WWII Eastern Front Mini-Campaign Games1-4

 All,

I was up playing a solo game on a Saturday afternoon and my youngest boy actually strolled into my game room to see what was going on.  We talked a bit before he headed back out, but I quite heartened to see he was interested and so I resolved that we should play the morrow.  He and his brother had recent experience playing One Hour Skirmish Wargames, so I'd already been thinking about modifying the rules to fit some WWII/Cold War games at a higher echelon, and I wanted to play a mini-campaign of games strung together.  I've dying for years to do some big stuff (I'd bought the Operation Bagration and Operation Market Garden board games for Firestorm Campaigns several years ago), but not wanting to get in too deep (and not having British infantry ready for Market Garden; that's a long, stupid story I probably won't tell...), so I started looking around for something a bit smaller.  I found my solution over at the Flames of War website, where they have all their Firestorm Campaigns listed, including some smaller ones called "Axis of Advance."  Here's the one I settled on:

https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1816

So it's Ukraine, early 1943 for us rather than the actual historical battle, which occurred in November 1943, because I didn't want to mess with weather and play in the snow.  So we headed off with my 'regular' German and Soviet troops, and I even brought out the panzer gray vehicles, rather than dunkelgelb.

Here's the map (from the Flames of War website):

So it's a ladder campaign, from German end Zhitomir to Lisowka, Brusilov, Radomyschi, Malin, and then Kiev, with the campaign starting at Lisowka.  The concept is that the Soviet offensive has taken back Kiev but has run out of gas at Lisowka and now the Germans have launched a counteroffensive.  So the Germans attack at Lisowka; if they win they move on to Brusilov, if they lose they get another attack-defend crack at the Reds at Lisowka.  After that, they keep going if they keep winning, and if they lose then the attacker flips over to the other side.  I also figure each side gets one counterattack each time the flow is rolling one direction (in an attempt to get the flow going back the other way.

So I jotted down my thoughts on how to (once again) convert a skirmish game to a higher echelon fight (we're going to use 2-3 stands to represent a platoon, with activation and actions conducted as a platoon, they it could easily be a company; as a matter of fact, we called them platoons, but I think I probably like the idea of them being companies), simplify the anti-armor rules, work out some simple rules for arty, and throw in a force generator (very much borrowed Neil Thomas' generator from One Hour Wargames).

I let the boy pick: he chose the Germans and I took the Soviets.

Game1

Our map for Lisowka, German baseline at left, Soviets at right, north is up.

The Germans are on the attack: they've got three companies of Landser, two companies of Panzergrenadiers, a company of 8.0cm mortars, a company of Pz IVGs, a company of Tigers, and a battery of 10.5cm howitzers.

The Soviets have three rifle companies, a Maxim machine gun company, a company of T-34/76s, and a battery of 122mm howitzers.

The Germans are on the move, the Soviets are feeling a bit overwhelmed...

The Tigers blast the heck out of a Soviet rifle company and panzergrenadiers move up to close assault them into oblivion.

As arty and the Pz IVs do the same on the German right, almost effortlessly swatting the Soviets clean off the map!  

There's no other way to classify this than as an astounding, decisive, German victory.

I'm not sure my deployment was the greatest, still figuring out these rules (this is the first time I've actually played them, having only umpired them for the boys in the past, but hey, no excuses!).  Danny has a strong grasp of the 'suppress them then close assault them' tactic to whoop some ass (if you're not familiar, in One Hour Skirmish Wargames, you can shoot at the enemy and if you hit them they are 'down,' and at the end of the turn you check and there's a 50-50 chance they are out of the fight or okay, but if you close assault them while they're down you automatically win the combat and they are immediately out of the game).

Soviet casualties: 1 x T-34 company, 3 x Rifle Company, 1 x MG Company
German casualties: 3 x Rifle Company

Game 2

Our table for Brusilov, north is right.  Following my severe beating in game #1, the boy is hoping to keep it rolling in game #2.  We rolled up the forces...

