Megablitz: Operation Arctic Fox (Part 2)

DAY 2
The Battle for the North continues. This was the situation at the beginning of day 2. The Finnish 6th and my 196th Infantry division was forward. The XXXVI Corps troops that I controlled had now completely entered the table. The SS Nord was still back at Salla using the night turn to consolidated. I still had the 104th Rifle Division and 1st Tank Division to deal with.

As I moved my forces I tried to keep the roads as clear as possible so the SS could advance up.

My Reserve Infantry Regiment is about to cross the river, will the SS Deutschland regiment is beginning to push up.

As the Finnish 6th moved to attack the 104th RD it came under murderous bombardment from the Soviet SB-2 bombers.

My one consolation for this was that my fighter took out his LaGG-3, leaving my opponent with only the obsolete I-15s.

As the attack progressed the Luftwaffe provided support, but the Finns still suffered sever casualties.

Finally the Finns were able to overrun the infantry regiment on the hill.

Meanwhile in the North the SS Deutschland Regiment support by my 211th Panzer battalion ran in to the remaining regiments of the 104th outside the tiny village of Kayralla.

As the battle raged both the Luftwaffe and Red Air Force sent aircraft to support their forces.Our forces were however destroy the 104th RD.

Then in the North major breakthrough. The 6th along with elements of SS Nord catch the Russian artillery park. This attack resulted in the loss of almost all the 42nd Rifle Corps artillery.

Then the Finns attack the armor to the South, which consisted of the 1st Tank Divisions OT-26 flame tanks as well as the Rifle Corps separate tank battalions equipped with the new T-34 tanks.

Unfortunately the crews inexperienced on the new tanks which reduced their effectiveness. 

 The battle is bloody resulting in the loss of a Finnish infantry battalion. The Soviets lose all their new tanks.

In the far North my infantry cross the river and are meet by forces of the 1st tank division. They destroy the motorized regiment . I then brought my reserve regiment forward and overran the last of the Russians medium armor.

Just to South in Kayralla my panzer battalion forded the river to secure a bridgehead as SS Nord waited for the engineers to arrive and build a bridge.

Finally as night fell my medium bombers came into play and  manage to destroy the engineers that were trying to blow up the last bridge to Allaratti.

At the end of the day we were still making good progress. We were halfway across the map and 104th RD was destroyed. Now, all that was left was what remained of the 1st Tank Division. We couldn't rest just yet however. The engineers were dead, but bridge was still wired to blow. I post the last day's event in the next post soon.

Megablitz: Operation Arctic Fox (Part 1)

      Yesterday Christian, Ziggy, and I played a game of Megablitz. The scenario was operation Arctic Fox, also known as the Battle of Salla. This was the German's little known attempt to cut the Murmansk rail link to Leningrad. An interesting battle that was quit different from what most people think of the East Front. Did you know that there's an actual tactical reason for Russia invading Finland in the winter? The German's found that out the hard way. Here take a look at the map.

Note the many woods and Lakes.

Terrain is usually not a big deal in most Megablitz games. But in North Russia it was critical. When researching for this game, I found an old army manual on arctic warfare. While only a few dozen pages it was an interesting read on the effects that the time of year and terrain could have on a battle. In Finland and North Russia, the terrain favors the defender in the summer and this battle happened in the middle of July. So the German's were going to have a tough time of it. Here's what the actual table looked like.

The table prior to deployment.

 On the left is the small town of Salla. In the middle is Kayralla a one horse hellhole with no purpose but to be a dot on a map. In the upper right was the large town of  Allakuritti. The Germans had three days to take all three.

The forces in were as follows:
   German Forces
   XXXVI Corps, with:
           196th Infantry Division
              SS Division Nord (Substituted with SS Das Reich)
              6th Finnish Infantry Division
The Germans Luftwaffe had 2 fighters, 1 dive bomber, and 1 medium bomber

Russian Forces
  42nd Rifle Corps
       104th Rifle Division
       122nd Rifle Division
       1st Tank Division (Attached)
The Red Air Force had 3 fighters and a light bomber. The Russians also had the 72nd NKVD border regiment.

I ended up playing the Germans with Ziggy while Christian got the Russians. Ziggy hadn't played before, so in the interest of role-playing I gave him the less experienced SS Nord division.

Here was the initial deployment with infantry division and Ziggy's SS division right on the Finnish border (The string). Right behind the border was NKVD in their forts. The 122nd rifle division was set defend Salla as well as the nearby forest.

Further back the 104th rifle division and 1st tank division were set up around the tiny village of Kayralla.

