A German Strasse Romp.

Wednesday 30th May

A Little Town in Germany

With much building potential

And open spaces.

                                   
                                          Tonight's game seen us romping through the streets of some late war German city involving hordes of late war Soviet gangsters eradicating local resistance in their own ruthless way.Well that was the main idea as the game didn't quite work out that way.

Good Local Government

With an excellent transport system

And excellent drainage facilities.

                                               Colin Jack had put together the game and when the rest of us arrived found ourselves confronted by a small board already set up with buildings abound.

Donald checking for his not oft seen wallet.

Far from the sea.

Big bully,

"Spread out in a bunch"

                                                  The forces were divvied up and I found myself teamed up with Bill Miller under the guise of the defending German forces who were opposed by these two Soviet commanders Comrades O'Brienski and chief skulker himself Comrade Adamski(sounds like a 90's pop act.).I didn't give us much hope as we were a hotch potch band of Volksturm and stragglers from the navy and airforce.Our only plus factor was that one of the Volksturm squads were sewer workers so we would be able to pop up on certain parts of the board to hopefully be able to shoot the invaders in the back.Well that was the plan sure to last till the first bullet goes off.

Don't move back.

Another one of Colin's unusual toys.

Another bully appears.

                                                       Our plan was to hold the line and fall back towards the government building taking as many of the bad guys out as possible but not having strong forces I wasn't holding out much hope.

"Aha! Surprise!(in German)"

Oh S**t

S                           Most of our lads were put into ambush awaiting the Soviet onslaught which wasn't long in coming well at least from Comrade O'Brienski whereas Adamski was as usual testing the waters toes first.

Going for the jugular.

Factory workers going about their normal day.

The much diminished Soviet squad.

Directing operations from the Rathaus roof.

Behind the Soviet lines.

                                   The Soviet infantry were  the first to appear hoping to draw fire and be able to pinpoint the defenders positions.as soon as they came within range we opened fire which made the Soviets duck but nothing really else as we found out when they returned fire and caused casualties all over the place with first our Luftwaffe squad and then a Volksturm squad disappearing into thin air.

Packing a punch!

In plenty of cover.

                                          To add insult to injury Dave brought on  an assault gun with a very big gun which proceeded to pound the building where my sailors were ensconced whittling them down in the process.The only good thing was that squad were still hanging on at the end of the game.

Reversing up an alley

                                  On the other Soviet flank Donaldski's infantry decided to attack my defended positions which he succeeded but lost three quarter of his men in the process.A pyrrhic victory.

But still able to lend a hand.

                                           After consulting with Feldmarschall Miller we decided to bring on some armour to try and level the game and it came in the form of a captured T34.This turned out not to be the answer to our problems as it couldn't shoot for toffee  

             
                                                After the Soviets brought on their second tank we decided to our ace and had our sewer squad materialise behind the afore mentioned tanks hoping to dispatch them and disappear back into the sewers.Fat chance as their only attempt resulted in taking some paint from the rear of the newly arrived T34.Before we got a chance to disappear back into the sewers Dave placed some of his reinforcements right on the table right into the rear of our sewer rats result an awful lot of machine gun fire and the decimation of our sewer rats.It looked like it was going to be a long evening.

Our unused SS squad.

                                   Our T34 soon attracted the attention of the Soviet tanks resulting in it reversing into cover to lick its wounds and in the next two turns found itself reversing even further.Meanwhile Donaldski had managed to overrun my defenders in the local factory after first softening them up with mortar fire.The only saving grace for us was that our tank had reversed enough to start engaging Donaldski's invaders.

Close of play.

                                 Our machine gun squad was the next to vaporise with a culmination of machine gun and sniper fire.

But still hanging on.

                                          We finally had some luck as our Nebelwerfer 'Heulende Kuh' for once decided to hit something and it was well waiting for as it destroyed an entire infantry squad embedded in a building.This seemed to take the sting of the Soviet assault and although they were in possession of a few buildings including factories they came nowhere near or hauptquartier in the government building so the game fizzled out to a draw much to the dismay of the Soviets.
                                                    A great game played out in the usual friendly style with only slight bickering between Donald and myself.
                                         All figures,scenery and scenario provided by our host Colin Jack who provided us with an excellent lamb dinner with the actual provision of the lamb being another story in itself.
                                  See you all when I see you.