VotG AAR CGII Drive to the Volga Sept 17th Part I

After a fairly large setup, we squeezed in the first turn of the 9/17 CG Day this weekend.

My infantry having been decimated on 9/15, I went idle on 9/16, and fortunately so did Joe. Desperately in need of manpower I purchased three "code blue" rifle coys in reserve, plus a Stosstruppe pltn.

For 9/17 I purchased my last "code green" rifle coy to enter in the north. I purchased a heavy weapons platoon to replace a few of the dozens of German MG's captured or destroyed so far. I purchased a pltn of StuG B's, which along with two other StuGs and a FlaK halftrack platoon returning from redeployment would actually give me some decent AFV capability for the first time since the opening day.

With my six "support cpp" I eschewed the rotating stukas in favor of two Bltn Mtr modules with pre-reg'd hexes. My plan was to bury the southern edge in smoke and rush forward, trying to achieve a breakthrough.

Joe (Russian side) had cleverly anticipated that I would be attacking on 9/17, and drew an attack chit himself to make it a duel attack. The dice gave me the first setup, which forced me to give away my planned "big push" up the southern edge. A little free intel for the Russians, nice move.

Jump Street



The dice also gave the Russians first move. With the first WC DR Joe rolled up civilian interrogation revealing my HIP stack on the second level of K45. (Two 8-0's with radios). Already things .....well you get the idea.

In the Russian half of the turn there was sporadic prep fire and some cautious forward movement. The Russians broke a squad in the center and got him to die for FTR. They also got a few melees going, but nothing too dramatic.

Sporadic light skirmishing through the center

In the German half of the turn, we maintained contact on both modules and let fly the smoke. We also got four smoke rounds from a Mtr on the south edge. There is a lot of smoke. When it drifted northwest in the advance fire phase the counter density became -- spectacular.

Stalingrad in the artificial fog

When my concealed 2 x HMG + 9-2 stack assault moved out of the Nail Factory into N39, Joe revealed a set DC. Although he did not rubble the building, it did break all three units. I was just thinking that I had cheated death and was starting to breath again. when Joe opened up with a stack of three 4-5-8 manned HMG's and a 10-3(!) leader from across the street. 3 KIA.

A broken HMG is all that remains

I brought my reinforcement rifle coy on in the north to find very few Russians in the area. I had planned to mostly just play defense in the north as all my major resources were diverted to the southern assault. Ironically, the real opportunity for this day may lie in the north, where the Russians are looking suddenly a bit overextended.

Northern Exposure?

Hope to be back at it within a few weeks.