Last night we played two side by side BGK games. Both rolled up as standard 'attack/counterattack' scenarios. We had a 6 x 8 table each set up as below...
Gary and Skip played on this table;
Ruardhi and me played on this one;
We decided on 600 point games and selected our forces.
Skip took a list built from the German Panzer List and ended up with a small force support by some timed artillery;
Facing him, Gary used the Russian Rifle Division list and went for a compact force, again backed by plenty of timed artillery;
Over on our table, Ruardhi picked a very neat list from the Panzer list too, with good all round capabilities relying on mortars instead of artillery;
I used the Russian Tank list to face him, but I went for infantry supported by mortars and assault gun with no timed artillery attacks but a single priority request.
On the 'Northern' table, Gary and Skip got into a very fast brawl, with Gary lucking out early on and scoring massive hits on Skip with Katyusha strikes. Dazed and stunned from the start, Skip found it hard to counter. Gary elected not to bring his tanks on till late, and this left Skip with two Tigers with little to do, while his armoured grenadier platoon assaulted the brickworks. The close assault didnt end well for the Germans...
Skip's offboard artillery landed on empty ground and the nail in Skip's coffin was yet another Katyusha strike followed by the arrival on Gary's tanks as a counterattack against the grenadiers attacking the brickworks. The game ended rather abruptly in a massive win for the Russians - 4br to 24br!
On the 'Southern' flank, the game was more cautious. From the start Ruardhi was hampered by poor command rolls and came on piecemeal. He was further hampered by one of his recce squads being wiped out in his first turn when they an into an ambush by some Russian scouts (who remained to be troublesome for most of the game!). His attack was disjointed and slow due to lack of commands while the my Russians came steadily on, carving a defence line among the woods.
I also left my vehicles off and that proved well founded when a German airstrike came in, luckily doing little. My Russians kept up mortar fire along the German line, and as my SU-76s batteries arrived, I waited for a good command roll to administer the 'coup-
de'grace'. I was lucky enough to get a double six, and with that, my Russians went to work...
First I brought in my priority artillery, using my wire team to rustle up some 152mm howitzers. These crashed into the German infantry moving through the fields and two direct hits wiped out one unit and crippled another while several others went to ground. This was followed by both of my mortar batteries firing into the German lines causing more units to become pinned or suffer casualties, while one errant Panzer IV crew failed their morale and abandoned the tank. Then the SU-76s went to work and having out-flanked the Panzer IVs, they quickly despatched two of them putting their rounds through the side armour.
This pounding put the Germans over their break point and another Russian win was posted, an emphatic 9br to 38br... Two very convincing Russian wins. To be fair to Ruardhi, he picked a good list and suffered from some really bad dice (his command rolls were really bad) but his attack came on rather disjointed and couldnt combine for any real punch. On top of this, both Gary and I have spent sometime looking at the Russians and seeing what they can do... Certainly both our lists did well and I want to try mine again, though its light assault guns are a worry. That said, it generated alot of firepower!
So two good games, both completed in under three hours and good fun... and a very happy Russian High Command!
2,000 pts