Operation Wintergewitter aimed to relieve the besieged Sixth Army in Stalingrad under General Friedrich Paulus. With limited reserves, the 6th Panzer Division played a pivotal role after arriving from France. Following Operation Uranus, which encircled the Sixth Army, the Red Army consolidated its gains in the Stalingrad Pocket. The German High Command sought a quick breakthrough, capitalizing on the element of surprise.
This was a strange one. My Russians only have one leader to start with,
and my defence was a bit spread out. After turn 2, when Rob's Panzers had
run roughshod and put me down 3 squads (of 6), I thought my defence should
have been a bit less dissipated.
However, I ended up getting a bit lucky on Rob's turn 3. Two point blank
CH's with a 45L AT Gun and a recalled Panzer convinced Rob to resign.
He didn't have a lot of infantry left, and my main defensive position was
intact when my reinforcements were arriving.
I was sure on turn 2 that I was not going to win this one. We would
play it again. It's nothing special, but is a solid scenario.
Edit: Turns out I cheated. I had an LMG at start instead of a
MTR. Rob very graciously said he didn't think it would have
made much of a difference.
2024-06-20
(A) Andy Bagley
vs
Simon Staniforth
Russian win
This felt tough for the Russians, though partly because of my opponent's skilful defence. The ground snow proved more of a problem than I expected; that extra MF uphill/downhill made quite a difference to my exit attempts. And the 45L AT Guns' relatively low TK number was offset by their high RoF, meaning several chances to get the low-ish rolls they needed. Even so, it went down to the final turn, but I conceded when it was evident that the Germans could not exit sufficient units to win.
2024-06-20
(D) Simon Staniforth
vs
Andy Bagley
Russian win
My opponents has already written this one up. I was lucky to get one of the tanks with an IF CH and took another out in CC. A few breaks at the wrong time for the Germans and there were insufficient numbers in the Exit area to achieve the required VP
