Stalingrad Academy of Street Fighting - The Boulevard

 Ken and I were at Dave's house yesterday for the second round of our Stalingrad Campaign and the first outing of my custom urban 3' x 2' board!  Shots were fired, blows exchanged, and lessons learned at the Stalingrad Street Fighting Academy!

The table set up - Dave graciously agreed to host.  Count all of those Soviet stands on the opposite side of the table!

This was a much smaller Flames of War battle featuring only 50 points worth of troops.  We played "The Boulevard" scenario from the "Iron Cross" book.  Both of us used infantry formations, with Ken taking a Soviet Rifle Battalion with 2 companies of "only" 20 stands each!  Ken also took a Maxim HMG company and an SMG company.

The German OOB was pretty simple - PanzerGrenadier Company with 2 platoons, 1 x full strength at 7 teams, and 1 x understrength platoon at 5 teams.  The ultimate decision here was to take regular Grenadiers, or the firepower-intensive PanzerGrenadiers where each team shoots halted with 3 dice and moving with 2 dice, versus the 2/1 of the regular Grenadiers.  The tradeoff is points and unit size - the Grenadiers have 9 and 7 stands respectively.

I chose the PanzerGrenadiers for their firepower, an HMG platoon of 2 x sMG-34's, and in support took along an Assault Pioneer platoon with a flamethrower, a sniper, and an artillery battery.  Plan was to hold the building on my side of the table, and maneuver against the building on Ken's side.  I would use the sniper to keep the Soviets pinned down, and of course the artillery to keep them pinned as well.

My strategy was that if the Soviet formations were all pinned, I'd ultimately be able to move against the Soviets on my terms.  That was the plan, anyways!

Off table 105mm Battery using the "Across the Volga" special rule.

German Sniper.  

We diced and in this "meeting engagement" battle, we were the first player.  That had some interesting and unfortunate consequences for the Germans, as we could not use stationary ROF in the first turn, nor could we have a ranged-in artillery marker, or shoot artillery in the first turn.  It's going to be a long afternoon!

Here they come!

The Soviet human wave attacks started right off the bat, with Ken's rifle company charging in on the right at one of my buildings.  Immediately, the PanzerGrenadiers prove their worth, with 18 dice (including the MG34) stopping the first assault cold.  The Soviets are pinned in the rubble.  Important to mention here that the entire table is rubble - meaning a firepower check for every failed save.  With small arms, that's a "6" roll.  They'll be back!

Second Soviet Assault against the right flank building.  The PanzerGren's are pinned now but still formidable!

The assault pioneers, held in critical reserve, can only watch the fighting to their front.  

The wave of human infantry break against the building, flanking it.  Ken's assault will now go in against the front-right quadrant of the building.  There are unique city-fighting rules where individual rooms of the building are treated as separate combats.  There are some adjustments to make, but in the end it worked pretty well.

Ken's maxims attracted alot of fire.  Luckily they were from a different unit, and so could not trade hits off onto infantry teams!

Sovoet SMG Company in the rear

The Assault wipes out 2 x teams and the German sniper, gaining Ken a toe-hold into the right building.

Dave, commanding the assault pioneers and the left panzergren platoon, softens up the left building with the German objective in it and moves to assault!   The room to room combat is brutal.  If you are unsure about how FOW close combat works - you will definitely learn more of it in the urban rules in FOW!

Ken gathers up his strength in the building, increases his toe-hold and moves in to assault the other quadrant!  He's facing panzergrenadiers with lots of firepower!  

The building is infested with Soviets!

In a move of desperation, we order the assault pioneers to reinforce the right building, instead of attacking the left building (our objective).  This is a critical decision as it leaves only an understrength PanzerGrenadier platoon to hold our objective on the left.

Assault Pioneers position themselves to counterattack into the Soviets in the right building.

meanwhile, German PanzerGrenadiers move closer - our German objective is in the front-right quadrant of this building.  The room in the upper right of the picture!

Dave uses the artillery against the building to his front and whittles down the Soviets a bit.  The 3+ firepower is helping us root out the Soviets, but for the points paid for it, it's not killing nearly enough.  Could have done the same job with mortars!

Pinned Sovs on the German objective

A peek inside the left - German objective building.  Still plenty of Russians here.

Assault Pioneers inching their way into the right building to reinforce it

In one of the most dramatic moves of the game, Dave and I set up the perfect counter-attack with the assault pioneers - 3 teams, and the flamethrower.  Assault pioneers are absolutely deadly in close combat, hitting on their 2+ "deadly" close combat skill.  Dave rolls to take back the Soviet objective from a single team...

