Tigers at Minsk - The Road to Beaumont, 15 May 1940

 Time for some more TaM, and yet another Fireball Forward scenario converted to TaM. Once again the map looks identical in style to a Skirmish Campaigns one, and I imagine the original scenario was based on that and scaled up. I dimly recall a Squad Leader/Crescendo of Doom scenario covering the same engagement, but possibly I'm misrembering and I cant be bothered to look in the SL box to find out.

Anyway, this engagement features a clash between 1st DCR and 7th Panzer Division in the vicinity of Beaumont. 1st DCR had lost almost all its heavy tanks (Char B) in the previous days fighting but the 2nd Demo-Brigade with H39s had far more operational vehicles. Rommels advance had cut the French off so on the 15th, 1st DCR attempted to break out of encirclement to the west, handicapped by fuel shortages.

Battlefield from the north (confusingly) - if I'd realised it would end up this way around I'd have reversed the setup, but never mind... there is a very obvious road running down the centre, a couple of hills and various open woods. There are also two boggy fields which don't block LOS but do force a mobilty test on vehicles trying to enter them.

Two of the fields have tree lines at one side which block LOS, there is also a hedge running north-south behind the top hill, and a pair of buildings (a farm and a barn complex).

The French enter from the left (east) and to win must gain 3 VP. They get 1 VP per AFV or squad exited off the right (west) side and 1 VP per building controlled. The original scenario lasts six turns, so in TaM terms that is 12 turns or 85 minutes. Given the distances involved, getting even one unit off the far side is going to be a struggle, assuming the Germans manage to maintain LOS and restrict the French to one hex move per turn.

Here is the French horde, two platoons of motorised infantry with six sections and a pair of lorries. The lorries are just for colour as no-one in their right mind is going to drive these onto the table. They also have a motorcycle section and no less than six(!) H39s. Now, I dont actually own six H39s, so they are actually two H39s, two R35s, a gun armed FT 17 and a 25mm armed armoured car. I'm using the Spearhead stats for armour and gun performance, and wierdly these are all identical, 3/2 armour and AT 3 guns. If any vehicles get knocked out I'll swap the models around to remove the anachronisms.

A pair of the H39s enter on turn two which becomes after 15 minutes in TaM terms. I'm going to give the French poor command (so only the leader hex plus one other), average morale and round down their breakpoint. So with 13 elements that is a BP of six.

The Germans have one Schutzen Platoon with three high firepower sections plus a lorry and a Horch to ride in. The KG HQ has an anti-tank rifle section riding in a kubelwagen and a tank 'platoon' with a pair of Pz 38. Very similar rating to the H39s in Spearhead terms. but I'm going to make the German veteran with good command.

Arriving reinforcements are a pair of Panzer IIs (only AT 2 with their 20mm cannon) arriving after 20 minutes, and a towed 75mm infantry gun (AT 3) arriving after ten minutes. All of these arrive from the northern edge.

These guys have a break point of five.

I set this up in the afternoon so I'd have time to think about it as it is a quite tactically complex scenario due to the force density and terrain configuration. Those tree lines and hills are a complete pain! In this iteration I'm trying to keep the forward area under observation to restrict the French movement, but it necessitates a very forward defence due to the terrain. A more cautious approach would be a defence in depth  but obviously that gives the French freedom of movement in the early game. Choices, choices...

So in this sector I've occupied both the buildings with infantry and put the ATR team in the forward building. The tanks are split onto different ridges to try and produce interlocked fields of fire across the whole front while protecting their flanks from AT fire. Complicating factors are the tree lines and a dispersed defence like this is going to be hard to control.

On the rest of the front I've parked up the transport in cover and Pz IIs and towed 75 mark the boundaries of the reinforcement entry area, which will nicely shore up the left flank. I considered keeping one section in reserve, but in the end I put it in the field at the top left to lock down that flank more - I'm terrified the French will just use to tree lines to dash forwards under cover otherwise. The field provides cover from direct fire to infantry so it isn't as daft as it looks, and they can always pull back if needs be, using the tree line to cover their escape.

