AARs: Show Us Yer Games!

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RedLeif
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Post by RedLeif »

Here are the images of the game I played on 9/5/11, described above.

Turn 1:
Image

Turn 2:
the germans were waiting for their engineers to come up to clear some mine fields to facilitate a rapid assault on the Soviets to the west. they failed 2 ordered movement rolls and an unordered movement roll. The artillery right in front of them must have spooked them.
Image

Photo 3:
close up of the soviet village "Yachmyenyi". I printed off a screen shot from Google Maps of an unidentified Ukrainian town/village at 1" = 200' then cut out the template size I wanted on the board. I stick my terrain print outs down with fun tack. I placed a few of my Soviet cottages on top and Viola, one tough nut to crack. The white markers on the board are my Soviet mine fields. I will reprint them with a khaki background and reapply them to the cardboard bases these are stuck too. The white is just too obnoxious looking.
Image

Turn 4:
This image is from the Soviet side of the board, so backwards from the turn 2 image. The constant direct fire of Soviet artillery and ant-tank guns is suppressing the StuG Batttalion but otherwise having little effect. The Fusilier battalion is slowly marching up the road. The Germans called in a massive barrage on the Soviet ATG battery on the west and eliminated it.
Image

Turn 5:
this photo is from the german side again and was taken at the very end of the turn.
The Soviet forces on the west side have a few holes in their line now which the germans are going to try to exploit. The Stu'G's drove into the minefields to find the dummies and work their way into and behind the Soviet lines. If we'd had more time I wouldn't have rushed this attack like this. The germans should wait a few more turns and let their arty continue to soften up this position.
Image

this game isn't very fun. it's really an exercise (Ubung, or Etude), not a game. I know how to attack a fortified position pretty well with these rules and was sharing some of what I know with some new players. If it had been a game I wouldn't have played both sides and I wouldn't have deployed the germans before the new guys showed up. This allowed them to make fewer mistakes and possibly not learn as much. I won't be so nice next time.

This scenario is really boring for the Soviet side as written, he gets no reinforcements and really has no mobility. If I don't add a mobile unit as a reinforcement I will give them more and probably heavier artillery. A couple more 76mm ATG's, to make the Stug's be a little more on their toes, would pick things up too.

I need to know more about the Soviet artillery doctrine in WWII. I want to look into 'preplotted' artillery for the soviet union. I know they did this to a certain extent at Kursk, to basically protect their anti-tank strong points from attacks. But using the optional 'National' artillery efficiency rule makes using Soviet indirect artillery fire almost pointless and impossible. If each battery got a pre-plotted (before the game begins) fire mission the FO's could call up with one turns notice it would make their arty more effective defensively. And I guess that's why they developed the SU 122 and 152, they just didn't have effective indirect artillery and had to 'mobilize' it. But defensively I think they did have pre plotted fire missions, I just have to research this more.

anyway, have fun gaming and collecting microarmour!
Red Leif

BattlerBritain
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Post by BattlerBritain »

If you're after a good overview of how Soviet artillery worked the Battlefront Fire and Fury rules give a good covering of this.

They've even got an overview of Soviet artillery and how it was employed on their website at
http://www.fireandfury.com/artillerytut ... html#INTRO

RedLeif
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Post by RedLeif »

that was a really good link Battler...
I've always liked the Fire and Fury/Battlefront folks. They've always done good work in my experience.
Thanks

sam scott
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Post by sam scott »

Solpke Gap

Soviet forces, led by the 3rd Shock Army have crossed the Elbe and are driving hard across the North German plains towards Hamburg. NATO forces have counterattacked and consolidated a threatening position on the southern flank of the Soviet advance at Wolfsburg. Soviet command has ordered forces to advance on Wolfsburg and pin down NATO forces there. A broad belt of dense forest protects NATO positions around the city from the east except for a few breaks. One of these is located at the village of Solpke and contains a major east-west rail line.

A regimental-sized probe is to push through the Solpke gap and test its suitability for follow-on attack.

The terrain from Google Earth:
Image

And the tabletop translation:
Image

The opposing forces:
Image
The Soviets

Image
The Bundeswehr. The units on the far left are reinforcements that will be activated once the Germans can spot 5 or more companies of enemy combat troops. Then there is a 2-3 turn delay before they enter the table west fo Solpke.