The Germans again have three Rifle Companies, two Panzergrenadier Companies, a company of Panzer IVGs, and a battery of 10.5cm howitzers, but their MGs have been Tigers have been replaced by Panzer IIIs (two have long 5.0cm guns and one has a short 5.0cm, but I'm not differentiating between them, they're all being treated as long 50mm guns).  The Tigers probably broke down after that last fight.

The Soviets are also largely the same: three Rifle Companies, a company of T-34/76s, a battery of 122mm howitzers, but they've swapped out their MGs for a battery of 76.2mm 'Crash Boom' dual purpose guns.

The initial setup, Germans on their baseline, left of the left-hand river, Soviets spread across the rest.  The boy again lined the up to get at me as quickly as possible, whereas this time I tried more of a 'reverse-slope'-style defense, with only one unit in view of the enemy (rifle company in the village, at center), so that I'd have a unit with LOS to ze Germans so I could use them to observe for my arty.

It didn't work...

A better look at the Soviet defenses.

And the Germans, rearin' to go.

The Nazis eliminate the Communists in the village and charge ahead like they were shot out of a cannon.

I bring the T-34s (top right) up...

And around (left), taking out the Panzer IIIs, as my right-hand rifle company comes down (center, from top center), looking to re-occupy the ville.

And the motivated Reds charge in and eliminate the Panzer IVs in close combat amid the peasants' houses.

The Germans throw a Panzergrenadier Company at the encroaching T-34s, but they're mowed down!

So the boy tosses in the other company of Panzergrenadiers, and they do the job!

The Soviet infantry in the village are boxed in by German soldiers on two sides, and eliminated.

The Germans continue pressing north (right), seizing the second bridge and the day!

A Major German victory.

Damn, two whoopings in a row, the boy is riding high!  So, that deployment didn't work either, I'll keep working on it.  The games are going quick, with plenty of tension (despite the severe beatings I'm forced to endure), lots laughs as well.  One Hour Skirmish Wargames' mechanics are diceless and have some pretty big swings, but they are LOTS of lighthearted fun, with plenty of drama.

Soviet casualties: 3 x Rifle Company, 1 x T-34 Company
German casualties: 2 x Rifle Company, 1 x Mortar Company, 1 x Pz III Company, 1 x Pz IV Company

Game3

Our map of Radomyschi, another German assault on the Soviets, north is right.

If the tables look a bit 'samey,' yeah, but they were built for speed.  We played a total of four (4, FOUR) games between 1:30 and 5:30 today!!!

The Germans have five companies of Landser, a Machine Gun Company (MG-42), a company of Panzer IVGs, a battery of 10.5cm Howitzers, and a battery of Nebelwerfers.

The Soviets have three companies of Riflemen,a company of Maxim machine guns, a company of 76.2mm "Crash Boom" guns, and a company of 82mm mortars.

The starting positions, Germans at left, Soviets at center, dug-in, up front, looking to switch things up a bit with a little bit of a reserve, kinda ignoring out left flank.

For the second game in a row I have ATGs and they don't even get a shot off (in woods at top center right)...

Closer look at the German deployment.

And the Soviet deployment.

Nazis on the move...  Artillery has eliminated the Soviet Rifle Company in the village (far right), and the boy has suppressed the Soviet MG company (bottom center right) with his panzers (far left), so you know what that means...

German infantry get stuck-in, knocking out the Soviet machine guns, unhinging the Soviet defenses, carrying the day once again.

Another Decisive German victory.

Soviet casualties:3 x Rifle Company, 1 x MG Company, 1 x ATG Company
German casualties: 1 x Rifle Company

Yes, the Germans only lost a single rifle company...  He's killing me...  Honestly, I am a bit concerned that I've gone too far in providing the attacker nine units to the defender's six units, but it doesn't matter right now, because it's time for the Reds to spring a counterattack!

