Look here for the Russian Purchases and Fortification placement for Day 4 (no fair peeking JR!)

Weather/EC: Overcast, Wet, No Wind

German Purchases for Days 3 & 4 (that we know of):

3 x Rifle Company

1x Sturm Company

Pregame thoughts

The board edge opens for the Germans on the 21st down to A22. This worries me so I plan to make life difficult for Rob if he enters here. Jim and I suspected that they would buy armor and OBA to try to sneak in behind the factories and pinch them off without a big fight. I set an AT gun B22 and an ART in J21 (later found out this was illegal). About a company of troops are in position to fight any entry here along with a number of Cloaking Dummies. On Jim's side, the Commissar's house is defended by an ART and INF and has a line of mines strung out in front of it along the AA15-EE15 road. The center is held by the rest of our forces and the remaining guns and the OBA spotters. Jim's spotter is on the roof in U17 and mine is on the roof in J17. The fortifed buildings are strongly held and supported by HMG's and MMG's and the big factory contains most of our Militia. A token force begins in the O5 factory. Their orders are to burn the building as soon as possible and pull back. I also plan to burn the B18 building and have my 9-2 here to ensure it happens. Jim hopes to set a fire in X13 and get to spread up into the Chemist's Shop. We position the Mol-P's to help the leaders. Hopefully we can give the German's a great bloody nose like on Day 2.

The Germans setup strong on my side from the B13 building around to the O5 factory. No tanks are visible yet. Large stacks are behind the Chemis'ts Shop, intending to go in and make use of its fortified locations no doubt.

Turns 1-5

This painful to write even now that the Day is over. It went 8 turns.

Well, this game started on June 13th and ended on September 12th. Unfortunately I did not write the AAR as it went along so I'll be lumping the first few turns together.

On my side, the Germans began pushing hard down the F hexrow along the railroad tracks. They achieved a great local superiority of numbers and kept pushing my defenders back, never letting me get a chance to solidify the defense. Their push west of the tracks was ended by the successful fire in B18 and the large number of ? and Cloaking counters. Unfortunately, this meant their attack turned into the factory area where they could gang up and move in on my troops slowly but effectively. The F hexrow was taken up to F15. They also pushed hard toward the L12 factory but were stymied by the Fortified Locations in I12 and K10, which Rob could not take and even force the defenders to break.

On Jim's side, the Germans made their slow way through the mines around the Chemist's Shop and began setting up kill stacks on the first level. The mines slowed them considerably as JR tried to find paths through the hexes. JR also pushed down the Volga bank, threatening the AT Ditch.

On the defensive side of things, it did not go well. I lost my OBA module in turn 1, drawing two consecutive red cards. This would set the tone for things on my flank for the whole game. I got the fires burning in O5 and B18 and pulled out of the O5 factory. My troops sat tight and tried to hold concealment for as long as possible as the German swarms approached. I grudgingly gave ground along the F hexrow and lost several squads to large firegroups that Rob formed. I transfered a few squads from the B18 area to the F hexrow defenders but was wary of taking too many troops away if Rob should suddenly have reinforcements enter. Things looked reasonably intact through the first three turns but there were easily as many German squads as I had Russian squads. My rooftop mortars were taken out quickly by MG and Mortar fire and my INF gun in J13 only got a couple shots off before the crew finally was broken and kept DM'd.

On Jim's side, his OBA got a mission in on the Chemist's Shop but JR guessed the spotter's location and Tim the Enchanter (the 10-3) quickly removed the threat of further OBA attacks. The attackers on the Volga made good headway to the GG13 area but were turned back. JR didn't make any moves toward the large factory but pushed south along the orchard road and through the shellholes but were halted by the defenders. Jim got the fire going in X13 and it slowly made its way toward the Chemist's Shop but the Shop itself would not catch fire.

To this point, the Germans had achieved a 1.25 to 1 ratio in CVP and the Russian position was still looking strong. The game did not end on Turn 5.

