36 inch Battlefields: Korsun Relief Operation - Breakthrough!

 In honor of completing my latest snow hexmat (for Eylau) and of our first snowstorm in over 2 winters (diminutive as it may be!) I thought I would post a battle report from last night's game along with some (more) rules tweaks.

Friday night's battle was a savage breakthrough attempt to relieve the Korsun pocket, featuring 11th Panzer Division's attack to relieve Gruppe Stemmermann.  While the reader must be content for a slice of the action, a Kampfgruppe from 11th Panzer must slice through a Soviet Tank Brigade and get the Armored Infantry Company safely across the table.  This represents armored forces breaking through to get to the beleaguered defenders.

The starting Kampfgruppe must break through and get the 3 x halftracks off the road exit of the table by turn 10!

While there are some SNAFUs, that hex grid on the white felt looks pretty good!

The halftracks snuggle up to the Panzers for safety!  They tuck in behind Hill 121 to their front!

I added some additional rules changes and they make this game play much faster.  The rules I started with were the WWII rules from "Grid Based Wargaming - But Not Always" but always the inveterate tinkerer, I changed the combat around a bit to make it 3D6.  The "To Hit" values are adjusted for quality, so the Germans are still 3+ for armor attacks against tanks, but the Soviet tanks are 4+ against tanks to represent their leadership style on the battlefield.  

For the 3D6 attacks, there are now multiple "Effects" that you can achieve on the target:

Roll 3D6 To Hit (cover reduces to 2D6)

• 1 x Success = Target makes a quality check.  If it passes, it remains in position.  If it fails, it retreats 1 hex.
• 2 x Successes = Target takes a disorganization counter.  If it takes another one, it is destroyed.
• 3 x Successes = Target is destroyed.

I thought this might be too bloody but actually the number of 3 x successes achieved was relatively small, making it a dramatic occurrence when it did happen.  

The retreat effects also added some nice tension, as you could have spent the last turn setting up a ranged attack (armor is 3 hexes) only to be pushed back by fire from the enemy!  All of this action in a36" space!

halftracks are out of sight!  masked by terrain and Hill 121

Soviets see their prey and move in for the kill!

On the right flank, near the village, T-34s are creeping around the flank.  Herr Oberst, this hell is crawling with Russian tanks!

Overall picture - those hexes look fabulous!😁

I love the initiative swings as whoever wins will get to shoot next.  Both sides are within firing range now...

The only easy day was yesterday...Soviets capture the initiative from the Germans on turn 4.

Soviet shooting forces a German platoon back, after it suffers a disorganization result!  It's on the ropes!

The Panzer III is forced off Hill 121!  Turn 4 starts with German setbacks!

The German plan is to use Hill 121 as a jump off point but one of the Soviet companies charges directly at them!

Soviet disorg marker on a platoon

On the right at the village, German shooting kills a T34 platoon off!

German platoon pushed back and rallies near Hill 121!!!

Germans reoccupy the Hill after seizing the initiative this turn.  There is smoke everywhere from destroyed tanks both German and Soviet.

Meanwhile by the village a German company destroys almost a battalion of T34s in knife fight.  There is 1, disorganized platoon of T34s left, and 1 Panzer IV platoon left.

Turn 6 - Soviets have initiative!

rather than risk failure, which would be unacceptable especially for the remnants of the kessel, the German commander sends the halftracks back towards the road and away from more prowling T34s.

The Germans on Hill 121 fight like hell!  THe "1" die represents disorganization.  Another D hit (2 hits on the D6) and he's toast!

Turn 6 looks to be the climactic, decisive turn for the game.  The Soviets win the initiative and still have local numbers, at least on their right (German left - at Hill 121).  There are 2 x Soviet platoons in firing positions and ready to eliminate at least 1 German platoon on the hilltop.

Then...disaster!  Both Soviet platoon attacks are ineffective!  The Germans hold the hill!

by the village, the Soviets go for broke and charge straight down the road towards the halftracks!

The Soviet tank platoon on the right is in aKessel of its own now!

