Mansize tissues at the ready?

I have been carping on about this Russian campaign for some time now and yesterday all was ready, well 90% ready, I still have three buildings to build which have just came in and some railtrack and sandbag emplacements are on the way, all of which can be used in almost any game. So Stewart turned up and we decided to go with a second take on Operation Westwind which gives more games than the original and is nicely divided into the initial German attack on the unsuspecting Soviets and then a Russian counterattack.

The first game involved me defending the village of Moditten with a Rifle platoon, I took as supports a Commissar, entrenchments, panzerfausts and a Zis2 anti-tank gun. I put the AT gun on my right as it could then cover the approach road, the entrenchments I put near the main buildings with the object of a quick advance and a dig in. Stewart very quickly killed the gun crew and then loosed a mortar barrage on my central position, I was now losing men on my left to a hail of MG42 fire while my centre was pinned in the barrage, I can't remember what was happening on my left but it wasn't much. My morale had now dropped so far that my only recourse was to flee as the Germans closed in. Stewart got across the open ground without suffering very much at all and due to the difference in Force Morale at the end would fight the next battle without anyone waking a medic or gathering a burial detail. I wasn't bothered about this as I expected to lose the first couple of games as the Germans got a head of steam up.

The second game looked like it wouldn't last long as I had to defend a Girls School from an attack from two sides, this time I took a T34/76, entrenchments and a pre-game barrage, hoping just to inflict some casualties. Stewart was intent on attacking from the small pumping station on my right and although at first he was doing well and I lost a squad my T34 turned up as support and the Jerries had to fall back as I put another squad in the abandoned entrenchments and their losses and shock began to mount. Previous to this I had lost my own barrage due to ending the turn on my second phase with four sixes, I was then attacked by fighter bombers, lucky white heather? Stewart now attacked from the second direction, two squads and a StuG III, with no pressure on my right both my squads now started to deal out death to the panzergrenadiers in the open while the T34 backed up and took on the StuG. I was quite amazed at how well my defence was holding up, neither tank could kill the other and a full German squad quit the battlefield rather than continue to die. Sadly my tank crew decided to abandon the vehicle and ran, this played hell with my morale and again I decided to retire. I could perhaps have won this but for some dumb reason we did not roll to see if any of Stewart's leaders were hit, duh. Stewart had some bad luck in that he could not get enough command dice to bring his PzIV in to the action, he only got one SL and really needed one more to coordinate the two attacks. This time however he lost I think seven men dead, so a fair result for me.

Early Sunday I got up and went into the shop to set up the terrain for battle three, it looked really nice, Gardenstadt Metgethen which used all my latest Russian terrain on the table including a nice town statue, sculpted some time ago by mate Dave Toone of the Miniature Company, although he seemed upset the figure was covered in guano. I then cooked breakfast and we started some time after ten. I was really looking forward to this game, I was defending and had a decent number of supports, minefield, barrage, panzerfausts and an elite Scout squad plus a free T34/85, Stewart also had a good number of points and it was looking like a good test of both forces. We were both stumped by the pre-game barrages, I got one squad in phase one and another in phase two, then nothing else, Stewart also managed to get two squads. My left squad were lining a small wood on Overwatch but found themselves shot to bits (5 shock, one dead) by the usual MG42 grenadier combo, the squad took more shock and I had to bring on my Senior leader to drop the shock and get them to fall back. Stewart now managed to get an MMG to support his squad on my right, almost thirty dice flew and my boys took severe punishment and became pinned. I had also thrown morale for three leader hits with -5 which put me on 3 morale, my pinned squad could only sit there and basically wait to be wiped out while pinned.

The end and hardly a bullet hole.

I was gutted, all that prep, all those men waiting to defend the town and it was all over in less time than it took me to build the table, both Stewart and I were unhappy to the point we halted there and couldn't be bothered clearing away and building another table in case the same thing happened, not today.

If a squad is pinned, under threat and losing men why would it stay put to be wiped out? The same applies to mortar barrages, these are 18" square and pin everything under them, if you are attacking up the table rather than across it this basically is game over, yes you can stop it, but like Arnie, it will be back. We have decided from the next game to increase possible Force Morale to a maximum of 15 with perhaps a minimum of 12 so that the destruction of one Squad and its leader does not put you in the position of having to retreat (campaign games). Next time for Stewart and I it will be War and Conquest.