With the VII Armeekorps drive to Voronezh stalled by both Soviet counterattacks and their own exhaustion from the summer heat, General der Artillerie Ernst-Eberhard Hell implored his landsers to dig in as "whatever they could not achieve with sweat would be paid for with a lot of blood." As General Mikhail Katukov's 1st Tank Army counterattacked along the Bol'shaia Vereika River, the fighting eventually broke through the defensive lines into the village of Gremiache, where Generalleutnant Arno Jahr's Infanterie-Division 387 was waiting with bated breath.
Attacker: Russian (237th Rifle Division with 89th Tank Brogade and 1st Motorized Rifle Brigade)
Defender: German (Infanterie-Regiment 542, Infanterie-Division 387 with Panzer-Regiment 33 and Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 201)
5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:19.0 D:15.0
AFVs: A:3
T-34 M41 T-60 M42 x 2
AFVs: D:3
PzKpfw IIIG StuG IIIB x 2
Guns: A:0
50mm RM obr. 40 PTRD-41 ATR x 2
D:1
5cm PaK 38 5cm leGrW 36 ATR 7.92 PzB 39
Misc Rules:
Map Board(s):
89
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Enfilade 2023. I got cocky with the Russians and launched a turn 2 Human Wave that resulted in 5 squads surrendering. The rest of the game was an uphill battle. The final score was Germans 10 Russians 9. This is worth replaying.
2023-05-07
(D) Ian Morris
vs
Ian Ainsworth
German win
Under the cosh in the first three turns, lost some troops. He committed his tanks on the lower road : my AT gun was in the grain. I brought some of the reinforcements on too far from the village. Feeling the game slipping away, I sent a Stug around his flank to threaten rout routes. Checking LoS for one such rout, we found that the Stug had a spawny LoS to the rear of his T-34 : in my next fire phase, I turned and managed to Shock the T-34, subsequently KOing it in CC. Meanwhile, my infantry was busy disrupting his and taking prisoners, while the AT Gun was shelling infantry in wooden buildings. He sent his Commissar to rally a broken leader and squad in the AT-acquired building, and the following rate tear destroyed them, at which point Ian conceded. Nice little scenario with tricky VC.
2023-04-14
(D) nathan wegener
vs
Tom Kearney
German win
Able to force the Russian to stay funnelled in the village. immobilised the T-34 with a mortar round. Reinforcements pushed the Russian back. Btrend23
2023-04-14
(A) Jonathan Plott
vs
Frank Eason
Russian win
Played this at the Bitter Ender 2023 Tournament in Raleigh this past weekend. The Germans established a very strong defense in the village, so I sent a strong force through the gully to (hopefully) engage the defenders from two directions. The armor fight led to an immobilized T-34, two Stugs out of the game and one T-60 destroyed. In a piviotal event, the defender's well positioned PAK 38 malf's on the first shot, and the dr 6 on the first repair attempt left the crew with nothing more to do. The game went the distance, and the attackers managed a win on points. Great game, Ed!
2023-04-02
(D) Ron Garcia
vs
Darryl M.
German win
Looking at this scenario I thought the toughest obstacle for the Russian forces was the 2 ELR and short range of their units. Based on my playing, that was partially true. I set up my German forces to exploit these flaws. I set three trenches north of the orchards so they could hit pretty much all the 1 point VP building locations. I only set up the MTR and a 9-1, two squad LMG/MMG combo there initially but knew reinforcements would come soon enough to fill in as needed. The village held the bulk of my squads headed by two HS right up front to deny initial concealment gain for the Russians and to act as speed bumps. I placed my last squad an a half on the south side of the gully; the squad in a trench and the HS in the gully itself. The goal was to take shots where prudent in hope of ELR breaking and/or disrupting as many Russians as possible. To counter this, my friend set up strong on the south and village.
My strategy worked pretty well. Two disrupted conscripts were taken prisoner in the village early, and I caused a lot of breaks. However, I still had to fall back as my friend kept creeping his forces forward. My lone squad in the southern trench was getting close to being overrun leaving my flank exposed (the HS died heroically breaking two squads before dying in CC.) Then, German turn 3 came...
My friend sent his tanks to the north to deal with the trenches and all the infantry reinforcements to the south, up the road. I revealed the 50L in hex R8 in the PFPh and went on a rate tear for the ages. I must have gotten at least 12 shots off with that tiny AT gun. When it was all said and done, all three reinforcement squads were vaporized and three other squads were broken and/or disrupted. Down half his force to only two German HS losses, he resigned - still reeling from the mauling the AT gun dished out.
In the end, I can't comment one way or another on balance. Although I had fun with that ridiculous rate tear, it did ruin the game. My feeling is the Russians should push hard in the village and establish themselves before the German reinforcements come in. If they go too slow, the range disparity and ELR disadvantage will take a toll and they will lose momentum fast. The scenario is (initially for the Russians) quantity versus quality so it gives the players a lot to think about. Both sides get the chance to attack and defend so I'd recommend giving this one a try for either side.
