Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

Turn 12 German



Not much to see here folks. I think the most exciting thing was the appearance of some StuG's so I've stuck a picture of them in. 2./StuG Abt 177 starts the scenario just north of Osinovka. Looks like its has been hiding behind Verkne-Buzinovka up until now?

Apart from that he is still playing the soft shoe shuffle with his units. Rotating them in and out. Except the tune I can hear in my head is the MC Hammer song.....you can't touch this........

So things seem pretty easy down here for Mike. No need to limber up any artillery, or move anything, or fire with any thing. Maybe its a Lionel Richie song I'm hearing.......easy like Sunday morning......

Whatever. The 2/20th and 3/91st undisrupted this turn but the 364th Tank Bn didn't. Bummer. Do I keep going NW  NE or go for Manoylin?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 12 German



Last map of Mikes moves. Three units in the north pulled back? Actually its four as there was another recon company further north?

2 units pushed up to fill the line south of Mukovkin? 

No attempt to rescue the cut off unit at Mukovkin? Unlike at Osinovka my units are undisrupted but most of them are still Ammo Low apart from the two infantry units 1/22nd and 2/22nd. So I should be able to get decent assaults. Not much else I can do.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 13 Russian



My moves above for the pocket. I lost only 1 man and 1 A/T gun due to defensive fire. I used the 1/40th to restores supply and managed to take out 20 of his men. I forgot to check at turn end to see if I had disrupted him. If it has then I will assault next turn. Hopefully the 3/84th will hold........

I moved the disrupted 2/84th away just in case he didn't disrupt.

I forgot to move the 184th HQ?? 

I've put the VP chart and Loss chart in this picture. You can see I had a good turn in terms of German losses. I'll cover these when I do the next few maps. As usual I lost a few tanks and some AA guns/vehicles.

Last maps in a few hours. Got to hit the beach at St Andrews.....brrrr.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 13 Russian



Three assaults here.

A) 371st assaults after decent fire results from the 1/20th  and 3/20th. Enemy unit is pushed back on group C after (NE/-2).

B) After artillery and fire support from the 358th Tank the 166th Motorised attempts an assault. It fails but the enemy takes heavy losses. (-7/-28) The 359th Tank moves up and wins the next assault (NE/-3).

The 364th and 370th maintain pressure on the centre. 

The 196th Division keeps up the firefights on the right. The 2/863rd takes the hits.

Slight progress but I'm sure Mike has everything in hand here.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 13 Russian



Another assault after heavy artillery pushes the Pioneer unit away and allows me to push a tank unit up against his artillery. The 650th hopefully has done enough to disrupt the enemy on the other flank. 

At Nizhnyaya the 3/893rd is hit and disrupted by artillery so that puts an end to any more attacks.....no point risking both units being disrupted.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 13 Russian



Well since he has left a unit for me to assault I hit it with all 3 adjacent units. 
The 2/22nd causes the most damage (-2/-60) but I move it south west after the attack. 
The 397th losses a T-70 in its assault.

The Motorised AA Bn losses 2 guns/vehicles to artillery when it tries to shoot up the cut off unit before the assaults.

The 182nd Mot Bn also receives an embarrassing Disruption result when it advances into a hail of artillery at Mukovkin.

The 1/22nd is rested and held in reserve.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 13 Russian



Meanwhile.........nothing happens.

[ComradeP]

Your blow-by-blow account of combat and losses is excellent as always, but I've started to lose sight of the big picture in terms of what the losses are at. Could you post a victory dialog?

[Plain Ian]

Sure no problem. I guess people prefer seeing the traditional VP dialogue. Mike sent back the turn last night. Here is the latest VP dialogue after the German player turn.



Here it is in spreadsheet format. My VP total is 36. Not the lowest its been but still pretty bad. To get a Draw I need 1,001 points? (I always struggle with PzC victory dialogues....can these be improved?) 

I'm about to lose another 700+ cut off men and I am finding it difficult to take any more VP hexes. So things will get worse before they get better?????



Will post Mikes turn shortly.

[ComradeP]

Your spreadsheets are works of art, it's just that I lost the overview for a moment as you posted turn 12 and 13 after the previous log, with only turn losses mentioned.

You indeed need 1001 points for a draw.