Combat HQ - Russians vs German Reserves

Played in late May 2022 at Tom's house, I am once again indebted to him for the words and pictures below: -

An encounter game with German reserves (a German tank battalion with Panzer III's and Panzer IV's and a motorised infantry battalion) rushing to cut off a Russian breakthrough consisting of two armoured brigades with T70's and T34's with tank riders and motorised infantry in support.

The Germans get the first move and immediately rush a tank company down each of the roads to try and grab the road junctions. Two Russian tank companies make their way onto the table, the first moves up behind the ruined town, the second rushes up the road but lose two squadrons of T34’s from opportunity fire from the company of PzIV’s on the road.

Over the next few moves the Russians rush up another two companies of mixed T34’s and T70’s and rush the German panzers, losing one squadron as they move to close range and destroying two squadrons of Panzer IV’s. The German infantry follow up to occupy the two ruined complexes as the Russian armoured companies continue to push through the centre, overrunning another Squadron of PzIV’s.

The two companies of Panzer III’s initially try to move round the flanks of the Russians but their right hand company has to change direction to support their hard pressed centre. The Russian infantry companies move up either side of their armoured units to protect the flanks on their right. They move into the ruined buildings to confront the Germans before they can dig in.

Both objectives (road junctions) are in dispute, but the Russian pressure on the two Panzer IV companies causes some loss, leading to several poor morale tests and a loss of command control, so on balance the game ended with the Russians having the edge.