Tactics in 'Fronte Russo'
Scenario #40: 'Danger at Bachmutkin,' Part 1
By Doug McNair
June 2007

With the debut of our Panzer Grenadier scenario book Fronte Russo: CSIR Operations, 1941 – 1942, the much-maligned Italians finally get a chance to show what they’re really made of. The army Mussolini sent to the Ukraine included some of the finest units Italy ever put into the field during World War II. Mussolini’s land grab in the Soviet Union came to naught, but his elite troops proved themselves the equal of the Germans in fighting the Red Army.

Of those troops, none were better than the Savoia Cavalry Regiment, whose single-handed defeat of an entire Siberian rifle regiment at dawn on August 24, 1942 is the stuff of legend in Italy. But stunning as that victory was, it was only a sideshow in the overall campaign. A far more important action happened two days later, as the waves of Soviet humanity crossing the River Don began to crash against the Italian defenses near the strongpoint town of Jagodny. A frontal assault from the north was repulsed by Italian infantry, but then the Soviet 610th Rifle Regiment came in from the east and hit the weak Italian right flank by surprise near the village of Bachmutkin. Only a thin screen of Italian infantry and artillery held the lines there, so it was up to Savoia and a motorcycle battalion to rush to the flank and prevent a collapse of Italian defenses in the sector.

This action is the subject of Scenario 40: “Danger at Bachmutkin.” It’s an excellent opportunity for the best of the best Italian troops to strut their stuff.

Soviet Tactics

The Soviet 610th Rifle Regiment enters battle with a three-pronged advance on Bachmutkin (the town on Board 2). One battalion of Soviets is in a small village north of Bachmutkin and ready to come south down the road. Another is creeping down a gully from the northeast and can either continue unspotted until it reaches the Bachmutkin road or simply sweep across the steppe to hit Bachmutkin from the northeast. Finally, a third battalion will enter the northeast board edge on Turn 2 and can either move directly southwest toward Bachmutkin or head south on the eastern road and then hit Bachmutkin from the east.

The Soviets score five victory points for each hex of Bachmutkin they control at the end of play, 3 VPs for each Italian artillery step eliminated or demoralized at the end of play, 2 VPs for each Italian cavalry or motorcycle step eliminated or demoralized at the end of play, and 1 VP for each other Italian step eliminated or demoralized at game-end.

Because of the high payoff for taking hexes in Bachmutkin and the fact that Italian reinforcements and German air support starts arriving as early as Turn 4, the Soviet plan is obvious: Rush Bachmutkin to secure VPs and get cover from Italian cavalry charges and German airstrikes.

Italian Tactics

The Italians have plenty of artillery support, but because the Soviet attack took them by surprise some of their strongest artillery units are in an exposed position just west of the lead Soviet battalion. Their poorly-disciplined infantry screen from Sforzezca Division is no match for the Red Army troops on the other side of the woods. So, Savoia’s 1st Group and the motorcycle reinforcements that enter the board from the south on Turn 1 will need to move fast to hit the lead Soviet battalion hard and keep it from overrunning the Italian artillery.

But even if that plan succeeds, it will leave precious few forces to deal with the other two Soviet battalions coming in from the north and northeast. The Italians have nowhere near the forces necessary to form defensive lines against such huge numbers of infantry, so their cavalry will need to harass the flanks and rear of the Soviet battalions in hopes of scattering them before they can reach Bachmutkin.

This is crucial not just for the purpose of keeping the Soviets from scoring VPs by controlling town hexes. The Italians score VPs based solely on how many Soviet steps are eliminated or demoralized at the end of play. While artillery and air support will contribute to Italian VP totals, cavalry charges by Savoia are the key to driving off the Soviet advance and inflicting enough step losses to win the game.

This is because the column shift bonus which Italian elite cavalry get in a cavalry charge is devastating: +2 for the charge (as opposed to the normal +1 charging cavalry gets), +1 for having higher morale than the Soviets, and another +1 if a cavalry leader is with the charging units. Just one charging Savoia cavalry platoon with a +4 column shift bonus attacks on the 24 column of the Assault table, which gives it a 2/3 chance of inflicting step losses. A few cavalry squadrons harassing the Soviet flanks can rack up plenty of VPs against the Soviets before they reach the town.

Elite Italian cavalry can also exit an assault hex and pull back to a new charge position if they demoralize all enemy units in the charged hex, so multiple charges on the same or nearby targets are quite possible. But once the Soviets do reach the town, the cavalry will be relegated to mopping up stragglers because the defensive bonus of town terrain negates the Savoia’s cavalry charge bonus. The cavalry needs to be very aggressive early in the game to kill large numbers of Soviet steps while they can.

