Grumble Jones - September Scenario - GJ061 - Hanert's Line

For the September Grumble Jones Scenario I turned to an early Operation Barbarossa engagement between grenadiers of the German Gross Deutschland Regiment and Russian 145th Rifle Division. The idea for this scenario came right out of Osprey Publishing's Combat Series # 7: German Infantryman versus Soviet Rifleman by author David Campbell. I was to warm up to the Combat Series and preferred Osprey's Campaign Series books. But after purchasing a couple in Kansas City a while back...I'm now a big fan. I am grabbing as many of them as I can get my hands on. They are really great books and are especially useful for ASL Players. I highly recommend them.

This month's scenario takes place near a rail line guarded by elements of the German Grossdeutschland Regiment near Vas'kovo, Russian. The Germans were driving hard towards Voroshilovo. The Russians, reeling from the body blows of Operation Barbarossa, were largely unable to slow down the German advance. Their units, while brave, were simply not equipped with the heavy weapons support needed to establish lasting defenses in the open Russian plains. 

In this engagement, the Russians launched a large scale counter-attack to push the Germans away from the rail lines. The 145th Rifle Division would attack in waves against the entrenched machine guns of the Gross Deutschland. The waves of Russian infantry would be mowed down the attempt. 

This scenario attempts to depict the Russian assault and includes Commissars to add a little flavor to the scenario. The Russians can win immediately by controlling 1 or more of three hexes in the German setup area. With only 4-1/2 turns of game play, the Russians must go for broke early and accept the losses which surely will follow their movements in the open. I gave the Russians 25 x 4-4-7's, which is a lot of squads, but my own recent experiences playing Hill 621 and Hedgehog at Piepsk have taught me that 25 squads isn't all that great when faced with well thought out fire-lanes. The Germans have great morale, good range and enough machine guns to hold the line. The addition of the two light field guns also gives the German player a nice bit of heavy support. The great unknown in the scenario is how effective the Soviet OBA will be in the fight. Put it too far forward and it will hurt the Russian advance...and too far to the rear risks it not being effective at all.

So, as always with these monthly scenarios, my hope is that the scenario provides a flavor for the engagement depicted. One quick note, this scenario uses Bounding Fire Production map boards. Sometimes, the BFP boards are just what I'm looking for, particularly for open ground Russian Front scenarios. If you don't have these map boards, they are readily available from Bounding Fire Productions at http://www.boundingfire.com/  .

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, the PDF's for this scenario can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive (just search on Grumble Jones).