Bolt Action: Stalingrad. Schaft's Pioneers Take The Fifth...

Warning This Post Has Lots Of Photos But It Is Of Lovely Terrain So I Make No Apologies

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Intro As the saying goes "good things come to those who wait" or, as they say in this neck of the woods "Whit's comin' fur ye, 'ill no go by ye" and so it came to pass that I had finished the terrain that I needed for my Stalingrad Railway Station No1 scenario. The stars then aligned; I had a day off work, my missus was at work and Otto the Canine Duke of Strathbungo was booked into the doggy day care place thingamabob so I had an "empty" and in a flat/apartment where hobby space is at a premium, having the place to myself, an "empty" is a necessity for wargaming. The night beforehand I finished off the last couple of pieces of terrain, dug out my Soviet and German figures and sat down, with a pleasingly decent sized measure of Tamnavulin single malt at hand, to organise my force lists on Easy Army and ran into a snag....

     

    Well, it wasn't really a snag so much as a; how can I put it, a desire, a powerful desire to switch things around. You see in the scenario the Germans are the defenders and the Soviets the attackers and whilst sorting my lists I fell to musing upon my Sturmpioniers; of which I have more than a few including a platoon commander, Kurt Schaft, and my musing led me to the thought "Sturmpioniers don't defend; they assault!" (I know they do defend and I had a few thoughts about house rules for them in Bolt Action but more of that anon) so to gratify that aforementioned powerful desire I decided to move the battle to Stalingrad Railway Station No5 (if there is or was such a place) and have the Soviets defend it and my Sturmpioniers assault it. And with them would go my much loved but little used Stug III D as well. 

     

     To face them and defend the station from the fascists I chose a novelty (for me at least) inexperienced troops! But these are no ordinary inexperienced troops, two squads of these inexperienced squads would be Student Officer Squads who despite being classed as inexperienced were also Fanatics and therefore particularly hard to kill in Bolt Action....well, not kill so much as to convince them that the game was up and they should bugger off. In Bolt Action, a unit that is classed as Fanatics fights till the end, in game terms this means that; a) when it loses half its number from shooting it does not take a morale test and continues to fight as normal so long as it includes at least two men. If reduced to one man then it must take a morale test as normal. b) it doesn't rout when it has the same number as pins equal to its morale value (8) and c) When a Fanatic unit is defeated in close quarter combat the result counts as a draw and another round of combat is immediately fought. Continue fighting until the fanatic unit wins, is completely wiped out or is left with a single model in which case it is destroyed (make note of points a and c, they have relevance in the forthcoming scrap). These doughty fellows would defend the station bolstered by another novelty. The Stalingrad campaign book introduces a few new units to Bolt Action including the Frontnik Commissar who, like the original Commissar in the Soviet Union book has the Not One Step Back rule (infantry squads that fail an Order Test within 6" of the commissar lose one man and must to re roll the Order Test again, no option. Basically he executes one man to "encourage" the others) The Frontnik Commissar is rated as a Regular and has the Inspiring Rhetoric rule. Any Inexperienced squads within 6" of the Frontnik Commissar ignore the -1 To Hit modifier that Inexperienced troops normally suffer from. You can see now why I put him in the station with the Student Officer Squads; they would be very difficult to shift. 

     

     The final bits of terrain that I completed for the scenario were some telegraph poles and an advertising column. Now I don't know if they had advertising columns in Stalingrad but if they can have a Rail Station No 5 they can have an advertising column. I had been pondering making one of these for a wee while but wasn't sure what to use to make it. After looking at various examples online I had a better idea of the size and I was pondering whether I should make a column from rolled paper and generous applications of PVA glue whilst tidying up the McCubby Hole when I came upon an old rubber wine bottle cork that I had been using as a paint stand for figures and realised it was bang on the money for core of the advertising column. I stuck it onto an old (lots of old stuff in my hobby room besides me) GW round slotta base then glued three or four similarly sized MDF bases to the bottom. On top I glued yet another slotta base then, when the glue was dry, I mixed up some Miliput and made a dome on the top and added a decorative ball to crown it. I left it over night (for no other reason than I had to go to bed) then primed it and painted it the following day.

