Pavlov's House: Stalingrad, A Chain of Command Solo AAR
Last weekend, I played another solo game of Chain of Command. The theme was decided by Twitter and they chose a game set in Stalingrad. The scenario was based on the heroic Soviet defence of Pavlov's House, with the large two storey building standing in for the house itself. I used the Patrol scenario for setting the game up and set out the jumping off points for both sides. The forces were built from Stalingrad specific lists I found on the TFL forum and can be seen HERE. The Soviets took a T-60 tank as support and the Germans drew an extra adjutant for their senior leader. I also made a video of the game which can be seen at the bottom of this post, but immediately below are the photos I took of the game whilst I played.
The Soviets took the first turn and deployed a SMG section in the objective house. These were set on overwatch to fire at the enemy immediately.
A German pioneer section moves to flank the objective.
More Soviets take up their positions in Pavlov's house, PPSh-41s point out of every window.
Soviet armour also advances by the side of the main objective to engage the German attackers.
In opposition another Pioneer section moves to the flank to tackle the armour.
The pioneers' flamethrowers clear the Soviet defenders from the building.
Meanwhile the Soviet tank fires on the Germans across the central square.
The flanking German section moves towards a Soviet jumping off point, but is caught in the open by a Soviet section.
One of the pioneer flamethrowers opens fire on the armour, causing the crew to bail out!
And on the other flank another German flamethrower burns the objective.
With the Soviets battered but still holding on the Germans break cover ready to assault the remaining defenders.
Whilst another flamethrower uses its last burst of fire to attack again.
The German attacks cause enough casualties on the Soviets for their morale to collapse and the game ends in a German victory!
The Soviets were down to their last three men just as their morale collapsed from a Junior Leader getting killed in the crossfire. This was as close to a wipe out as Chain of Command gets, and had the Soviets survived until the end of the turn the Germans would have captured two of their jumping off points. This in turn, would, most likely have forced their morale to collapse anyway. The German pioneer section were incredibly heavily armed, with their flamethrowers, and I thought the Soviet armour would balance the game out. Even then, the Germans were able to deal with the threat.
So, here is the video AAR of the game, if you enjoyed it, please subscribe to the channel for more in the future:
Lovely looking table and clear and interesting AAR. I shall watch video soon. I am not a CoC player and not a skirmish level playet so this is a different take on an historical event that I have often read about. Carl
ReplyDeleteCheers Carl, I hope you enjoy the video. The game is only based on the Pavlov House, it bears little resemblance to the historical fight, so please don't take it as a historical scenario!
DeleteThanks for doing these, I do like your Stalingrad battles.
ReplyDeleteCheers Norm!
DeleteGreat stuff- try a rematch but drop one of the flamethrowers for satchel charges perhaps...?
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Pete.
Cheers Pete, yes, I did think of that, the flamethrowers definitely put the weight on the German's side.
Delete