Turn 6

Things took a decided turn for the worse in turn 6 for the Russians. My defenders around the L12 factory and fortified buildings were getting fewer and fewer as broken half squads were picked off by a 28FP firegroup led by a 9-2. Rob was right up against the factory and the fortified locations and finally managed to get some troops into CC in M10 with my defenders. M10 would become the Hex of Death this Day. They attackers captured a Militia squad with a MMG there and were quickly broken by fire from an HMG in O10 and one German squad fated. The H15 Fortified Location fell with just one shot by the defenders. Rob broke the squads in the building and captured it before I could reoccupy it. On Jim's side, the Germans didn't make many moves forward but were content to chew up Jim's troops with three large firegroups in the Chemist's Shop (two 17FP groups and a 24FP group with Tim).

The fire in B18 took off about this time and the building was soon engulfed in flames, pushing my troops there away from the fighting around the F16 factory and covering the sewer entrances. Oops. To make matters worse, a Mol-P in F16 self-destructed and set the factory on fire also. The fire in O5 by now had the whole factory covered in flames. The game did not end on turn 6 :(

Turn 7

Turn 7 was more of the same on Jim's side, though Jim was able to mount a local counterattack and recovered alot of ground back toward the sunken road. The Chemist's Shop still didn't burn though.

On my side, the hex of death claimed more victims. Rob brought in 2 x 548 and a 467 to retake the MMG. I countered with a hero, 628 and 447. The 628 and hero died and took the 548's with them, leaving the other squads to continue fighting. My defenders in the Fortifoed Locations of I12 and K10 finally were broken and forced out and the locations captured though a Berserk 447 in K11 held the Germans up there. By the end of turn 7, I had 5 squads defending the front line from J18 to K13 to M10, and facing me was about 15 Germans. If the game didn't end if could spell disaster for the factories. Jim threw a 6 for the end of turn roll.

Turn 8

Rob opened turn 8 by breaking two of my defenders in I12 and J14 and pushed his troops forward into the factories and rubble. I lose a total of 6.5 squads to surrounded and shot up broken troops in their turn 8. Rob fed more troops into the hex of death, 2 more 548's. They only managed to CR the 447. JR tried to solidify his lines and stopped Jim's counterattack at the sunken road. The flames along the X hexrow hindered alot of fire towards the Russians on that direction. JR tried to attack downthe V hexrow and got a DC toting 548 next to a large stack of Russians and threw the DC. The resulting blast Pinned the Russians and broke the 548.

In our turn, I just tried to keep my casualties low and moved forward some concealed Reserves that had activated to pick off German troops that were too far forward. Rob wisely broke these troops and pulled back some. A 527 had gone Berserk in O10 and charged in the melee in M10 and the Berserk squad in K11 died trying to cover some broken Russians. The Hex of Death claimed both 548's and the 467 was CR'd while 527 and 237 died. All in all, 5 German squads and 3.5 Russian squads and a Hero had died in M10.

Postgame thoughts

The length of the Day hurt us badly. If the scenario had ended on turn 6 or 7 I would have kept at least a half company of troops, maybe more. Still, I think Rob was too conservative in his last turn rush to grab territory. He fired at least one third of his squads facing my few defenders. He would have done better to totally forget firing and rush everyone as far forward as possible. Sure he might have taken losses but he could have grabbed half of the K17 factory. As it is, I got the J15 rubble hex back and the trench in I16 as well as about 5 hexes of the L12 factory.

End of CG Day activities:

Total Russian casualties are 79 CVP.

34.5 squads (34 actual squads and 1 CVP for a captured HS)

2 leaders (2 x 7-0)

2 Guns captured

German Casualties are 47 CVP.

20.5 squads

5 leaders (1 x 9-1, 2 x 8-0, 2 x 7-0)

German Victory - we didn't even bother tallying up the total number of buildings they captured, they had the required number on turn 4. I'd guess it was around 40 locations though.

Click here to see the full size picture of the perimeter.