Out of the Minsk Pocket

Son of Midtown Madness aka. The Return of Russians

This Battleground WWII scenario is continuation from the previous one. It is now the next morning (June 26th '41). Germans are expecting a breakout and the tanks have been placed in more forward positions. The few infantry units are guarding the eastern bank of the river. All he Jerries are using hidden setup which is kinda nifty as otherwise the Soviets would immediately see how few Germans are opposing them.

The Russian tanks charge into scene trying to escape to... west? The T-26s have tankriders on them.
The ambushing German tanks open up from the close range but do surprisingly little damage. Just one T-26 is ablaze and the command T-26 has had its main gun knowed out (in addition to the crew being stunned). Unfortunately the hull machine guns of PzkfwIIIs are unable to fire over the rock wall.
As the Russian infantry dismounts and hides in the fields the retreating Germans manage to knock out the main gun from both the T'28's and the other starts to put out smoke too -funnily enough from the hits it took from Pzkfw II (apparently some kind of richochets to its underbelly...).
The Germans keep on pounding the Russian tanks but to little visible effect.
While the KV-1 lumbers slowly forward the Germans retreat to new positions with the exception of the Pzkfw IIIs on the right flank.
The Pzkfw IIIs start to attract attention from the Soviet infantry some of whom are creeping towards the tanks and others are looking out for any unhappy tankers to take a peek.

Oops, it seems that no pics were taken during the final round when Soviet second wave came in...

-Janne
(Played: March 28th. GM: Mr H. Soviets: Aksu, Andy. Germans: Mr V, Janne)

More Midtwon Madness at Slonim

Continued from the previous session

Soviets were bent on destroying German vehicles as they tended to fir eupon them until they ignited.
Burning engineer truck with plenty of explosives usually ends up like this sooner or later. The Germans had already moved away from it but the house next to the explosion did have Soviets in it...
Th remnants of the 2nd engineer squad were hiding in the bush badly beaten, but nevertheless they managed to stop and drive away a squad of Soviets from getting into close combat. At this point the synagogue was attracting plenty of fire from the 1st engineer squad and the command tank from the edge of the twon. The engineers and the tank infantry were also creeping forward equipped with plenty of explosives.
In light of this the Soviets decided tohightail it to the west... To the east you can also just barely see the German tank that was kept at bay by a couple Soviet ATRs.

A clear victory to the Soviets!
Then again, it was nearly impossible to get any other result as the initial ambush is always bound to be devastating! Good stuff anyways, the experimental close combat rules worked reasonably well and certainly made the game quicker. They were adopted from the Too Fat Lardies rules I ain't been Shot Mum.

-Janne
(Played: March 14th. GM: Mr H. Soviets: Aksu, Andy (!). Germans: Mr V, Janne)

Slonim – To Take and Hold

Still more early Barbarossa Battleground WWII goodness.
Also tried new simplified cc rules.

Germans have encircled a large amount of Soviets around the town of Slonim and are expecting tehm to try to break out. Here we have German tanks supported by some little infantry guarding the railway bridge.
Three truck of engineers arrive to the town along with some AA halftracks. They have orders to secure the remaining bridges.
All the hell breaks loose as Soviets hidden in the town ambush the German convoy. Luckily Molotov coctails have been handed out to butterfingers and all of them explode in the hands of their users! Which doesn't really help the poor jerries shot to pieces at point blank range.
The last AA halftrack drove away from the ambush alley and started setting up in support of an engineer squad but the ambushers just dragged their Maxim to that side of the building and ripped the jerries a new one! The second trcuk halted just after the square and the Germans assaulted the building on the left (a synagogue no less) only to be thrown out.
Flaming German vehicles was the name of the game. The first truck did manage to drive away unscathed and can just barely been seen in the woods outside the town on top left. The ambushing units are placed right next to the building side they are located in since putting them inside these old Warhammer buildings is an impossibility. The last engineer squad that had parked on the other side of the square actually managed to capture the red building and kill/capture the Soviets defending it in a bloody melee.

-Janne
(Played: February 28th. GM: Mr H. Soviets: Aksu. Germans: Mr V, Janne)

Morning Milk

Another Battleground WWII early Barbarossa scenario from Paul Carrell books.
More or less direct continuation of the previous game.

The area has been shelled and as the dawn breaks a Soviet platoon arrives to the scene in trucks.
The platoon wanders about.
Suddenly a machine gun opens up on one of the Soviet squads and the surviving troops scatter about to the woods.
A lone German MG34 has opened up and caused dissarray in Soviet troops.
While their broken comrades seek shelter in a shellhole more stalvart troopers start to milk the lone cow.
Soviets seek positions here and there and some additional Germans arrive to the edge of the same woods as the MG.
A hut is being contested by both sides. The Germans draw the shorter straw and lose half a squad from their two available squads (that were spending the night in the woods). But the Soviets also have to retreat. In the pic we stll have the Jerries alive but soon some grenades made short order of them.
Having scattered the Soviets from the woods left the Germans press forward. Plenty of Soviets are in no fighting condition (markers: yellow = broken, orange = light wound, pink = gun jammed, green = prone)
The Soviet platoon leader tries to put a sembalance of a line behind the fence while unluckier soldier crawls towards his fellows.
When al the Soviets in the vicinity have been broken, Hans & Jürgen, who had been getting morning milk from the cow when the Soviets arrived, finally arise from the shellhole they were hiding in. They actually were spotted by a broken Soviet soldier running to the safety of the hut (which has it's exterior removed for easier access to troops).
Aksu shows off the fare well present he got from workmates when he left UK, a pipe that has a laser pointer! Would be even nicer if you could smoke with it (even if Aksu doesn't smoke...)
Bits of Soviet resistance that were clobbered into submissing with raking fire from one MG34.
Soviet platoon leader managed to rally himself while Hans and Jurgen were sneaking behing the hut. Since all Soviet squads were broken with 50%+ casualties they weren't going to be rallied permanently and as Germans had lost a quarter of the troops trying to take the hut GM decided that the fate of the battle would quickly be resolved in a close combat extravaganza between the Soviet platoon leader and Hans & Jürgen. Hans was killed but Jürgen clobbered the platoon leader into submission and returned to the other Germans with half a platoon of Soviet prisoners.

Soviets had to endure the initial ambush salvo from the lone MG34 (other Jerries were sleeping at that time) and Janne got pretty darn good results from it. Later on he raked the Soviets into submission with the MG. The other Janne managed to lose half of his already depleted squad (Hans & Jürgen were hiding behind the Soviet lines almost the whole game) which threatened to turn the tide but the remainder of the squad promptly put the end to the Soviet advance.

But had the initial ambush salvo resolved differently the Germans would've most likely been in dire straits since there were so few of them.

-Janne
(Played: February 21st. GM: Mr H. Soviets: Aksu. Germans: Janne times two)