AAR 1943 Eastern Front: Eastern Front Game by Amokfigur

The Setup

The Russians are to take out the Germans hiding out in the woods. I wanted to try out a game with a little less terrain - or at least some that was a little more clumped together. I had one company of Wehrmacht with an assisting Panzer III ausf L, a couple of MG's, mortars and a Pak 37. The Russians had two companies, 3 T-34/76. 3 SU22 and some MG's.

We play using Blinds as the IABSM rules set suggests. However instead of the rather large ones from the game we've done our own. They should be a bit more handy.

Most of the Blinds were quickly spotted and real action began. The Russians had deployed heavily on their right flank. Unfortunately the Germans had deployed most of their troops on their right too, and thus had little to engage the Russian storm.

Left Side:  first Wehrmacht platoon was eliminated by a complete Russian company that stormed them as they hid in a small wooded area a bit from the main line. A Big Man accompanying this platoon was regrettably also lost. Shot while he was busy calling down mortar fire on Russian LMGs hiding behind a wall.

On the right:  three SU22 advanced to cover and shot at anything in their way. So did the German PAK hiding in the woods and took out one of the oncoming SU22. Wehrmacht third platoon moved towards the SUs and an infantry platoon supporting them. It quickly became very close range fire fighting and heavy casualties were endured.

In the centre:  second Wehrmacht and a Russian platoon were having a long range fire fight without much effect.

The aforementioned MGs got their treatment when suddenly the Russian Big Man of the right flank called "UHREEE" and stormed towards the MGs. He must have been following orders or have mixed something up. Either way it wasn't a good call to run directly in front of four German MGs. The Russians took a horrendous amount of casualties and wound up all being captured. The MGs took one casualty. Still the Russian Big Man was the man of the match. No doubt!

Despite the brave fighting of the Wehrmacht it wasn't enough. Eventually the strength of the Russian numbers came through and the Germans were wiped off the earth. Three T34s made an easy job of the Panzer III (it did manage to kill off one T34 though) and the infantry just ran over the rest. Getting close with Russians is just bad luck. Especially with the Wehrmacht.

Points of view

This game made me think a little about the significance of an even number of cards from both sides in the deck. This in fact is more important than an even amount of troops (within limits of course) on both sides. Rather basic I guess - you can have all the troops in the world but if you never get to act with them they're no good. Also artillery fire might need a bit of thought - it seems a bit inappropriate that it is nigh impossible to get it down as soon as you know where the enemy is hiding. In effect what I mean is: the more cards in the deck (the more enemy spotted) the less the chance of drawing the artillery card (homing shot, fire, etc.). A counter to this could be including more cards for artillery for scenarios where this is suitable.

Amokfigur