WW2: 6mm World War II Project: Battle of the Little Volga River on the Ostfront.

 

German 7th Panzergrenadier Brigade Schleiffen vs. Soviet Union 1st Brigade The October Guard

In its opening advance on the Ostfront the 7th Panzergrenadiers were ordered to take the twin villages of Krilna-Kinsk that set astride the Little Volga in the Ukraine. The 7th was promised that the Luftwaffe had gained full air superiority in the area and that there would be no trouble from the Soviet Air Force. Indeed this held true.  Aerial reconnaissance showed no military activity in the area at all but intelligence pointed out that a Soviet brigade sized force was probably heading that way to plug the gap at the two bridges that crossed the Little Volga at Krilna-Kinsk. 

Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photograph of the battlefield.

The 7th Panzergrenadiers arrive.....

To find the October Guard Brigade on the other side of the river.

And to find Soviet Militia in Krilna....

And in Krinsk....

Done posting pictures.  Blogger keeps throwing the pictures back up at the top of the post vice where I keep the cursor. Makes the write up very difficult.  Both sides took heavy casualties. The 7th took 4 and was victorious as the October Guard lost 6 and both towns.  In fact the 6th element lost was that which controlled the village of Krinsk.  This game was very hard fought and at one point I thought the Soviets might win as they kept the bigger German tanks from coming across.  The 1st Infantry BN, 7th Panzergrenadiers paid a high price in men to capture the two towns.  In fact it was only due to the resourcefulness of the attached Foreign Volunteers Companies that made it possible for the 1st INF BN to accomplish its mission.

One last try at posting more pictures......  Go figure it worked this time.

Heavy fighting at the twin villages bridge.

German Armor falls back.

German Artillery continued its hail of death at the Soviet Engineers and destroyed them.

Last Soviet element goes down. German Foreign Volunteers capture Krinsk.

Principality of Huack: Moden Guards Conduct Mountain Warfare Exercise

Royal Cavalry Officer of the Principality of Huack.

Battle Cry: Battle of Pea Ridge March 7th, 1862

"The Battle of Pea Ridge (also known as the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern) was a land battle of the American Civil War, fought on March 6–8, 1862, at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas, near Garfield. Union forces led byBrig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis moved south from central Missouri, driving Confederate forces into northwestern Arkansas. Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn reorganized the Confederate army and launched a counter-offensive, hoping that a victory would enable the Confederates to recapture northern Arkansas and Missouri. In a two–day battle, Curtis held off the Confederate attack on the first day and drove Van Dorn's force off the field on the second day. The outcome of the battle essentially cemented Union control of Missouri and northern Arkansas. The battle was one of the few during the war in which a Confederate army outnumbered its Union opponent." from Wikipedia.

The battle started out with a few early Confederate victories but quickly turned into a stalemate. After a few decisive actions by the Confederates the CS Army looked to be on the verge of victory (5VP to 3.) However this is when Union Colonel Dodge (Union General Curtis' field commander on the Union center and right flank) displayed his tactical brilliance and ordered hit and run cavalry attacks in both the center and the Union left. Both attacks caused large casualties to the Confederates.

Confederate General Price feeling that victory might slip through his fingers despite his numerical superiority ordered his sharpshooters to kill Colonel Dodge and this they did with great expediency and bloody accuracy.

The US Army on the Union left in the bluffs above the battlefield charged and attacked the Confederate lines in another hit and run attack. This almost brought ruin to the Confederate right flank. At his command tent General Price and his officers gathered around carefully considering their options as it may well be their last of the battle as everything now teetered dangerously close to defeat (5VP to 5.)  It was generally agreed that Major W.E. Morgans cavalry unit (the last Confederate cavalry still operating as an effective unit.) should pull back to avoid giving the Union the target they needed to push the CS Army back South.  But Major Morgan and his officers pleaded with the Officers Council that if this was indeed their last fight then let it be a grand one and allow them to charge into the fray. Major Morgan would feint towards the last Union regiment left on the bluffs while the Arkansas 4th Infantry led by Lt Col Arthur C Butler led his regiment in a flank march attack on the same position. If in Major Morgans opinion his charge coupled with Col Butlers flank attack caused the Union regiment to route then his cavalry would at the last minute turn and attack the Union cavalry regiment in the bluffs. This is exactly what happened. Col Butlers Razorbacks smashed the Union soldiers atop the bluff allowing Maj Morgan to catch the Union cavalry by surprise and caused a great slaughter of their men and horses (two thirds of the Union cavalry was killed in the attack.) This daring action brought about the collapse of the Union left flank making General Curtis' position at Pea Ridge untenable resulting in a Confederate victory and the opening of Missouri to the Confederacy and the potential of placing Union General Grant's campaign in danger of being flanked from the West.

