The Soviets massed for the attack.
My plan was for the assault engineers to go in first on the right.
The Nazi position looked sparse, but backed by some wunder weapons.
With the exception of the roads, all terrain was at least partial cover, if not hard cover.
We do have a house rule that units in hardcover that engage in fire, lose the cover's benefits.
My elite assault force failed its first activation.
The armour also stalled.
The CinC took over and ordered the armour forward.
Unsupported by infantry, this is what happened.
Next turn and still the assault engineers fail to activate.
On my left, where I had planned to go slow, I made good progress.
Unlike on the left which again failed to activate.
Turn Four was a litany of command failure.
But on the left flank, once contact was made,
Soviet mortars made short work of the defenders.
Finally things get moving.
However a close assault in the centre is repulsed.
The left flank bog down again with commands just not getting through.
And then this...
A command blunder sees the Soviet armour pull back.
Where's the NKVD when you need them?
But in no time the tanks were back at the barricade.
And the assault engineers were doing their thing house to house.
But it was hard going.
Soviet armour at the barricade was held up by this monster for a good while.
The way was clear for the Soviet armour to rush the bridge,
sadly the order did not get through.
And on the right the Soviets almost reached the objective,
but were held back by the concentrated desperate fire of the Hitler Youth.
And so close on the left...
Two of the Nazi commands had broken, but without the Soviets reaching any of the objectives the game was a draw.
BKC is a funny abstract system, but it certainly works.
Thanks Richard for organising the game. It's great to see all those fabulous minis on the table.
It is great to see all of the figures on the gaming table. You are certainly getting in a lot of gaming recently. Good for you! Not sure I like the look of wall-to-wall armor on the gaming table, though; just my personal preference.
ReplyDeleteI can't take any credit for getting these minis on the table. However I do normally game at least once a week.
DeleteI agree about the wall to wall armour. The starting position/layout was not so bad, but when the fighting started I wanted to maximise my fire power, hence that iffy grouping at the barricade. We dont allow a model to fire over a model (except for destroyed ones which for this game we left in place to aid the atmosphere). I think we tend to play one for one although the scale is more flexible (I tend to think of a model or base as a platoon). You always end up with the model taking up more ground space than it did . Our game with the armoured train was a classic example of this problem.
Looks like a fun game. I've been playing CWC lately, but have put in an order for some WW2 models so I can try out BKC.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Thanks. Command Blunders and the vagaries of command activations make for some fun. If Cold War Commander uses the same mechanics you will know what I mean.
DeleteI think I'll be playing this or a similar scenario when I get back from holiday, shame I couldn't be there yesterday. Those monster German tanks are certainly tough.
ReplyDeleteRichard pointed out that I failed to capture any pictures of the Hitler Youth and Volkstum. They were mainly hidden in the buildings. If you look carefully there is one HY in the first T34 photo, one peadot cammo guy in the second photo after that one and in the JSIIs at the barricade, there is a blurry Volkstum dude identifiable by his arm band.
Deletehistorically accurate then?
DeleteLOL - yes, I guess so
DeleteInteresting action, though one formed the impression of good planning being stymied by crook dice rolls - I mean chance events. A certain amount of that might be OK, but it seems to me that if it dominates the action, there is something wrong (unless you're playing solo, of course). But that's a personal view.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, these urban actions look like a lot of ... erm ... fun...
There was a negative modifier that applied to activating armour in built up areas and while only a -1, it did have an effect (and compensated for the lack of other movement penalties).
DeletePart of my problem was also trying to do too much with a command, particularly the left flank infantry.
I did have a bit of luck with my command rolls that is not recorded, but those initial failures probably caused the Soviets to draw.
Plenty of actions failed due to late arrival or orders etc, so the activation simulates that well, although it can be frustrating.