I just lined up the French horde on the table edge. There seem to be an awful lot of them!

Final bit of admin, break point counters and the turn counter set to 0 minutes. I'll leave that overnight and re-visit it from time to time to consider different deployments and a viable attack plan for the French.

I re-visited the German setup overnight but didnt make any changes apart from to downgrade the Germans down to average morale. I think the French task is quite hard enough as it is (in the original scenario both sides have the same morale). I kept the more restricted French command though.

For the French faced with attacking over mostly open ground I opted to overload the defence by simply swamping the front. I spread the infantry out to minimise losses from bunching, and deployed the tanks along the front, focussing on the right flank more. There were two squads stacked up in the woods, but I think the time and distance constraints are such that the French don't have any time for fancy tactics. Essentially this challenged the Germans to stand and fight or run away, but like the Germans, the dispersed deployment ran the risk of C2 problems.

Naturally one of the Pz 38s went out of command, but the German CO focussed on the forward infantry positions and the German infantry managed to pin the three left hand French squads. The other Pz 38 managed to hit an H39 but it bounced off.

The French suffered C2 problems of their own and two hexes went out of command, including the tank/infantry team in the wood. The other two squads in the wood advanced as did the motorcycle section, while the two H39s blazed away to cover the infantry rallying.

The German response was fairly ferocious, and they gunned down one of the French rifle squads and the intrepid motocyclists. Ouch! German anti-tank fire remained ineffective. Looks like the German had committed themselves to fighting, whereas I'd originally planned to pull the left hand squad back after delaying the Germans.

And of course the following turn every single French tank was in command and a wall of steel fire spitting monsters managed to destroy the Germans in the field and pin the ATR team in the building. The only bright spot for the Germans was that two of the French infantry failed their command rolls and a third failed to rally.

The German 75mm gun now came on, but I wanted to unlimber it in the wooded hill hex, so it just parked up out of sight at the base of the ridge so it could dash forwards and unlimber next turn.

Now it was the turn of the French reinforcements arrival, and both tanks just moved onto the vacant road hex. The French infantry in the wood managed to fail their command roll again (I guess those woods are really thick!), but one squad made it into the field behind the treeline.

All four H39s were in command so opened up on the building inflicting two hits. The Germans removed the already pinned ATR and the rifle squad was pinned. With French infantry closing in, I figured infantry would be more useful.

The Germans pulled the battered squad back into the field to rally next turn and the Panzer IIs rolled up, parking in the field just in front of the tree line to set up flank shots across the table. The 75mm gun managed to fail its command roll but the Panzers finally stunned one H39 and destroyed another, which burst into flames.

With the German withdrawal, the French were able to push up the newly arrived armour, and the French infantry in the woods finally got to move forwards as well. One of the surviving H39s went out of command and the other fired ineffectively on one of the Pz 38s. 

In all the excitement I'd managed to push the H39 in the woods too far forwards, and the Panzer IIs duly blew it up with flank shots. The 75mm gun also made it up onto the ridge and unlimbered. The French now only had two more losses to go before their break point. The Panzer 38s hit the two H39s on the road but only managed to stun one of them. The German squad in the field rallied.

At turn end I rolled a double, so random events. The Germans got 'tank fright' (very appropriate!) while the French got 'men of action' which allowed one unit to move and fire.

In a huge turn for the French, concentrated fire from the French infantry destroyed the Germans in the field behind the building. The H39s on the road then knocked out a Pz 38, while a third H39 used the 'men of action' to advance to join them and knocked out the second Pz 38! That took the Germans to their break point.

This triggered a series of morale tests which led to all the surviving German unit falling back a hex, the only unit to stand was the 75mm. The last German infantry abandoned their building while  both Panzer IIs retreated behind the tree line.

The French infantry in the wood now advanced to the eastern edge, poised to move across the ridge in future turns, while the last H39 advanced into the fields behind the first tree line.

The Germans dare not move the Pz II back into the field as they would be in the arc of fire of four French tanks, so instead they moved back towards the ridge while the 75mm shelled the French infantry in the wood. The last German infantry squad reoccupied the building. 