We started the game with a pregame barrage, then one regiment each attacked the NKVD forts.The Red air force, sent light bombers but the German Me109s were there to met them. After clearing the nearby fort Ziggy sent the Deutschland regiment to take Salla. I sent my 211th panzer battalion to help. The attack was also supported by Dive bombers and Corps artillery. Despite all this the Russians would hold the town for most the first day.

A aerial view of the fight for Salla. Ju87s escorted by Finnish Buffalo fighters attack the while being countered by a small hoard of
I-15s

 As the battle for Salla raged on, my 196th Infantry Division cleared out the remaining NKVD forts.

Meanwhile the Russian engineers were blowing up bridges and making road blocks.

The 42nd's Corps engine battalions setting up near the 1st Motorized Brigade. They would have better luck set up roadblocks than blowing bridges

 My infantry then attacked the remaining enemy regiment in the woods. Being the last turn of the day Christian threw his entire fighter force at the dive bombers that had come to support the attack, but it was for naught as rifle regiment was destroyed

The Russian LaGG-3 as well as the Bi-planes attack the Luftwaffe. The 8 sided die is a SP marker.

 With Most of the 122nd Rifle division now destroyed, I sent one of my regiments with the AT battalion to secure two nearby bridgeheads.

Towards the end of the day the Finnish 6th Division arrived from the South. Ziggy now had a good grasp of the game so I gave him control of this unit as well.

At the end of the first game day things had gone well for the Germans. Salla was taken and most of the 122nd Rifle division was destroyed. Ziggy's 11th SS regiment was hammered pretty hard but in most other area's casualties were light. I'll posting days 2 and 3 of this battle at a later date.

Gnome Con Part 2

Here's the much late part 2 of my Gnome Con coverage. I started Saturday morning watching Mike's Distopian War's game, featuring the martian invaders.

While this was going on people were setting up for the Flames of War tournament.

I don't play Warhammer (In fact I try to avoid it like the plague now), but these miniatures were just too awesome.

My old war buddy Gonzo setting up a Flames of War army.

As usual there was a lot of Star Wars going on

Later I decide to check in on the Distopian War to find out we were all martian food.

Finally I got into a game of Star Fleet Battles, with me, Christian, Mike all playing different Romulian factions. The was also federation and an Orion ship involved. The objective was to recover a stasis box from an asteroid field.

Here's my K-7 Cruiser approaching a group of asteroids.

I also deployed my shuttles to help look.

Meanwhile Christian was deploying his own shuttles to check the asteroids, in the background the Orion ship can be seen.

Mike's brightly colored King Eagle approaching another asteroid with the Federation cruiser near by.

Mike finds the prize and brags.

He was then appropriately hunted down and destroyed.

The federation try to pick up the box, but was going too fast. Not so for Christian.

Christian escapes off board with the prize. Because we weren't using energy allocation the Plasma torpedo's were useless. All I could was fire a few phasers at his rear.

They were going to play another game but, I had to get to work. On the way out I managed to catch the iron painter contest.

This contest included such challenges as walking in place while painting...

...and painting with your fingers.

That's all for now, I'm not going to be doing much this weekend, but I do plan to have a Megablitz game next Saturday. See you then.

Gnome Con (Part 1)

Last weekend we had Gnome Con here in Savannah again. I was able to time off from one of my jobs so I come every day. Friday I was looking forward to Christian's Star Dust ground game. This was I miniatures system that he had made himself and he was promoting it at the con. Unfortunately because of bad traffic I arrived too late to join the first game and because I still had to work at night so I couldn't play in the second game. Still I did managed to get some good picture of the Red Guard fighting the Dogs.

Early in the game the Red Guard's VTOL was shot down. Troops from this crash would be able to climb the hill and activate the defense turret.

The dogs tanks and infantry moving towards one of the objectives.

Meanwhile the Red Guard's hover tanks occupy the other objective.

When one the locals was asked he said, "I only believe in one God and lives in that lake back there."

The Dogs combat walkers attack the hover tanks.

The dogs gunship arrives. This unit would go on to dominate the game.

The Red Guard hover tanks are attacked by the Dogs AA

Things come to a head as the dogs occupy the second objective, after holding off several assaults the Dogs would win.

Christian and his kids promoting the game. To the right is the Red Guard commander Ziggy.

Unfortunately for Christian, the planners at Gnome Con stuffed most of the miniature games in a annex with no foot traffic. Thus there a less people to see the game than there should have been.

If you're interested in Star Dust you can find out more at Christians blog at
http://skisgames.blogspot.com

or write at Stardustgame@outlook.com