As spring arrived in the Crimea, the fortress of Sevastopol still stood defiant after resisting two offensives and a six month siege. A June offensive had XXX Corps attacking to break through Sevastopol’s eastern defenses. XXX Corp included a large Romanian contingent including the elite Vanatori de Munte (Mountain Hunters) of the 1st and 2nd Mountain Divisions. As XXX Corps reached the main Soviet defense line on Sapun Ridge on 28 June, the commander pressed his troops to force a breakthrough. Their opponents in the Independent Coastal Army, whose heroic defense was “encouraged” by ruthless political Commissars, were determined to hold their ground.
I had a very difficult time coming up with a defensive setup I was happy with. Considering my opponent felt behind the eight ball as the attacker perhaps that's the sign of a good scenario, though neither of us liked it. Things started out very poorly for him when both StuGs immobilized on Turn 1, one to an ESB attempt, and one to an ATR shot. He did take building M15 with little trouble. But I had some terrible luck of my own when my 10-0 commissar broke, as well as one of my two INF gun crews which had both setup in the next VC building. He had played this scenario before, losing badly as the attacker, but did have the edge in realizing just how important the Romanian mortar and gun on the Level 2 hill would be. The only weapon I had to try and stand up to them was my long-range AA gun, and he was under constant fire from both. They effectively prevented me from putting up much hill resistance of my own. I was hoping to hold out in building K15 for at least a couple more turns, but more bad luck for me saw the building fall at the end of Turn 2. I had flamed one of his immobile StuGs in CC, but my ATR squad which did the damage broke under withering fire, never to return. Turn 3 saw my lone survivor from building K15 (a crew which had self-rallied) wreak immense devestation on the Romanians, FPFing to his heart's content, and leaving two squads worth of enemies in coffins, and another squad's worth which should have been eliminated for FTR (which we misplayed). He finally succumbed during my half of the turn to a KIA. But this was a very important delay to the Romanian assault and, when they basically just consolidated themselves in the gully gaining a bunch of concealment on Turn 5, it left them only two turns to complete the task of taking the village. When their 9-2 was brained by a sniper, taking almost a whole stack down with him (including the FT HS), he conceded at the end of Turn 5.
2022-08-08
(D) Dmitry Klyuykov
vs
Fedor Grachev
Russian win
I wanted to try my defensive setup once again, adjusting gun placement. This time only one gun and one MMG were broken during the 1st Turn, but the rest of the shooting was quite lucky, so there were too much fire left for Romanians to bear.
2022-07-13
(D) Asad Rustum
vs
Nathan Stapf
Russian win
The Romanians were able to clear out the ridge early in the game my breaking the units entrenched. The Romanian assault engineers attacked the fortified buildings but their progress was slowed due to very active Russian snipers. The flamethrower never saw any action as the Romanians had left the fuel at home. In the end the stronghold fell and the Romanians advanced towards the ridge and the village. The Russians defending the village held up well against the Romanian onslaught and mostly took losses due to close combat. In the end, the Russian resistance proved too much for the Romanians.
2022-07-02
(D) Dmitry Klyuykov
vs
Fedor Melnikov
Axis (Romanian/German) win
Russians malfunctioned almost all guns and MGs to the end of T2. Romanians killed or broken everything with the first shot. Good game.
2022-06-22
(A) Dmitry Klyuykov
vs
Fedor Melnikov
Axis (Romanian/German) win
Great scenario with many options for both sides. After seeing Russian setup, Axis decided to abandon strongpoints and concentrated most forces on taking the village and the western hill. Romanian fire support group on the eastern hill was humiliated and totally destroyed by Russian fire during the 1st Game Turn. Romanian platoons made a breakthrough deep to the Russian rear, StuGs won some duels with Russian gun. The game was very dynamic and fluid. Can't recommend this scenario enough.
