One Hour WW2 at COW 2023

 I first ran my WW2 variant of Neil Thomas's rules at VCOW back in the depths of lockdown in 2020, and back then remote gaming was a brave new world. Since then the rules have evolved and we've been busy playing the more recent hex based version, which is more manageable for remote games. I've already posted a few reports on the blog, but I was persuaded it was worthy of inclusion at this years COW at Great Missendon. This would be its first outing for f2f play with strangers.

I went for the 'Leshnov 1941' scenario as it has lots of reinforcements arriving during the game which adds a bit of surprise, and it has lots and lots of tanks. WW2 gamers seem to like tanks. It also exercises all the main game mechanisms as it includes airpower, artillery, AT guns and all the major unit types including Heavy Tanks and recce.

Table from the south. The Soviet 8th Mechanised Corps enters from the road at the south side and needs to get four units off the north edge road, thereby cutting off Panzer Group 2 who are somewhere to the east. Easy peasy.

The only thing in the way is a single infantry battalion in the hamlet of Leshnov, albeit reinforced with a Flak battalion.

8th Mechanised Corps at roughly 25% strength, thanks to breakdowns and the Luftwaffe. The three tank divisions have two or three 'regiments' each, the combat equivalent of battalions. The tanks are the usual 1941 mad mix of BTs, T26s, T34s and KVs. There was even the (one and only) battalion of T35s here, but my T35 is a bit big for the 10cm hexes. All the motorised infantry are walking, having lost most of their transport.

The heavy artillery and aircraft are available for a pre planned bombardment of Leshnov.

German reinforcements in the box. Recce battalion, motorcycle battalion and an entire panzer regiment. These will assail each side of the Russian advance, eventually.

The Russians lead with 12th Tank Div up the road (very historical) while 15th Tank Div follows up and veers slightly westwards. Both these divisions have a mix of light and medium armour, including T28s although the 12th has some additional close support artillery.

12th Tank Div makes it to Leshnov and fighting breaks out. The defenders took some losses from the preliminary bombardment but are still quite strong and entrenched too. 

15th Tank Div is distracted by the arrival of 11th Panzer Recce battalion with armoured cars and a motorcycle battalion from the southwest.

While all this is going on, 34th Tank Div rolls up. This is the strongest division with a large proportion of KVs, T34s and a fleet of BTs. Their infantry are stuck in a traffic jam down the road somewhere.

Although they are outnumbered, the Germans have a more effective combined arms team. Their offboard artillery is particularly useful as it can slow and disrupt the Russian units. 

33rd Panzer Regiment rolls up from the southeast. The Russians have a strategic decision to make at this point. Do they try and defeat the German reinforcements, or do they break off and try and bull their way off the table to the north? Judging by the facing of the Soviet tank regiments, it looks like fighting is the plan.

The battle for Leshnov is hard fought. The German defenders have taken enough losses to disorganise them, but the Russian losses are heavier. Really they needed three combat units to stand a good chance of taking the town, two was marginal at best, but the rest of the Russians are stuck further south and now another German leg infantry battalion turns up from the north.

The tank component of 12th Tank Div are destroyed, and as the German reinforcements arrive at Leshnov, the Luftwaffe turns up too and the remaining Russians are destroyed in a concentric attack.

The rest of the Russians are pocketed further south and gradually whittled away, so the prospects of a breakthrough fade away and once two more Russian units are destroyed, it is all over.

That was an interesting play through. I suspect the Russians spread themselves a bit too thinly between fighting and advancing. When I've played it before solo and with players,  the Russians carried out a mad dash northwards, leaving a speedbump blocking unit behind them, so the panzers had to dash after them. If the Russians are going to stand and fight, they need to concentrate, but in this game they tried to do both. All the Germans can really do is respond to the Russians, but they did that very effectively.

So, apologies to the Russians who perhaps didn't have the best experience, albeit a fairly historical one.

We did at least get to showcase all the game mechanisms, and many of the players quickly grasped the tactical decisions about if and when to engage, and also, when to stop and reorganise. Hats off to Rob Doel who saved 15th Tank Div by constantly reorganising. We also finished handily within the allocated 1hr 45 minute timeslot, despite none of the players having played before, and had time for a debrief too.

As I usually set these things up to be played remotely, the tables are quite small (3x3 in this case), and an interesting logistical problem was actually fitting all the players around the table. I could have accommodated eight player roles but in the end went with six active players as that is all that could comfortably fit.