Tactics in ‘Red Warriors’
Scenario #4: Across the Vazuza
Part 2: 1000 – 1100
By Doug McNair
October 2006

The Battle of Vaselki continues today in my ongoing replay of Red Warriors Scenario #4: Across the Vazuza. Battle began last time with most of the Soviet 326th Rifle Division entering the north edge of the board just east of the central river. Flanking companies and penal units moved in alongside the main Soviet thrust, hoping to pin down German positions to the east and west of it. Almost all German units have stayed in their trenches thus far, since the Soviet tanks and artillery have yet to enter the board. They don’t want to pull back from their positions and give the Soviet tanks an easy road into battle.

With that, the next hour of battle goes as follows:

1000 Hours

Both sides start by firing all their offboard artillery, but just one Soviet INF platoon in the main thrust gets disrupted. Then German infantry start digging in at the bridge just before the Soviet major orders an Urrah charge on the German trenches east of the river. German opportunity fire inflicts one step loss on advancing Soviet infantry and disrupts another unit, but several Soviet INF units move adjacent to the first German defensive line and will be in position to assault it next turn. One demoralized Soviet unit recovers but the rest flee.

German mortar fire from the town is ineffective, and then the Soviet flanking companies east of the woods on Board 9 move south. Germans opportunity fire on them is also ineffective, but then a German lieutenant in the woods east of the Soviet human wave moves his two INF platoons west and adjacent to it. If he can get initiative next turn he can assault the lieutenant and his two INF platoons there, and bring that section of the Soviet advance to a halt.

The companies on the Soviet west flank open fire with their HMGs, disrupting one German INF platoon screening the 50mm AT gun and HMG position on the north edge of the woods there. Three Soviet INF platoons then advance on the German position while another tries to recover. All advancing Soviet units get disrupted or demoralized, and the unit that doesn’t move fails to recover.

The German player starts pulling his western flank eastward, with two INF units and a lieutenant abandoning their dug-in position to move toward the scene of action. Then the Soviet artillery park enters the woods on Board 9 (they were waiting for the Germans there to move west and attack the main Soviet thrust). A low-morale lieutenant, two mortars, a 76.2mm gun on a wagon, three 45mm gun platoons and all three BM-13 rocket artillery units take up position, out of sight of all German units. A Soviet T-60 light tank platoon joins the artillery park, and the Germans pass, waiting to see if any more tanks enter. They don’t . . . yet. The penal units on the German left flank advance, with the last good-order Penal unit taking a step loss from HMG fire and becoming demoralized. The turn then ends with failed Soviet recoveries.

1015

The Soviets get initiative, and the eastern half of the human wave activates, with the lieutenant on the east flank assaulting the incoming German lieutenant in the woods. More platoons and another lieutenant dive in to assault the first-line German defenders, while other units recover or advance on the entrenched, second-line German defenders. The woods assault is ineffective, with the Soviet lieutenant becoming disrupted and one of his units becoming demoralized. But it achieves its objective of pinning down the Germans so they can’t move north and attack the artillery park. The assault on the dug-in German defenders goes much better, scoring one step loss with no damage in return. But both German units there make their morale check, so they’ll fight on.

German offboard artillery is ineffective, but Soviet offboard artillery demoralizes the entrenched lieutenant and HMG platoon behind the just-assaulted German infantry. That leaves only the “door-knocker” 37mm AT gun platoon in good order and unassaulted.

More German offboard artillery hits the captain leading the western section of the Human Wave. One of his INF units gets demoralized, but he and the rest of his platoons surge forward to storm the trenches. German opportunity fire pours in from all sides, and the “door-knocker” platoon demoralizes one incoming Soviet INF platoon.

The Soviet artillery unlimbers while their mortars fire ineffectively on the German infantry in the woods to the southeast. The Germans in the trenches try to recover, and their lieutenant fails and flees southeast toward the woods. But the HMG and wagon succeed and recover to Disrupted status.

Then the Soviet eastern flanking companies move and fire, heading south toward the German guns guarding the road through the woods. Their HMGs fail to hurt the Germans in the woods to the east, and one INF platoon is demoralized by long-range HMG and infantry gun fire from the woods to the south. Their lieutenant is disrupted by fire from the woods to the east, and that leaves the platoons spread out, with four of them out of contact with their leader. And the lieutenant is still too far away to spot for artillery on the 75mm AT gun in the woods to the south (the whole point of this exercise).

The dug-in German infantry units north of the central woods fire point-blank and do two step-losses to the demoralized Soviet INF units there. German infantry from the western flank continues to move east, and the Soviets consider committing some of their heavy tanks to bolster their rapidly-weakening western flank. But the German 50mm AT guns in the area are too dangerous to tackle head-on, so they decide to wait and see what the BM-13 rocket launchers can do. The T-60 tank platoon moves east so it can fire on the German infantry that disrupted the march south toward the German 75mm AT gun. Then the Germans in the woods assault hex make their own counter-assault, with one INF platoon on each side becoming disrupted. The half-strength, demoralized Soviet infantry of the west-flank companies flee north, and the turn ends on a Fog of War roll.

