After playtesting his new 54mm WW2 rules with myself and Russell f2f, Tim tried it out on our regular weekly remote gaming group. Tim ran the same scenario as before, but I could only attend for the Tuesday. Pete, myself and Simon were the Russians, John and Russell the Germans. Graham also dropped in for a chat.
A certain degree of dodgy headwear was in evidence, and I took the opportunity to put on my Soviet WW2 1st Lt uniform, which I haven't had a chance to wear for a while.
John also entertained us with his new Lancaster as we all attempted to guess the scale.
As before, the Russians jammed into the village. Those Lone Star Carriers got another outing.
And the wicked Germans lined the hedgerows, two companies up and one back.
The German armour was hiding in the woods behind, which also happened to be the target of the Russian preliminary bombardment.
The Pz IV platoon had a nice line of fire down the road, down which my BA 64 recce platoon was feeling the way forward.
The German reserve company mounted up while the Flak platoon moved out of the heavily shelled woods.
One thing about remote games, it is very hard to estimate the movement distances sometimes. I didn't mean to end up quite as close as this to the very angry German panzerschreck team!
I actually quite like the limited (player) visibility aspect of some remote games, it seems more realistic, and is certainly atmospheric.
The BA64s had obviously found the enemy by now, so the T34s moved up in support, shaking out into an inverse wedge and freeing up some deployment space for the infantry behind. The T34/76s were the first line of the wedge, and the T34/85 behind, hull down on the hill.
The BA64 platoon was in easy range of both the Pz IV and the Panzerschreck.
With predictable results. The BA64 having drawn the enemy fire, the T34s took the opportunity to move a bit closer.
Perhaps a bit too close! Some T34/76 went up in flames.
The German Panther platoon now put in an appearance, supporting the reserve SS panzergrenadier company.
The German HQ team was perched on top of the church steeple watching proceedings.
The Russian infantry were up with the tanks now and giving the Germans something to think about. The remaining Soviet tanks focussed on the Pz IV platoon, and destroyed it.
German defensive fire from MGs, mortars and artillery tore great holes in the Soviet ranks as they closed in.
All the German infantry were up front now, providing a nice target for the Soviet mortar, MG and infantry gun platoons, but the Panther steadily worked its way through the remaining Russian tanks.
We broke for the evening at that point and I couldn't attend on Wednesday. I gather the Russian attack eventually broke down under the weight of German defensive fire and the German held on this time.
Tim had tweaked things a bit since our f2f game, and in particular, the infantry was more mobile, which I thought was a big improvement. We bungled the Russian attack and ended up attacking piecemeal without proper mutual support, so it is nice that we lost due to poor tactics and didn't just roll over the enemy by sheer weight of numbers.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays on future outings.
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