Capture the Bridge!

As Dane had damaged himself in a work related injury, the little lad needed cheering up and he wanted a game of Rapid Fire! to see how it worked. So, on Sunday I set up a quick scenario which involved a small German armoured and engineer force advancing on a bridge with the intention of capturing it. I took the Russian defence and located it around the river crossing and in the small building by the bridge.

The attacking German force consisted of two Panthers, two Panzer IVH, a Sd.Kfz 251/16 Flammpanzerwagen and a Sd.Kfz 251/7 Pionierpanzerwagen. The latter carried a unit of eight Engineers, which included a flamethrower and Panzerfaust.

The defending Russians had two 7.62cm Zis-3 A/T Guns, two companies each of eight rifle men, a CO and a 5cm Mortar and an 8.2cm Mortar as immediate support. There was also off board support in the form of two T-34/76s carrying a company of eight SMG tank riders. These would only arrive on the roll of a 6 on a D6. 

The German force was set up around the road as an armoured column to hit the target fast.

The column advanced but took fire from the two anti-tank guns, one heavily damaging the rear Panzer IV, but the other having no effect against the Panthers. The German return fire destroyed the A/T gun in the trees on the right flank of the building.

Russian retaliation was swift and my mortar fire was accurate enough to destroy the leading Flammpanzerwagen.

Also, fortunate dice rolling saw the T-34s arrive by the road!

As the Germans renewed their attack another Panzer IV took heavy damage from the A/T gun on my left flank and forced them to retreat back to cover.

However, even under the punishing defence fire the German Engineers debussed in the fields next to the building held by the Russian defenders. Out of the safety of the armoured transport they quickly took four casualties from Russian rifle fire.

Quickly reacting to the new arrivals, the Panthers destroyed one T-34 and heavily damaged the second, before they'd even had a chance to make any impact on the game.

Then the German Engineers used their flamethrower to set fire to the building, whilst other Russian casualties were caused by rifle and machine gun fire from the rest of the company and the half-track.

The casualties caused on the Engineers made them retreat, so the unsupported Panthers fell back to cover by the building.

The two Panzer IVs recovered enough to begin advancing back to the fray, which meant I was totally outnumbered at this stage with only the mortars and a single company left to fight the threat. The A/T gun on my flank was too far away and out of sight to be any use. I thought it better to live to fight another day and my force fell back across the river.

It was a quick but enjoyable game, despite my Russians losing their position. The forces were just pulled out at random and I probably didn't have enough anti-tank weapons to make any impact on the German armour. However, it was a quick and enjoyable demonstration of the rules for Dane and he seemed pretty pleased with his victory!

In other news, here is a dire warning against ever cleaning your house: