet commander laughs and orders his tanks to advance with no remorse!
Turn 4: The Soviet tanks are pounding the dugged in 1st American platoon killing 2 bases but loosing the KV-1 by a lucky bazooka round! (The Americans only have 1 bazooka!) The Americans succeed to kill another 3 Soviet infantry bases!
Turn 5: Aware of the bazooka, the T-34 ignores the other trench and concentrates his gun and machinegun on a single foxhole. (1 base destroyed 1ste platoon) In the meanwhile the 2 other American platoons have crossed the tables and are taking cover in the cornfields!
Turn 6&7: Another Soviet battalion enters the battle by crossing the pontoonbridges, ready to advance throught the gaps in the allied lines! In the meanwhile the American line crumbles under the weight of the "Red Tide".
Turn 8: Hordes of Soviet infantry close in and manage to kill another base of the 1ste platoon in the meanwhile the T-34 kills the American fieldcommander destroying the American moral! Now with the death of the attached fieldcommander the first platoons strenght is reduced to zero!
Turn 9: Some brave American soldiers jump out of the corn and charge the T-34 with nothing more than a couple of handgrenades! They succeed! (who need molotovs?)
In the meanwhile the Soviets are in possession of the main trench, ready to advance into Gerstungen! American 3th platoon awaits the attack in cover of the cornfield.
Turn 11: The American platoon defending the cornfield is whiped out! Unable to hold their position some elements managed to reach the safety of another cornfield!
On the other side of the line, the surving elements of the 4th American platoon are retreating (fleeing) toward the factory. Their flamethrower manages to kill 2 Soviet infantry bases which were advancing throught the cornfield. (see flame markers)
Turn 12: The American commander lays down another artillery barrage killing 4 soviet infantry bases and killing their moral!
On the other side the American flamethrower manages to kill another 2 infantry bases but is eliminated by some Soviet soldiers.
Turn 12: Soviet infantry enters the town of Gerstungen! Steadily advancing toward the munition plant! With the American moral an numbers fallen they meet almost no resistance.
Turn 13&14: The Soviets are advancing and the Americans are retreating toward the objective! The two remaining American platoons make a last stand but are killed, the Russian soldiers are able to secure the plant and claim their victory!
The battle ended with a Soviet victory from the 34 Russian bases only 8 survived! But they succeeded and secured the beachhead. Now operation "Red Tide" can finally begin!
After game comments
We played this game with some improvised rules so the balance wasn't quit even. In the start of the game the Soviets were able to secure the trenches relativly easily with a minimum of casualties! However the American barrages were a succes. They weren't sufficient enough to kill enought Soviets to restore the game balance. In the next game I will modify large parts of the homebrewed rules and add more details.
I hope you enjoyed this first battle report!
Greets,
No comments:
Post a Comment