Jumping into Battle in Russia

Friday night, Bob and I (and one other player, perhaps!) will play another Death from Above Scenario, this time on the Russian Steppe.

This will be an Early War Death from Above scenario, with a slightly altered list on my part, and a whole pile of T-26s and Soviet Trained Conscripts. This ought to be a hoot.

Each unit that is “destroyed” can reconstitute or regenerate on a roll of 3+. Regenerated or reconstituted units will come back onto the board at the original point of entry for that unit, prior to destruction. Any company not making it’s regeneration roll is permanently destroyed.

I’ll be fielding my “doorknockers” for the first time in this game.

The German soldiers assigned to this 37mm anti-tank gun (PaK-36) knick-named it the “doorknocker” since apparently all it did to many tanks was alert the tank crew to the gun crews presence. This usually proved fatal to the gun crew.

Later in the war, the Germans added Stielegranate ammunition – a sort of giant rifle-grenade designed for short range, which fired off the front of the PaK 36. This special rocket-type ammo had a shaped charge in it and was very effective, if limited by its short range.

This is, as I mentioned, an Early War battle, so no Stielegranate is available. One good thing is that the PaK-36 has a Rate of Fire (RoF) of 3 per gun. With an initial anti-tank platoon strength of 4 guns, that makes for 12 shots per turn!

Now if I can just get them all into battle.

While not strictly “historically accurate” in that there was no German airborne offensive in the Soviet Union, the forces themselves are historically accurate, and this will serve as an interesting “what if” scenario!

Battle report will follow.