Since my wife and kids are out of town for a few days visiting her mom, I went to War Horse Farm for “FusonCon,” a gaming day with some of the folks from the Frederick, MD, and Gettysburg area. We played Chris’ Look, Sarge, WWII game in the morning and a Pulp, GASLIGHT game in the afternoon.
The scenario involves two German infantry battalions crossing a river in rafts in Russia 1941, while an armored battalion and a recon battalion cross at a small bridge and a ford. The bridge so rickety that only one platoon can cross per activation. When the game starts, one company of tanks is already across. The Russians are trying to stop the Germans from seizing the town and three surrounding hills. Chris has run this game several times, but in this iteration, the Germans came closest to meeting their objectives.
All the players had a good time. There was a lot of maneuver. Nearly all the players were new, many recruited by Sam from his unit.
The Russian infantry battalion that started on the board pushed forward to delay the Germans while they awaited the arrival or a Russian tank battalion and an infantry battalion.
The German infantry pushed across the river with little difficulty. The Russian infantry guarding the crossing initially inflicted a number of casualties on the Germans, but eventually numbers — and artillery — prevailed. The infantry then pushed steadily forward. One battalion was heavily engaged on one of the surrounding hills with a reinforcing Russian infantry battalion, while the other German battalion mopped up the initial Russian defenders and moved toward the town.
By this time the town was fully occupied by armored cars and Russian tanks, but there was no Russian infantry in the town.
The German armor pushed up the road toward the town. The lost several platoons from an anti-tank gun and a bunker had blunted the German advance. The Russians also had some infantry in the woods along the road. At this point the German armored battalion command left the road, pushed through a wheat field and moved to the outskirts of the town. Neither side had any infantry near the town, so the fight became a slugging match between tanks. The town only provided modest cover, since it was only made of wooden structures.
When we quit, the Germans were on the outskirts of the town — in fact they had one platoon of halftracks in the town. They were battling the Russians for control of one of the surrounding hills and were poised to assault a second one. It was time to quit and start the second game, but with another half hour of play, I think the Germans would have won.
