Operation Winter Storm CoC AAR

I have begun playing the new(ish) CoC scenario booklet  "Operation Winter Storm" which portrays the ill-fated German attempt to relieve the encircled 6th Army in Stalingrad. The first scenario in the book is "the 0:430 to Kotelnikovo" which has a German train stopped by Russian partisans who are attempting to blow up the train!. 

This is the board facing south

The Russian partisans...

And the German panzergrenadiers

This view shows the German JOP's and the Russian eastern JOP's

The western Russian JOP's

The German train...I used a paper model from here

The Russians start by deploying their MMG

With a good view of the train

The Germans bring out a sniper to try and counter the MMG

The Russians' strategy is to bring out as much firepower as they can bear to create cover and let the engineers get to the train (a poor strategy as it turns out)

The panzergrenadiers deploy on the train...

and cut the partisans to pieces

The MG32 team deploys as well

Another panzergrenadier section charges (and breaks) the weakened partisan squad

The rest of the partisan forces deploy

but make little headway (disregard the stray casualty in front of the train!)

The Germans return fire very effectively

The Russian 60mm mortar is probably the most effective unit in the partisan force...they will eventually do away with the MG42

the panzergrenadiers make the ridge line and take out a Russian JOP

HANDGRANATEN!!!

The Russians have had enough...their morale falls to zero and they quit the field

The board at the end of the game. 

The Russians took very heavy casualties (16 KIA) and the Germans suffered few (6 KIA, most of them form the mortar). Trying to overpower the panzergrenadiers was not a very good idea. Being patient is the key with partisans, perhaps the Russians will have more luck in the next scenario "Kotelnikovo Station"...stay tuned to find out. 

Russian vs. Germans CoC

I haven't had the chance to play in awhile but I have acquired a new side for my CoC armies...the Russians make their debut thanks to a pretty good deal via TMP member BigJoeDuke. I was also able to add quite a bit of German stuff and a few bits of American armor in the deal. So a big shout out to BJD for hooking me up. And now for the AAR...

Somewhere in East Germany

The scenario is Attack and Defend pitting1 platoon of regular Soviets and a T34/85 vs. 1 platoon of green Germans and a leIG 18

The German JOP's...

The Russian side

Russian scouts put out feelers

Advancing up the right flank

A German lmg team posts up

The Russians decide to try the other way around

Keeping in cover

The infantry gun makes itself known

The Russian scouts are caught in the open

and sent packing

The rest of the Russki squad hunkers down

While their commander brings up some armor

And gets a manuever squad in place

The gun takes out the big armor (an amazing series of rolls, the gun needed a 10 to hit rolled a 12, then rolled 3 hits out of 4 dice while the T-34 rolled 0 saves out of 7!)

But the Russian infantry whittles them down and breaks the gun

A German squad tries to plug the hole 

And the Soviets begin to manuever arounded the wooded ridge

Another German squad tries to move up in support

but the exposed  team is pinned...

And broken

The Germans lose their JOP

And their morale drops to 2, making a victory all but impossible

The final butcher's bill was 10 dead Germans (including the senior leader) to 4 dead Russians (including a junior leader). I hope to start a Soviet camapaign using At the Sharp End soon...so stay tuned!

CoC Campaign Part V

Since the Germans gave ground the next scenario is the flank attack. Both sides are pretty shot up but the Germans have a wild card that allows them to place a bunker and MG42 on the board in addition to their regular support. For their support the Germans take minefields and barbed wire and a Infantry gun. For the American support their is a .30 cal MG and a M4 Sherman.

The board from the west

The board from the east

The German pillbox

A view of the German fortifications

The Americans deploy against the bunker and immediately begin to take losses

The Americans deploy their Sherman but do not support it with infantry...really dumb

The Germans spend a CoC die and take out the Sherman with a short range panzerschreck

The Germans deploy the Infantry gun

And a section of infantry

The American .30 cal comes online...

...and is highly effective

 

The German squad breaks

As does the infantry gun....

and the German morale

The Americans lose 3 KIA and 2 WIA and the Germans lose 5 KIA and 3 WIA. The stage is set for the final battle!