Game 2, the T34s arrive!

This was the second game at the Situation room. The theme is Eastern front as it will continue to be for quite a while. We moved to some time in 1942. German kit now had Stugs, Marders, Panzer IVs with long 75s and a company of Tigers. All this kit was centred on 2 Panzer Divisions.

The Russian armour was all based on T34s and T70s. There were 4 Russian Tank Corps equivalents and 2 infantry Divisions.
Overall odds were about 3:2 in favour of the Russians. The German morale/quality was as in the first game and the Russian morale/quality had been increased. The picture above shows the general layout.

The Germans had secured a bridgehead over the unfordable river and had to break out to the rear table where there was a confluence of the road network. Basically, cut the Russians off. The Russian task was to force the Germans back over the river.

Terrain wise, more had arrived. The battlefield had 55 fields, of various sizes and description, deployed along with about 20 woods. The new fields made the terrain "closer" and improved the "game" as visibility was interrupted more so that in our first game.


This view gives a sight of the far end of the table. It looks like they are all trapped in searchlight beams (or very deliberate thought)!
There were some new crew members to this game and the rogues gallery is below.

 

Steve Evans is on the far left and is form Leeds. He's a nurse working in Sexual Health with teenagers, not sure what sort of gestures he's making to Anne's mum!?!?!?! or maybe Adam who literally can't be kept down. Adam is now the official Achilles heal of the local casino, he's on a winning streak at the moment. Second from the right is Steve Miles, forgotten what he does now but hails from Northamptonshire. A bit like Adam, you have to work hard to get him to drink two pints! Herbert is fifth from the left, another regular who will pop up more in the future.

 

As mentioned, this was the first outing for T34s and it did indeed make the game a lot closer. The Germans deployed with a Panzer Division for each flank, the Russians loaded their right, near the woods, with their armour. To give an idea of balance, the Germans had

3 Tigers

7 Stugs IIIFs

7 Marders with 76mm guns

24 Panzer IIIGs

12 Panzer IVF2s
4 Panzer IIFs

Russians had 52 T34Ds & 40 T70s.
Next is Pete's forces launching an attack against Herbert. This was to be the closest battle to call and would eventually decide who won the game.

This was the largest attack launched by the Russians. It was essentially attacking three of Herbert's battalions, a Panzer Btn, the Stug Btn and an infantry Btn. I think the telling turn came when Herbert killed a T34 and they failed morale along with a Stuka attack on some T70s. This was lucky as air is a random event and it was pure good fortune for the Germans that it arrived in the right place at the right time.

This is looking at Herbert's defence. At one point it looked like the Panzers were forming square! but his luck held out. The German infantry also won the battle for the wood against Russian infantry and it was after this turn that we called it a day.
There were some other humorous events. Adam informed us all that he had never eaten corned beef or spam (obviously a sheltered youth). So he bought some! The evidence of the corned beef is below.

The next day was to be the high point and final defeat. The server at the local corner shop where Adam bought the corned beef was so impressed that he had never eaten spam that he gave Adam a free tin!

The tin was duly opened, but unfortunately that was a mistake. As hard as Adam tried to eat a piece, as the spam got nearer his nose, his shade of green intensified.  In fact we all turned green as the small wafted towards us. Alas, the spam ended up as impromptu fertiliser for some flowers in the garden (and they are still alive).

Getting back to games, I could resist this piccy of Herbert examining some of the Napoleonic troops. I can imagine he was already working out a battle plan at some point.

And lastly, as an experiment, I 've added this video that was shot by my chief reconnaissance pilot Anne. This was done in between ferrying in essential supplies to keep us in food and drink.

The next game will be bigger again and will hopefully involve the first buildings that I hope will have arrived by then.