A) Use night rules for visibility. Germans can fire star shells. You may want to limit the number of-star shells available to Germans. If limiting star shells, allow the Germans either one round a turn, or 30 rounds total, to fire as they wish.
B) Use rules for surprise. It is the Umpire's decision to decide if German sentries are alert. You can make all of them alert or none, or decide individually for each sentry. Keep in mind that percentage is for a single soldier sneaking up on sentry; if Russians moving in group can use column for vehicle or for day time. Also, Russians do not automatically know where sentries are.
C) Due to the Russian ability to sometimes gather a great deal of information about German positions, you can decide to tell the Russians where some or all of the German sentries are. You probably should not tell them anything about the roving patrol if there is one.
D) You should plan on playing a minimum of 20 turns and 30 would be better. The first ten turns or so should be taken up with troops sneaking around. Twenty turns should take less than four hours of actual playing time.
E) The Russians can decide to delay the arrival of the Russian cavalry. Must state for how many turns before game begins.
F) Russians may check any German casualty to see if he is only wounded. On a roll of 1 through 8 the soldier is wounded. Two Russians can carry the German at walking speed back towards their lines.
G) For fun you can throw in several optional conditions. Decide which wagon has the brandy and which has the mail. Assign a large number of victory points for saving or destroying these items. The Germans only get points for the brandy if the Lt. is alive and free at the end of the game. Give victory points for unloading the wagons into the bunkers. Give the Russians points for capturing and manning the front line bunkers. Limit German machine gun fire until a German makes it to a wagon and back to the machine gun. Fire can be limited either by cutting the automatic weapons bonus in half or by limiting the number of times a machine gun can fire.
H) Partisan casualties can be checked by the Germans. On a roll of 1 or 2 the partisan is alive and tells the Germans where the partisan base is. If a partisan spends one complete turn not moving with another partisan who is a casualty, consider the casualty to have been given the coup de grace.
I) When deciding on what actions the partisans or cavalry would take in response to a morale check, remember that the partisans rarely stood and fought. The cavalry would tend to attack fiercely, but would be quick to disengage once the Germans got organized. Russian cavalry did launch a number of successful attacks on Germans where the Russians actually used their sabers instead of their other weapons.
J) You may add supporting 81mm mortars that are off the table for either side. If the Russians have mortars, give the HQ a radio.
Map
Historical Outcome
This scenario represents a combination of possible actions that took place on the Russian Front uncountable times during the war. Russian infantry and engineers had an amazing ability and discipline to slowly clear obstacles over many nights of work right under the noses of the Germans. Unless the Germans were extremely careful, the Russians had little trouble infiltrating German positions. Active German patrols often managed to stumble upon the Russian units before serious damage could be done, but not always or even most of the time. Russian partisans frequently worked in concert with Russian attacks, but coordination was often poor. In spite of the lack of coordination, much useful information on German positions and routines was carried through the lines.
Partisan, My Mistake A Battalions in Crisis Scenario
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© Copyright 1995 by Mike Vogell and Phoenix Military Simulations.
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