Battlegroup Kursk - Intro scenario (again)

Andy and I played the BGK Introduction Scenario twice down at the club the other day.  It is amazing how much you can forget after playing the game once 2 months ago.  But playing them again - and swapping forces - has really helped with understanding the rules and some of the strategies for the nationalities.   The first game took awhile, mostly because we spent half the time chatting to others that passed by for a look.  Note that The second game took less that two hours as there were no interruptions.

I do not love BGK but like it a lot.  It is a fun game and does capture the feel of WW2.  And it gives me a chance to use those models I have not seen for a long time.  A lot dates to the early 80s and this year is the second time my 20mm WW2 figures and models are having an outing since 2004!

The introductory scenario is quite small (Squad level) on a 6'x4' table with a platoon each and a few infantry support units on each side.  The game starts with 2 armoured cars on board for the Germans, and a sniper team, T-70 and BA-10 for the Russians.  The rest of the units dribble on over the next few turns (1d6 per turn) and on turn 4 reinforcements turn up - a T-34/76  for the Russians, a Panzer IVG for the Germans.

I will cover the first game here and the second sometime later in another post.

I am the Russians coming in from the edge further from the road.

The view looking from the Russian side

 There is a large open area on the left of the table.  No much happened over there.

An action shot of the T-70 that managed to destroy most things it fired at.

The fantastic T-70 as seen above.  It has a total of 7 shots.  I took them all as AP as the MG is as good as an HE shell from the gun.  It pinned lots of infantry, caused the Panzer IV to be abandoned and destroyed an armoured car.  It ruled the centre of the table almost the whole game.

The Sdkfz 250/9 (scenario calls for a Sdkfz 232 but I do not have a painted one and the 250/9 is similar)

German unit in the wheatfield. Another MG turned up later as well. I managed to pin all of these, only for Andy to draw a battle rating chit and unpin them all.

 

Two units of Russians advancing. It was only after I brought them on I remembered about the Ura! rule where the officer (who came on next turn) can order all units in 5" range to move top speed with only one order.  The Ura! order is very handy for the Russians.

The T-34 reinforcement arrives on the Russian side. 

...and the PanzerIV for the Germans.

German squad now occupies the ruined farmhouse at the crossroads.  This was a real pain for the Russians and the MG was pinning the Russians everywhere.   The PanzerIV was abandoned early on by the T-70 (out of shot further down the road) due to a lucky shot and unlucky morale check (a 1). 

The BA-10 tops the hill in the centre, ready to lay waste to the German infantry.  But I forgot that the PanzerIV was coming on, and when it did, it fired and destroyed it.  Ah well.

 

Before  the PanzerIV was abandoned, it did manage to take out the T-34 as well.  The T-34 had used the special rule Stal! Stal! Stal! to advance at double speed and attempt (unsuccessfully) to pin the German MG (seen the the right).

 

An overview of the crossroads where most of the action is happening.  T-34 destroyed, T-70 Ok.  All the Germans are still on the table.  A lot of the Russian infantry have been subject to routing, which is why you cannot see any in this picture.  This made up for some earlier firing by Andy where every aimed fire roll he did for an entire turn was a 1 or a 2 for observation or for AP shots and so inflicted nothing. As the Russians, I had lost the momentum by this stage and Andy definitely had the upper hand.

 Another shot of the crossroads from the German side.

The battle rating chits for the Russians. Initial Battle Rating was 18.  I seem to remember I did draw one special chit as well.

The Russians, when the game finished, I think may have had one or two units left on the table, and they were pinned.  This was out of a starting force of about 12 or 13.  The Germans had lost no units other than the Panzer IV being abandoned (so the crew ran away rather than being killed.  I did pin quite a few but  none took casualties.  As Andy pointed out, the Germans took no casualties at all while most of the Russians had gone!

A good fun game.