The downside for the Italians is that units firing at cavalry get an extra +1 column shift in direct and bombardment fire. Even if they do a lot of damage, the Savoia won’t last forever against Soviet opportunity fire and artillery. How long the Savoia last, and how many Soviet steps they kill or demoralize before they crumble or the Soviets reach town, will determine what happens in the endgame, when reinforcing motorcycle and Bersaglieri light infantry fight the Red Army for final control of Bachmutkin.

With that, here begins my turn-by-turn replay of Fronte Russo Scenario #40.

Setup

The hills on Board 2 are treated as woods. The river is treated as a gully. Units in a gully can’t be spotted by non-adjacent units.

Turn 1: 1230 Hours, 26 August 1942

Both sides start with an initiative of 5, and the Italians roll a modified 11 to the Soviets’ 6. That gives them two activations before the Soviets can act, so they start by moving Savoia Group 1 into Bachmutkin so they can’t be spotted and hit by Soviet offboard artillery. All other Italian units on the board are outside Soviet spotting range, and the Italian player would like to keep it that way for his cavalry, so he brings in his motorcycle reinforcements on the road south of Bachmutkin and sends them north to form a roadblock two hexes north of the town.

The Soviets want to save their offboard artillery for the Italian onboard artillery or any cavalry that shows itself, so the lead Soviet battalion moves out of the village north of Bachmutkin. The majority of its units move south on the road toward the roadblock, but a few reduced-strength units stay in the village to guard the Soviet rear while a company heads northwest around the woods toward the Italian artillery. Soviet mortars in the village then open fire on the roadblock but do no damage.

Keeping the lead Soviet battalion from bypassing the roadblock and reaching Bachmutkin is Priority One, so Italian offboard artillery hits the two hexes containing the colonel and lieutenant leading the Soviet advance. The lieutenant gives a morale bonus while the colonel doesn’t, so the Italians concentrate fire on him. The M1 result they score makes both INF platoons with the lieutenant roll an 11 and become demoralized! The colonel’s men take no damage from the remaining artillery fire.

The Soviets count the gully hexes and figure out that creeping west under cover to the road would take so long that their lead battalion would be overwhelmed and wiped out. So, their 2nd Battalion bursts out of the gully and heads directly southwest toward Bachmutkin.

The next-most-powerful Soviet artillery are the on-board 105s of LX Group. They can self-spot the lead Soviet units coming down the Bachmutkin Road, so all three 105s hit that hex simultaneously with their artillery lieutenant (who has a +1 combat bonus) combining their fire even though they’re in different hexes. With the +1 column shift for self-spotting they hit the hex on the 55 column, and their M2 result demoralizes one of the INF units there.

Unfortunately for the Soviets, they can’t spot the 105s yet (the woods west of the road just barely blocks LOS for their leaders), so their offboard artillery hits two motorcycle units in one of the roadblock hexes. The M1 result disrupts both MTC units in the hex and demoralizes the capitano who led them there.

With both sides having taken three action phases, the Italians don’t want to wait any longer to move the rest of their cavalry north in case a Fog of War roll cuts the turn short. Savoia Group 2 moves northwest to intercept the Soviet 2nd Battalion moving out of the gully to the north. They send their AT guns and trucks west toward Bachmutkin to aid with the town defenses.

That puts the lead cavalry units of Group 2 within spotting range of the leaders of the Soviet 2nd Battalion, so the last Soviet offboard artillery factor fires at them but does no damage. The turn then ends with two Italian cavalry platoons moving north on the eastern road toward the Soviet second battalion’s rear, the Italian units that were in the woods north of the gully moving south to the gully to lay down opportunity fire on the Soviet 2nd Battalion’s advance, and the remaining Italian offboard artillery disrupting another Soviet infantry battalion north of the roadblock.

Turn 2: 1245 Hours

This time the Soviets win initiative by one activation, and with their 1st Battalion badly disrupted and demoralized on the Bachmutkin Road, 2nd Battalion takes the opportunity to steal a march before deadly Italian artillery can start raining on them. Opportunity fire from the Italian units that moved south to the gully demoralizes the HMG unit in the lead, but the rest make it through fine.

With the Soviet 2nd Battalion having already moved, Italian offboard artillery hits the fresh Soviet stacks from 1st Battalion on the Bachmutkin Road, but all target units pass their morale check. Not wanting to stay there and get hit by more artillery, 1st Battalion activates and the good-order units move south toward Bachmutkin while the rest try to recover.