Bundeswehr positions:
Image
The blind idea borrowed from ABSM. The small blinds are a platoon-sized unit and the large blinds are company-sized units. Some are dummies. As a rule, NATO will have more platoon-sized blinds and the Soviets more company sized ones.

A few shots of the action:

Image
Cue Flight of the Valkyries

Image
Action at close quarters

Image
Death from above

Image
Some sturdy German bauer is going to be mightily pissed at next year's hops crop getting ground into the mud.

I gave command of the Soviets to a friend and played via Flickr while I umpired and pushed the Bundeswehr forces. It was an exciting, close game and you can read the whole lavishly illustrated AAR here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60402635@N07/5841474437/

-Sam

pmskaar
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Post by pmskaar »

Hi Sam

That is a really great blow by blow AAR! It looks like an excellent game on excellent terrain with very well painted miniatures. The photography is also excellent and I really like the smoke effects you have. Great Job!

I am curious about a couple of things. It appears to be at the individual vehicle scale with squad level infantry units. What rules set did you use for this game?
I am also curious what time frame this is. Based on what I can see, it appears to be in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

It looks like the Soviets achieved their objective but the cost appeared to be high. Did they win the game on points as well? Either way, it appeared to be an exciting and close contest that wasn't decided until the final turns. Thanks for sharing.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

sam scott
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Post by sam scott »

FFT uses a scale of 1 vehicle=1 platoon and 1 inf stand = 1 platoon. ground scale is 1" = 100 meters. The Soviets were attacking with 2 reinforced Motor Infantry battalions.

The time frame is supposed to be early 1980's. I think maybe the Russians should have had T-64s instead of T-72s.

There weren't any victory points. The Soviets were tasked with clearing Solpke without taking more than 60% casualties. I deliberately set the acceptable casualties high to reflect the importance to Soviet Front HQ of gaining an axis of attack on the NATO positions around Wolfsburg.

pmskaar
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Post by pmskaar »

Hi Sam

Thanks very much for the info. If I had maybe looked a little closer at the initial forces, I would have recognized they are at 1 to 5 scale and not 1 to 1. Again, it was very well done.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

WHM
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Post by WHM »

Sam, I found your AAR on another site and really felt it was very clever to base the game on real world terrain. Perhaps not the first but great interpretation.

What was the table size? Looks like 6x4.

Hope you will post more AARs!

sam scott
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Post by sam scott »

WHM wrote: What was the table size? Looks like 6x4.

Hope you will post more AARs!
The table was 6' x 30" or about 7km x 3km according to the ground scale

Ragnar65
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Post by Ragnar65 »

Anything new from our french friends? Guys, could you maybe make some kind of tutorial of how you made the tiles? I´m a big fan of those tilesystems, did one for my 20mm armies. Inspired by your table I plan to make my own table for 1:285. So, the core material of your tilessemms to be the kind of stuff we call Jackodur in Germany. How do you flock it? Do you paint it first? Or do you sprinkle on some sand into whiteglue first? Ands how do you make the hills, especially those with nice and smooth sloes?

U see, there´s questions over questions... :wink: So please give us some hints, please.

Best wishes to France,

ragnar65

mluther
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Post by mluther »

We played a early Russian front game using IABSM (v2) a couple of weeks agon and just now got around to posting.
The scenario is based on the 7th Pz Div break out from the Nemen River on June 22, 1941. Most of the panzers are Pz38ts and most of the Soviet tanks are T34 including some M1940s. The Russians had to be dug in and had low amounts of AP ammo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/ ... 732072977/

Mark

pmskaar
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Post by pmskaar »

WhooHoo! Another great AAR Mark! As usual, everything looks superb with a great write up to boot. That is truly inspirational stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

El Grego
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Post by El Grego »

Very nice, Mark!

How big is that table?
.
Greg
.
.
Two blogs - not much GHQ content, yet...

https://pewterpixelwars.blogspot.com/

https://minishipgaming.blogspot.com/

mluther
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Post by mluther »

Thanks guys.
The table is approxiamtely 4X6 feet.

Probably not the most fun game for the Russkie player I'm afraid. The Pz38t did take some knocks though.

Mark

RedLeif
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Post by RedLeif »

Your terrain is really nice. did you make the tank 'dug in' positions yourself, if so what did you use?

Also what does IABSM stand for?

Thanks for posting this
RedLeif

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