On 1 December, Generalfeldmarschall Gunther von Kluge launched one final and furious bid to seize the shortest route to the Soviet capital-the Minsk-Moscow highway. Attacking at 0500 hours, XX. Armeekorps struck the Soviet 33rd Army's defenders in the vicinity of Naro-Fominisk, hoping to break into the rear area of the Soviet 5th Army. By noon the penetration had reached two miles in depth, splitting the 5th from Lt. General Mikhail Grigoryevich Yefremov's 33rd Army. General Georgy Zhukov, commander of the Western Front, ordered a counterattack to be launched against the breach.
Attacker: Russian (Composite Group, 33rd Army)
Defender: German (Infanterie-Division 258, XX. Armeekorps)
6.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Russian Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:16.0 D:15.0
AFVs: A:6
T-34 M41 x 6
AFVs: D:2
StuG IIIB x 2
Guns: A:0 D:4
5cm PaK 38 x 4 5cm leGrW 36 x 2 PzB 39 ATR
Misc Rules:
GS (3.72), OC (E3.5) ExW (E3.74), A: Skis (E4.) and WC (E3.712), CI (E2.4)
Poor setup - too many units committed to centre of the map where they were isolated by T34s on overwatch on the hill and unable to redeploy in time to counter the main assault down my left flank. Extreme winter was also a factor, both ATGs on my left flank malf'ed (both rolling '10s') on their first shots, as did one of the StuGs. And the only successful sniper attack of the game KIA'ed the German 9-2 and broke the accompanying squad manning the MMG.
2024-03-08
(D) Will Willow
vs
Gary Bartlett
Russian win
2023-12-13
(D) Jeff B
vs
Steve Etzelmueller
German win
Grandma always said "If you don't have anything good to say about something don't say anything at all." Well, grandma, I'm going to say something regardless. Germans must protect the length of an entire board with a fairly small force. The Russians will be able to concentrate their attack over a small section. This means the Germans will spend much of their early game scrambling to reposition, and with ground snow in effect, hills, and a big brushy valley this will be tough. The Russians won't have the same trouble with their moment however because they have skiis, and this scenario really brings to light just how silly the ski rules are. Oh and did I mention the Russians get 6 tanks, and have rocket OBA, and the Germans are facing extreme winter difficulties. And let's not forget their 8ML and abundance of leaders, including their ability to have two commissars. This means on a normal break their troops bounce back on a 10 most likely. The Russians may even want to strongly consider self breaking and routing forward. Then the Germans would be in real trouble. And the Germans, with all their movement problems, only have three leaders. So I'll use this scenario as a sounding board to express my extreme dislike of the trend many modern scenarios have developed of granting the Russians (for example) more leaders per squad than the Germans. Just lazy. Well on to the actual playing of this dog then. Turn 1 saw the Russians hit hard from the north, keeping a small force in the center to prevent unopposed repositioning. Their range of two with their assault troops is about the only thing the Germans have going for them, but their granted enough LMGs (and the defending force is so thin) that it'll still be a scary prospect for the Germans to stack move. My northern defense was the weakest, heavily reliant on a couple MGs to lay FLs. When one was lost for good at the end of Turn 1 and the other at the start of Turn 2 I was in serious trouble. Oh and it started snowing, which very shortly turned to heavy snow. As if it wasn't hard enough to hurt these Russians zooming down (and up somehow) with their skiis, wearing their winter camo and sporting 8ML. I had planted my guns and mortars on the west side of the valley intending to blast away at the infantry with my three ROF, but this plan was bunk. So then I did the next best thing and just kept my guns HIP, because the threat of something is usually more scary than reality. Exciting stuff, I tell you. Thankfully my Turn 3 reinforcements would soon arrive to shore up my northern defense, because my PM was all but shot. If the first half of the game was just boring as hell watching the Russians ski unopposed across the board, the second half was just as bland, only this time because the game would obviously develop into a body block finish. I finally showed a gun and bagged my first tank on Turn 5 as it exited the crossroad on Board 91 (a very cool board I must say). Unfortunately my crew did too good a job and flamed it up, blowing smoke into my defense and opening a safe passage for the Russians. But there ended up just being too many German bodies in the way, and when the Russians lost a squad and leader to NQ and another squad and leader to FTR, they decided to throw in the towel at the middle of Turn 6. And so ended my painful playing of AP191, and possibly the only scenario I play from what looks to be the worst AP I've ever seen
