Chain of Command 'Kotelnikovo Station 27th November 1942'

Having played scenario's 1 and 3 from 'Winterstorm' Gary and I decided to give Scenario 2 a go now that I'd finished off all the things I bought for the station.

It looked a tough task for the Russians with 4 small dismounted cavalry squads, a MMG and a sniper being tasked with capturing the station faced with 3 Panzer Grenadier squads and a sniper.

The view from the Russian lines:

The German train containing the Panzer Grenadiers:

A Russian squad deploys tactically in the village awaiting the German's disembarking from the train:

The Russian sniper takes up position at the other end of the town:

The first German squad appears and opens fire on the Russians. Their aim is excellent as, despite counting as being in hard cover, three Russians are killed and the Serzhant wounded!:

A second Panzer Grenadier squad deploys to over watch the area the sniper is located in:

The remarkable marksmanship of the Germans continues and the Russian squad is wiped out!:

This prompts a strong response from the Russians as two more squads and the MMG deploy together with one of the Leutnents. One squad is in the open but the Russians hope their numbers will pay off against the single German squad:

The Russian fire proves too much for the Germans who take several losses and are pinned:

The Germans flee taking their force morale down a fair bit:

All the Russians are now deployed on the left. Two squads are vulnerable in the open and the Germans still have one squad to deploy:

The final German squad deploys and opens fire:

Russian losses start to mount, the extra German firepower and half the Russians being in the open making up for the Russians numbers:

The MMG is pinned and the Russians are taking casualties at a higher rate than the Germans:

German force morale has plummeted and they only have 3 command dice. However, one Russian squad is down to three men and is pinned. It's going to be close run thing:

The Russian MMG has broken and all three Russian squads are pinned. The Germans are weakened but holding on and the two LMG per squad gives them an increasing advantage in firepower:

The view from the German lines. The squad on the left which was covering the sniper has not contributed much other than a few LMG shots at the end Russian squad:

The Leytnant rallies his few remaining men and unpins them:

Further German fire breaks the remaining Russians, the attack on the station has failed:

I confess I didn't think I stood much chance in this scenario. It probably helped that Gary diced for his support again rather than taking a 4th PG squad (on the basis that he only had 3 squads). After the initial destruction of the first Russian squad my opinion of my chances of success was even lower, losing 8 men in hard cover in two rounds of firing was rather depressing.

In fact after that the Russians made something of a comeback by throwing everything at one end of the train and quickly breaking a German squad. We both thought after that the Russians would win but the final German squad fought well even when reduced to only 3 command dice and made the small Russian squads in the open pay dearly for their lack of cover. I did attempt one 'Uzzah!' to attempt to melee the first German squad when it was pinned but unfortunately the men were very unenthusiastic rolling 3 1's and not getting anywhere near close enough to attack!

Gary and I have now played three scenarios from Winterstorm with all going to the Germans. As they aren't linked the German losses don't carry over, if they did Gary would now be leading a much reduced platoon while the Russians would be able to rely on the plenty-more-where-they-came-from theory!