THREE ONES!

If I didn't post it - you'd never believe it

Consolidating in the room - the mighty flamethrower up on the ledge!  Automatically passing firepower checks - Ken will need to keep this group pinned!

The city fighting rules make the game very intense.  Close combats are much more numerous and with units divided up between rooms, you're guaranteed to have more of them.  The rubble everywhere makes long range shooting not as deadly.  Firepower is important, but also very expensive.  At the end of the day, you need bodies to hold the ground.  

While outnumbered, Dave and I turn the right building into a meat grinder for Ken, but he can afford to take the losses in this case.  Ken works at keeping out assault pioneers pinned.  The remnants of the larger PanzerGrenadier platoon, the ones who originally met the Soviet assault, fail their last stand and move off.  Our company is no longer "in good spirits" with only support attachments keeping us going.  The fighting ends, right as Ken was sweeping in to seize the objective on his baseline.

Flame Throwers of the Assault Pioneers! - Dont leave the line of departure without them in a city fight!

Also important to note that we were kicked off the German objective as well, so while we took it in the building, we couldn't hold it.  Hard fighting indeed!

Note the company in the center of the table heading towards the left side of the pic - that's the Soviet "reserve" company moving towards the Soviet objective!

Fighting in the right building - only a matter of time!

Ken bags the objective!  Truthfully - the game had ended last turn though with the last of the German fighting units from the original panzergrenadier company leaving the table.  

Dave brought out his helmets.  We completed out own close combat in Dave's front dining room.  The Soviets (Ken) won.  Prudence demands I buy some kind of "Stug Life" Tshirt to meet Ken's Bolshevik Tshirt.

The Analysis - The Academy of Street Fighting

Wow what an exciting fight.  A meat grinder!  If you play the urban rules for FOW - be prepared to take casualties and lose troops.  

School is in now so listen up!  You're going to be dramatically outnumbered playing the Germans, so firepower is still important, but you need to balance that with infantry to hold objectives.  We made some incorrect decisions as the Germans which I'll review now:

• The artillery was too expensive.  I paid for a full 105mm battery which was a mistake.  Reduced batteries are also a waste of money in a small battle (50 points!) when you could do the job with mortars (pinning).  
• The points from the artillery could/should have been used for an additional infantry platoon.  And, after seeing the Assault pioneers in action that brings me to my next point:
•  BRING MORE ASSAULT PIONEERS.  You can substitute them as Grenadiers in a "regular" Grenadier company.  The flame throwers automatically pass their firepower checks.  Super important when entire table is rubbled!  A thought was that perhaps I could have brought 2 x Pioneer Platoons and an HMG platoon as part of the Company, and a PanzerGrenadier full strength platoon in as support, giving me double the infantry I had in this battle for the same points.  The sniper is still a good choice as he pins on each hit so I'll take him as well.  
• Another thought - always use the MG34 upgrades in a city fight when authorized!  If using assault pioneers, you will need the longer range firepower.
• Don't place anything in an arbitrary reserve unless you are forced to by the scenario.  Dave and I held the assault pioneers back and the panzergrenadiers.  We should have been more disciplined about assaulting the building simultaneously with defending the other building.  We allowed the Soviets to mass infantry at their leisure, and as a consequence became "decisively engaged" on the right.  This enabled Ken to dictate the tempo of the battle, and as a consequence he didn't worry much about any pressure we put on the left.  Once the Soviets got a toe-hold in their objective building, it only became a matter of time.  Case in point here - we used teh assault pioneers to STAY in the game, not to WIN the game.  They kept Ken from achieving his objective for another crucial 3 or 4 turns, however without them, we had no one left to actually win the battle.

So that's it!  A perfect start to "World War II Month" per the gaming schedule.  On the painting front, I broke out all of the ACW troops since the "painting focus" for January is ACW.  Looks like a great situation as I only have about 6 ACW infantry units left to paint, 5 artillery batteries, and a bunch of mounted cavalry and leaders.  This is great news and the ACW project looks like it can be achieved THIS YEAR with some elbow grease!  Hopefully by next December, THE ACW PROJECT WILL BE DONE!!!!

Next month, ACW month, will feature the Battle of Shiloh using 10mm troops based for Altar of Freedom and I'll showcase those in another post.  Painting is coming along on them as well.  I have Brigades on the painting sticks now for Shiloh.

The REST of the 15mm ACW guys?!?!  This is perfectly do-able!

More unpainted 10mm ACW for Altar of Freedom - bonus!  I have 4 more units worth of 10mm coming in from Good Ground Miniatures now!