I did not end up taking any more pictures of the game as I got too into playing but it came down to the wire with 1 Soviet platoon from the Hill assault left (The charger in the last photo is promptly koncked out by fires from the Hilltop).  THe Soviets realize they only way to destroy the halftracks is to wait at the start line and they fall back and are destroyed on Turn 10 by German fire.  2 halftracks out of 3 have the movement to make it off the board - a minor German victory!

LESSONS LEARNED

Another great battle fought in small space!  and this time on a cool snow mat.  This was alot of fun and while I thought the 3D6 attacks would be too bloody, they ended up creating some very tense and fun situations.  I had some ideas after playing that I thought would be cool but let's review what happened here:

Split Force - The Soviets attempted to the flank the defenders which is pretty sound but I think they should have probably stuck together and committed to one approach here.  The extra guns in this case could have meant the difference between breaking through or not.

Halftrack debacle - While 2 out of 3 halftracks made it in time, 1 still did not.  An inexcusable failure leading likely (at least in 1944) to the court martial of the Kampfgruppe Commander!  The halftracks should probably NOT have committed to an approach until the way was safe.  This would have ensured they remained closer to the objective without "doubling back" like they were forced to do.

LOS Rules - I need to add in some hard and fast LOS considerations, especially as they pertain to elevations and firing over friendly troops.

Firing Positions - Something I was thinking about was the use of "Firing Positions" from the old GDW "First Battle" series rules.  Basically forgoing your own movement/firing in a turn to fire on the enemy during his.  This would have been a cool addition with German tanks pre-empting the Soviet fire by sacrificing movement during their turn.  This kind of scenario would be made for that rule, and I could see the Panzers on Hill 121 earning some paydirt.

Well that was very exciting.  The entire game took only about 1 hour and if I played it again I think it would go much faster.  I enjoyed the addition of affects on target with the introduction of 3D6, especially with the fallback feature which really messed up some of the Soviet and German attacks.

Overall this was a great game and there is plenty more on the horizon as I also just finished my desert mat as well and will be crawling up into my attic to check up on my 1/285 (6mm) DAK, Desert Rats, and Ami's for "The Race for Tunis" and "Bloody Kasserine"!  More 'uge battles fought in a tiny space, so if you enjoyed this small batrep, stay tuned as there are some truly big battles coming up soon.

As much as I'd love to say this was my first game of 2024, it was not!  My New Year's Day gaming extravaganza was solo this year and I played a 36" refight of Friedland, using Norm's "retro" Eagles at Quatre Bras rules (that have since been decommissioned).  I did not have time to post about this massive fight but suffice to say it had a completely different ending with the French reaching 25 Heavy Casualties first and the Russians only at 16.

36" Battle of Friedland!  Ney's Corps closest to you, then Lannes in the center, and Grouchy on the other side of the creek.

Battle is almost joined!  Heavy fighting on the left.

The massive use of counters was really finicky at this scale.  The yellow denote "disorder" the square marker indicates a unit in square, and the casualty markers are....well...casualty markers.  Too much for a small hex!

Red bead is either CDS (can't do sh** for 1 hour or out of ammo for 1 hour)  The blue marker indicates the unit is in assault columns.

Red are "blown" markers.  Yellow disorder.  The small wooden blocks were casualty markers I think

French lights skirmishing with Russian Jagers in the woods on teh right

Lots of great gaming so far and we're less than a week into the New Year.  I also played a game of "Simplicity in Practice" using the One Hour Wargames scenario "Pitched Battle" putting my 10mm Seven Years War troopers on the table.

Pitched Battle but with a small hamlet instead of a road junction

Napoleonic lights as I have not yet painted up my SYW Croats...

Austrians on turn 6 making a concerted effort to get into the hamlet!

A mathematical (un)certainty!  This is the first time I've played a game of SiP where a unit with more advantages didn't outright win a melee!

So there is my update.  I have a huge wooden hex order in to make "proper" hills for my 36" games and am going to be working on "game board pieces" for Napoleonic battles using my risk figures.  (of course I am going to paint them, too!).  Lots of great things to come with BIG games in tiny spaces so stay tuned and watch this space!  

I am going to go enjoy this snowfall until it all turns to rain in an hour...