1030

The Soviets win initiative by two activations, and the artillery park opens fire. The BM-13 rocket launchers all fire on the German trenches south of the western flank companies, but two of the shots go wide (BM-13s are notoriously inaccurate). The German units all make their morale checks, and fire from the Soviet mortars and 76mm gun also has no effect. So, the Soviets take their remaining activation and the Human Wave storms the German second-line trench, with more infantry filling in behind. But entrenched units get First Fire, and they roll a 6, disrupting the Soviet captain leading the assault. This means he can’t bring in more infantry from outside, which is a problem since his own infantry take one step loss, with one unit becoming demoralized and the other becoming disrupted. The Soviets shoot back at much-reduced strength and have no effect.

German offboard artillery hits the Captain who’s not currently assaulting anything and scores an X result, doing one step loss to an already Disrupted unit and demoralizing it. Not wanting to stick around for more German artillery, the major orders all units to get a move on. The captain and two INF units move south while the major gathers four HMG units behind him. Then the Soviets press the assault on the first-line dug-in German infantry north of the trenches. One Soviet INF platoon gets disrupted by German first fire, but the already-disrupted German platoon gets demoralized.

The German mortars in town fire on the Soviet captain bypassing the trenches, and he becomes demoralized (his INF platoon is OK). Then the German lieutenant in the woods assaults again . . . and gets killed! One of his units takes a step loss and both become demoralized. The already-demoralized Soviet platoon in the hex is again demoralized and takes a step loss, but the remaining Soviet platoons counter-assault. They do two step losses and leave just one demoralized German INF platoon in the hex. The demoralized Soviet INF platoon fails to recover and exits the assault hex.

The dug-in German infantry fires point-blank at the last Soviet west-flank platoon that hasn’t fled yet, demoralizing it. Soviet HMG fire from the north is ineffective and fleeing INF units keep fleeing. German fire from the woods near the eastern road is ineffective, but the lieutenant that was leading the march south toward the German east-flank guns recovers morale, along with one of his INF platoons.

More units trade fire and make recovery rolls, and more German INF platoons join the march toward the western Soviet flank. With their western flank crumbling and in danger of a German infantry assault, the Soviets finally commit their tanks. Two KV-1 platoons enter the north board edge on the Soviet west flank, just out of range of the StugIIIG platoon on the road to the southeast. The 50mm AT gun in the woods to the south immediately opens fire and misses.

Then three fast T34/76a’s charge south, right behind the Human Wave, and get within range of the StugIIIG platoon. Whoever fires first next turn will likely kill the other. The other 50mm AT gun fires at the KV-1s and misses, and more German infantry head for them. The three remaining T-60 platoons enter the woods near the artillery park, and the 75mm AT gun platoon on the road south of them limbers and loads onto wagons so that it can go west and start shooting at the heavier German tanks. The 75mm infantry gun will have to deal with the T-60s. The turn ends on more recovery rolls.

1045

The Soviets win initiative by one activation, and the T34/76s north of the entrenchments open fire. The first one hits the StugIIIG on the road to the south and does one step loss, demoralizing the other step. The other two miss. A 50mm German AT gun just barely misses the KV-1s, and the Soviet artillery park replies, with all three BM-13s this time hitting the just-fired German 50mm gun’s hex. The gun is OK, but the HMG there gets disrupted. The mortars and 76.2mm gun demoralize one of the German INF units in the woods east of them. German offboard artillery is ineffective, but Soviet artillery disrupts a lieutenant and a German INF unit rushing the KV-1s. More German infantry advance on the KV-1s, and one gets disrupted by long-range HMG fire. The Soviets then wipe out the last German step in the woods assault, but their assault on the first-line dug-in Germans does nothing to either side.

More Germans to the west start leaving their trenches and moving east to attack the Soviets or reinforce the town, and the Soviets in the trench assault recover rather than attack. The captain there recovers, meaning he’ll be able to bring in more troops next turn. The German 75mm AT gun starts heading west through the woods on the road, and the Soviet major moves south with his HMGs to take over from the demoralized captain. The 50mm AT gun to the west just barely misses a KV-1 as its accompanying leader and HMG mount up on a wagon and head east for the Russians.

The turn winds down with recovery rolls, the most important of which is the failed recovery of the demoralized StugIIIGs on the road, which flee east into the woods. This gives the T34/76s an unobstructed path south, but they may want to wait for Soviet artillery to take out the German infantry on the bridge before advancing on it. Most Soviet leaders are in assaults or farther to the north, so the tanks won’t have an infantry screen for a while. Other than that, the Soviet lieutenant on the eastern flank moves south toward where the 75mm AT gun used to be, but one of his platoons gets demoralized by long-range HMG and infantry gun fire.

So, after six turns the main Soviet infantry assault is bogged down in the trenches, but the arrival of heavy tank support has cleared the German tanks from the road to the south. If the Soviet HMGs can join the assaults and finish off the Germans, the Soviets can move south, take the bridge, and make a drive on the town from the east. The Soviets are also almost halfway to their objective of eliminating 16 German steps (the tank step counted double), but they’ve lost six steps themselves. So, if the oncoming German infantry assault overwhelms the Soviet western flank, they may miss their objective losing no more than 20 steps. As to the objective of exiting at least 25 steps off the south board edge, that hangs on the Soviet leaders keeping their units from becoming demoralized and fleeing for the woods. Eight Soviet INF units are already demoralized and fleeing, so that objective is up in the air.

Will the Soviets break through the German lines and take the town? Is Maxi really pregnant? Tune in next time and find out!

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