Today Björn invited me and a few friends over for a game of Disposable Heroes. The start of Unternehmen Barbarossa 71 years ago encouraged us to finally start with a long dreamed of early war campaign.
The set up: two of us would play German troops, two would take the Russian side. Björn's gaming table showed on the right side the eastern banks of the river Bug with a small village in the centre and some low hills in the background. The German forces consisted of two groups: Wehrmacht infantery supported by a few PzIII and PzII tanks and a detachement of Waffen-SS troops supported by three Pz38t. The Wehrmacht troops would attack along the river on the right flank with the objective to occupy the village and lend support to the Waffen-SS forces that had to capture the crossroad on the left flank and idally the street over the hills.
I hadn't had played Disposable Heroes for at least two years and was consequently a little overeager and had to pay in blood for my mistakes. The guys were nice enough, allowing me to reroute my rather stupid first round but I refused: "We of the Waffen-SS don't compromise" as Sturmführer Metzelberger said just seconds befor he and the complete HQ detachement was wipped out in turn one... Oh well.
Before we get into the action here a few pics of our German forces:
This is the battlegroup of the Waffen-SS.
Here parts of the Wehrmacht troops (actually we didn't use the halftracks during the game).
These were the weapons I had the greatest respect of: Russian 75mm AT guns.
Furthermore, the Russians had 4 BT-7 tanks and a lot of infantry troops all over the place. Russian troops were deployed as far forward as the dry riverbed in the foreground. The scene was set for a dramatic encounter.
One of my light MG sections deployed behind some railroad tracks on the extreme left flank and were able througout most of the fighting to lay down suppressing fire on three to four Russian squads, effectively keeping almost a third of the Russians lined up against my flank at bay. Unfortunately I lost my HQ in the first turn due to some stupidity on my side. Luckily the SS troops morale is good enough to keep going without the HQ - it's all for the sake of Greater Germany, after all!
Soon afterwards my firt Pz38 rumbled along the dirt road and started to engage the BT-7 (which are the blurred greenish stain in the background further up the road).
So after the first turn the battle had developed like this (to the right you can see the strong hand of my comrade in arms, Oberleutnant Bumm, giving the order to occupy the first building of the village).
Björn's Russian troops in the village were rather good at slowing the Wehrmacht down. Even this early in the game the first German troops were pinned on the riverbank. Russian mortar and machine gun fire made life very hard for the infantry.
Here we see two of the Russian tanks rolling down the hills. You can plainly see the Russian infantry ahead and the omnious siluettes of the the SS-tanks in the background.
I must admit I was really lucky in my die-rolls today, especially when it came to tank battles. My opponent was frustrated by really bad die-rolling on his part. Of course in my propaganda comments it all came down to superior fighting abilities and spirit of the SS. First hit on a BT-7. No survivors. "Attacking in endless and mindless hordes the Bolsheviks are cut down by the disciplined fire of our heroic troops..." You get the drift.
The Russian troops in the village were a little more effective against the Pz IIIs but AT-rifles only managed to damage the tracks. The tank continued firing and supporting the attack.
The tanks in the village came under fire from both Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. After two hits the next one burned brightly.
By this time we had already reached our first goal: the crossroads.
The Soviet troops in the village were still defending. The German infantry finally move off the banks of the river but you can already see that the spirited Russian defence had reduced the number of troops considerably.
But the Russians forces opposing the SS were under considerable pressure and threatened to collapse. Behind the front lines the Russian commander asked to be allowed to withdraw but the commissar denied that request since "The Great Stalin has confirmed that the Germans are not attacking. Therefore it is impossible to withdraw as you would need to fight an enemy to do so." So following the Great Stalin's logic the Russians stayed.
So things became soon very desperate for the Soviets. German troops rushed into the village and the Russians, though fighting valiantly, were pushed back or destroyed.
On the left flank the second Russian tank was blown up and the first AT-gun position more or less overrun by infantry. This development consequently lead to the execution of the Soviet commander by an irritated commissar.
With the last Russian tank brewing up in the village and German troops storming up the hills the fighting stopped. Some remnants of Russian troops had to surrender to the "mercy" of the SS-troops (as if...).
After the fighting was over, supply and reinforcements rolled along the road further east. Our propaganda company was able to take some more pictures of this wonderful success.
Thus ended a great afternoon of playing and being politically uncorrect. Let's hope to get some more playing and photography time soon.
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January 16, 2025, 01:01:16 AM
June 05, 2008, 12:48:17 PM
