[Picture: This is the view one level down from the roof, looking toward the front of the chapel. On the map, this is taken over top of Room 26, looking toward Room 3] The remnants of a Soviet infantry squad have taken refuge in the ruins of the monastery. As the Germans are conducting mop up operations outside of Tallinn, they run across the monastery. The Russians have one man on the roof, acting as look out. He fires a few random shots in a panic in the general direction of the approaching German squad. The Germans now know that there is enemy resistance. The Russians have two free turns of movement in order to modify or improve their position. Using Cross of Iron Rules, here's your setup. Roll a schnell for each character and then give them the attributes as indicated. The remnants of the Soviet infantry squad consist of: 1 x Sergeant (Natural Leader) 1 x Private (Trigger Happy - the lookout, obviously) 3 x Privates (Green) 2 x Privates (Farm Boy) Roll a schnell and for attributes from the Cross of Iron table for the German squad (modified for clean up operations). Gruppenfuhrer with SMG Machinegun no. 1 with pistol & MG34 LMG (2 men) Machinegun no. 2 with pistol & MG34 LMG (2 men) 5 x Riflemen 1 x Goonsquad (4 riflemen) lead by a Truppenfuhrer with rifle (generally, the rules for Goonsquads govern Soviet goons. In this scenario, the Soviets are the pseudo good guys.) Treat the Goonsquad with special care. These will be the first to charge into the church, first to run across open areas, first to attack Soviet strongpoints. The Russians are located in the following areas. The Lookout is in the tower above location #28. The Sergeant is in the underground command post - #17. The other five Privates are located in locations #25, #15, and #16 (at least one in each location). Due to only partially standing walls, the Sergeant is able to communicate, in a rough fashion, with each member of the squad. Location #2 does not have access to space #17, #29, or #25. #2 opens only into the church. [Picture: This is Room 29 on the map. The picture is taken just below eye-level (to show how low this room is).] Map Locations: 1. Abbey church. 2. Sacristy. 3. Chapel in the south-west. 4. Foundation walls of the six-faceted chapel in front of the abbey. 5. Hypothetical guest-room or room for solitary confinement. 6. Furnace in the cellar outside the cloisters, from here the hypocaust for the chapter-house was heated. 7. Chapter-house. 8. Heated refectories. 9. A gala refectory for guests. 10. Nuns' work room (originally a refectory). 11. Kitchen. 12. A large metal chimney in the kitchen. 13. Furnaced cellar with hypocaust. 14. Well. 15. Cellar for provisions. 16. Cellar for south cloister. 17. Cellar with a hypocaust in the south cloister which heated the men's side of the parlour. 18. Guest room with the boundary wall. 19. The nuns' side of the guest room. 20. Foundations of the oldest wooden building. 21. Foundations of a stone building. 22. Hypocausts of the destroyed buildings. 23. Cellar in the hypothetical abbess house or the so-called courtyard house, with a small hypocaust. 24. Foundations of a later building. 25. Draw well and channels for draining rainwater fallen from the eaves. 26. Refectory for the brothers. 27. An adjoining room with a service counter. 28. Hypothetical workshop for wrought iron work. 29. Men's side of the parlour, foundation walls of the boundary line in the north. [Picture: Taken from eye-level, this is the passageway running next to Rooms 7, 8, and 9. The archway contains steps leading down to an open cellar.] Special Rules After the Soviets fire the first couple rounds at the Germans, the Soviets get two full turns of moves, which they can move or not. The Russians cannot use these two moves to attack - only to reposition. The Soviets maintain command and control as long as there is one member of the partial squad in each room between the Sergeant and the last individual. If there is a gap of a room, then the Sergeant has lost his ability to coordinate their actions. If one of the Soviet soldiers in an intervening room is killed, creating the gap, then command and control is lost with the remaining soldiers beyond the gap. In that case, roll below to see what the soldier(s) do on their next turn. (I use the term they, although only one Soldier may be affected). 1-2 Return to the last known location of their Sergeant 3 Assume that the Germans are coming from the direction that the Sergeant was located, so they run the other way, 2d6 inches. 4 Assume that the Sergeant is killed, but they must avenge him, so they conduct a direct attack on the nearest German. 5 Assume that the Sergeant is killed, but they keep their heads and decide to withdraw. They withdraw 1d6 inches in the opposite direction of the last known Germans. 6 They do nothing. Victory Conditions: Complete Soviet Victory - Force the Germans to withdraw (does not depend on how heavy the Russian losses were) Marginal Soviet Victory - At least one Soviet gets away, but 1/2 of the Germans are killed or wounded. Draw - more than one Soviet soldier escapes and less than 1/2 of the Germans are killed. Marginal German Victory - At least on Soviet gets away and less than 1/2 of the Germans are killed or wounded. Or all the Soviets are killed, but more than 1/2 of the Germans are also casualties. Complete German Victory - All Soviets killed, less than 1/2 of the Germans are casualties. You can see from the victory conditions that holding the monastery is not the key to victory. The key for the Soviets is to kill Germans. The Soviets will never retain control of the area as they are vastly outnumbered and their supporting logistics have retreated. The more Germans they can kill, the better off they are. Scenario Designer Notes I came up with this scenario after visiting the Pirita Monastery in Tallinn, Estonia. The Russians have a very good chance against the Germans. In three plays, the Russians won two and the Germans only one. The bold use of the Goonsquad helped the Germans win, but bold, not in the sense of dashing the length of the open church, but down a short hallway and into rooms. Other times, the Germans could not bring their machineguns to bear against the wily Russians, who were continually getting open shots against the Germans (while the Russians were behind cover). The going is always treacherous for the attackers when it comes to building clearing - this holds true right up to present day. In any case, this is a good game if you can build the terrain to give at least a partial representation of the way it really looks. I've included a lot of pictures to give you a good idea of how high the walls are and where the nooks & crannies are. The map of the monastery is taken right from the wall of the main church (provided for tourists in six languages). All my best for a good game and a good tour! More Pirita Monastery: 1941 A Cross of Iron Scenario Introduction Scenario Set Up Large Monestary Map (slow: 131K) Jumbo Monestary Map (extremely slow: 427K) Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Craig Martelle Publications 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