Next turn the French essentially pushed forwards under cover as far as possible, French infantry took the building in the centre and two H39s drove up the road to join them. On the German left, the lone H39 and French infantry just advanced one hex to keep behind the tree line and out of LOS.

The Germans engaged the H39s by the building, stunning one and destroying the other. The French were one loss away from their breakpoint.

But it was the Germans who broke first. The stunned H39 rallied and combined with the other H39 in the wood, knocked out one of the Pz IIs. The German morale failed and they all fell back again. The 75mm ended up on the reverse slope, the German infantry abandoned the building again and the last Pz II headed up the hill.

Taking advantage of the confusion the French pushed forwards, with two squads cresting the ridge near the last building, and another squad and H39 pushing up to the last tree line.

In their turn, the Germans reoccupied the building while the Pz II fired ineffectively at the nearest H39. The 75mm limbered up prior to relocating.

Too late, the H39 in the tree line despatched the last Panzer II and another wave of German morale failures saw the 75 retreat off table and last German squad abandon the building once more. On the French left four squads and two tanks pushed forwards as far as possible, occupying the hedgerows next to the building.

All the Germans could do was double time back into the building. On the French right the tank and infantry made their way over the open ground towards the ridge, and on the left, the French tanks shot in....

A mass close assault! Three French squads vs one German. The German troops were better and occupying a building, but they were outnumbered 3:1.

In the ensuing melee, the Germans took three hits and were wiped out, the CO ran away over the fields as the jubilant French occupied the buildings and searched the dejected prisoners.

After all that, there was 82 minutes on the clock, only three to go!

Most of the French units could only advance two hexes cross country on the last turn, but one H39 was on the road, and simply drove off the table giving the French their third VP. A hard won French victory!

That was really good fun, very enjoyable and well done to the French for pulling it off even though I doubted their chances. In the end they managed to concentrate their fire against single German units to destroy them, and although they lost half their armour and a third of their infantry, they just managed to pull it off. It was a high risk strategy as it relied on blasting a hole through the Germans so they could charge off in the last few turns, but tbh the alternative of a more step by step approach risked just handing the Germans advancing units piecemeal.

I didn't make any changes to the rules, just plugging in the relevant Spearhead armour/AT factors, so they seem to have settled down. That was also quite a complex scenario to solo play with a lot going on and a lot of decisions to make, so I didn't feel any great inclination to replay it either. Combat debut for my new 3D printed Panzer IIs though, which of course led to their inevitable destruction.

Earth Prepares - preparation

 Mark planned on running a game at the Conference of Wargamers (COW) this year based on following up a session at COW 25 last year. The latter explored likely options for an alien invasion of earth using our current level of technology, and potential responses to repel it. This game notionally generated a report which was filed by the UN/MOD, but roll on a few years and several hundred sinister objects have been detected flying through the Oort Cloud in the direction of Earth.....

This was essentially a game development session to help Mark flesh out his ideas, stress test some of the concepts and come up with a workable session for several players in a two hour slot. Doing it remotely over Zoom obviously isn't ideal for collaborative development, but given our geographical locations scattered from one end of the country to the other, there wasn't any other option.

Nonetheless we put on a fine show of hats! Jerry and Jim went for in tin foil and a colander respectively. Tim had a rather fine Stetson with 'Space' on the front (Space Cowboys?), John rocked his very futuristic painting headset which even has a spotlight and targetting reticle. I took my cue from all the RAF adverts on TV which stress that space defence is the job of the  RAF, so wore my RAF Officers side cap.

We were cast as various blocs - authoritarian regimes, liberal democracies, old industries, future tech etc. I ended up as Future Tech and played "Elon Bezos Altman", mainly because I've read all three volumes of The Three Body Problem AND sat through all 30 episodes of the Chinese TV adaptation of the first book. In my past life I was also head of research computing at a large University, so do know something about technology. Should have bought shares in Nvidia 20 years ago... 

