Eastern Front Fun - Rate of Fire AAR

Ziggy and I got in that game of Rate of Fire on Saturday evening. I had put the scenario together a week or two ago, to be used at our Tanksgiving game day at the end of November. I needed a balance play test and this was my opportunity.

The engagement is set in mid 1943 with the Germans pushing forward to capture a crossroad. The Soviet defenders are deployed hidden. The Germans have two recon elements, an 8-rad and an Aufklarungs fireteam that they can use to probe the defenses before committing the rest of the forces. The Soviet side has some reinforcements that will show up as the game progresses.

I played the Soviet side and Zig commanded the Germans.

The view from the German side of the table. The crossroad intersection is circled, but pretty obvious.

One of the advance recon elements, a 232, noses out around a rise. I take the opportunity and reveal a 76mm field gun which takes a pot-shot down range. The round connects and the armored car is taken out! One of the crew manages to bail out of the wreck.

The recce team on my right has gotten into place and start trying to reveal my hidden markers over there. Towards the center of the battlefield, a StuG, Panzer IV and halftracks have arrived.

Knowing I wasn't likely to get very many opportunities, I reveal my Zis-3 ATG and again get a fantastic result on the shot, taking out the StuG. Of course, now the three Panzers next to it are going to exact a heavy toll, but hey, what was I expecting?

And there you are, two of the gun crew are killed in short order. That gun's going to have a terrible time making anything happen now!

Over on the right, an infantry squad is picked up by the German recon and a short firefight breaks out. My Russians came out the better losing just one of their group to the two German losses.

I got a reinforcement! A T-34 and it arrives in a very useful position. It begins working on the rest of the recon team.

The Germans continue to slow-roll the center. I'm in deep trouble though with two guns that effectively cannot move and a single tank way off the the right working the flank.

Oh come on. The last snoop calls in 105 fire on my tank! The running gear is fouled and it's reduced to slow-speed only. That really sucks for a fast mover like a T-34 that's trying to get behind the Panzers!

My Zis-3 is taken out. Boooo!

Slow movement be damned! My tank does manage to get its sights set on a loaded halftrack, though the shot misses terribly.

The gunline sets up shop in front of the just-revealed infantry squad nearest the objective. That's a lot of machineguns!

More artillery on my tank! Another hit on the tracks immobilizes it. Feh. At least it's in an OK position.

With all the smoke, dust and cursing from my tank, it's no wonder the Panzer's shot missed. Whew, that was lucky!

Meanwhile in the center, I'd gotten another couple of tanks on the table. This one lasted about 45 seconds as a well-aimed 75mm shell hulled it out. The machineguns from the tanks and halftracks continued to batter the infantry just forward and left.

And they've had enough... they flee off the table. The other T-34 does manage to destroy a halftrack though while keeping a close eye on the objective.

By that point we'd gotten through ten turns. The Germans we successful in dealing out casualties but still short of taking the objective. A Russian victory! Ziggy had a couple of opportunities to push hard in the center when I had nothing on the table that could challenge him. Acting slowly instead of taking advantage of my lack of anti-tank gear ended up costing the Germans this time around. Ah well, next time, right?

It was a damn entertaining game and I think it's pretty well balanced. I'm tempted to replace one of the reserve infantry squads with a solo AT rifle guy. He'd  be useful against halftracks, the 8-rad and the truck. I'm initerested to play this out again at Mike's in a few weeks to see how it goes next time.