Advancing Companies - Crisis at Ulianovo

 This is the second scenario in the 'Panzer Relief' campaign in July 1943 and covers 5th Tank Corps assaulting  positions held by 18th Panzer Div after moving through 11th Guards Army. Another test for Advancing Companies, and this time featuring a much more complex mix of unit types than the last game.

Battlefield from the south, Germans in the east, Russians in the west. Yes, the Russians are attacking the flank of 18th Panzer Div. The Skirmish Campaigns terrain is often quite sparse, so I've been quite generous converting it to terrain squares. The main features here are the long N-S ridge and the marshy stream which is impassable to wheeled vehicles. There are various patches of light woods. 

As I learned in the last game, being in the open is bad, and there is an awful lot of open terrain here (the hills just block LOS).

18th Panzer Div defenders. One 'rifle section' which I scaled up to two panzergrenadier squads, a PAK 40 and a pair of Pz IVs. For their variable attachment the Germans rolled up a pair of Marders, which will arrive in a few turns.

After mulling the game over a fair bit, I decided the 1:1 representation just wasn't working for me, it felt too much like those Squad Leader scenarios where a random selection of equipment and infantry brawl over some nameless bit of terrain, and the ranges are really, really short.

So, I have decreed that the units represent 'sections' in the Charles Grant sense ie 2-3 tanks or support weapons or 2-3 real infantry sections. Which means the infantry are actually platoons, and a pair of Pz IVs actually represents a platoon of five. That is much better! Now I can pretend I am playing 'Battle'!

So what the Germans have here is a company sized combat team with two infantry platoons, a tank platoon, an SP gun platoon and an anti-tank battery.

The Germans also get some defences, a length of barbed wire, a gun emplacement and some foxholes for the infantry.

The Russians have tons of kit. Six sections of T34s, Three T70s and a couple of motorised rifle 'sections' in the first wave. One Rifle, one SMG. The variable attachments were another pair of Motor Rifle sections and a command T34. This lot rolls on from the west, and has to destroy or force offtable all the German armour in 12 turns.

I spent quite a while considering the German defence. The options really are reverse slope or up front. In the end I went with up front. The AT gun and one PG section are dug in to the wood on the right, protected with wire, while the second section is dug in on wooded hill on the left. The Panzer IVs are covering the ridge from a wooded hill on the far side of the boggy stream and the Marders will enter later.

I used the optional preparatory bombardment rules, so a barrage rolled across the German lines. Amazingly 76.2mm field guns turn out to fairly useless against dug in infantry and medium tanks. The infantry squad supporting the gun was supressed and that was all. 

The Germans got lucky with their reinforcements and the Marders rolled on in the woods next to the Pz IVs.

On came the Russian tide. You can move everything out of the offtable box on one activation, so I did. T34s up the middle, T70s on the flanks, with the infantry riding the tanks. My 'plan' was to use the T70s against the flanks as they are as good against infantry as the T34s, and use the tanks to dump the tank riders in the midst of the enemy positions after suppressing them. The mass of Tt34s would park up in the middle and blast stuff as required.

First blood to the Pak 40 which took out a T70. The tank riders dismounted suppressed.

The Germans rolled two activations so the Pak 40 took out another T70 and now the Pz IVs opened up and damaged one T34 and destroyed another. Things could be going better for the Russians!

The problem with the Russian plan now became apparent - I'd just handed the Germans a very target rich environment, whereas I'd moved up a load of Russian stuff of which I could only active a portion each turn.

The Germans continued to blaze away with their tanks and finished off the T34s on the ridge. Russian return fire from the T34s behind the ridge suppressed the Pak 40 though.

Time for some death or glory! The T70s on the Soviet right assaulted the German trenches, dropping off an SMG squad as it did so.

This actually succeeded in destroying the German infantry, although the T70 was damaged and the SMG gunners went down in close combat as well. Over on the other flank, some T34s tried to overrun the suppressed Pak 40. They could really have done with some infantry support, and the attack went wrong with the German defenders staying suppressed, but managing to knock out one of the T34s.

At this point the Russians had passed their break point and their morale failed. The entire force fell back suppressed and with only a couple of turns left, I called it a day at that point. I think I did morale wrong and should have tested each square individually, anyway, it didn't make much difference.

OK, that was a useful learning experience, time to try again. This time, I'll try and bit more subtlety and pick the German defences apart bit by bit. I think I need to play this game more like Phil Sabins 'Fire & Movement' and a bit less like 'Spearhead'!

The Germans kept the same defence as before, after all it worked so well last time. Once again the 76.2mm barrage rolled ineffectively over the German lines.

This time, I just brought SOME of the Russians on. A group of T34s in the centre for fire support, and once again, a couple of T70s with some tank riders to assault the German right. The Russians all carefully hid from view from the Pz IVs behind the ridge.

As before, the Pak 40 scored a kill, but concentrated return fire suppressed the AT gun.

Then one T70 providing suppressing fire, while the other rolled over the German trenches, dropping off its SMG squad. A proper 'Panzerblitz' attack!

The Germans had meanwhile brought on their Marders, but the Pz IVs were unlucky and only managed to suppress the T70 on the ridge. The combined arms Russian assault had destroyed the defenders on the ridge. 

We tried that again on the left flank, this time T34s with tank riders rolled over the Pak 40 position, the tanks forcing routes through the wire. I forgot to roll for damage to the tanks for doing that.

Once again a T34 went up in flames in the assault (I must remember that suppressed units are still dangerous in close combat) but the defenders were eliminated as I had one unsuppressed Russian infantry in the square, and the suppressed defenders had to retreat over open ground. Very Squad Leader, I like that. 

While this was going on, the German armour finished off the T70 on the ridge and the Russian reserves came on. I'd cleared the German first line for the loss of three tanks and some disorganised infantry.

The Russians now rolled up over the ridge en masse, German return fire damaged one tank but another Russian activation put a T34 platoon right in front of the Germans.

Next turn the Russians got the drop on the Germans, knocked out a Marder and a Pz IV and the rest fell back as their morale failed. There was an unusual run of activations in the sequence so I ran  the last couple of turns again.

In this iteration the Germans got more return fire and knocked out some of the T34s in the valley. Soviet return fire did great execution however.

It became an armoured slugging match.

Until the last Pz IV had enough and ran away. Interesting, so the unusual sequence of activations in the previous iteration didn't actually affect the final outcome once the Russians had taken the ridge position, apart from inflicting higher losses on the Russians. 

That was a very useful set of run throughs, I'm getting a much better feel for how this works now. The extra firepower from the tanks meant the infantry didn't get bogged down in hopeless firefights, and the tank battle was suitable vicious and decisive. The main thing I've learned is you have to (attack) in a systematic fashion, if you just throw everything in and hope for the best, it is likely to fail. Superior numbers of troops are therefore useful to generate reserves to replace losses in the front line, not just a means to throw more bodies into the line.

That action was a Russian victory in the end, the Russians got a lot of VPs for killing all that German stuff. Game VPs German 9, Russian 20. Running totals now German 16, Russian 22. Both sides have 2 attachment credits for the nest battle.