The original game had postulated insterstaller travel using Orion Project type ships. Unlike liquid fuelled rocket ships (essentially mass ejection propulsion), the Orion Project in the 1960s suggested using nuclear detonations to propel ships as it is a far more compact form of energy. Various prototype designs for nuclear powered ships above.  

An artists impression of one in operation. The design was canned after the ban on atmospheric nuclear testing was agreed. While it is a very efficient means of propulsion, it has the unfortunate side effect of generating an awful lot of radiation (!). The supposition being that the alien ships were using this form of propulsion, which achieves enough of a fraction of light speed for viable interstellar travel.

As you might imagine, the game rather fell apart at this point as we all had questions as to why we should be assuming what was presumably an approaching alien fleet was using this rather dubious technology. A discussion ensued.... 

Linked to the mode of propulsion was the mode of transport. In the absence of workable cryogenic suspension, we have the aliens arriving as genetically modified seeds, which can survive for centuries and if distributed on earth, will grow into plants and then into actual aliens. See example method of distribution above. As you might imagine, another discussion ensued at this point....

We suggested that all this stuff needed to be presented, but succinctly as just a hypotheses rather than a detailed explanation as there was a real risk you'd just end up running the previous game again. The players at the original session had come up with various defensive suggestions, the main one being a sort of earth based weeding project. A minority report suggested that if the aliens ever landed, we'd lost, and their ship needed to be destroyed in space. All duly noted...

Anyway, what we actually faced was 500 or so unknown contacts, around 100,000 Astronomical Units (AU) away at the very outer extremity of the solar system and with an estimated arrival time 1400 years into the future! Essentially this was a planning game, hampered by the extremely long timescales involved and competing views of the various factions.

Unfortunately as it was largely a discussion thereafter, there isn't really anything to show photo wise. The general game framework was a simplified representation of the solar system with ten significant sectors going right out to the edge of the system, but due to the mind boggling distances involved, the scale was logarithmic so eg the distance from the Sun to Earth was 1 sector and 1AU, whereas the distance to the Kyper belt was four spaces represented about 70 AU, and the Oort cloud which started around sector eight was 100,000+ AU.

As our technology improved we were able to put probes to into space, build bases on the Moon etc and eventually garrison the asteroid belt with railguns etc. There was of course the 'Forever Wars' problem that tech launched into space was completely outclassed by the time it arrived at its destination.

Unsurprisingly the Aliens technology also advanced and a second fleet appeared travelling rather faster than the first with an estimated arrival time of a few hundred years, and suddenly time was running short. 

Towards the latter stages of the game this rather scary looking yellow Star Destroyer appeared, it still hadn't achieved FTL travel, but was due to arrive in 30 years or less. At that point we wrapped it up having built Earths defences as best we could based on a range of Sci Fi novels and films!

That was a very brave session and made a real change from our usual fare of finished games. Well done to Mark for bringing it along and bearing the arrows and slingshots of constructive criticism. There are some very clever ideas in there, and lots of interesting information based on hard science rather than Star Trek. It reminded me in some ways of Mark and Ians game on contemporary satellite warfare which also risks being mind bogglingly complicated and suitable only for rocket scientists, but they managed to make into something quite playable. 

I think we came up with a more tightly structure framework to run the game in, particularly to avoid excessive discussion of the overall premise at start, and also to ramp up the pressure as time starts to drop by orders of magnitude. Unfortunately I was unable to attend COW this year but I'll look forward to seeing a writeup of how it went. 

 

Playing around with Panzergruppe - Zoltsy July 1941

 Panzergruppe first saw the light of day back around 2000 when I wrote a simple operational game to fight the entire Six Day War in Sinai with brigade sized elements and and day long turns. It has been through numerous iterations since then and I played a few remote games during lockdown (Operation Goodwood, Battle of the Jarama and Kasserine Pass) but I've not summoned the enthusiasm to put on any face to face games although I have a half worked up Arnhem scenario.

Based on recent games of Megablitz and NQM I've been ruminated over some changes, some more fundamental than others and I thought the best way to do that was play around with an existing scenario. which stretches some of the mechanisms a bit.

