This was a game of IABSM fought on the 22nd of September 2012 between the Germans (played by Fasbender and Dae) and the Soviets (played by Strategos and Burt). It was a randomly generated scenario just for a bit of fun.
The Soviet advance through Belarus during the summer of 1944 as part of Operation Bagration has reached a small town. The Germans are trying to slow the Soviets down in order to gain enough time to scrape together what troops they can in an attempt to deal with the oncoming red tide. The town, already devastated, contains a couple of crossroads of strategic importance.
Quickly sending forward their light 45mm guns as an opening gambit, the Soviets prepare to advance their tanks under cover of their 75mm guns, firing down from a nearby hill.
As the battle begins, a quick shot of the town centre shows that this promises to be a very close game.
The Soviet guns engage the German 88's, deployed in the middle of an open field, but fail to achieve anything.
Meanwhile, the town remains in German hands.
The German 88's, firing in reply from the other end of the town, manage to knock out one of the few tanks that the Soviets had available for their attack.
But the Russian infantry take advantage of the confusion and the smoke caused by the burning tank, to advance towards where the German infantry await them in the town.
Meanwhile, another platoon of Soviet infantry assaults a battery of German anti-tank guns.
At the same time, the Soviet infantry poised to enter the town take cover from the hail of bullets sent their way by Herr Infantryman!
The Germans receive reinforcements: a pair of Tigers that must surely shift the balance of victory to their favour.
German infantry advances forward and expels the Soviets that had taken possession of their guns.
German armour begins to emerge from their hiding places.
The German 88 devastate the enemy artillery on the hill.
The German infantry unit in the town has been holding back the Soviet infantry advance.
But the Soviets, do not stand idly by, and throw their BA-10 armoured cars in against the German infantry.
On this occasion the German's patience in waiting for the Soviets to advance, combined with the tactics of hiding their armour and only sending them in to battle at the last moment, meant that they quickly threw back the helter-skelter Soviet advance despite the fact that it seemed at one point that they might lose the game.
In the end, the Soviets were left with much of their infantry bottled up in the approaches to the village without artillery support and with the only armour they had available destroyed at the beginning of the game.
A good German victory.
Burt, with some photographs from VIIII Legion