I ran a 28mm Arc of Fire WW2 game at Pro or Con and played in a 20mm Battleground WWII game in the afternoon. The AOF game went pretty good - it used a table I designed for DRUMS 2003. The BGWW2 game had our elite German forces trying to stop the Russian hordes from breaking through and taking a small mostly destroyed village. There were three Germans and four Soviet players. Our forces consisted of an armored infantry platoon in 251/1, one towed 88mm Flak 18 with no tow vehicle, a Tiger I and a Jagdpanther. The Soviets turned out to have ten T34/85 and a KV-2 (obviously, no 20mm SU152 or ISU152 in our judge's collection!), plus an estimated one platoon of infantry with support and one to two platoons of SMG tank riders. Our defense was based on holding the center two buildings. We had roadblocks on the approach road and just in case on the side roads as well. We couldn't be sure the Soviets would be coming in from the opposite table side. The judge gave the Soviets one free move, and then the game started. Neither side had artillery or air support. We put two squads of dismounted infantry on the left in the woods on opportunity fire. They were just far enough in not to be seen from outside the woods, and close enough to the edge to see any infantry entering the woods. The commander of that unit had his automatic weapons to the front and rifles covering his flank. He had one half track in support covering the right side of the woods and the other watching the road behind him. The Tiger was in the woodline covering the right side of the woods, and our obstacles. In the center was the 88, place in a building where it could fire forward through a window, or cover the roadblocks through the next window, or cover the right flank if it fired to the right where there was no wall. The HQ was located in a building just to the rear, and the building to the right and the building with the 88 in it had our heavy weapon section and one infantry squad holding them to protect the 88. The HMG was located in the tree line to protect the right side of the town. I had the Jagdpanther supported by one 251 with a squad of infantry. I placed the infantry in three locations in a woods to the left of my gun. The LMG and panzerfaust was to the left rear at the edge of the woods covering my rear. One team leader was within sight of the 251/1 and I had one rifleman at the edge of the woods relaying to the ASL what he could see. The SL was in the half-track and two riflemen, one with a grenade launcher were covering the Jagdpanther. The Jagdpanther was pulled next to the woods far enough to cover its front and the road approaching the town. The Soviets took their free move, pushing their armor down the road, and to the left towards my position. The Soviet infantry were moving up on the right clearing the woods as they advanced. I took my opportunity shot and missed. Missing would be my SOP. The only tank I hit with the Jagdpanther I hit on a greater the D20 chance, and although I blew the gun off the round didn't knock out the T34 nor did its crew bail out. However, the sight of the T34/85's round bouncing off the front plate of the Jagdpanther did not help the Soviet morale and the T34 heading my way all turned and moved down or near the road on either side. This was good because I should have had about five kills but only just barely made the one, and was a bit worried he would try to ram my tank destroyer. I had pulled it back about four inches so the woods protected my left flank while I took out the T34/85 to my front. That worked well until one T34/85 after dropping off its infantry rolled into the woods. That left my Jagdpanther with a T34/85 to my front, a T34/85 to my left rear, and two squads of SMG gunners coming into the woods. Meanwhile, our two snipers had persuaded the Soviets to close their hatches which did wonders for their attempts to spot our hidden units. The Tiger opened up and then the 88. The Tiger did well knocking out a T34 but the 88 commander was rolling dice like me. If we had artillery though, the Soviets would have been dead as we had bunched them up around the front of our double road block on the main road. It looked like the Tiger would shoot several of the T34s up, we might lose the 88, and the Soviet rifle platoon would walk right into our ambush. On my side I had stabilized the situation. My observer fired at a Soviet infantryman who had just about walked into his foxhole and wounded him. I may not have been rolling good dice when shooting the 88L71 but I was doing ok with the infantry and the cards were coming up in my favor. My ASL also opened up with his SMG and my tank hunter managed to knock out the T34/85 in the woods and immobilize it (although it would be out for only 2 turns). The Soviets pulled up more troops. The rifleman had jammed his rifle on the third shot so he tossed grenades. The first did well wounding one Soviet and making another take a morale check, which he passed. My LMG opened up and took out every Soviet he could see - three I think. My ASL also fired again. The Jagdpanther, which had turned, fired at the T34/85 in the woods, missed headed back to the tree line under cover of smoke. The SL though, had cranked up the 251/1 and with charged into the woods with it in a limited counterattack. He pulled in and the ASL boarded. The rifleman was dead - a Soviet had thrown one of the German grenades back. However, knowing there was a large German "Elephant" tank destroyer on the other side of the woods and hearing an armored vehicle coming through the trees towards them, the squad failed their "enemy armor within 5" morale check and took off. I used the time to turn and run the other way. It looked like our defenses might hold. Had a good time. Bought some 25mm infantry and a 15mm 88 Flak 36 from Glass City Games. The turn out was pretty good and there was a pretty good variety of miniatures plus a small DBM tournament in the hall. Back to MWAN # 121 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com