Really Rumbling on the Mius

[Dog Soldier]

Turn 1


The first Russian turn is restricted by all the Russian units that are fixed at start. These units are fixed to represent the initial Russian movements at dawn which were limited to advancing a few mine clearing engineer units, covering fire by artillery for those engineers and an initial Russian assault to take a forward trench position. (The successful assault is marked by a red star in the image above.) A short artillery barrage disrupted the German recon company defending the trench. An overwhelming force of four Russian battalions (maximum stacking) from the 12th Rifle Division (RD) then made the assault across the Mius and up the hill. This is a good position for the Russians. They will be able to attack either the bunker in the woods or the village next turn from the shelter of the newly captured trenches.

Dog Soldier

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Turn 2


Turn two the Russian juggernaut begins to move forward to exert pressure on the German front lines. Engineers move forward into four more hexes to begin the dangerous work clearing more mine fields. Another artillery barrage is followed by an assault against a Infantry company to capture another trench position in the center of the line. Further Russian movements are made to Bring up more infantry and the armor to bear on the points of the German line where the next turn’s attacks will take place. It is important in PzC to not only think about this turns objectives but to also move units to prepare for next turn’s attacks. Since it is best to not use direct fire by the Russian infantry I have focused on positioning the Russian infantry of the 127th and 130th RDs to make assaults next turn. Direct fire opportunities are forfeited to try and prevent Russian infantry battalions from becoming low ammo next turn with the resulting loss in a single morale level drop. That loss of a morale level drop would be a greater loss than any small gain from using direct fire at this point in the attack.

Note the AI made a clever move to retreat the still disrupted recon company from the village between the bunkers in its first turn. This prevented the Russian forces next to the village from assaulting the recon company. Such an assault would have the Russian infantry in the village and along with the other successful assault in the center a little to the south of the village would surround the two forward bunker positions. The German infantry company that retreated from the trench south of the bunkers will maintain supply in any case for the companies in the bunkers. However, a premature loss of the village to the Russians would make the job of isolating the forward center bunkers easier.

Dog Soldier

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Turn 3


Turn three sees the Russian spear points push deeper into the German defenses in the center. The German infantry company in the south remained in its hex from turn two. It had rallied from disruption. Soviet artillery and a single infantry unit in the trench stack were able to disrupt it at the beginning turn two. Thus the Russians assaulted it again with three of the four battalions. The fourth infantry battalion stayed behind because it lacked the movement points (MP) to be added to the assault after using its direct fire capability to disrupt the German company.
Russian KV tanks got a lucky disruption result against the Germans defending the wooded bunker (12,5). Two Russian battalions made the assault into the bunker even though it was risky because one of the Russian infantry units was low ammo. This made the entire assault go in at the lower unit’s morale level of “E”. The result was the bunker was captured. However the Russian hold on this hex is tenuous as one of the battalions disrupted and the other is still low ammo making the stack all E morale. This lower morale level makes the Russian bunker occupants vulnerable to an immediate German counter attack in this turn if the AI is aggressive. A infantry battalion of the 387th RD moves into the 2x minefield just north of the newly won woods bunker. Moving into the mines was risky due to the possible disruption result. The infantry made the move in good order. This adds another unit to a possible assault next turn on the German company that just retreated from the bunker should it stay in its current position. Such an assault would free the Russians in the woods bunker for further advances removing the German ZOC on their hex. Additional Russian forces following up can then move through the woods to positions next to the 50 VP location. All this might not happen if the Russians in the minefield are disrupted or fail in their assault. One just has to plan ahead and hope their units hold out in the German turn to make the best move next turn they can. We will see.
Soviet T-34s stack into a hex in the center where they can bring direct fire onto the German forward bunkers in the German turn and the next Russian turn. The Russian engineers moved one hex south to remove the last minefield in the center section to the German line. Three more Russian engineers move forward to remove mines in (12,3) or assault the bunker hex (11,4) if the German unit there disrupts in the German half of the turn.
Additional Russian troops of the 320th RD move forward sliding past the Germans in the bunker in hex (13,8) to set up to support and reinforce the spear point battalions of the division. No sense in wasting these troops assaulting the bunker until it is isolated. Bypassing it at this time is the best move. Additional Russian troops move up to follow the spear heads pushing into contact with the second German line of defense.

Dog Soldier