This is the Battle of Zoltsy in July 1941. Lake Ilmen is in the bottom right, Novgorod is off the eastern table edge. Zoltsy is the on the crossroads in the middle, Dno to the southwest, Porti in the far west and Luga is the T junction at the top. The River Mchanga runs rather erratically down into Lake Ilman and the entire region is heavily forested and very difficult terrain, indicated by the scattered trees. These are 10km hexes as Russia is BIG.

56th Panzer Corps commanded by Erich von Manstein is busy driving northeast in the direction of Leningrad, and opposing them is 27th Army under Morozov.

The general situation. Manstein is advancing along the axis Porti-Zoltsy-Novgorod and has just captured Zoltsy with 8th Panzer Division while 3rd Motorised Division secures the rollbahn. Somewhere north is a German infantry division advancing on Luga, but the Russians have a couple of rather battered Rifle Corps holding a sketchy front line.

Unknown to Manstein, Morozov has laid a trap and large forces are preparing to counterattack and encircle the over extended Germans who are all rather battered. irl 8th Panzer Division was surrounded for four days before being relieved.

While the combat in this scenario is fairly straightforward (excellent but battered Germans vs lousy 1941 Russians), it stretches the supply system to the limit as there are so few usable roads and cross country movement is difficult.

I'm using Regimental bases for the Germans. Here are 8th Panzer Division at Zoltsy with a panzer Regiment (Pz 38), two Schutzen Regiments, a combined HQ/Support stand (the Jagdpanzer 1) with all the AT, engineer, recce etc stuff and the divisional artillery. Stacking limit is two, but three if units of the same division. All the German units have taken a hit, indicated by those ugly hit markers. I'll swap them for more discrete ones. 

Thought no. 1. I used to use hidden Megablitz style SP markers, but I just couldn't be bothered to put them on the units this time. For the remote games I used sticky colour dots for each formation and just wrote the SP on each one. For some reason I've got a bit tired of hidden strengths, just because it is a bit fiddly to manipulate the counters.

Thought 2. I really like the treatment of HQs in NQM, so I'll try and bolt that on to an extent. Each formation has a support/HQ stand (they always have had), but higher formations now also have dedicated Command stands. I gave 56th Pz Corps a staff stand in a radio truck and a tac HQ stand in the form of von Manstein, who can just be seen with 8th Pz arty and HQ.

3rd Motorised Division back down the road. As these guys are motorised, not mechanised (ie they dont have integral tactical transport) I've done the infantry regiments as leg infantry stands but added a lorry to indicate the general mode of divisional transport. Along with its two infantry regiments, 3rd Mot has an HQ/support stand (the infantry gun) and an artillery regiment.

Thought 3. I was thinking of changing the way supply works to make more use of NQM style LOG units, but having set all the units up I realised it wasn't going to work and reverted to my standard system. Supply can be traced from a controlled road back to a supply source on a unit by unit basis at the disengaged (ie non tactical) movement rate. Motorised units have a disengaged movement allowance of 5 hexes, but bad going counts double, so effectively they have to stay within two hexes of the road in the forests. Up to twice the movement distance away, they operate at 'low supply' which reduces movement and attack effectiveness.

Riding to the rescue we have SS Totenkopf in Corps reserve, they will only get released if the situation warrants it. Totenkopf is similar to 3rd Mot, except it has three regiments not two. There are also a couple of wings of Stukas, but like the other units, they are each carrying a hit. The Germans have partial air superiority which reduces Russian mechanised march movement by 1 point.

56th PzKps Corps staff is at Porti, as is a single motorised logistic column. This functions as a mobile supply source, but has to trace supply back to supply head via a road in the usual manner.

The Russian front line consists of six Rifle Divisions, a pair of Corps artillery regiments and an independent Tank Brigade. It is July 1941 so the Rifle 'Divisions' just have a single stand as at this time they averaged around 4,000 effectives. I've rolled the divisional artillery up into the Corps artillery units as 1941 Soviet Rifle Corps only effectively had single large battalion of Corps artillery. They are deployed along the Luga Road, but the capture of Zoltsy has cut their supply route back to Novgorod. These units are also all reduced (carrying one hit). 

