'O' Group Scenario 2 'ROADS TO MOSCOW, 1941' Soviets v Germans

The second scenario in the Eastern Front 'O' Group supplement is 'Roads to Moscow' following on from Dave and I's play through of Scenario 1. 

The forces are a bit bigger in this scenario with both sides having access to armour in numbers. The Germans have to capture the town of Voin in 25 turns or force the Soviets to withdraw. As previously I took the Soviets and Dave the Germans. The town of Voin is in the middle of the table:

The Germans immediately mass on the Soviet right with armoured cars, tanks and infantry moving forward:

The Soviets respond with an ambush by two BT-7's dug in on the hill and an infantry platoon:

While the BT-7's have some success, driving off the German armoured cars and destroying one of them, the Soviet infantry take a battering becoming suppressed and losing two platoons:

The initially deployed Soviet infantry company is wiped out so a second deploys behind the hill together with four T24/76's to hold the flank. The Germans have made good progress moving up on the Soviet right:

The BT-7's have done a sterling job holding back the German armour. Unfortunately the Germans manage to deploy an 88mm gun which promptly and scarily wrecks a T34:

Desperate to deal with the 88mm the Soviets shoot everything at it that can, the last possible shot finally taking it out:

The town is still relatively peaceful and in no danger yet:

A German artillery strike rains down on the hill destroying a BT-7 and badly damaging the two nearby T-34's and Soviet infantry:

The Soviets desperately rally their men:

The last BT-7 is finally brewed up, for light tanks they put up a great fight against superior German armour:

At this point we finished the game. I think we'd probably got through maybe 12 to 15 turns so there were still another 10 or so to go. The Soviets had lost some infantry and most of their tanks while the Germans had lost far less they had not really got any closer to taking the town so the game was definitely still in the balance and could have gone either way.

'O' group are an interesting set of rules but quite hard to pick up I think, as with the first game we did several things wrongly on post-game re-reading of the rules. 

I suspect you'd need to play quite a bit to get the hang of the rules, how best to use your troops and speed up the turns which is fine (and indeed good) if you want to play a lot of games but perhaps not so suitable for the odd game now and then which is probably what I'll actually play.

O Group Scenario 1 'ADVANCE TO SMOLENSK, 1941'

My introduction to O Group thanks to Dave saw my Soviets take on his German's in Scenario 1 from the O Group Eastern Front book. I'd painted up the extra bases I needed a while ago and used some of the improved 6/10mm scenery I'd been working on lately.

The aim for the Soviets is to drive the Germans back over a river, needing to have no more than two German units across the river by move 10.

The map consisted of the river, several farms and villages and some woods:

Soviet HQ and mortars set up in an apartment complex:

The Germans move up a couple of armoured cars:

The Soviets counter with BT7's:

Soviet infantry advance into the woods covered by the BT7's:

German infantry approach the river bank while their armoured cars pull off the road to avoid the BT7's:

Being SMG armed the Soviets need to close the range and push through the forest to engage the German infantry:

On the right more Soviet infantry deploy:

Soviet forces continue to build up while the German infantry by the river bank take a lot of casualties:

The BT7's have moved up to cover the infantry but get hit by an artillery strike:

The Soviet infantry in the forest fall back having cleared the Germans from the river bank:

By concentrating a lot of troops in one area the Soviets have left themselves vulnerable to another artillery strike which the Germans quickly call down:

The artillery hit hard damaging the Soviets badly. On the right the Germans are pushing more men across the river:

One BT7 is knocked out and the other suppressed by a German AT gun:

The AT gun pays a price though as it in turn is knocked out:

The Germans now attempt to approach the river on the Soviet left but face significant opposition:

On the right the German advance has been halted:

Disaster for the Soviets though as one platoon is broken by German fire:

On the left though the Soviets have done much better, clearing away all the Germans attempting to cross the river:

With the game past turn 10 and only two German units across the river the Soviets gain a victory and have, for now at least, repulsed the Nazi attack!

I'd resisted O group for a while mostly as I had little enthusiasm for learning another set of rules! However Dave's enthusiasm combined with not really playing Rommel any more and already having a load of 10mm WW2 armies persuaded me to give it a go.

It was in fact quite good fun, a bit similar to CoC but with a time limit avoiding the tendency of CoC to degenerate into a just-kill-everyone game while avoiding the actual mission requirements totally.

Will be happy to play again and may even purchase the odd few things like AT guns and AC that were not needed for Rommel for my 1940 British so I can use them as well.