Naval Warfare '44 a Modification for Memoir '44.

I've been looking for a set of naval warfare rules for over a year now and have yet to find one that I like. I dabbled with a DBx/HotT variant but not much came of it. As I have been reading up on what others have done I found that some are dabbling with M44 for naval warfare. That sounds interesting so I gave it some thought and here is what I've come up with for my own possible game.

Alpha Testing
Shooting at a target in your ships front or rear arc -2 penalty. (PT & SS do not suffer this penalty)
Shooting at a target in your ships amidships arc at no penalty. (All guns may bare down on target. PT & SS cannot shoot amidship.)
Ship must move in direction it's facing. To conduct a turn move the ship to the next hex angle and reduce movement by 1.
Dice: Grenades & Tanks are needed for hits.  Flags work as in M44.
Scale: 1/4800

Ship Class
BB-Battleships: Move 2 hexes and fight. Range of 6 hexes. Fire power: 4,4,3,3,2,2 Armor 6
CG-Cruisers: Move 2 hexes and fight or move 3. Range of 6 hexes. Fire power: 4,4,3,3,2,2 Armor 4
DD-Destroyer: Move 3 hexes and fight. Range of 6 hexes. Fire power: 3,3,2,2,1,1 Armor 3
PT-Torpedo Boat: Move 4 hexes and fight. Range of 3 hexes, 3,3,3  Armor 1 May end movement facing any direction. Targets must be in PT front arc.
*SS-Submarines: Move 1 hex and fight, or move 2. Range of 3. Fire power: 3,3,3 Armor 1 Targets must be  in SS front arc. May end movement facing any direction.
*All surface warfare ships may only attack submarines in an adjacent hex. Only submarines can attack other submarines and not be adjacent.

Depth Charges: Adjacent hex. Fire power: 3
Torpedos: Range of 3 hexes. Fire power: 3,3,3

*All surface warfare ships may only attack submarines in an adjacent hex. Only submarines can attack other submarines and not be adjacent.

Haven't addressed these items yet but I do want to include them:
Aircraft Carriers (AC provide an Aircraft attack each turn?)
Aircraft (Maybe command cards?)
Coastal Guns (Maybe the Barrage command card.)
Kamikaze Attacks (Maybe a command card.)
Mines
Minesweeper
Generic Cargo/Troop Ships (Scenario objects?)
Communication Ships (Scenario objects?)

Command Cards:
Dig In - Removed or changed to allow the laying of mines.
Ground unit specific cards removed.

WW2: Memoir '44 the Liberation of Paris

Memoir '44: The Liberation of Paris - August 24, 1944

"Conscious of the highly symbolic & political importance of Paris, Allied forces initially planned to surround the city & wait for its capitulation rather than risk taking it, with the inherent costs of street by street fighting & obvious risks to the population.

Legend has it that Paris' garrison commander, General von Choltitz, was so moved by the city's beauty, as seen from his hotel room on the Faubourg Saint-Honore, that he chose not to carry out Hitler's order to destroy the city. He also arranged a citywide truce with the Resistance.

It was perhaps this last action which set the Allied commanders thinking that they could take he city instead of bypassing it.  Also, Generals Leclerc & deGaulle insisted the city be liberated to restore French national pride. The mission was, therefore, assigned to the V Corps with Leclerc to lead the attack. But the approach into Paris was by no means as easy as expected. Choltitz had used the city truce to prepare the defenses outside the city. He was from being ready to hand over the capital to the Allies without a fight.

Leclerc's Frenchmen attacked towards Paris at dawn on the 24th of August, in two columns.  The left column, under Colonel de Langlade, immediately ran into German defenses & was held up for hours in a firefight that saw the destruction of a number of German tanks. The right hand column, under Colonel Billotte, faced even more serious opposition & was quickly bogged down outside the capital by a series of strong points in several small villages.

That same night, defenses quickly evaporated when Choltitz ordered his troops to withdraw behind the Seine. The next day, August 25th, Choltitz surrendered to Leclerc at the Gare Montparnasse."

This was one of those rare times when the Solo-AI defeated me. I played the French forces leaving the Germans to the AI.  The Liberation of Paris was a hard fight for both sides but ultimately AI-Choltitz triumphed over Leclerc. Colonel Billottes column lost its entire armor force in their push towards Paris.

However Colonel de Langlades forces were right on the verge of capturing a victory medal by entering the outskirts of Paris when Billottes last armored unit went down ensuring a German victory. Medal count was German Forces 5, French V Corps 4.

Rural Bookstore Finds.

Found while on vacation in Missouri.