Defence of the Tractor Factory

24th August 1942. The 16th Panzer Division has burst through Soviet lines into the northern suburbs of Stalingrad, Rynok and Spartanovka.

However, waiting for them at the Tractor Factory is a cobbled together force of NKVD, People's Militia and hastily built T-34s from the factory itself.

This scenario from the Stalingrad campaign book features two 1500 point armies trying to cross a river with three bridges. Ostensibly, the Germans were attacking, giving them a preparatory bombardment, whilst the Soviets had trench lines and sandbags, but the victory points were the same for both sides. 1 VP for each enemy unit destroyed, and 1 VP for each unit on the other side of the river by the end of the game.

16th Panzer Division

Second Lieutenant

Medic

Panzergrenadier Squad

Heer Squad

2 Pioneer Squads (one with flamethrower)

MMG Team

Anti-Tank Rifle Team

Sniper Team

Heavy Mortar with spotter

Medium Howitzer with spotter

Panzer IV

Panzer III

SdKfz 222

Truck

Everything was regular except for the Pioneers which were veteran.

NKVD & People's Militia 

Senior Lieutenant

Commissar

Medic

Forward Artillery Observer

2 People's Militia Squads

3 NKVD Squads (one with SMGs)

Sniper Team

2 Anti-Tank Rifle Teams 

Medium Mortar with Spotter 

ZiS-3 Anti-Tank Gun 

ZiS-2 Anti-Tank Gun

2 37mm AA Guns

2 Tractor Factory T-34s (no optics)

The theatre selector allowed me to replace the usual free squad with 2 free inexperienced AA guns. The Commissar, People's Militia and T-34s were also inexperienced, everything else was regular.

Turn 1

The game opened with a preparatory bombardment which dropped pins all along the Soviet lines and managed to kill both the sniper and the medic. Largely ineffective fire flew back and forth across the river.

The most significant move of the turn saw a blitzkrieg attack from a Panzer IV straight towards the factory, gunning down the crew of factory workers manning one of the AA guns.

Turn 2

With a Panzer IV heading directly for them, the Soviets desperately tried to find something that could at least slow it down, including an artillery strike, and give time for the T-34s to roll out of the factory to the rescue.

The remaining AA Gun traversed on its turntable, took aim at the exposed flank of the enemy tank, fired and blew it up at the first time of asking. One German thrust had been halted.

However, now a Panzer III rumbled across another bridge. To add injury to insult, the German Howitzer found its mark on the ZiS-3 covering that bridge and despite the crew hitting the dirt, only one of them survived.

Turn 3

Once again the factory workers traversed their AA Gun. Once again they fired at an onrushing Panzer. Once again they blew it sky high. Heroes of the Soviet Union, every one of them.

With the enemy armour neutralised, the arrival of an incomplete T-34 suggested a shift in fortunes. Possibly allowing the Russians to go on the offensive.

Turn 4

Sensing a weakness on the German flank, Soviet armour and infantry pushed towards the railway bridge past the burning hulk of a Panzer. However, the T-34 was hit by a lucky mortar round, halting it in its tracks.

German infantry saw an opportunity to push across the central bridge behind the destroyed Panzer IV, using the wreck as cover.

Simultaneously, the SdKfz 222 arrived on an outflanking manoeuvre, getting behind the Soviet lines, but failing to make an impact against the dug in infantry.

It was met by an equally, if not even more, ineffective T-34 which managed to miss its target from point blank range.

Turn 5

With time beginning to run out, the People's Militia left the protection of the factory and advanced towards the central bridge. Pouring fire into the isolated German infantry as they went.

The inexperienced T-34 crew were either unwilling or unable to get their vehicle moving under heavy mortar fire and so the infantry pushed on across the river without armoured support.

However, further outflanking forces arrived behind the Soviet lines but were prevented from disembarking from their transport by massed rifle fire, not by the T-34 that managed to miss the anti-tank rifle team with both its MMGs.

Turn 6

Pioneers clambered out of the truck and the flamethrower used up all of its fuel incinerating much of the infantry packed into the trench. Even with 'encouragement' from the Commissar taking another life, the rest lost their nerve and fled the charnel pit.

More pioneers rushed across the bridge but were caught in the open by an outflanking NKVD assault squads. Eleven SMGs opened fire at point blank range and gunned the Pioneers down to a man.

Repeated shelling from a heavy mortar finally took its toll on the stalled T-34, but in return AA Gun fire into a building destroyed the German sniper team.

In a shocking breach of the Geneva convention, the People's Militia assaulted the German medic and the the remains of the squad hiding behind the tank, before pushing on over the bridge, where they took heavy fire.

Meanwhile, the Soviet assault across the bridge ran amongst the buildings of Spartanovka looking for Germans to kill, but a mortar strike took out the enemy howitzer before they could get there.

