1201_01a Close Call solo

[Plain Ian]

Ok I'll start a new thread to try and keep my solo play through of Close Call (Moscow 41) going. I'm not sure how far I will get as its harder than I thought to play against your self!

I left the game at the Russian first turn. Here is the start of the German Player Turn 2.



Bad news. 5 of the 16 available artillery units this turn are not available. Also the I/29 has gone Ammo Low dropping it from A to B morale which is a bummer as its going to be required to assault this turn.



The defenders of Myakshovo despite being pummeled last turn are not disrupted! The German does however have 5 Battalions which are capapble of assaulting the town and also the 100 man Aufklarungs Bn 292. The German player will assault (multi assault if failures) and press on.



At Naro the German is dismayed to see that the Russian player has reinforced the northern hex with a second Guards Bn. The II/29 and III/29 along with the MG Bn will clearly make no headway here! A lost cause.

The other 3rd Motorised Group MUST now assault to try to take advantage of its early start.

II/8 will move to the flank and 19th Panzer will motor forward.

So lets play the turn and post the results.

[Plain Ian]

erman Results for Turn 2



Firstly here is 7th Division, its moved up but is not quite in position to make any attacks.



Here are the results at Myakshovo. The town was bombarded and 11 losses were inflicted. (it Rubbled after 4 losses) II/508 fired then assaulted. Despite heavy losses the Russian were pushed back north. 

The I/508th was able to take advantage of this and moved up and despite taking losses from the Russians in the woods assaulted the same Russian unit again pushing it further NE.

A third assault was attempted using III/508 and Auf 292 (map shows II/508 which is wrong) but this failed miserably. Artillery was used before hand but obviously did not effect the defender. 

The rest of the 292nd and 258th advanced taking losses. 

The Germans are quite happy with the situation. Losses were heavy in all 3 assaults but ground has been taken and the 292nd is well concentrated for further advances. Aufklarungs Bn 292 has taken the biggest losses but shouldn't really have been included in the failed assault.



The situation in the Naro-Fominsk sector is above. 

After using as much artillery as possible and again one round of ground fire the III/8 along with I/29 and the Pioneers crossed their fingers and assaulted the Russian Gds. Despite heavy losses (-71/-43) they won the hex. 

The MG Bn was brought across for support, leaving the II/29 and III/29 the short straw of pinning down the two Russian Bn's in the north. Despite the Russian terrain advantage they managed to kill -53 and only lost -26 between them in the fire fight. 

The 19th Panzer tanks were brought forward and were rashly exposed in my rush to get them deployed and in action as quickly as possible. 3 tanks were needlessly lost.

The II/8 moved south to free up the road. 

The Aufklarungs Armoured car unit and the Pz jagaer Bn were moved south to put ZOC on the southern hex and prevent the Russians moving easily. This was also a costly move as another armoured car was lost and two guns.

The 3rd Motorised have had a lucky break and now have a foothold in the city. The Germans dio not want this to become a war of attrition. They want to trap the Russians and use assaults to kill as many as possible. 

The II/8 has taken the most losses. Its fatigue 108 and down to 468 men.

VP's and losses (Note VP chart corrected 19/10 )



I'll roll the turn on tomorrow night and show the position from the Russian side going into turn 2.

[Plain Ian]

Beginning of Russian Turn 2



This is what the Russian player sees when he opens his turn. 3 units were disrupted during the German turn and did not rally. The 598th AT did rally.

With 2 hex visibility its obvious that the German is pushing everything through the gap. There is no sign of the 7th Division which may be moving to support? If the Russian had put some of the units of 17th Rgt or 113th Rgt on Patrolling then this would be obvious I guess.

The Russian player will be limited as to what he can do at Myakshovo.

Loss of the town hex at Naro is also a concern and the 3/1 Gd although in superb defensive terrain are looking threatened with being cut off? The 3/1 Gd is a liability because its disrupted and will have to be pulled back.

However looking at VP chart the Russian will be happy at the level of German losses and the fact that the German VP level is going the wrong way!

I'll post Game Turn 2 from my game against Eldar when I come back. Its a very different situation.

20/10/2017



Ok so here is the beginning of the Russian Turn 2 from my PBEM game with Eldar. He has adopted a more cautious broad front approach with 7th Division moving over to support the 292nd (but it's not yet in action) and the 3rd Motorised holding back from Naro-Fominsk.

He has managed to take Myakshovo and is actually showing a healthy 25 VP's. German losses are trailing the Russian losses at the moment. 

Clearly by attacking Naro-Fominsk early, German losses have been doubled. Some losses possibly could have been avoided especially the tanks and the armoured cars. Whether this is a better strategy than the one Eldar is following I don't know. I'll do another few turns of this solo playthrough to see where it goes.