In late March 1944, Russian rifle forces infiltrated unoccupied territory, and encircled the town of Kovel - an important railway hub, garrisoned only by miscellaneous German rear area units and SS troops on anti-partisan duty. On 5 April, battered elements of 5. SS-Panzer-Division Wiking had lifted the siege with an attack from the west. Protecting the SS men's left flank, expanding the breach northward, were 4. Panzer-Division forces. On 10 April, the Russians would show that they hadn't given up the thought of pocketing Kovel.
Attacker: Russian (Reinforced elements of 259th Separate Tank Regiment)
Defender: German (Elements of II. Bataillon, Panzergrenadier-Regiment 12, 4. Panzer Division and Panzerjager-Abteilung 49 and Panzer-Regiment 35)
6 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:9.0
AFVs: A:8
Valentine V(b) x 4 GAZ-MM x 4 GAZ-67B Sherman III(a) x 4
Very interesting tactical situation and recommendable scenario. My Germans just barely brought this home. A full AAR can be found at GameSquad forum here:
Superb scenario, Russian infantry couldn't manage to get across the open ground and all but one of the tanks copped it, but close until last turn :)
2019-08-17
(D) Gordon Jupp
vs
Jeremy Shields
German win
Cracking game again, the Russian armour succumbed and their infantry couldn't get to the VC area.
2019-08-06
(A) Andy Beaton
vs
Jeff Wasserman
German win
Russians went for a left flank attack through the thin woods, but got stifled by German mortar and PSK fire. A couple of Valentines broke through but were mopped up by the German armour. Conceded on turn 4.
2019-08-02
(A) Jeff Waldon
vs
Dave Reenstra
German win
FtF - Spreading Blaze ‘19
2019-07-26
(D) Dan Best
vs
Stan Jackson
Russian win
St. Louis ASL Tournament 2019.
2019-07-26
(A) Kermit Mullins
vs
Peter Ward
German win
Round 2 of STL Tournament. My Russians were slaughtered. End of story.
2019-06-15
(D) Stephen dedier
vs
Shipley, Eric
German win
Eric pushed his Russians hard down my left flank with a small force on the right flank.
I had hidden my Marder forward to take advantage of the open ground down the road and beyond. Due to some very good shooting, the Marder managed to destroy one Sherman and 2 Valentines before they could get through the gap.
I had a fighting withdrawal with most of the troops leaving an LMG Squad, the heavy mortar and another squad to hold off the trucks.
Only two tanks with 1 squad managed to get to the victory area before my PzIVs came on board. I swarmed the Valentine and the Sherman and managed to take out the Valentine with the loss of only the lucky (to that point) Marder and then the Sherman malfed the MA.
The Germans managed to consolidate defenses back in the target village with a good fire lane for the MMG holing the few Russians who managed to limp through at bay.
Between the PzIVs and a swarm of suicidal infantry with fausts we managed to take out the last 2 tanks and with that the hope of the Russians.
I think we both would play it a little differently if we did it again but it was a fun scenario
2019-04-14
(D) Tom Kearney
vs
Rob Loper
German win
Bitter Ender 2019. Great game!
2019-01-26
(A) patrick palma
vs
Ulrik Danker
German win
2018-12-15
(A) John Gorkowski
vs
Bill Stoppel
German win
From the Russian point of view, as one scans the battle space (boards X and V) from left to right, he sees a long tree line, broken by a 40-meter wide gap, more woods/brush in a cluster at the center, and then some open ground divided by an orchard-lined road on the right before ending in another cluster of trees on the far right. The objective (the south end of a hamlet) lies about 600 meters beyond that. The Russians (me) know there’s a German (Bill) infantry company, one Marder, and one 82mm mortar out there, somewhere. So, I set up my onboard force – four squads (riders) and five tanks – in the open just north of center around hex xBB2.
Two Russian lend lease valentines with 2-2-7 half squads aboard roared south toward the xT1 woods cluster at the center of the German line. They stopped adjacent to German concealment stacks and fired smoke mortars to cordon off the avenue of attack from distant cross fires. As expected, the German infantry did not risk losing their concealment to pop the small, swift valentines with panzerfausts. Three Shermans followed, staying a little further behind since their larger profiles and better cargo (5-2-7s) made them more attractive targets. Somewhere in there, the German mortar fired from xR8, the east end of a plowed field through the xV3 gap at Russian forces in and around xW2. The mortar made rate several times, but inflicted no damage and soon broke with box cars. The German Marder, hidden in the west edge woods (around vT2), however, fired across the orchard-lined road and some brush to obliterate a Sherman on the right side of the Russian advance, around vW10. A nearby valentine (around vY10) returned fire and within two turns killed the Marder!
My reinforcements joined the main thrust with two exceptions. I sent the 50mm mortar over the hill top road to cover the west half of the field while my ATR went up the east side.
A flurry of shortrange main gun, machine gun, and small arms fire erupted around the xV3 gap over the next two turns as the bulk of the German infantry company ran south into the hamlet. The Russian valentines used their smoke mortars and the Sherman their SM8 main guns to smoke up the wooded sides of the gap (hexes xV4 and xU3). With that done, the Russian tanks rushed through to cluster around the eastern orchard line (xR3), just north of the hamlet. One of the smoked-up German half squads managed to faust a Sherman as it rushed through the gap leaving flaming wreckage in xU4. Russian infantry then finished the Germans in close combat.
Three German Panzer IVs then entered along the south edge, two took up positions in the hamlet with one on the west edge of the battle space. The valentine that had killed the Marder started banging away at the westernmost panzer IV, but couldn’t penetrate and eventually lost that shoot out. That westernmost panzer also killed another valentine and the Russian 50mm mortar which was setting up in vX2 (beside the orchard-lined road) at the time.
Here’s where I made my game-losing mistake. My Shermans kept firing smoke to facilitate infantry maneuvers; but should have switched to HE against the German infantry! My infantry could have stayed put for a turn or two while the Shermans banged away with their faster than normal (two resolutions on doubles) 75s to have done real damage. Oops! Instead, we kept smoking. My Russian infantry advanced south along the xR3 orchard line leading into the hamlet while others swung wide around the eastern stone building (xP7) to close in on the victory area in a hook maneuver. In reply, German machine guns whittled away at my Russian infantry; yes, they had the protection of smoke, but that’s not enough over time.
Alas, one of my Shermans made an end run – again behind smoke – down the east edge to also hook into the victory area. Bill sent an MIV that way to meet the Sherman and hit the moving target right away to end my chance for victory so I conceded on the last turn with one squad (when two were needed) in the victory area.
The lesson: smoking is hazardous to your health; it’s all about moderation. Great game.
2018-12-08
(A) Paul Works
vs
Wes Vaughn
Russian win
I slipped around the board edge and traded tank kills. Eventually got multiple squads into the VC area; Wes was unable to dig them out.
2018-12-01
(D) Gordon Jupp
vs
Neil Brunger
Russian win
Cracking game, I messed up my initial deployment, allowing easy access for the Russiams into the VC area, however my tanks took out all of the Russian srmour but my infantry was unable to clear out all the opposing infantry, went down to last turn CC, very good scenario.