Game4

Our map of Malin, right is up.  It's supposed to be a counterattack, but I fear the boy will think I'm cheating if I treat him the way he's been treating me (that is, I get nine units and he gets six), so rather than play a 'normal' counterattack (with me as the attacker and he as the defender), I decided to play it as a meeting engagement or spoiling attack, so we both rolled on the attacker's force generator, getting nine units each.

The German force, with three Rifle Companies, two Panzergrenadier Companies, an MG Company, two companies of Panzer IIIs (treating them all as long 50mm guns), and a battery of 10.5cm howitzers.

And the Soviet force, with three Rifle Companies, two companies of tank riders, a company of 82mm mortars, a company of T-34/76s, a company of the mighty KV-1s, and a battery of 122mm howitzers.

The antagonists on their starting lines, Germans at left and Soviets at right.

A close up of the German deployment.

And the Soviet setup.

Tank riders on the T-34s...

And KV-1s.

The game starts and both companies of Soviet tanks come under accurate long-range fire, sending them and their tank riders 'down'!!! 

Regarding the rules, I gave arty 1 card vs 1 card against the KV-1s, and I gave the Pz IIIs 1 card vs 2 cards against the T-34s' frontal armor, and somehow both won.  With the the armored companies both going down I made the tank riders hop off and test 1 card vs 1 card to see if the infantry were down, too, and they both lost!

Some handy shooting by the Soviets puts the Pz IIIs (far left) 'down,' but the Panzergrenadiers charge across the bridge and into close combat with the 'downed' Soviets!

They knock out a company of Soviet tanks (top right) as he pushes his other armored column into Malin (bottom left).

The German Panzergrenadiers knock out the other company of Soviet armor and both companies of tank riders, all by themselves (top right), so I decide I've got to do something dramatic and start tossing Red rifle companies into the scrum against the German armor in Malin (bottom left).

The it's a pitched battle in the village!!!

When the dust settles, the Soviets have a single Rifle Company in the village (center), their Mortar Company (bottom right), and their Artillery Battery (off camera to bottom right), while the Germans have a single Rifle Company in the fields (far left), their MG Company (top left), and their Artillery Battery (off camera to bottom left), on opposite sides of the river.

We haven't really been playing with the morale rules, but any reasonable person would look at this and call it a draw, but not my boy.  No, he's won three fights in a row and, feeling his oats, is convinced of his own invincibility...

He howled when I called it a draw, insisting that we continue the game.

We spent the next 30 minutes in a ridiculous cycle of wargaming nonsense: you draw cards for initiative, then draw a card for number of orders, then call in arty on the opposing player's Rifle Company (since neither the arty or MG/mortar can initiate close assault), send the only maneuver units on the table 'down' (and on the rare occasion that didn't work, the Reds would follow up with their mortars and the Germans would follow up with their machine guns).  Then you're waiting on a Joker to come out so you can check to see if the 'down' units are okay or out of the fight, and we both had an incredible run of luck in which our 'down' units would be okay, so the fight goes on.  It actually got to the point where my rifle and mortars were down and his rifle and machine guns were down, so we'd draw for initiative, then draw for orders, without being able to carry out any actions because our only non-artillery units were incapable of acting ('down') and it doesn't do any good to keep shooting at 'down' units, so we were just drawing cards in an attempt to get a Joker to come out so we could check the status of our 'down' units.

I'm sure it sounds ridiculous, and it was, but it was actually absolutely hilarious, and tense as hell as we kept flipping cards, trying to get to a decision point (making it more like a game of "War" than an actual wargame!), but finally it happened:

The Commies carry the day as the Joker comes out, both sides test for casualties, and the German Rifle Company and Machine Gun Company are hors de combat, Daddy wins!

So four games in one day, not bad at all, and lots of fun.  We're both looking forward to this weekend, where the Soviets will now be on the attack, heading back to Radomyschi (or should we fight another one here at Malin, first?).

Fun stuff, hope you enjoyed it.

V/R,
Jack