Schnell, Schnell! And Blogger.

Blogger has been having some problems recently and it seems to be very intermittent, so quite a few of my images have disappeared, I checked, they know about it and are working on it, so apologies if you miss the pictures. They may come back or they may not but I hope going forward things are OK.

Managed to get my second Konigsberg game done and dusted, there are nine games in the campaign and the Jerries got off to a bad start attacking the village of Moditten and hit a brick wall. There is no doubt that the Russian fire was considerably better than the Germans and the end came when the panzergrenadiers lost all their NCO's and their command disintegrated., not only that they took fairly heavy casualties as well. They withdrew with Hurrahs ringing in their ears.

For the second attempt Matt chose an infantry gun along with an MMG and an infantry squad to support his depleted forces, these he made into two normal squads with a third having only one team with an LMG. To make matters worse for him his new NCO's had yet to prove themselves so once again the German command structure would suffer. I as the Russians had taken my losses across the board so my platoons were slightly under strength, this time I brought a T34/76 as back up and again I took the Commissar. I didn't need entrenchments as they would still be there from the first game, its not as if they suddenly got filled in overnight.

I got the sniper and the heavy squad on first along with the Senior Leader, the squad managed to get to the entrenchments and the sniper hid in a nearby loft, I took the ladies this time. The Germans took the opportunity to get one squad on and both their supports, after this their command rolls were dire and they had to work with these three groups for some time, I on the other hand was happy to leave things as they were. The Russian shooting was again fierce while the entrenchments protected the heavy squad even from the field gun, the MMG was fired on by the sniper but they eventually located her and she died for the Motherland.

The Germans now decided to rush the defending Russians and managed to get two more squads on the table, they also managed to get their first double phase, Ivan had had several, so on they pushed with grenades ready. The second command throw was just useless, the supports fired but the infantry were left out in the open unable to close, more grenadiers hit the dirt, up on the road the T34 had arrived and its machine guns were causing havoc. The German platoon leader was dithering.

Then it all changed, a withering hail of fire hit the defenders while the newly arrived panzerschreck team took out the T34, the surviving Russians fled the entrenchments, with no one else in the village and the Germans closing in the Soviets withdrew.

This game covered about 40+ phases (turns we normally call them) German command dice favoured the higher numbers while the numbers required for the squads and supports were like hens teeth until the end. The Russians did fine as they only had one squad basically to use their dice on, and they got at least three double phases, that means three extra shots, there are some players who do not allow a second or third shot which seems like a good idea to me, if you are in the open and the enemy get two or three shots at you it is goodnight Vienna. I also allow pinned troops to retire and not suffer the movement penalty from shock, this also is a good idea.

I am unsure about Force Morale, I use cards with up to fifteen on them, the normal is eleven, I have found depending what happens in the game that eleven can be too short, but I have also found fifteen to be too many. I think the former is fine for small games while the latter would work with a large game and with plenty of time to play. The reason I tried the larger number if you remember is that we had a disastrous game a few months ago that basically lasted half an hour before my morale cracked. I shall continue to see how these two numbers play out.

I have set up game three for today and should fit in a couple of hours in between a family quiz, some painting, answering emails and wondering if I should rework that ruined Normandy house I have, I have never liked it.