Kursk! Another game of Battlegroup

 Last night I went to the club again for a game of Battlegroup. We are sort of just figuring things out, doing assorted games from the scenarios in the books. This time it was a Soviet attack from the Kursk book. 

Situation: 6 T34s were going to smash up some German armoured cars and beat up a platoon, then some T70s would come on, then 2 platoons of infantry. Germans would get some StuGs and another platoon of Panzergrenadiers as reinforcements later also.

I have only played Russians the one time. I did not use their special rules much. This battle lent itself to using the Stahl Stahl! rule - spend 1 order, roll 1D6 and move that many tanks a double move then have a free suppressing shot at the end. We didn't do that at first. We sat in the woods with six T34s and just took pot shots across the open. On turns 2 and 3 our six T70s (represented by other models) entered the table and charged up the table edge, risking off table 88mm shots in an attempt to take the village, which was an objective, and had been taken by some German armoured cars. 

We also charged some of the T34s across the ground, while leaving one troop on ambush fire in the woods to smash the StuGs when the arrived. Our mortar fire was constant on the Pak 40s and we managed to kill one and maintain solid suppression on the other. 

We also pulled two air strikes which didn't do much.

This was the troop of T34s who sat on the edge of the woods the entire game. They killed an armoured car first thing though.

This were the rough positions at the end of the battle. The two burning soviet tanks were actually knocked out by the Sdkfz 251 armed with a 37mm cannon hitting side armour. The StuG at the bottom ended up getting taken out also. 

These two armoured cars were destroyed also and we took the objective. In the end the Germans had suffered more casualties and were closer to their breaking point and we called it a night. The next move was to lumber our 2 platoons of infantry onto the table and slowly advance them across the table to be shot to pieces. 

It ended a marginal Soviet victory. I think we had armies that were too big for an evening game like that. 300-500 points is probably the sweet spot. 

This was one objective marker. A cool little diorama. 

So I am still convinced that 15mm is the way and I will be working towards building some armies over the coming year.