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 Relaxing after leading my British against Ian and with a quiet weekend coming up I awoke to a message from Paul looking for a game, my spirits rose immediately and my brain went into overdrive, but of course first off I got the green light from the boss, fourth game in a week, it was required.

I have been throwing money away recently, new buds, those little things the yoof have in their ears, the car, books, paints and a subscription to Warfare, Soldiers and Strategy. I have decided to give the magazine a second chance as I gave up with all of them some time ago, my main thought process is that they do a lot of scenarios for Chain of Command and I was flush, for now. With Paul coming I chose an Eastern Front scenario "A Delaying Action at Uman" set in 1944 on the borders of Romania, not Ukraine as I had thought. The Germans were defending a small village and a nearby bridge, the Russians had to drive the Germans off, however if the bridge collapsed, which it might if a tank or large vehicle crossed it, both sides would take a hit to their morale, the Germans needed it, the Russians wanted it.

Uman.

The Soviet deployment area.

Paul got twelve points of support so I got six, in fear of a T-34 or KV-1 I took a Pak 40 along with an extra Senior Leader, Paul went for a heavy machine gun, a Scout squad, sniper and pre-game barrage, oh and a couple of captured panzerfausts.

I decided of course to wait and see where the main attack would come from so I was slow off the mark, the Soviets threw their Scout squad forward very quickly in order to use them as a Jump Off Point, sneaky. Soon there was a Soviet squad on my left, a HMG in a wood to the front of the village and the annoying Scout squad running for one of my JOP's, I was looking at an early disaster as Paul got a double turn and captured my JOP, I scrambled for a plan to get it back. I started with a squad in the large barn which also held the objective, but just as I was looking to advance I threw three sixes and the turn ended, off went the JOP and my morale fell to 7. The brave Scouts were now turned on and their numbers and morale fell alarmingly, to add to this punishment I proceeded to throw sixes like confetti, one throw resulted in four sixes and this brought another turn to an end but also brought heavy rain to the battlefield and visibility fell to 18", all of a sudden most of the Soviet force were blind and the Scouts broke, leaving their leader stunned, alone in the wood.

The objective building.

Reds in the woods.

Every turn after that I prayed to the Gods that no more than two sixes turned up so that the rain could continue. Paul now brought on the rest of his forces and I did the same in order to build up a firebase for the inevitable assault, the Soviets on my left advanced and I met them with the Pak 40 and a squad from one of the houses, these men suffered horrendous losses and were left with only a handful of men and at last the Russian morale also fell. My squad doing most of the damage were now picked on however they held on and although pinned stayed put in the building. Paul now managed to bring a new Squad out of a wood, across the road and towards my perimeter, I countered this by bringing on my last reserves and attempted to shoot them up as they repositioned, this failed and they managed to assault the house and break the survivors. 

Now boys, at em!

Heading for the stunned Soviet.

Heavy machine gun, nullified by the rain.

Blind snipers.

The last men standing.

The morale of both was now at 5 and victory was within grasp of both sides. By sheer luck I got more of those sixes, the Pak wiped out the remaining Russians in the open field and I pushed my right hand squad forward into the wood to capture the stunned leader, this caused several morale throws and finished the Soviet assault, Uman was still in German hands as night fell.

 This was a superb game with a lot of excitement, the rain was a huge obstacle for the attackers and a boon for the defenders, I was terrified of ending the turn and the onset of fair weather as I kept throwing six after six. I thought the quick loss of the JOP had set the pace for my defeat but the Soviets paid dearly for taking it, losing the squad and leaving the stunned leader to be picked up. Paul is a canny opponent and always provides a good game, the scenario too was worth the subscription and I will play it again along with others.

If you are interested in WW2 can I ask you to have a look at WW2TV, Paul Woodage runs the show on his own, he asks that if you enjoy the content, like and subscribe as it helps him to keep up the excellent service he provides. I am being selfish on this as I love the show.