     Once the paint had dried I stuck various Victorian advertisements on it to make it look "busy". I got these from Wargames Vault and figured at that scale they would just look the part. The only problem with them was the fact that I had glued the sheet of advertisements to two other sheets of A4 paper as I wanted them to be robust enough to place on buildings with blue tac so that I could add posters to my buildings etc to suit the period and location of the game I was playing. Consequently they aren't flush with the surface of the advertising column like the real thing is but hey ho, I was too scunnered (beyond caring) to care at that point. And why was I scunnered Well I had been working on this project since September/October and it was beginning to chisel away at my patience which is the reason why I didn't include the tram I had bought for this game; I couldn't be ars...couldn't be bothered to paint it even though I had primed it. All of which was another reason for the playing the scenario as soon as pos

Telegraph poles and advertising column done. Looks alright, don't it?

Scenario The Germans are pushing forward and need to clear Rail Station No5 and the area beyond it. They have sent a pionier detachment under Leutnant Kurt Schaft to clear the station. The Soviets are unwilling to give up any ground to the hated fascist. With their forces spread thin they have had to garrison Rail Station No5 with Student Officers under command of Commissar Klebb. Reconnaissance patrols have indicated that the German are going to strike at the Rail Station so reinforcements are being rushed forward to support Commissar Klebb and his men.

 

Set Up Terrain as per the photo below. The defender sets up a quarter of his forces in the station building which was Commissar Klebb and the two Student Officer squads. The Germans start off the table and come on in the first turn. The remainder of the Soviet force are in reserve and begin deploying from Turn 2 following the usual reserve rules.

The scenario map as supplied by the book

My take on the map. Green is the German deployment
zone, Red the Soviets, obviously

Objective The Germans must capture the station building, the Soviets must keep control of it. 

Victory Whoever has the most troops in the building at the end of the game gains 3 Victory Points. Destroyed enemy units are worth 1 Victory Point each. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

Duration The game lasts 6 turns. At the end of turn 6 if both sides still have forces in the station play one more turn.

Special Rules The first two turns are fought using the Night Fighting special rules.

Forces Both sides are selected from new theatre selectors in the Stalingrad book; for the Germans it was the Rattenkrieg TS and the Soviets it was from the Not One Step Back TS. 

      Okay, here I have a confession to make; as I was fielding my Sturmpioniers and my Stug III I was rather backing them to do well instead of taking a more neutral stance. And as I was taking my Sturmpionier I gave them all the bells and whistles, or at least I thought I did. I used the Sturmpionier entry in the Armies of Germany book and gave two of the squads rifle grenade adaptors at 30 points each. The Stalingrad book includes the option for German Infantry Squads to take rifle grenade adaptors at 20 points however unlike the pionier ones these only fire HE or smoke grenades. The pionier one has an anti tank grenade as well. In future games I may give one of these to any fire support squads I add to my list as it makes more sense for them to have them.

 

     Another new option for both sides is a Messenger attached to the platoon commander (who can have one such messenger, captains and majors can have up to two). He costs 10 points, is one use only and basically, on giving the platoon HQ a Fire order increases the platoon commanders morale bonus range and You Men Snap Too It range to 12" for one turn. The down side is that the messenger has the Preferred Target rule which means any enemy unit with an Ambush order on it that can draw line of sight to and is in range of the HQ unit can flip its Ambush order to Fire and shoot at the HQ unit even if it hasn't moved yet.

      In this scenario, all the Soviet squads from the Not One Step Back Theatre Selector can have the Fanatic rule for 3+ but I didn't take this option. As you will see this didn't matter. Also the Soviet Airborne squads can take Tough Fighters for 

     

     I took forces which I think would be historically believable (though hysterical might prove a better description..yes, yes, I know..I'm digressing..) which consisted of...

Germans

Platoon HQ. 2nd Lt Kurt Schaft plus two men (SMGs and Messenger)

3x squads of Sturmpioniers. Two had eight men, 4 SMGs, rifles and one grenade adaptor per squad. The third had 5 men; 4 SMGs and a flame thrower.

2x Veteran Panzer grenadier squads of 6 men each with 1 LMG. (These chaps were intended to act as fire support for the assaulting pioneers. If I had known about the rifle grenade adaptors for infantry squads I would have armed them with one each as well as the LMGs...we live and learn)

2x Regular MMG 

1x Veteran Light Mortar

1x Veteran Anti Tank Rifle

1x Regular Stug III Ausf D

Leutnant Kurt Schaft

Sturmpionier Assault Platoon

     As mentioned above my Soviets had two Student Officer Squads and a Frontnik Commissar. The whole force consisted of..