The forests aren't bad going for leg and horse drawn units, so effectively leg and motorised units have comparable mobility in the dense terrain.

Lurking in the forests is 27th Army, surprise! A Rifle Corps, a Tank Division and a Mechanised Division. 22nd Rifle Corps has three Rifle Divisions, an HQ/Support unit (the 45mm AT guns) and a Gun Artillery Brigade. 

The armour is 21st Mechanised Corps with 3rd Tank Div and 220 Mechanised Div. 3 TD has two tank Regiments, one of which is a command T28. 220 Mech has two Motor Rifle Regiments and a light Tank Regiment. There is also a corps Motorcycle Regiment which I assign to 3 TD as 1941 TDs only have a battalion equivalent of motorised infantry. The Corps is very short of motor transport so its logistic train is horse drawn, although in the wooded terrain that matters less.

There is also the Army HQ (a dedicated HQ) and a motorised transport regiment which functions the same as the German one. In the wooded terrain northeast of the Mchanga this unit will be vital, although the Russians can draw supply from the north and south table edges as well as the road, it doesnt reach far in the wooded terrain.  Finally there is a weak Soviet air Regiment for ground support.

Thought 4. I'm going to use the command units in a similar manner to NQM - units need to be in command to attack, call in support fire and reorganise. The Russians have relatively fewer command units than the Germans, which should be interesting.

In the south we have the other arm of the pincer. 52nd Rifle Corps with three Rifle Divisions, HQ/Support (another 45m AT gun) and the Corps transport is horse drawn (which affects unit mobility and supply range). Atttached to the Corps is 21st Tank Division from 21st Mech Corps, with two Tank Regiments, one of which is a command T28.

Before the game the Russian counterattack force moves up east of the river. The Rifle Corps will secure the road to Novgorod and ideally retake Zoltsy.

The armoured units will try and outflank the Germans from the north to encircle them. The supply column can extend supply from the Novgorod road to keep them in supply and then perhaps draw supply from the board edge east of Luga (the Luga road cant be used as a supply source as the Germans have cut it). 

Having positioned the units I've updated their supply status. Those yellow markers show all the Russian units on low supply as the road via Zoltsy has been cut.

Thought 5. I used to have a complex system of unit endurance where depending on their integral supply levels units could survive for a few days even isolated. I used to find it confusing and so did the players. Instead I'm going to use the system in Unconditional Surrender - units out of supply go to low supply first, then if at low supply, become isolated next turn. I'll keep the complexity of full supply sources and low supply sources though as it works well for airborne operations, deep armoured operations and for situations where the logistic network can only sustain low (or defensive) supply. I came across the concept of offensive and defensive supply in an old computer game on Market Garden and thought it was so brilliant I've used it ever since.

Finally we have the date (15th July) recorded on my knitting counter, and the weather. Bad, overcast and clear. Air sorties are doubled in good weather, standard in overcast and not allowed in bad weather. I'll roll for the weather each turn but it starts clear. 

22nd Rifle Corps rolls westwards while the front line units get out of the way. A couple of divisions and an artillery brigade form an enclave next to Lake Ilman and one division digs in. These are now isolated from the rest of the their formation so 27th Army HQ moves into contact to keep them in command.

22 RC doesn't have enough movement to move up and assault today, so it just moves into position next to Zoltsy.

In the north 3 TD and 220 MD cross the Machanga and take Luga, they can only advance a couple of hexes in the bad terrain - motorised units have 5 MP but each forest hex costs two, and German air interdiction takes another point off. The rifle divisions form up facing 3rd Mot Div, but take no offensive action.

Critically the LOG column crosses the river and can draw supply from the hex northeast of Luga. This now functions as a mobile supply source for the entire northern flank.