Turn 7

Four Soviet squads had made it across the river into Spartanovka and eight German units had been destroyed.

However, the German flank attack had got three units across the river, despite losing the truck to a tank shell at the last minute. Added to the 10 Soviet units destroyed the final score stood at 13-12.

The narrowest of German victories.

This has to be one of the closest games of Bolt Action I've ever played, and it was also one of the most enjoyable. We could point to at least a dozen moments which would have tipped the balance one way or another.

My MVP has to be the free inexperienced 37mm AA gun which took out two tanks and a sniper (made even better by the fact that Pete 3d printed it for me). The star of the German show was probably the heavy mortar which prevented a T-34 wreaking havoc in their lines.

The next scenario sees my Soviets on the attack against surrounded and outnumbered Germans, low on fuel and low on ammunition.

Seems fair.

Dawn Crossing

Way back in the dim and distant past of last September, you may remember Pete and I optimistically starting to play through the Stalingrad campaign book for Bolt Action.

After failing to get my forces across the last bridge over the Don, it became apparent that I would need help delaying the Germans. Stalin was famously aided by 'General Winter', whereas I recieved support from his junior officer: 'Major Pandemic'.

Having successfully held up the Nazi war machine for nine months, the Major has now retreated (hopefully we won't see him again), and now it was the turn of poorly trained infantry to stem the tide. In scenario 2 of the campaign, Pete's Germans would have to force a crossing of the Don against my numerically inferior forces.

In game, victory points would be gained by destroying enemy units and having units remaining on the eastern side of the river at the end.

To alleviate some of the problems of being outnumbered, most of my 500 points of defenders would be inexperienced. However, they would be helped by being dug in and hidden (although we completely forgot about the latter), and I'd get my usual bonus unit, which is always more valuable in smaller games.

My army was as follows;

2nd Lieutenant + 1 man (Reg)

2 LMG Squads (Inex)

Rifle Squad (Inex)

MMG Team (Reg)

Medium Mortar Team (Inex)

2 Anti-Tank Rifle Teams (Reg)

ZiS-3 Anti-Tank Gun (Reg)

Pete's forces had the advantage in numbers and quality, but he had the not insignificant problem of crossing the river in flimsy boats. He would, however, gain the benefit of a preparatory bombardment.

His army was something like this:

2nd Lieutenant + 1 man (Reg)

4 Heer Infantry Squads (Reg)

2 Heer Pioneer Squad (Vet)

MMG Team (Reg)

Medium Mortar Team (Reg)

Sniper Team (Reg)

3 Sturmboots (Reg)

2 Schlauchboots (Reg)

The opening turn saw the bombardment have only a limited effect and it failed to prevent the Soviet AT Rifles sinking two of the worryingly unarmoured Sturmboots (causing us to immediately re-evaluate the scoring system to not count the boats as victory points), whilst the German return fire wasn't able to make an impact against the dug in Russians.

The start of the second turn saw the Germans rush to get at least some boats across the water, but they took fire and stranded their passengers on the exposed river bank.

However, things looked up for the attackers when the ZiS-3 was destroyed by a well aimed mortar shell before it had any impact on the battle.

On the southern flank the Soviet MMG Team poured fire on the advancing boat, piling pins on the passengers. Meanwhile the AT Rifle sank the last Sturmboot.

By the third turn, the German assault was struggling from a distinct lack of boats. However, the northernmost squad on the riverbank managed to push onwards and, with support from massed Rifle fire, crippled the Soviet squad on the ridge, who subsequently ran off following a FUBAR.

Unfortunately for the Germans the assault on the southern flank had stalled in the face of the most significant MMG I've ever seen in Bolt Action. The remaining Heer infantrymen hugged the river bank in a desperate bid to survive.

The Germans stranded on the western bank without boats now hurled everything they had at the dug in Soviets. The MMG in particular weathered a massive amount of fire due in no small part to taking a casualty, making it a small team and significantly harder to hit.

Meanwhile, Soviet fire was poured into the tattered remnants of the two German assault squads.

The norther squad were within striking distance of a vulnerable and isolated AT rifle team, but took fire at just the wrong moment, taking enough pins to prevent them making the crucial charge.

At the tipping point of the battle, both sides concentrated on trying to destroy weaker targets. However, what followed was one of the worst exchanges of fire in wargaming history.

The Soviet mortar managed to hit a German squad, but only wounded one of four targets (needing 2s). The German MMG lit up an AT rifle, but failed to kill either of the crew to force a crucial morale test. The squad on the river bank was whittled down to two men (never killing enough in one go to make them check morale) with one too few pins to force them to break.

The deadlock of ineptitude was finally broken by the German Mortar silencing its Soviet counterpart, and the Sniper taking out an AT rifle team.

This, somewhat surprisingly after how the battle began, left the score at 6-5 to the Germans, who had two units on the eastern side and four Soviet units destroyed, whilst the Soviets just had five units still active.

