Irregular(s) Wargaming : Into Darkness-Scenario 4 Part 2-The Rapid Advance

After the initial tentative push, the Axis forces now increased the pressure. The hottest fighting continued in the center of the forest in an open depression in the ground, now gaining the sobriquet “The Bloody Bowl.”

The Russians were putting up stiff resistance and German casualties were mounting. If the Axis forces were going to capture and wreck the withdrawing Soviet army, they were not going to do it here.

Thus it was that the Axis refined the plan and decided on a left flank wheel that would attempt to cross the river and try to cave in the Soviet right.

While the Soviets were trying to hold the middle, and had deployed a majority of their forces there, the right flank was less heavily guarded as all three Material Tokens were to the left of the river. The Germans used this to their advantage. Quickly, a pair of infantry squads with support from a tripod mounted MG 34 and a 38T grabbed the two Jump Off Points on the near side of the river. The rapidity of the advance surprised the Russians and left them with only one Jump Off Point on the field and no presence to the right of the river.

The Rapid Advance.

This wasn’t necessarily a doomed ending for the Reds as all three Material Tokens were opposite the river and still protected but it shrank the defensive pocket and hurt morale due to the lost JOPs.

On the opposite side, the Hungarians had identified the marker in their front as a Material Token and made a push for it, only to run into the Old Beast. Almost obsolete, but with so many turrets, they were superfluous, the T-28 tank was a lumbering anachronism. Now, it lumbered through the woods and straight at the Huns.

The Hungarians were shelled. Adding injury to injury, a nearby Soviet infantry squad poured fire into the hapless Huns. They couldn’t stay where they were, so the Hungarians ran by the tank and into heavy brush, while trying to draw straws to assemble the tank hunting team. Before they could charge their satchels, the mighty T-28 pivoted and amputated the Hungarian squad leader’s arm with a tank shell. The squad was now pinned and could only cower.

Think it sees us?

The Soviets successfully withdrew the Material Token that was under the tank and pulled it 6” closer to salvation at the friendly table edge.

Elsewhere, the Hungarians and Soviets battled to a stalemate around a second Material Token. Using the only Jump Off Point left, the Soviets deployed two (!) Maxim Machine Guns to shore up the woods directly to the left of the Bloody Bowl.

The Hungarians tried to match this firepower and advance on the Soviets, but it was not going to be easy.

They’re in where?

Back in the middle, the KV2 sent a shell through the woods and knocked out a 38T that forgot to duck. The formerly Czech formerly tank spewed oily smoke, which darkened the already dark forest further.

It was then that things started to heat up. The Germans on the Axis left had made their swing. Two squads rushed across the rail bridge while a third skirted the left of the bowl.

Game Note: in COC there is the possibility of seizing the initiative by activating in successive phases by rolling sixes. This could allow a player to act twice in a row, or in rare instances, three times. Tonight, one particular German player seized the hell out of the initiative , allowing the Germans to race across the (unguarded) rail bridge.

The force with which the three German Squads slammed into a single Soviet squad, erased the hapless Soviet squad from the field. The KV2, which was very close by was effectively distracted by a second 38T that has snuck across the river to the rear of the Soviet tank.

The 38T missed the shot and paid dearly when a T-26 arrived on the field behind the Czech tank and one-shotted it by firing a shell through the back of its turret.