A reduced-strength INF unit takes the lead to draw opportunity fire from the roadblock, but the Italians let it go by in favor of firing at a lieutenant and a full-strength INF. They make it through the op-fire unscathed, and the Soviet colonel moves west with an INF to join, him staying outside the charge range of the lead Savoia CAV units at the north edge of Bachmutkin. A fourth INF moves west to join them and flesh out a full Soviet infantry company swinging west of the roadblock.

HMG units move down the road from the north to take up a firing position on the roadblock, but the roadblock units disrupt one of them with opportunity fire. The demoralized INF unit in the hex the HMGs advanced into recovers and so does a demoralized INF in the hex to the north, but a third fails to recover and flees north to the village.

Italian onboard artillery self-spots and hits the lead two platoons swinging left of the roadblock. They roll a 10 on the 55 column, scoring an X result and killing the reduced Soviet INF platoon that was trying to draw fire (mission accomplished) and demoralizing the full-strength INF that was in the same hex with it.

Soviet offboard artillery hits Savoia 2nd Group before it can move north to a charge position on the Soviet 2nd Battalion. It also rolls on the 55 column due to the +1 column shift bonus for hitting cavalry, and the M1 result disrupts the capitano leading them plus one of the cavalry platoons with him.

That’s of enough concern to the Italians that their offboard artillery shifts its focus to 2nd Battalion, hoping to disrupt the lead units long enough for the cavalry and tenente to recover. 34 points hit the two lead SMG units and demoralize one of them.

Now that there will be a Fog of War roll each action phase, the Soviets waste no more time in bringing-in their 3rd Battalion on the north edge of Board 5. Two out of three companies head for the Italian units at the gully harassing 2nd Battalion’s north flank, and the third company heads down the eastern road to draw cavalry away from 2nd Battalion and head for Bachmutkin from the east.

With no time left to tarry, Savoia’s 1st Group cavalry move out of Bachmutkin to blocking/charge positions on both groups of Soviet units north of Bachmutkin. Unless the Soviets beat the Italians by two activations next turn, one of them is going to get charged.

The Soviet mortars in the village north of Bachmutkin respond by hitting the maggiore leading the cavalry company that advanced out of Bachmutkin. The maggiore and one of his cavalry platoons do fine, but the other rolls a 12 and is demoralized. The Italians then activate the tenente who was escorting the Italian AT guns into town, and has him send them to town while galloping north himself to a position from which he can command units of the disrupted tenente with the 2nd Group Cavalry.

Sensing what the Italians are up to, the Soviets fire the last of their offboard artillery at the hex with the disrupted tenente and his cavalry but do no damage. The disrupted tenente then activates and sends his good-order CAV unit north to join the forward tenente while trying to recover morale for himself and his disrupted CAV. Both recover.

Soviet INF and RECON units then creep into the gully northeast of the Italian LX Artillery Group’s position. The Italians can’t spot them in the gully, but the Soviets can spot for counter-battery fire on the Italian guns and then assault them later.

An Italian CAV unit then moves up to join the forward tenente (just outside Soviet HMG range) — a position from where it can possibly charge the Soviet 2nd Battalion if it moves first next turn. The turn then ends on a Fog of War roll — a bad break for the Italians, who never got to move up their HMGs or their right flank cavalry.

Turn 3: 1300 Hours

The Italians roll to see if their six reinforcing motorcycle platoons arrive this turn. They don’t. The Soviets then win initiative by one activation, and once again 2nd Battalion steals a march on the Italians, moving straight at the 2nd Group cavalry to close range to one hex so they can’t charge. Bypassing them would expose their flank to charges with no opportunity fire in return.

The lead SMG unit gets demoralized by point-blank opportunity fire from the cavalry, but the rest of the units make it through fine. The Italian units in the gully opt not to hit the battalion with opportunity fire as it goes by, because two companies from 3rd Battalion are now bearing down on their rear. One previously-demoralized unit in the battalion recovers, but the other fails and flees west toward the village.

With 2nd Battalion moving in against little opposition, Savoia’s 1st Group Cavalry needs to take-out the Soviet 1st Battalion ASAP so they can move east against the 2nd. The maggiore orders a charge against all three Soviet platoons that swung west of the roadblock. One CAV platoon charges the demoralized INF unit and its lieutenant, and since the demoralized unit can’t fire at the incoming cavalry the good-order HMG north of the roadblock fires at them instead. It rolls a 9 on the 7 table, just missing, so the charge goes in. Even though the CAV has no leader in the same hex with it, it still gets a +4 column shift since the enemy unit there is demoralized. It rolls a 2 for an M2 result, but the lieutenant there makes his morale check and the demoralized Soviet INF fails its morale check by only two and isn’t demoralized again. The demoralized INF actually manages to roll a 5 for an M result on the 3 column, but the cavalry passes its morale check.