Soviets

Platoon HQ: Senior Lt Kronsteen plus two men including 1 messenger

1x Regular Frontnik Commissar (pistol) plus two men with SMG

2x Veteran Airborne Squads. 8 men all armed with SMGs

2x Inexperienced Student Officer Squads NCo with SMG, rifles plus 1 LMG

1x Inexperienced Rifle Squad all rifles (Free unit)

2x Regular Anti Tank Rifles

1x Regular Medium Mortar with Spotter

1x Regular MMG with gun shield

1x Veteran Sniper Team

1x Regular SU76 with the Versatile rule which allows it to fire either light HE or medium anti tank ammo for an extra 10 points.

Senior Lieutenant Kronsteen 

Frontnik Commissar Klebbs

The Soviet defenders. Inexperienced squads on the left of the picture.
I found that I was scraping the barrel for actual riflemen figures to add
to my free Inexperienced squad so I will need to get those spare figures
I have in the McCubbyhole painted up. 

Both sides worked out at roughly 1020 points each, give or take. So how did the game play out? Read on....

    In the darkened ruin of the rail station, the young officer students huddled in small groups, some acting as sentries by the shattered windows of the the building. the remainder snatching what rest they could. Since being sent into the hell that was Stalingrad several days earlier their battalion had been rapidly worn down. The 16 or so in the ruin where all that was left of their company. Commissar Klebbs considered them from a corner of the shattered room. He had been attached to Number 7 Company a week previous, on the far bank of the Volga and was now the only officer left. A veteran in comparison to the young soldiers, Klebbs had spent the time given to him before the crossing of the Volga trying to equip them with at least some of the necessary knowledge needed to survive in Stalingrad and to bring the fight to the fascists. He had written as much to his sister, Rosa, in his last letter to her. It had been a vain attempt; despite their obvious intelligence and belief in the cause his words couldn't protect them from shot and shell. And now they were holding onto this ruin, less than 20 of them. Klebbs knew the Germans were coming and had sent a plea to regimental HQ for reinforcements; he hoped they would heed his plea...

Commissar Klebbs and his small, battered command
await the German assault

Rail Station No5 or what remains of it..

     Schaft watched the silhouettes of his men approaching along the side of the railway track. As the first of the men reached his small group, Gefrieter Schmidt halted to them with a muttered challenge "Halt! Danzig!". The first man stopped and the others behind him walked into one another. Muttered expletives followed as the column stopped and there was an equally muted response "Breslau". Schaft moved up to the group "Shut your stupid mouths, you bloody idiots" he hissed "Do you want the bloody Ivans to know we're coming?" He and they knew that even with the never ending growl of the battle in the background the Ivans still had hearing like shit house rats. His men were tired, bone weary after weeks of fighting in this hell spawned city. And tired men make mistakes, especially in the dark. He bit back a further rebuke and called forward First Squad's leader: "Gefrieter Munch; here please" the short, stocky figure of Munch made his way forward "Herr Leutnant?"  Taking hold of Munch's arm, Schaft drew him down to a crouch, till they could make out the silhouette of the rail station and the signal box to the right of it "Take your men around the right side of the signal box, Gefrieter; keep it between you and the station. Wait for my signal then make for the front door. The others will head for the side of the building and will keep the Ivans busy; got that?" Munch nodded "The signal, Herr Leutnant" Schmidt considered "When you hear the Stug firing at the Ivans; that will keep their heads down and that will be your signal" 

In the pre dawn darkness Schaft and his men move
forward...

..covering the front and side of the station before the
Soviet troops in the station building are aware of the
assault. One of the MMG teams and the anti tank rifle
infiltrate into the white ruin and set up covering the
square behind the station...

The light mortar team and one of the supporting
infantry teams move through the coal yard

..whilst under the cover of a short but noisy artillery
barrage nearby the Stug Assault Gun rumbles into position

...and opens fire causing a direct hit on the nearest
Student Officer squad. As they go Down they only
lose one man but take two pins. Crucially the Stug
is zeroed in on them

