Firestorm Bagration Campaign Games One and Two

Game 1 MSPAR VS Panzer Company - Free for All

Hello All and welcome to the start of our Firestorm Bagration campaign to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the campaign. We have started on the 26th (4 days after the start of the campaign) as we are playing the short campaign and that starts on the 26th June 1944. Myself and Paul began the firestorm campaign with my Soviets attacking into Berezino from Tolochin to cut off the salient Alex had attacked Winner from (See game two).  I got two firestorm troops to help my MSPAR in the form of T-34/85's and T-34/76's, Paul got a platoon of Panzer Greniders. We rolled up Free For All (a common mission for us for the first weekend!) and got playing.

Panzer Company 2 HQ Panzer IV's 4 Panzer IV's 5 Panzer IV's King Tiger 4 Nebs Full Armoured Greniders + Faust (Firestorm Troops)

Medium Assault Gun Regiment HQ T-34/85 4 SU-85M 4 SU-85M 10 T34/85 6 Heavy Mortars + Observer 1 Section Assault Gun Recon 3 T-34/85 + Tank Riders (Firestorm Troops) 5 T-34/76 + Tank Riders (Firestorm Troops)

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The board as a whole

The Soviet right flank

The Soviet left

While the SU-85M's get to hold the center

Paul heavily weights the right flank.

A platoon of Panzer IV's covers the left objective,

The nebs go in the center,

TURN 1

The Soviets win the dice off to go first and charge on the right flank.

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The SU-86m's hold the center,

The observer gets into the church tower.

The German Left flank moves out to get a few shots at advancing T-34/85's.

On the German right advances

The King Tiger takes a pot shot at the SU-85M's but misses

The Nebs smoke the SU-85M's

The Panzer IV's only manage to bail a T-35.

The Storm trooper back.

The Board at the end of Turn 2.

TURN 2

The T-34/85's and get a clear shot of the Panzer's

Using the woods as cover the T-34's head towards the objective.

The SU-85's target the Nebs killing two.

The Mortars then target the Nebs killing one and routeing the platoon.

The T-34/85's then destroy three Panzer IV's including the 2IC>

Paul releasing that the pressure was mounting his objective advances
quickly.

The Panzers on the Left return fire but only bail one tank/

The Tiger Kills two SU-85's but the Panzer IV's fail to do any damage.

The Board after turn 2.

TURN 3

The T34/76's rush the objective.

The SU-85's move up to help the advance.

The T-34/85's at the back move up to attack the advancing Panzer IV's. 

The battered Su-85's turn to face the Panzer IV's.

The Heavy mortars range in and kill a Panzer IV and bail another.

The T-34's add the the damage and destroy one that had got to far forward.

Then the SU-85's kill a third tank.

The T-34's kill another tank but the platoon holds.

But the right flank platoon breaks.

The Panzer IV's get some revenge on the T-34's killing one and bailing
another.

The board at the end of turn 3.

TURN 4

The reserve T-34/85's move up to put pressure on the King Tiger.

While the SU-85M's hide from the KT

The SU-85M's move up and finish off the platoon and kill the 1IC. The
Germans are below half strength and with no 1IC or 2IC break.

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So 6-1 to the Soviets.  Paul made a mistake by spreading his army out too much, having two more platoons than him I was able have a powerful force go for one objective while I kept enough back to defend my own objectives. I haven't used T-34/85's much but man they are a big upgrade on normal T-34/76s! They made short work of the Panzer IV's and left me to take the objective.  We rolled for the Panzer Gren Firesotrm troops and they were destroyed, so the first game couldn't have gone any better for the Soviets.

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Game 2 - StuG Battery Vs Tankovy - Free For All

Time to switch authors to me (His Royal Winningness, Dave).  Despite us Soviets winning ties in the dice off, Alex rolled middle and I rolled low giving him the opportunity to re-take a slice of the motherland.  To support the city of Mogilev and in a hope to prevent it being surrounded Alex attacked from Bykhov to Gorki.

StuG Battery HQ StuG + Tank Riders 2x StuG's and 1x StuH + Tanks Riders 2x StuG's and 1x StuH + Tanks Riders King Tiger 3x Nebs Full Motorbike Recon 3x Flak 38 2x Tigers (Firestorm Troops) Full Panzer Grenadiers + Faust (Firestorm Troops)

Tankovy HQ T-34/85 10x T-34/85 10x T-34/85 4x BA-10 2x IS-2 (Firestorm Troops) Limited Sturmokiv (Firestorm Troops)

The battle was fought over a centrally located hill, which was rather large. Alex's opening gambit was to move his motorcycle recce down one flank to put pressure on an objective. Unfortunately they were left unsupported and eventually machine gun fire whittled them down.

On the opposite flank my recce jeeps moved forward to put not very much pressure on an objective, but I think were the reason Alex's firestorm Grenadiers didn't move..so that was good.

Back in the centre, it boiled down to a massive amount of shooting across the hill.  I decided to ignore the King Tiger, which Alex was going to great lengths to keep at 16" range.

10 T34/85s was definitely the way to go, as I was taking casualties nearly every turn.  Facing down King Tiger shots, Tiger shots, StuGs and StuHs was pretty nerve racking.  Fortunately for me Alex was rolling badly and missed an awful lot, which must have been frustrating.  So buckets of dice won the battle over elite dice.  One of my platoons had been reduced to the point of taking a morale check, but for once I passed a fearless check.

I was cautious with the IS-2s and only really brought them into play for the end game when their uber firepower was used to knock out an AA gun and the CinC, forcing a company morale check which couldn't be taken.  At some point Alex did take one out with his KT, which must have felt quite good.

Final score 6-1 to Soviets. Well, despite what Alex thought I, I thought it was a fairly even match up, although revising the list I had forgotten about the tank riders, which was a bit of a points sink.  Alex could have taken more advantage of my having Hen and Chicks and not allowed me to sit there pummelling his StuGs...still it was awesome to break out the T34s again...I have so missed them.   In campaign terms this mean Bykhov is back in glorious Soviet hands and the German firestorm troops have retreated into the city of Mogilev.

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