Defenders of Calth: News from the Front Lines

This is a second part for my Bolt Action experience at Huzzah!! 2019.

Day two - Saturday - I'd signed up for two sessions - Stalingrad - Pavlov's House and Stalingrad - Tractor Factory. Both of these are "mature" well developed games that I'd originally played in prior game systems. Basically multi-player, 4-hour sessions! It was going to be a full day! Everything was provided by the session organizer, so all you had to do was show up and play! (Some of these pictures are attributed to Dave Shuster and Others who attended and led events and I borrowed them from our group's Facebook page! On day two I took very few photos! Just threw dice!

Game #1 - Stalingrad - Pavlov's House.

This game is based loosely on historical events, and largely praised by the Russians, where a "loose knit" infantry platoon led by Pavlov kept the Germans from capturing a concrete / brick and mortar apartment block on a hill near the river in Stalingrad. The "house" provided a great observation point for all of the roads in the area.

Here is a quick link to some cool factoids and a picture of the real location:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_House

Overall, there is some historical vagueness about this site, and more recently some Russian sources don't credit the leadership to Pavlov at all...

I digress. If you go and see some of the Huzzah!! event photos you will see plenty of people took photos of this set table (it looks amazing and very similar to the b/w photos). The table had a large 3 section, 4+ story building in the middle, with a large brick building to the west (short edge) and ruins along the north (long) edge. Some photos are posted below with captions...

Our game had three of us as Russian players to defend the house. Our win condition was that at the end of the game we'd still have at least one unit remaining in the building. We had the equivalent of three platoons of infantry. We'd start the game with one platoon (led by Pavlov) in the building - with his own MMG and ATR support. Our other platoons would be on the western edge, to advance and support the building defense. As a team, we assigned our most crazy and experienced player to defend the building. Myself and our third player would advance in support, both feeding him reserves and pounding away with our support weapon teams (mortars, MMGs, and snipers).

There were 5 players as Germans - and their force was mostly assault infantry units, with lots of MMG, sniper, and mortar team support. Thier team deployed their units in a big U, covering the approaches to the building on the northeast, east, and southeast. All they had to do was get in the building and clear out the Russians...

From the get-go, the German assault faltered. As they charged the large open space to the building, our Pavlov attacked their units like a madman, putting out as many pin markers as possible - our team strategy was he'd use all of the order dice before our reinforcements would do anything. Our tight strategy and decision making as a team was critical. The German team assaulted seemingly as individuals...Once we got all of order dice used at the building, our reinforcements focused on running two paths to the building. One of my squads (untested conscripts) headed around the brick building to attack the Germans directly - while the more experienced units and officers headed for the communications trench feeding the rear access to the building.

In turns 2 and three, the Germans made contact with the building along the southeastern walls, and started efforts to assault their way in. All the while under fire from our reinforcements and support units in the large brick building on the west. The storm assault units all seemed to have flamethrowers, SMGs, and other elements for a successful assault.

By turn 4, German units occupied the first floor, but Russians were above them and our reinforcements arrived to start assaulting back in from the west side and basement. In once case, a recently successful German squad in the first floor western end of the building had assaulted in to clear the floor, only to be counter-assaulted by a Russian infantry squad (from the south corner), eliminating them too! Then a third squad assaulted in (from the north corner) and eliminated the Germans!

By the end (turn 5) The Russians were starting to take the building back.WIN for mother Russia!

Postlude
In my own tactical assessment, I postulate that the German side lost because of a lack of tactics in two areas:

(1) They did nothing to prevent the Russian reinforcements from arriving.
(2) They attacked piecemeal, in turns 3, 4, and 5 and the lack of coordination blocked themselves from getting more units in the building.

If I'd been on the German team (going with my philosophy of making sure everyone in a multi-player game has a task) - I'd have done the following: (1) concentrated all of the support teams in the ruins on the north table edge - giving them cover and full capability to concentrate their fire on the length of the house and on the gathering Russian reinforcements. (2) Direct half of the German infantry to get after the Russian reinforcements and block them from getting into the building; (3) direct the assault troops (the other half) to take the building ground floor and work up with working supporting fire from the north.

Overview looking "east" - Pavlov's house is the building in the distance.

Russian reinforcements moving out to help Pavlov's platoon

Germans charging the house and being cut down by the Russians inside...

Game #2 - Assault on the Tractor Factory
Another game based loosely on historical events. Here the Germans were to assault and clear the Russians out of the Tractor factory complex in Stalingrad - again, Russian stories abound of how the plant manufactured and pushed T34's unpainted and out into the battle right up to the German assault.

This was to be another multi-player game, about 4 hours, 3 layers per side. Again the terrain was awesome, including even rail cars bearing T34 turrets and other small details that made the game awesome.

For the most part, each player received about the same - HQ unit, 3 squads, and support. Each Russian platoon gained an additional squad of conscripts free per their special rules. IIRR I had a ATR team and two flamethrower teams. As before, all German assault squads had flamethrowers in them...extra MMG teams, mortars, etc., and to make things more fun, the Germans were supported by a large barrage of smoke. The win conditions were for the Germans to remove all Russians from the main building for a win. Anything else was a Russian win. Deployment was similar to a meeting engagement, but the Germans started with the smoke already heavy in front of the main building, and each Russian player was allowed to start with a single unit on the table. I started with my ATR team in cover up high and no vehicles to shoot at.

Casualties were huge on both sides. I was deployed/concentrated on the right of the main building, but did send one Russian SMG squad and the two flamethrower teams into the building. My own goal was first to have a great time, second to distract the Germans, and third, to have units close enough to run back into the building on the last turn to support the win. It was a lot of tasks! On our left and center, things may not have been as organized, but it all worked as we talked our way through it.

By turn 2 the Germans had crossed the table and were all clustered in the smoke outside the main building. By turn 3, they started sending units piecemeal through the front door, but largely were either milling around in the smoke or were distracted to the east and west by our other units.

By turn 4, it was a bloodbath in the building (or really bad BBQ) as German assault units used a lot of flamethrowers to gain entrance through the front door and windows along the south and east sides of the building.

In turn 5, my surviving units ran back into the building. The Germans tried to get us all out and failed, and the game went down to the last dice roll.

Another Russian WIN.

Post Mortem
This was a great pitched battle and really fairly played. We "Russians" had a plan - distract and keep enough around for a last turn spoiler. Sure, we had some moments of bad tactics on the ground - on my end, I sent in a squad through a breach in a wall on the far west to shoot up and assault a weakened German squad, only to be shot and flamed to a crisp by the following veteran German assault squad. We had similar issues in the building - I totally failed in a activation roll for a flamethrower team that had pin markers on them - to see the team assaulted on the next turn and get removed from play. For the most part, the ATR team stayed up high and on ambush, taking potshots at any German infantry in view. I think at the very end (time called) we Russians had about 12 models left on the table, while the Germans probably had 50.

Similar to the game prior, if I'd been on the German team I think the best path to Victory would have been to flood the building with assault troops as fast as possible, and work to cut off any Russian reinforcements. At times, German MMG and sniper teams were just milling around in the smoke, rather than lending support. The lack of a hard hitting assault kept them from really achieving the victory they needed. Overall, if the Germans had been more aggressive, their far-better infantry would have taken the building and then dealt with us piecemeal - aggressive play on their part would have completely undone our distraction strategy.