An early war Russian vs German Blitzkrieg Commander game

This is a game we played last Thursday night to try and see how an early war game of Blitzkrieg Commander would work. With a view to running a club campaign later this year. The scenario was a Deliberate Attack (p38 BKC) with the Russians having 3000 points split into 2 battle-groups and the Germans with 4500 points split into 3 battle-groups (one of those Jims Fallschirmjaeger with which I was destined to become well acquainted). The aim was for the Germans to capture the monastery within 12 turns, well they did it in 5! View of the Russian positions with the monastery the building on the left with the tall tower.
View of the Russian centre, with infantry (entrenched) out in front of AT guns and machine-guns.
On the Russian left, a reserve of tanks. Some T34s, KV-1s, a couple of T26's and 3 BT-7s. As much as possible, the idea was to limit the good tanks that the Russians could have and instead give them the light tanks which made up the Russian forces of the period. Models are 15mm and quite a lot of them are the Zvezda plastic snap-together kits.
The monastery, held by a large force of infantry, a machine gun in the tower and a tank reserve to the rear.
The German forces in the centre

Overall view of the table.
The Germans start the game off with Stuka attacks on the monastery. Russian AA fire damages the Stuka but the attack goes through.
The results of the attack, the red dice represent the damage (infantry can take 6 hits before being destroyed), the purple markers represent units which are suppressed. The defenders have been severely damaged and that was only the start of it. Eventually all the Stukas (the Germans had 3 in play) were shot down but they successfully disrupted the Russian defenders making it easier for the German ground forces to advance.
The German Fallschirmjaeger enter the table from the Russian right, steaming over the Russian infantry entrenched in the wood. It was at this point the Russian tank reserve should have moved to the right to eliminate the advancing paratroopers, however they fluffed their command rolls twice and the Soviet tanks remained where they were.
In the centre, the German advance is also successful. Coming down the road and forcing their way through the hedges. The Russian infantry fall back in front of them, trying to keep covering the road and delaying the Germans. The Russian machine guns move out into the road setting up a zone of fire, to try and keep the paratroopers away from the monastery.
On the right the Russian tanks get a move order and try a counter-attack, it is a dismal failure and the hedge is lined by burning BT-7s.
And its the same on the left, the German advance seems unstoppable.
The view down the road, as the Germans advance.
The Germans sweeping forward in the centre.
The Fallschirmjaeger advance toward the monastery, using the hedge as cover and supported by panzers.
Game over, the defenders break and it only took 5 turns.

Conclusions, well it all seemed totally believable. The Stukas provided flexible fire-power to aid their advance. It was not that effective but it did break up the Russian carefully laid out defences. This was the first game of BKC that I have been involved with that infantry really were important. The infantry combat was fast and brutal, units dying really fast. We even had a close-assault. The Russian BT-7s were almost useless, practically no armour save, easy to kill and with awful fire-power. The table was littered with burning Russian tanks, just like in the real war.

Blitzkrieg Commander 2 late war battle Russian vs German

January 1945 – Eastern Front
Scenario 4 Deliberate Attack
Jason and Simon/Oliver – 2000 points Late War Germans – Defenders (1000 points each)
Robb and Justin – 3000 points Late War Russians – Attackers (1500 points each)
This is a set-piece attack with the aim of capturing a terrain feature such as a hill, village, or a area of a town or city. The attacker has 50% more points available than the defender and may purchase assets for scheduled artillery and air support. The defender deploys first up to the table centre, may purchase one artillery asset per off table artillery unit, and may purchase field defences for fixed defence. The attacker should deploy opposite the defender using static deployment. (It also said Flank deployment but this would make it far to easy for the attacker).
The attacker should occupy the objective within 12 turns to achieve a minor victory and within 9 turns to achieve a major victory. The game is limited to 12 turns with the attacker taking the first turn.
Pictures of the game.
The German high command

The German defensive line starting their left and moving right


the centre, the hub of the German defense


and on the right, mostly infantry

All good positions, using cover but IMHO the tanks were too close to the front (and in the case of the Tiger on the hill, too far back) and invited defeat in detail, which is precisely what the Russian plan was.
Russian attack, we decided to throw everything at the centre and overwhlem the German defenders. There was also a nice road taking us straight to the hill (our objective) at the back of the table
.
The Russian forces were simple, just tanks with tank riders on the back (they would have looked silly being balanced on the back of the tanks, so you will have to imagine them).
The plan is going well with the IS2s heading down the road and already 2 German tanks are burning, whilst another has been suppressed and forced back from the hedge into the wood. The Tiger on the hill is shooting at us but has so far proved ineffective.

The plan goes horribly wrong when the advancing Russian tanks get their orders confused (roll a blunder)  and instead turn on the road trying to destroy the German infantry but blocking the road and exposing themselves to flank  and rear shots.


Its a mess, the Russian attack has stalled and under a hail of mortar fire and a German counter-attack (with the lone remaining PziV) Russian tanks are burning and the Russian infantry are being mown down by German machine guns.


 
But the hill is clear, the Tiger was hit, suppressed and forced to fall back, straight off the edge of the table. The Soviet objective is clear, all we have to do is get there.


Game over (I think it took 5 turns), we did not get to the objective but the casualties the Germans suffered meant that their forces broke and we won the day. On to bigger and better games next time

Blitzkrieg Commander Germans vs US

OK we experimented last night with an attacker/defender game. Scenario 2 in the book, 2000 points of late war Germans against 3000 points of (very) late war US (including M26 tanks and naval gunfire support).
In the game the US forces have to capture an objective within 8 turns whilst the defenders are dug-in and invisible until they either open fire or the attackers are within 20cm of them.
Sorry the pictures are not up to the usual standard, I used my phone camera for these.
View of the game, US paratroopers are moving through the woods on the left with the defending Germans set up in the road using the hedges as cover


Close up on the paratroopers


Centre of the German line, with the objective the small green field behind the hedges


On the left M26 tanks crush the German line

The game was won by the US forces on turn 5, simply by the Germans being slaughtered. IMHO a better defence would be groups of units in strongpoints rather than strung out in a line. Also better to have German infantry well in front, supported behind by longer range weapons.
The dug in units were hard to hit (needing 6's) but because we used the optional 'keep the wounds on' rule a unit could be hit over a number of turns and gradually 'killed', it would have given the defenders a slight advantage if excess wounds had been removed. No problem with length of game, it was over by 9pm (started at 7.30pm).
15mm BKC is obviously a hit at CACK probably because of the visual appeal of the models but it also is a very balanced game. We had been playing with 6mm but I think that players will be moving up to 15mm and we are buying some more terrain (including bunkers) to give a few more options.