Stalingrad

Sunday Bill Wojahn put together a very special Stalingrad game using Flames of War v3. We had 5 all total, 2 of us playing German and 3 playing Russian. There were 6 2000 pt lists so you can imagine there were lots and lots of toys out.

Here is the view looking towards the Volga from the German side of the lines.

The Russian reinforcements have to follow the historical path across the Volga.

Chuck, Bill and Matt played the Russians and the Bernt and I handled the Germans. I ran two of the lists so had to pull a little double duty.

The really fun part of this game was we all constructed historical lists. Things built for street fighting from the East Front book which really gave the whole experience a great flavor. The Russians had lots of conscript stuff so hoards and hoards of stuff coming at you was pretty accurate. The feeling of wait didn’t we just take care of that building followed by having to take it again while being worn down was in the air.

Looking down the line at the start of the game. We had some engineering supplies and placed a little wire and some mines. We started about 18″ apart and we knew we needed to push the Russians back to the water as quickly as possible.

Platoons drew up and readied their first push, deciding on how they wanted to pick their way going through the rubble.

Snipers and observers sized up their sight lines in hope of being able to get some meaningful targets early on.

The first waves of Russians drew up on the beaches ready to roll inland. The early artillery bombardments where effective at pinning for a bit until the artillery themselves started to get pinned from air attacks.

We have a couple of 88s which covered the major roads. One thing about this game, there weren’t that many tanks. Mostly assault guns on the side of the Germans and some KV1s and KV2s for the Russians.

Kicking it off I pushed my Pioneers into the first building. Taking it easily. I had two Pioneer platoons bringing up Goliaths with them. Still Pioneers just bringing along rifles … That’s some brave fellows.

The German luftwaffe wasn’t out in too much force. We immediately tried to focus on the Russian armor. Those bunker buster guns would be deadly if shooting at anyone in buildings.

Think you have that building secure? How about a wave of Russian conscripts to mess up your day? Wave after wave after wave of those guys. Just holding a rifle? Too bad about that rate of fire… Chuck close assaulted me and thankfully the first time after one round Chuck’s forces fell back not making their motivation test after taking some hits. Given the numbers not much of a scratch while I’d lost nearly 33% of that platoon. Luck only goes so far.

For reinforcements we have left our armor off leaving that for later. Those specialty sig33bs were a welcome sight as our left flank started to crumble after early initial successes. The 88 guns for getting lots of attention from the Russian 152s thankfully kept making their saves but in doing so kept away from their guns.

An HMG platoon heading for the building where a platoon of German pioneers had gone into but didn’t come out.

While out on the beaches more waves of Russian reinforcements started to land. At one point my German plane had 18 stands under the template….

The beaches were just full of men and material towards the end of the game. We needed more air. We needed more artillery. We needed more men.

Thankfully due to a  turn 1 bailout of the KV1s and KV2s on our right flank were delayed a bit while their commander was changing his pants after being attacked from the air. A couple of Ferdinands showed up so that was going keep the armor at bay. However not before getting in a few shots at some buildings wth their bunker busters killing quite a number.

Part of the high water mark of the German advance. I was able to push into this line of buildings only to be pushed out by the Russian hoard.

Likewise on the opposite side, all the gains for the day were whipped out and in the hands of the Russians by the end of the day.

All in all a very very fun day. v3 in these kinds of conditions, using historical lists blended together really yields a great experience. It’s a commitment to a day of action but it’s a mighty fun one and I’ve no doubt we’re brew up something overly large again with lots of tables.