First Test of the Stalingrad Rules

Last night up at the club was pretty momentous for me as it was the first time my rules and Stalingrad terrain were used by "real people" rather than just solitaire by me.  We played on the northern section of the board and had 2 companies plus supporting elements for each side.

 

Comrades Josh and Greg Surveying the battlefield as they prepare to meet the Axis invaders.  The third Soviet player Dave arrive just after this picture was taken.   The Germans players for the game were Tony, Ed and Dieter.

The soviets had 2 full infantry companies, a platoon of Naval Infantry and 3 T-34 tanks.  The german forces had 1 company of infantry, 1 company of Pioneers with a flamethrower and 3 Panzer IIIJ tanks.

Midway through the game as Ed has maneuvered his pioneers to assault Pavlov's house (the two white buildings in the center).  This was turn 5 and the Soviets finally rolled to bring on their tanks to surprise the Axis.

Sadly for the Russians, their shooting skills were poor and after exchanging point blank fire for several turns they managed to not damage any German tank while 1 T-34 was damaged and lost its main gun.  What this really means is that the rules for AT gun combat are too cumbersome and need to be revised.

Ed was able to mass his pioneers and swept the Soviet defenders away from the complex.

The critical point of the game came here at the 3 hex "Yellow House" in the center of the picture.  Josh was defending with a single Soviet Rifle Platoon against 4 German platoons.  It was an epic struggle which saw the Germans repulsed multiple times before Josh evacuated the house.  His staunch defense created a Hero unit and the Yellow house has been forever renamed "Joshinov's Hovel" in the annals of history.

Unfortunately for Josh his hero squad they were forced to retreat through errant soviet artillery fire and met an untimely demise.

We got in 9 turns of the planned 12 and the game was declared a narrow Soviet Victory.  

The rules seemed to work really well but there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.  Using hexes did prove to really speed up play.  All-in-all, it was a great first outing and I am very fortunate to have such great club members to inflict my game upon.

The task the for the next few days will be to make some rule revisions and retest the game next Monday.