AAR 1941 Eastern Front: Surprise Encounter Northwest of Rossienie by Mark Luther

Soviet pregame discussion

David F (new player) and Doug discuss crushing the Fascist invaders. I wanted a game that would involve some big Russian tanks and the ex-Czech tanks of 6 Panzer Division, so I decided on the big Soviet counterattack around Rossienie, Lithuania in June 1941. The scenario takes up after the 6 Kradschutzen Battalion had already been overrun and had streamed passed the German artillery battery set up on the table. This was 9 Batterie of the III Artillery Abteilung of the 6 Panzer Division. Four 100mm k18 guns are deployed on a slope about a third of the way in from the near table edge. The Soviets come in on the road near the top right corner.

Soviet blinds come in

This is a pretty flat area with grain fields, drained by numerous ditches. Up to now this has been a bigger restriction on Soviet movement that the German units. First units coming in are the dreadnoughts of the 3rd Tank Regiment. David had two KV-2s and seven KV-1s to start with. His mission was to drive across the table.

KV-2s

David led with these monsters. They are pretty well limited to road movement. We had a Soviet bog card in the deck and the ditches also limited their path. I also was going to limit their turret turning to level ground.

9 Batterie under fire

Only two of the 100mm guns had a good line of sight on the approach road. Brian decided to move the other two guns up to the road that the Red tanks were using. The race is on.

There is no front

When the artillery is under direct fire, you know that something bad is happening. Unlike that other WWII rule set, that encourages people to 'buy' artillery, if the big guns are on the table in IABSM, then you're in the middle of a disaster.

The behemoths get closer

The KV-2s are leading more large tanks. The Blind is for some of Davids trailing KV-1s. Brian can see that there are more tanks, he just can't tell the difference between KV-1s and -2s. As far as he is concerned they are just BMFs heading his way!

Two guns go to the right

Brian is trying to get the two 100mm guns set up right in the path of the KVs. They had to go up a slight rise to be level with the road.

The heavy tanks are all here

The Soviets managed to get seven KV-1s all the way to the centre of the table without running one into a ditch. One of the KV-2s however did breakdown. Meanwhile Doug is running the T-28s of the 2nd Battalion precariously tight up the road. It looks like Brian's redeployed guns have lost the race as the line of KV-1s is plastering the German guns directly in front of them.

Lots of big tanks here.

it would be a great time for some Stukas to swoop down...but alas, they are busy far to the east.

The panzers arrive

6 Panzer's Kampgruppe Koll attempts to come to the rescue. This was made up of units from the 11 Panzer Regiment, 65 Panzer Abteilung, and was able to assemble three Panzer II, nine Panzer 35(t)s, six Panzer IV-Ds and some grenadiers in Sdkfz 251s. Brian ran them up and through the village to try to get on the flanks of the Soviets. Here are the Panzer IIs heading for the T-28s.

Panzer 35(t)s among the guns

The HQ group of Panzer 35(t)s moves through the remnants of 9 Batterie, offering some protection against the KVs. The two guns that were sent to the right, were taken out pretty quickly by a combination of HE and MG fire from the Soviets. Three of the KV-1s got across one of the ditches without incidence (top of the picture) but the company CO's tank got stuck.

T-28 vs Panzer II

Pretty even match actually, especially since one of the tailgating T-28s was disabled in a rear end collision (top right). But the panzers really need to get a higher tank kill ratio to pull this game out.

And now BT-7s appear

As soon as the Panzer IIs took care of the T-28s, some BT-7s came on the table and started a run to the right. Doug's still likes to group his tanks too close together:  looks like another collision is going to occur.

T-28s and Panzer IIs reach a level of mutual destruction

More panzers are coming around through the village though.

Batterie 9 is gone

They did manage to take out a couple of KVs. Should've gone to the left instead of the right with the two guns though. More Panzer 35(t)s coming on the table. They have little chance against the KVs unless they can get around the flank.

KVs turning to face the panzers

David turns his tanks to the right to face the panzers heading through the village.

The shot that ended the game

The thing to keep in mind when playing IABSM is that the scale is pretty much 1/300. So when the game is played using microarmour, what you see is really what the actual ground scale is.

Bunching units together is rarely a good thing. Here, Brian crammed four Panzer 35(t)s into a confined area, so when the centre tank suffered a catastrophic explosion after getting hit by a 152mm shot from a KV-2, all tanks within a couple of inches take hits.

So at this point Brian has lost half his 100mm guns to a bad move into the path of the Soviet tanks and half his Panzer 35(t)s to a single explosion.

The platoon of Panzer IVs does have a tank ace, so that could stop the Reds, but then maybe not. Doug still has some more BT-7s that are just now coming on the table. There is also a weakened company of halftrack mounted panzergrenadiers coming on table.