Battlefront - 2nd battle of Murpheesgrad


Deployment and Turn 1: In late 1943 the Wehrmacht launch a local counterattack to recapture the village of Murpheesgrad. The Germans have 1 platoon advancing through the woods on the right, while the rest of the company cautiously march across the open ground in the middle. On their left they have an armoured car and 2 panzer III's advancing up the road. The soviet's occupy the village with 2 platoons and a MMG section, and have an SMG platoon in reserve. They also have a 45mm anti tank gun on the hill to the right. The first shot rings out as the soviet gun engages the armoured car, failing to achieve any hits before it is pulverized by return fire from the panzers.* 



Turn 2: The soviet MMG opens up to pin down the German force in the woods, whilst the infantry desperately break out the shovels and attempt to entrench in the face of the enemies advance. 



Turn 3: The German mortars zero in on the village and together with the panzers unleash a barrage to suppress the Russians. 



Turn 4: The soviet reserves arrive! A T34 platoon takes advantage of their superior speed to race into the action, dramatically closing the range on the flank of the enemy armour. The SMG platoon with the company commander dash around to extend their line.** 



Turn 5: The panzer III's swing their turrets round and engage in a fierce close range duel with the T34's, knocking one out, but suffering suppression in return. The mortars keep up the barrage on the village allowing the German infantry to close within range. 



Turn 6: As dramatically as they surged forwards the remaining T34's reverse to escape the German tanks, fleeing the battlefield! The Armoured car boldly launches itself towards the SMG platoon in the open and guns down the soviet company commander. 



Turn 7: Switching to smoke, the mortars cover the infantries assault on the village. With the defenders pinned and outnumbered they are rapidly overwhelmed, only a few isolated sections manage to pull back to the houses before being slaughtered. 





Turn 8: The SMG platoon bravely charge the armoured car, but are swiftly gunned down. The soviet survivors quit the village and flee, leaving it to the fascists. Germans win!



* This was our first trial game using the battlefront rules. Unfortunately neither of us had had a chance to read them properly before starting play, so many rules mistakes were made and tactical mistakes discovered as play progressed. Obviously leaving an antitank gun in the open and taking long range pot shots, thus exposing itself to return fire, is not a good idea in these rules!
** We kind of flip flopped on the status of woods during this game. When the T34's advanced we treated them as dense, and then switched to treating them as open allowing the short range firefight. In the rules as written woods are always dense.

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