     Slipping and stumbling through the rubble strewn building, Senior Lieutenant Kronsteen swore as his trousers snagged on a piece of smashed timber. Pulling himself free and ripping his trousers in the process he stumbled forward then went head over heels down the last few feet of the steep rubble and came to an abrupt stop next to his two runners. They hid their smiles at the lieutenant's antics as he swore profusely under his breath, as if to compensate for the noise he had made in his fall. Picking up his SMG, he replaced his cap on his head and got his bearings. Behind him he could hear the SU76 growling forward over ripped and cratered tarmac. That was here at least and he could see Sergeant Grimalkov's squad moving in the shadow of a nearby building and, looking to his right he saw the hesitating figures of the new rifle squad he had been given an hour or so before; all novices thrown into battle with Kronsteen's men. Kronsteen had tried to prevent them being attached to his platoon at such short notice but he knew it was wasted breathe. He hadn't even had time to split the squad up between the other, more experienced squads; not that they would want them. If one or two of those eleven men survived this day it would be a miracle; what was their NCOs name again? Romanov? Romanova? Sod it, it didn't matter; if they both made it through today he would find out. For the moment they were a liability, milling about by the front of the hotel. As he opened his mouth to shout at them firing broke out on the far side of the station and a dull explosion wracked the first floor, wreathing it in smoke and dust. "You there!" he screamed at the now cowering me "Get forward! Get forward! To the station!!" gesticulating. They hesitated then they began moving. As they did machine gun fire from the ruin across the square tore into them and two men fell...

Kronsteen orders the Inexperienced squad forward

After some slight hesitation they move

..meanwhile one of the two Soviet anti tank teams
 seeks a firing position inside the hotel

Gefrieter Munch's team take two casualties as they
advance toward the front of the ruined station

the fire support team keep moving forward
looking for a good firing position

The Soviet sniper gets into a good position. Along with the Soviet
 MMG he has a good lane of fire along the front of the station building.
One of the two Soviet Airborne squads moves through the rubble
towards the enemy

Sgt Grimalkov's squad

Munch's men remain pinned by the track..

Krebbs and his men hang on grimly

..as the first signs of extreme exhaustion plague Schaft's
command

Issuing a You Men Snap Too It order, Schaft (C) orders the Stug (A) to fire again
on the squad in the ruin. Needing a 2+ to hit, it rolls a 1..bugger!! He then
orders Monch's squad (B) forward. As they have a pin they need to test for
their leadership and roll 11. In a normal(?) game of Bolt Action this would
be a fail and they would just go Down. In Stalingrad a roll of 11 or 12 is a
FUBAR. I roll for the result and naturally they open fire on the nearest
friendly unit, Platoon HQ. As the Platoon HQ have still to act they immediately go
Down and survive the friendly fire but it was touch and go and not what the
German force neede at this moment

The Soviet reinforcements get closer to the ruin

and the German fire support squad move towards the flank
hoping to draw the reinforcements away or, better still, to
mow them down...

Munch's squad, realising they had fuc...goofed, pull
themselves together and fire back at their tormentors

Two Sturmpionier squads move up to the ruin
intending to rush the enemy within..

As they reached the walls the Soviet Ariborne squad on
the ground floor opened up with lots of close range SMG
fire and killed the flamethrower operator. My Sturmpioniers
were just not getting the breaks today..and it was about to get
worse...

as the other squad, after taking a pin from the fire of
Commissar Krebbs and his two assistants, failed a
leadership test, lost it's nerve and ran away..

Monch's men reach the ruin but are on the horns of a dilemma;
fire on the enemy in the ruin or the ones outside. Either way
they are looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. They fire
on the four Soviets outside the ruin

After shooting one of the German anti tank rifle team,
the Soviet anti tank rifle team decide to move in for the
kill. Instead they are beaten in hand to hand combat by
one man. A small crumb of victory for the Germans

Things are looking desperate for the Germans. Their
squads have suffered horrendous losses but those that
remain must fight on. It's do or die

and now the fire support squad are caught between two fires.
Despite knocking Lt Kronsteen over with some accurate
shooting; his two runners and the MMG team have them
pinned. Beside the Germans the mortar spotter plays possum

As the Inexperienced squad finally reach the ruin
(they had taken more casualties and had gone
Down) the fighting within the ruin is all but over.
Despite a late but valiant effort by the German
infantry (the fire support squad had moved forward
and took on one of the Student Officer squads in
hand to hand fighting that lasted three rounds
and left only two Germans standing) the Commissar
and his men are still in possession of the middle floor.
On the ground floor, the first Airborne squad had been
wiped out as had the German Sturmpionier squad who
also made it into the ground floor.  