Then the maggiore and another CAV platoon charge the two Soviet INF platoons with the Soviet colonel while the demoralized Savoia CAV tries to recover. It rolls a 7 and fails, fleeing south to Bachmutkin, and the Soviet Colonel’s infantry disrupts the maggiore with opportunity fire but his cavalry pass their morale check and charge in without him.

The cavalry unit gets a +3 column shift even without its leader, and it rolls a 6 on the 18 column scoring a 2 result. A full-strength Soviet INF unit dies and the other becomes demoralized. The Soviets only roll a 2 on the 9 column and score no damage, and since the Italians are good-order and all Soviets there are demoralized, the elite Italian cavalry could exit the hex and pull back to another charge position.

But since its leader is out of the hex and disrupted the cavalry would have a hard time organizing a charge next turn, so both CAV units stay in the assault hexes in hopes of getting a “free shot” at Soviet units that fail to recover and flee the hexes.

Soviet mortars from the village fire at the Italian cavalry preparing to charge the disrupted and demoralized Soviets on the road, but do no damage. The Italians charge, with the first CAV platoon heading for the lieutenant with the +1 morale bonus who’s trying to help the Soviet units north of the roadblock recover.

Opportunity fire on the platoon is ineffective and the charge goes in. It rolls a 5 on the 18 column and scores a 1 result, killing an INF step but failing to break the morale of the other or the lieutenant. Then the other CAV unit charges the forward Soviet units just south of the lieutenant, confident it can make it through remaining opportunity fire since the undemoralized HMG spent its last shot trying to stop the other CAV. The disrupted units in the hex roll on the 16 table — and roll a 2 for a 2X result, wiping out the charging CAV. The tenente with them survives with his morale intact, and moves south to Bachmutkin to try and catch the demoralized CAV that fled there.

The Soviets in the gully northeast of the LX Artillery Group call in counter-battery fire from offboard. It disrupts the tenente commanding the artillery, but both batteries are fine. The batteries in the same hex with the disrupted tenente open fire before more trouble can befall them, self-spotting the three-high-stacked hex on the road with the units that wiped-out the brave CAV platoon. The +2 bonus for self-spotting and 3 in a hex puts them on the 55 column, and the M2 result demoralizes one unit and disrupts the sole good-order HMG there. The tenente with the batteries recovers morale.

The last Soviet offboard artillery shot hits the units at the gully that are in the path of the 3rd Battalion. The tenente commanding the units there is disrupted but his units are fine. The Soviets in the gully near the Italian artillery group then charge out and up to the infantry screen there, and one INF unit becomes disrupted by opportunity fire but all the Soviet units make it adjacent to the Italian line.

The Italian cavalry unit that recovered with the maggiore south of 2nd Battalion moves to a charge position on the 2nd’s south flank, and then the two companies of 3rd Battalion advance to the gully. Opportunity fire from the Italian units at the gully disrupts an SMG unit in the lead and demoralizes the major leading the group, forcing the other units to delay slightly to stay grouped around the remaining lieutenant.

The turn then ends with units recovering and repositioning themselves. The Soviet INF with the colonel that was demoralized by the cavalry charge west of the roadblock fails to recover and exits the assault hex, but it and the colonel pass their morale check from the cavalry’s free shot. The other demoralized INF recovers, so neither CAV there will be able to charge again next turn.

So after three turns, the score from enemy steps eliminated is tied at four apiece. Cavalry charges have repelled the Soviet attempt to bypass the roadblock north of Bachmutkin, but a charge on the Soviet 1st Battalion’s east flank on the road was obliterated by machine-gun fire.

The Soviet 2nd Battalion is moving rapidly southwest across the steppe toward Bachmutkin, and the Italian cavalry there have only managed a weak screening action due to the untimely disruption of their maggiore. But Italian HMGs and AT guns have moved into defensive positions on the northeast flank of Bachmutkin and will be able to hit 2nd Battalion with long-range opportunity fire if they break past the cavalry.

On the other hand, the Soviets may rack up lots of VPs soon if their infantry assault on LX Artillery Group breaks through the weak Italian infantry screen and wipes out the guns.

At this point it’s anybody’s game. Will the next hour yield someone the advantage? Tune in next time and find out!

Click here to order Fronte Russo