With the game potentially ending, the intact Soviet Rifle Squad burst out of its foxhole and sprayed the Germans with fire, needing just a pin to break them...and failed.

Knowing that the battle could be lost, the Soviet officer tried the same trick, spraying the northern German squad with SMG fire...and failed.

Things looked bleak for Mother Russia until the die to determine if the game would end with a German victory on turn 6 said, "Nyet!"

The final turn saw the Germans on the western bank try unsuccessfully to bring down the Soviet commander, who opted to go down and live, rather than retain the chance of assaulting the stricken unit in front of him.

However, on the southern flank, the MMG once again proved its worth, scoring the necessary pin to force the squad on the river bank to melt away and try to swin to safety.

This left the final score as Soviets 6 (1 unit destroyed, 5 on the eastern bank) to the Germans 5 (4 units destroyed, 1 on the eastern bank). Had we kept the boats as scoring units, it would have been 11-5 and not a contest.

It was a tense affair at the but the scenario itself seems heavily dependent on how many boats survive the first round, even with our change to the scoring. One more squad across the river could have made a massive difference.

Were we to play this again, I suspect I'd be trying to stop several more of them, but with smaller units of regulars, as orders tests were often my biggest challenge.

We now move to the outskirts of Stalingrad proper and an attempt to defend the Tractor Factory. There's another river to cross, but this time there are bridges and we're both trying to cross them.

In other news, I managed to palm off the French Line Infantry from Wargames Illustrated off on to Pete, so it was a double victory.

Acquired: 105

Painted: 122

A Bridge Too Far...no, not that one

After six months of not, I managed to get a game of Bolt Action in against Pete, and we started to work our way through the Campaign: Stalingrad book with the 'Last Bridge Over The River Don' scenario, set in August 1942.

The scenario recreates part of the frantic retreat of the Soviet 62nd Army in the face of the German blitzkrieg.

My forces would have to race down the board, cross the bridge and then blow it, whilst the Germans swarmed in from both sides seeking to cut my forces off and capture the bridge intact.

My retreating force featured two LMG squads, one of which was fortunate enough to be mounted in a truck. I had a cunning plan that the footslogging squad would be urged on by the combined efforts of a Senior Officer, a Commissar and a Medic...we'll see how well that plan works out.

The infantry would be protected on their way by a BA-6 Armoured Car and a frankly monstrous (at this point of the war) KV-1.

Meanwhile, the bridge to safety would be defended by a (poorly positioned) ZIS-3 anti-tank gun and an inexperienced Rifle Squad.

The battle opened with the truck racing off down the road and reaching the bridge immediately. 

Unfortunately, the infantry on foot were not so lucky, as a Panzer IV trundled into view and wiped them out.

So much for the plan.

Shoddy accuracy from the Soviet armour asaw the BA-6 meet its doom at the hands of the Panzer IV, it perhaps shouldn't have veered off to kill a German anti-tank rifle team.

However, the commander of the KV-1 found his range and destroyed the Panzer IV, albeit a little too late.

On the plus side, this removed the only serious threat to the KV-1, which would be able to throw machine-gun fire in all directions for the remainder of the battle.

 

Near the bridge, despite the reinforcements from the truck, the Soviet defenders were finding themselves hard pressed by Germans swarming in from all sides.

The ZIS-3 managed to get only a single shot off before a squad of Pioneers gor past its gun shield by taking advantage of the fact that I'd not used the buildings to guard its flanks.

The Germans looked poised to to seize the bridge.

But the German hammer never fell as two things happened. Firstly, the KV-1 made it to the bridge and began putting pins on units all over the place.

This then compounded what was one of the worst run of orders tests from Pete I've ever seen. The Germans had been halted.

Unfortunately, the Germans didn't need to take the bridge to win, they could simply destroy units, and my HQ were looking vulnerable.

Despite a FUBAR from the German Officer, my Commissar and Officer were cut down in short order.

The KV-1 made it over the bridge and Soviet fire thinned the enemy some more as the fuse to blow the bridge was lit.

The way the scoring was arranged, I just needed no more units to die.

Unfortunately, not only did the inexperienced Rifle Squad finally succumb to incoming fire, but the dastardly Germans broke the Geneva convention and brutally murdered Olga, my unarmed medic.

With the KV-1 guarding it, the crossing would be held until the bridge blew up, but a heavy toll had been taken on the Soviet forces.

The final score was 7-6 to Pete.

In hindsight, I made a number of errors early on that caused me to take too many casualties to effectively fight back, and only Pete's appallingly bad orders tests kept me in the game. I'm afraid it's the gulag for me.

In other news, I've bought a Hunter-Killer VTOL toy from Ebay to use in games of Terminator: Genysis and various other bits and pieces for ongoing projects, but things are still in the black.

Acquired: 207

Painted: 239