This game was hosted at Spring Fever, the early year convention presented by the Triangle Simulation Society in Raleigh, NC, in the war gaming "business" for around 50 years.
A bit of a delay getting started, but once fired up, things went much faster due to the play testing assistance from John McDonald, Mk II.
OOB for the German side, called Kampfgruppe Rorsch, started on blinds with a HQs platoon+a pioneer squad in Opels, a platoon of panzer grenadiers in 251s, a platoon of fallschirmjaegers mounted on Sdf 7s and a recce platoon with two kubelwagens, two MCs, two 222s and two Pumas.
OOB for the Soviets, 4th Rota of 91st Guards Rifles, consisted of a HQ platoon, two platoons of tank rider SMG infantry, and 4 attached 45mm L/66 ATGs. To go along with those, a full company of Guards Heavy Tanks (KV1s) came on, too.
I diced the OOBs prior to the game, the Germans got a Big Man 4, II and III for HQs, grenadiers and falls, the recce getting a IV, too. The Soviets got IV, and two IIs for the HQs and two platoons with a spare II assigned to the ATGs for shock removal and the tanks got a IV for the HQ tanks with none for the two tank platoons. The table turned out to be a 9x5, plenty of space for the troops and terrain.
Both sides moved up the edges of the table on blinds to start, and then the prime movers for the PGs and 'chutist' prime movers came off blinds and spotted a Guards infantry platoon in the open.
Not good. For either side as it turned out, as while the MG42 in the PGs ate the Guards up, they failed to move the 251s off and when the KV1s showed their muscles, stands of infantry touching the tracks were lost when the 251s took kill shots from the tanks.
Then the Germans scraped up a Tiger and Panther (minus cards in the deck to operate them, as noted earlier) and they deployed off their blind and took a hit or five while sitting there.
The recce platoon came off of blind and the Pumas lit up the first KV1 they shot at. The Pumas got another KV1 but the remaining tanks fired both up.
The remaining PGs moved out and were replaced by the HQs platoon as they had both 'schrecks and the pioneer squad. Also, the ATGs came off blinds (1 blind per pair) and so did a full platoon of Pzr IVs. In 15 turn of the cards, 4 ATGs, their BM and three of their trucks were gone between the HQs MG42s and the Pzr IV main guns (including a natural 17).
As seen in the next pic, the various forces started running around the table: the Germans to get tanks on the other side of the bridge to fulfill victory conditions and the Soviets working with the last of their re-enforcements (another platoon of Guards infantry riding 3 Shermans) and a flanking move to stop that nonsense. At the top right center of this pic you can barely make out two T34/76s, who's role in the game turned out to be taking hits from the 222s and 'schrecks, being reduced to no movement on activation for 3 straight turns.
On the other side of the board, the 'jagers hunkered down in the woods and held off the other platoon of Guards infantry and the HQ section, all shots being over 18 and poor due to terrain cover and units using activation points to take cover. Note, the Soviet brief was that the CO of the Guards Infantry wanted to spend the night in the house seen in the earlier picture, a two story house with little repute but friendly to officers.
And as the game drew to a closed (players committed to other games), somebody had to do it. So, I, replacing a Soviet player, took a Sherman with a knocked out main gun and rammed the Pzr IV that had made it across the bridge. They bounced off of each other, but I just couldn't resist the attempt. It was silly.
JohnAndDave45