Another set of two Battleground WWII scenarios from Mr H

This Monday we gamed yet another two Battleground WWII scenarios.
Actually the first was a leftover from the last session which we then didn't have time to play. Mr H just wrote another new scenario so we'd have enough gaming to go around for the whole evening. Actually we didn't finnish the latter scenario since some time had to be used to dismantle the Lapua 1808 gaming board from the gaming table -the previous gaming evening Janne had played Lapua with a quest from Canada, Ross.

Back to the BGWWII, the first scenario involved a German recce unit (a command section, 8 wheeler, a PAK36 and two squads in Hannomags) getting a rude awakening in the rear lines as suddenly two KV-1's and a KV-II burst in. Trying to stop these behemoths that are trundling forward in a breakthrough with the 37mm and 20mm guns is, well, more or less an impossible task. Making close assaults with satchel charge/grenade equipped infantry against these moving tanks isn't any easier.

Mr V who played the Russians used the KV-II as fire support and after few shots managed first to kill some of the ATG crew and later of blow the gun to smithereens. Some infantry managed to creep close and do some damage to it but the only effect was slowing it down a bit. Close assaults in a wheatfield against the two forward wheeling KV-1's were, hardly surprisingly, not succesful and both managed to trundle off board granting Mr. V game win.

It was a fun game partly because it most certainly wasn't balanced or fair. Until the Russians managed to see Germans the Jerries were kept hidden. The only grievance I have with the game is the ridiculous numbers of the crew served support weapons -in real life MG and gun crews tended to be as big as regular infantry squads so that possible losses wouldn't cripple the weapon usage. But for some reason vast majority of the miniature rules have crews of like one third the size of regular infantry squads. I see a house rule coming up for this...



The second scenario was inspired by a book, for the death of me can't recall the name of it right now. Germans are supposed to take a bridge intact from the Russians that are guarding it and, as they fear that the Russians will blow it up, they have to use subterfuge. Thus they use captured GAZ trucks and drivers dressed in Russian uniforms to infiltrate Russian lines. To similate this the Russian player uses the trucks as his own troops for the first three turns (without knowing the fact that the trucks are jam packed with Jerry elites) and the German player has the option to take control of the trucks at any time he deems fit and reveal the truth.

We managed to game a few turns and the initial German assault of the German side to of the bridge was extremely successful. Having SMG armed troops dismount first from the last two trucks and lay supressing fire against the Russians worked extremely well, especially as in some instances the Germas were able to negate the cover from the trenches since they were essentially raking them. Also grenade usage was very efficient. After two turns, out of the 15 or so Russians one wounded sergeant was alive and fleeing in the reeds, some three soldiers surrendered and the remainder lay dead. Germans lost like two soldiers.

However the first truck had it really bad as it was trying to negotiate the remainder of the bridge -it was gunned down by HMG and 37mm AA gun fire, crashed against the bridge railings and burst into flame. The driver managed to become a hero but perished in the HMG fire as did the commander of the German troops who was the first to dismount.

We'll see how the game finishes in the next game evening.

If the Russians have managed to place explosives on the bridge then the Jerries don't have a chance of capturing the bridge intact. If not, the Germans have a chance -I guess that using the three of their own MGs as well as the captured HMG and LMG to lay supressing fire should prove pretty effective even against Ruskies in dug in positions. Luckily the Russian HMG also jammed on its last action, although I kinda recall that one of the German MGs did likewise.

All in all this scenario seems to be a winner!
The action started immediately in close quarters and there's plenty of dilemmas for both sides. The beginning works also great (having the Russian discover that his extra troops aren't actualy Russians at all!) but this time the surprise effect wasn't as big as Mr V, who played the Ruskies, had read the same book the GM (Mr H) had used for the background of the scenario. Nevertheless Mr V played like a true gentleman and didn't start doing anything silly with "his" troops...

-Janne