AAR - The Verkhopenye game from the Rapid Fire book 3. We played the Verkhopenye scenario a number of times over the MOAB weekend. Owing to as much to good dice rolls and good management the Soviets managed to drive the Hun back to Berlin four time out of five. A most impressive record. The game is a real challenge to the German player and the scenario as presented is badly balanced. Once the StuGs were brewed there wasn't much else the German player could do to stop the Red hordes. Dean's two superb lend lease Lees were surprisingly useful. The Graves for Seven Brothers had the potential to be the Graves for 35 brothers as we played the scenario five times but we only ended up with one of the vehicles being brewed only once. A number of T-34s copped it numerous times but never enough to force major Soviet problems. One action ended with a tide mark of Soviet dead washed up against a strongly held hill. I think this was the only game that the Soviets lost. Being the ghouls that we are we replaced casualties with "dead" figures so the tide mark was quite evident. A very impressing visual effect indeed. Sadly my modelling skills were wasted as I saw my PzIII artillery observation vehicle get too close to the action and finish the game a couple of times with clouds of black cotton wool gushing from its plastic hatch as young Soviet players whooped with enjoyment. Things to remember are making sure one reads up on the rules and scenario before the game. The first go was a little rough as we were a little unsure as to what we were doing and had a bit of rule lawyer playing with us. He was not doing well and clutching at straws by the end, summoning up some rules which even we hadn't heard of. It detracted from the game somewhat. Next time we will have to make sure that units fight together. It looked a bit funny having a company strung out over a foot of landscape. I guess the umpire should've told the player to tidy it up a bit. On the whole, a weekend well spent. Many thanks to my colleagues Dean and Murray for their efforts in the lead up to and over the weekend and thanks also to the people of Southern Battle Gamers for letting us put on a show. Editors Note Verkopenye is somewhat of a problematic game, as I recently played it as the Soviet commander against 2 German players, resulting in a crushing victory to the Soviets in about 9 turns. Seems Gross Deuschland are hard pressed to equal the historical result. The M3 Lee's didn't die then either and are actually quite handly against the German recon elements, whom seem totally out of their depth in this battle. I'd say 9 times out of 10 it would be a Russian victory, saving terrible dice rolling. The German's main hope is to the break the Soviet infantry battalion fast and leave all the tanks with no support and needing to pass those difficult advance against infantry morale tests. Then again, if the soviet players carefully husbands his limited infantry, the Germans are in trouble. As a historical scenario I was little disappointed, I don't think it would stand up to much replaying. Wargaming WWII Leningrad Front Scenario By Nat Hawkins. This is a quick summary of the October battle - mid-late 1941 in Northern Russia. RUSSIANS one Soviet Tank Battalion (2 x BT-7, 2 x T-26, 2 x KV-1, 1 x FAI a/car ), 2 cavalry squadrons, a 45mm AT gun and a 76mm infantry gun , and 2 infantry battalions. GERMANS German Tank Battalion (Pz 38(t), Pz II and Pz IV with short 75mm) and a recon battalion (motor cycles, armoured cars, 37mm AT gun, 75mm infantry gun) and one Finnish infantry battalion Highlights "What the hell is that" from a Pz 38(t) commander on spotting a KV-1 on the road about 6 inches away The Dance of Death as the KV-1s and Pz IVs kept moving to get flank or rear shots on each other - and ALWAYS MISSING! The plucky German AT rifle gunner who destroyed a BT-7 at long range The German and Soviet infantry howitzers dueling at close range in the village The appearance of the Finn's Fokker DXXI (1 bomb and 2 MGs) which tipped the balance, and forced one of the Russian battalions to make a morale test (they failed) The long march through the forest by Igor's Russian infantry (they only rolled 5s and 6s as their move deduction for rough terrain) The NKVD detachment firing on the routing Russians, who then returned to the battle (only to be strafed by the Fokker again) The Russian mortar that went through 3 crews (it was finally manned by the Commisar and nurse from Regimental HQ) Notes The terrain features on the table included a collective farm in the center of the field approached by roads leading from each corner of the table. There were forests blocking observation of forces approaching from the nearest road entry, which was good as the Finns and the Germans came on at diagonally opposite corners with the Soviet infantry and cavalry on another corner and their armour on the final corner. The Soviet cavalry also started the game with two "free" moves which put them in a very good position to occupy the farm, at least initially. Morale ratings were Elite for the Finns, Regular for the Germans and Poor for the Soviets. Air support was the above-mentioned Finnish bi-plane and a German Heinkel He112. As there were no rules lawyers amongst the fine fellows who fought out the battle we tinkered a bit with the rules, as is easy to do with "rapid fire," and decided that it was a bit of a non-game for the KV-1s to be utterly invulnerable, so the house rule of the day had a German 6 followed by another 6 being regarded as a hit and then damage was rolled as normal. Mick managed this once, but, luckily for me, it was a light damage. Other improvised rules had the Soviet KV-1 attempting to crush the 37mm AT guns of the Hun under the tracks with a 5 or 6 destroying the piece, but rolling a further 5 or 6 would immobilise the tank. Also, as we were unsure of the HE capability of the early KV-1 we rolled a dice with a odd roll giving them the shells, but even denying them. Ammunition rules were not used, and if they were then we would have been in quite a bit of trouble as the game went about 16 turns or so. The balance in armour was quite interesting. The German tanks are a little better protected than the T-26s and BT-7s but the Soviets have a better gun so some interesting tactical decisions confronted the respective commanders. The KV-1 are so slow the Germans could easily avoid and outmaneuver them. Figures used were Revell Great War Germans (minus the gas-mask cannisters) for the Finns with three Maxim guns from Bandera miniatures. Germans were FAA, and a few other bits and pieces from various manufacturers. Soviet infantry were again a huge mix of manufacturers . The cavalry were mainly SHQ or plastics (I'm sorry, I don't know the brand) but rounded out with the odd "tumbling dice" figure. German armour was all from plastic kits, Airfix, Matchbox, Fujimi with some armoured cars being resin kits and their motor-bicycles being all SHQ. Soviet armour had Fujimi KV-1s, resin BT-7s and RH Models FAI's & T-26s. Guns were either Matchbox, FAA or Skytrex. Overall and excellent game with all sorts of quirky things happening and a really wide variety of troops on offer which has only increased our collective interest in early war encounters.The battle was concluded as a narrow German victory as the Russians still had the KV-1s roaming around the battlefield, but they couldn't secure the collective farm from the German infantry inside. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com