Fight for Martin Luther Kirche

This latest Lockdown has given me a kick in the teeth re enthusiasm, at least in the last one I could sit outside in the sunshine and soak up some rays, it is bleedin' miserable here at the moment and of course no real respite now until May next year. My winter project has also gone for a burton as I finished it in a week, I might get two weeks out of it as I have another set of buildings coming but it's a stretch. I have also decided to call a halt to buying more stuff for now, the suits over at the LMF are not happy with the outgoings this year, and with the new buildings and the boxes to house them all have finally pulled the purse strings.

On the bright side I started my 'training' game of urban combat in Berlin to see how Bolt Action dealt with such heavy terrain. I cannot fill all the spaces so the empty ones I decided were rubble or park, I also decided that anyone moving on the bottom floor of a building would also be in rubble, if on one of the floors this was normal movement but counted as heavy cover if the shots were going across the walls (windows) as opposed to from the open spaces inside.

The Germans had three squads, Kriegsmarine and Volksturm, both inexperienced and veteran Waffen SS (Danmark), also as back up they had a Hitler Jugend tank killer team. I decided to give them two tanks, a King Tiger and an Elephant, other supports included a mortar team, medic and sniper. The Russians had four squads, one of combat engineers backed up by an IS-2, T34/85 and an ISU-152, other supports were a mortar team, flamethrower and sniper. Both sides would have access to one tank for the initial deployment, I then put a blue and red die in the bag, when these where picked out they were trhown again and on a 5 or 6 another tank turned up, at the start the Germans got the Elephant and the Russians the IS-2. For the HJ team I decided I would use the Sewer rules so that they could pop up anywhere to take a shot at the Soviet armour, I might change this and use the dice system next time. Panzerfaust teams should be a real pain for the Soviet armour in Berlin.

I decided the Martin Luther church would be the Soviet objective so with this in mind it was occupied by the Kriegsmarine infantry, a building close by was defended by the Volksturm, the Danmark squad and the HJ were to be held in reserve. I used hidden movement so it was just about impossible for the Russians to register a hit on the Germans at the beginning so they advanced rapidly on their left but more slowly due to the rubble on their right. The Germans quickly managed to get the King Tiger to turn up and it started a duel with the IS-2, neither tank managing a penetrating hit until, bang, up went the big cat. This had the effect of stiffening Russian resolve and all their infantry now made a beeline for the objective. As the engineers moved to get an advantageous position to rush the Volksturm the old men opened up on the flamethrower team trying to flank them, reducing them to one man, two more Soviet squads moved forward towards the church, the German sniper took the opportunity to open up but only exposed himself to the Russian sniper and he bit the dust, the female sniper then took to powdering her nose as she hit nothing again for the whole game.

The Soviet engineers along with the flamethrower were not ready to attack the Volksturm so the German commander brought on the Danmark squad who began a firefight with the engineers stopping their advance, this didn't help the Volksturm Gruppenfuhrer as he became a casualty due to fire from a nearby Soviet squad, however his men held doggedly on also defying incoming mortar fire. On the Russian right their spare squad continued across the rubble and began to close on the church, sadly the remaining Russian armour seemed to have gotten lost, which was a cruel stroke as the crew of the IS-2 couldn't hit the proverbial church door. The Elephant now moved forward and opened up on some Russians in a building opposite the church, the heavy shells began to take effect and for a moment it looked like the Russians would have to pull back, the Waffen SS had cut the Engineers to ribbons and they only just held on behind their barricade. The Hitler Youth squad who had been traversing the sewers now made an appearance and three panzerfausts streaked towards the JS-2, only to fizzle out or fly over the tank, the lads scarpered back underground.

The flanking Soviet squad now rushed the church, the ensuing melee was horrific but as the dust settled only a few Russians were still standing, now the Russian armour decided to turn up, late but just in time to force the Germans to retire.

A very different game to normal, small arms shooting was almost poitless unless at very close quarters, high explosive was king and close support from tanks or maybe even guns is a must. Russian morale was not helped by the loss of most of their NCO's. I had to make some rule decisions as to what or where troops actually were in a building, for instance although the sailors were spread around one side of the walls I allowed them all to join in the melee as no doubt they would have, not sure how someone else would feel about that but I was happy. I also decided that once the tank hunters appeared if they were still there the following turn they could disappear back into the sewers unscathed. I did use the Rubble rules for movement when the tanks were off road but I might have to look at this as I think I got it wrong, both the King Tiger and the JS-2 suffered slightly from this. Anyway, something different and it accounted for several hours of building and playing.

A couple of new map projects being worked on along with the Atlas.

I have painted up the two SYW limbers from the ready use locker but am leaving the battalions for now as I expect the second lot of ruins to arrive next week and won't be able to rest until they are done. Oh, I also got a new car for my scatter terrain, it is the Refugee car from 1st Corps, a really nice piece and although it is 1/48 scale it looks fine on the table amongst everything else. I am tempted to get their Refugee figures as well and have put them on my wishlist.

I have got around at last to reading some of David Glantz's books, well book actually, on the Eastern Front from the Russian perspective and what an eye opener and change from all the 'Hitler lost us the East' rubbish from German generals. I am enjoying 'When Titans Clashed' so much I have now got 'Kharkov 1942' and 'Zhukov's Greatest Defeat' and am very tempted when things settle down to expand my Eastern Front time line to maybe cover Barbarossa to Kursk, but I have to get more games in to use the stuff I already have.