Thought 6. I need to carefully differentiate between the division transport and the Army level LOG as they look very similar. NQM rides to the rescue with the concept of Transport stands vs LOG stands. The transport stands in the case of Panzergruppe just show the internal mobility of the formation, and dont really even need a physical presence on the table. But they look nice.

52nd Rifle Corps comes piling on and takes Dno. This is important as the Russians can draw supply from the southern table edge, and that road will extend the supply network north. Supply range for the elements of this Corps is three hexes as it is horse drawn. The Rifle Divisions and Tank Regiments fan out to bottle up 8th Panzer, but the tanks are very obviously pointing at Porti deep in the German rear!

In the absence of any reliable intel on what is happening on the flanks, 56th Panzer Corps effectively forms a hedgehog with the rifle regiments and combat support units digging in. 8th Panzer Regiment motors back down the road to maintain a rear link with 3rd Mot, and for now the supplies are still flowing up the road from Porti.

Thought 6. I need to figure out a better way of presenting the various movements rates for different mobility types, particularly with the added complication of air interdicton. Fitting all the rules on one side of A4 is very admirable, but....

The 16th is a decisive turn. 21st Tank Div crashes through the forest and puts a ZOC over the road leading east from Porti. The Germans still control the road but you cant trace supply through a ZOC. The Russian tanks have also moved beyond their basic supply range so will go to 'low supply' at the end of the turn. Low supply range is twice basic supply, but this will reduce their movement and halves their attack strength. Worth it to cut the road from Porti.

220 MD marches SW from Luga through the forest and makes contact with 3rd Mot Divs artillery and transport! It doesn't have enough movement to assault this turn however.

3rd Tank Div marches straight down the road from Luga, shrugging off German air attacks. Roads can only accommodate one unit per hex, so the Corps becomes strung out in a long column. The leading Regiment puts a ZOC over Porti and the German supply source. 56th Panzer Corps is cut off, while the Russian tankers can draw supply down the road to Luga.

Thought 7. I really must clarify the way ZOCs work as well as march movement into enemy territory. I've been through various iterations and the one I'd drafted (which involved dicing for each enemy controlled hex entered to see if there was an ambush) was just too silly. Latest plan is that units in march mode can choose to enter an enemy ZOC, but may be subject to an ambush if they do. I'm thinking ahead about how to model Frosts march to Arnhem Bridge.

Back at Zoltsy, 22nd Rifle Corps puts in an assault, supported by the other rifle divisions in the area. Both sides throw in their airforces. The weather is overcast today, so air is at base strength. The Russians also make an attack on the isolated 8th Panzer Regiment with infantry troops. Tank units are normally doubled in value, but not in a forest.... I did it that way rather than giving tanks more SP as OR shows that tank units suffer disproportionate losses in combat compared to their combat power, and recover it much faster than infantry units too.

Both Russian assaults are repelled with difficulty, the German take some losses and all the Russians take a step loss. The combat system is based on Dupuy (and, it turns out, the Soviet staff wargames manual!) where force ratios determine the combat outcome and percentage losses, but those percentages are applied to ALL participating units. So if you make  massed attacks with poor quality units, you suffer far high actual losses than attacking with a couple of good units with masses of support assets.

Thought 8. I had been going to experiment with a standard 4 levels of combat effectiveness (1,2,3 hits then dead on 4) rather like NQM or the German 'Kampfstarke' rating. But in the end I just coudn't be bothered, even though my current system of taking hits off unit SP runs the risk of what Neil Thomas called 'double counting'. I may come  back to it in future when I've ironed a few other things out.

At the end of the 16th both 3rd Mot and 8th Panzer are cut off from their supply source and become 'low supply'. They can still defend at full strength, but have restricted mobility and half attack strength. 21st Tank Div also goes to low supply as it has outrun its supply line from Dno.

The threat to Porti has brought 3rd SS Totenkopf onto the table. This is a tough division, but all they can do at the moment is pack Porti and and the hex south of the town. 

The Russians at Zoltsy bide their time and either dig in or try to recover their losses from the previous attack. In proximity to the enemy this is more difficult. 8th Panzer Regt withdrew back into the town, so one Rifle Division cuts the road west.