And on turn 7 the SU76 finally drew a bead on the
Stug IIID which had failed a morale test and reversed
into the SU76s line of fire. A shot into the Stug's side
put paid to it. With that, the few remaining Germans
withdrew..

...and the Soviets held the field

    As the shooting died down, Krebbs ordered the few remaining troops in the building to gather in what ammo they could. As they began the grim task of sifting through the pouches of the dead and dying he dispatched one his men to Regimental HQ to tell them that he still held the station and to request even more reinforcements as well as ammo, food and medical aid none of which he expected but if you don't ask, you don't get. Going around the few survivors he congratulated them on their fighting spirit. He and they knew it was well earned praise, they had done a tremendous job of holding off the Germans.. 

     Descending to the ground floor he saw more troops carrying in the wounded, among whom was an officer. Krebbs went over the wounded officer and saw the inert figure was Kronsteen. Inspecting his wound Krebbs saw that his temple had been creased by a bullet. Already the blood was congealing on the wound and the flesh around it was beginning to bruise and swell "He'll be fine" Krebbs said to the men carrying Kronsteen.

     Several other men under one of the NCOs were rounding up the German prisoners and disarming them. "Get those swine down into the cellar " he shouted the troops by the prisoners "and keep an eye on them. I want any grenades, machine pistols and magazines they have carried upstairs. Their friends will be back and we need to be ready for them.." 

Fin

     Well that was a corker of a battle and no doubt. The Soviet reinforcements need not have turned up as the Germans kept shooting themselves in the foot. Four failed orders test in a game is a bit of a record for me. And they were pretty pivotal for the Germans. I think the only test the Soviets failed was for the medium mortar to come on from reserve and the Inexperienced squad being ordered to advance and that only resulted in them going Down.

     In the beginning it was looking like a cake walk for the Germans as they managed to move up close to the station building without being shot at. Unsurprising really as both the squads inside were on Ambush (which should really be called Overwatch but Warlord Games aren't going to recall all the order dice they have sold and re-stamp them, are they but I see I have digressed once more) Equally the Germans were unable to engage the squads in the building on the two times they tried in turn2 due to the Night Fighting rules. 

     

     That wasn't really an issue as the idea was to get men inside the building before the Soviet reinforcements arrived so they spent most of turns 1 and 2 running. And which is why I had stationed the Student Officer Squads and Krebbs on the first floor of the station. This prevented the Germans from getting to the ruins and into combat with the Student Officer Squads too soon...or hardly at all as it worked out. The two failed shots from the Stug also made the Sturmpioniers task a whole lot harder.            

      Two successful shots could well have wiped that squad out or at least left it with so many pins it would be ineffective for a turn or two at least. But no, the Dice Gods were with the Soviets and why not, they were great. The Frontnik Commissar is a great little unit and added to the Student Officers Squad they proved almost immovable in defence. 

     

      The hand to hand combat between the Veteran Infantry squad and the Inexperienced but fanatical Student Officer Squad was downright outrageous. Three turns for a Veteran squad to wipe out an Inexperienced squad was something to see. At the end of it, there were two veterans standing from six who had gone into the combat with an equal number of Student Officers. Admittedly my dice rolls were awful but it made for a truly thrilling fight. My dice rolls might not be effective but they are the stuff of a good story.

     Likewise I thought the anti tank riflemen was a goner when the two Soviet anti tank riflemen rushed him but their snake eyes assault rolls was their undoing as the German rolled a 4 in reply. A small crumb of comfort for the Germans. 

     Elsewhere on the battlefield the German light mortar team took out the Soviet sniper team with their first shot and one of the Soviet Student Officer squads whittled down the German MMG that was pestering them. This same squad was likewise whittled down somewhat by the light mortar.

    Overall and on reflection (because to be honest I felt a bit crestfallen that the Germans had been so damned unlucky but ruminating on it that didn't really matter as it was a great battle from the Soviets point of view) I really, really enjoyed the game despite it being a solo effort. 

    And it was worth all the effort of putting together the terrain too. I think the table looked really good. There were a couple of bits I will need to add to it such as a pavement around the hotel and a more realistic station sign, a station clock, etc etc as I will need to revisit this mission and some of the others in the Stalingrad book while we are all unable to get together for games.

     Well thanks for making it this far, I really hoped you enjoyed this batrep. Please comment below if you did, I'd appreciate the feedback.

Pip pip,

GJ

 

 ps. 10 points to anyone who can guess who Rosa Krebbs is and what book she appear in..