Second World War,  Battlegroup Panzergrenadier, 20mm

This was a scenario listed in Dave’ Brown Battles for the East scenario book for the Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier rules. It was aptly subtitled “Meeting the Dreadnought”, as it featured the monster show above – a KV-2. The scenario (fought out on an 8×6 foot table) involved the drive by 6th Panzer Division over the Dubissa River near Rasyenya.A single KV-2 and some supporting troops cut the division’s line of communications, and held its position for two days. It was finally finished off by satchel charges. Well, our game pitted the Germans against this leviathan, and in our refight history largely repeated itself. German infantry and anti-tank guns were kept at bay throughout the first day, and a cavalry-like charge by German panzers ended with the battlefield being littered with burning Nazi tanks. However, the Germans also scored successes, whittling down the defending infantry, and wiping out a small force of T-26’s (with “militia” crews) who tried to join the battle.We ended the game at the start of the second day, as it would have taken far too long to fight the battle to its conclusion. German 50mm anti-tank guns were moving into a flanking position, while the rest of the 6th Panzer was waiting for the 88mm Flak gun to appear, along with more tank reinforcements. In the real battle the KV-2 dealt with all of these threats, despite being hit five or six times by 88mm shells. When the Germans approached the tank to inspect it the turret began moving they found out to their cost that the monster tank was damaged but not destroyed. In the end the Germans had to drive off all of its infantry support, then send in assault engineers.One of the enjoyable things about this phase of the war was that the Russians had some fantastic tanks, but lacked the skills to use them effectively. The Germans were exactly the opposite. the result is that when a scenario is well thought out (As this one was), then the games can be a lot more balanced and far more fun that later slugging matches where everyone has super-tanks.By the way, here’s a picture of the real hero of the battle – photographed by the Germans after the action. As usual we used Dave Brown’s Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier rules – an awful name for a superb rules system. If you want to learn more about them, then visit the Second World War pages.

Tags: Battlegroup Panzergrenadier