Thought 9. I had been going to change the reorg mechanism to be deterministic, but in the end I kept the current random system - you need to throw over the current SP remaining to recover 1SP, so as units recover strength, they become progressively harder to recover. The only change I made was that units need to be both in supply and command to reorganise, thank you NQM.

Back at Porti the two Tank Divisions formed up to block Totenkopf. 21st TD even motored onto the road.

Further up the road the Russians made a mass assault on 3rd Mot Division, concentrating on the northernmost regiment.

The attack succeeded! The Germans fell back to their artillery positions and 3rd Mot was compressed into two hexes. Russian infantry occupied the vacated positions, 220 Mech Div had to stay where it was as it needed to reorganise and was currently out of contact which makes it easier.

SS Totenkopf showed how it was done and attacked up the road. They inflicted a heavy defeat on 21st Tank Division which fell back with heavy losses (total operational strength 1SP!) , two German regiments followed up. German losses were light due to the structure of the combat system (for a tactical victory only one third of participating victorious unit take a hit). The SS would have to both open up the road and guard their flanks. 21st Tank Div still had a ZOC over the road though.

Still out of supply, 3rd Mot and 8th Panzer now became 'isolated', those big red counters. That is bad as they cant attack and defend at half strength. Good job the infantry and combat support have all dug in.

The Russians make a big attack on Zoltsy from all directions to take advantage of the German supply situation.

The Russians also make a spoiling attack on Porti with 3rd Tank Div (which fails) and a spoiling attack on 3rd Mot (which also fails). 21st Tank Division manages to recover some strength.

Disaster at Zoltsy though as the town is overrun, 8th Panzer Regiment, a rifle regiment and the divisional artillery are destroyed. Manstein survives however and the division is reduced to one rifle regiment and its combat support elements, badly damaged.

The Russians have a bloody repulse by 3rd Mot, at some cost to the Germans though.

SS Totenkopf continues to expand its attack, 21st Tank Division is driven back and partly destroyed, 220 Mech Division retreats. The advancing SS soldiers make contact with the very battered 3rd Motorised Division. 

8th Panzer contracts into a small pocket due west of Zoltsy, but now the SS have opened the road, both 8th Panzer and 3rd Mot are back in supply. 56th Panzer Corps is saved!

A Russian division is still sitting on the road two hexes west of Zoltsy, so 8th Panzer and half of 3rd Mot have to draw supply cross country, exceeding their basic supply range so go to low supply. That is still better than isolated as now they defend at full strength.

The Russians make one last big effort to finish off 8th Panzer, but by now the Luftwaffe has rearmed and the sun is shining.

The attack fails bloodily but the tank regiment from 220 Mech Div cuts the road further west.

The Germans are having none of that and an SS counterattack drives the Russian tanks back, leaving blazing wrecks across the battlefield.  The road is now firmly in German hands and all the German divisions are now in full supply.

On the 20th, the Russians realise they no longer have to strength to defeat the Germans and switch to a defensive posture. The Germans are very battered but will no doubt be able drive off the weakened Russian units in the immediate vicinity but it will take a week to rebuild 8th Panzer Regiment, so an operational pause is in order.

That was actually a very useful session and I've ended up largely leaving things as they are. The combat system produces the desired effects as better quality units have a very disproportionate effect on combat outcomes, more so than indicated by the raw SP values. All things being equal, three units of 4SP will be more than enough to defeat twelve units of 1SP in fairly short order despite the apparent equality of combat values as even if the larger force won a battle at 1:1, it would suffer casualties twice the rate of the weaker force and if it lost, it would suffer them at eight times the rate! That is completely in line with Dupuy, and why it worked so well for the 1967 Arab Israeli War.

I've also had some useful thoughts about how to streamline the treatment of ZOC and the management of command and suppplies. At some point I may come back to the Kampfstarke model of combat effectiveness - 1 = full effectiveness, 2 = limited offensive, 3 = defensive only, 4 = limited defensive, but not now.