August Bank Holiday Offensive #2. Revenge on the steppes

Getting the choice of map, Badger decided it'd be amusing to send us to the wide open spaces of map #23. Oh dear, I thought, this is the kind of terrain you only want to fight over if you've got tanks. A choice between the short ends suited me because I wanted to hunker down behind wire with some MG's in this situation. After events in France my immediate thought was objective 5. This turns out to be bang in the centre of map #23, so I chose to put the next most valuable objective- #4- as far away from Badger as possible.

With green Germans against Badger's line Soviets in 1944, I imagined we were fighting it out in some corner of Operation Bagration, otherwise known as 'the destruction of Army Group Centre', or "the most calamitous defeat of all the German armed forces in World War II". This wasn't really as bad as it might've looked because I'd already decided to play a defensive game. I chose a Volksgrenadier detachment which I figured would:

• Be cheap enough to ensure my posture as defender.
• Leave me enough VP to buy the 2 wire OB's and the foxholes was going to rely on.
• Give me just enough men and materiel to hold (an HMG would've been nice, but to go for one in my OB choice- buying a full company- would've cost me the fortifications I wanted, and might even've left me in attacker posture).

This all worked out in my favour against Badger's Late-War rifle company, especially when he forgot to check for the artillery support which had so bedevilled me before. With neither cover nor sufficient heavy firepower, his units balked at the wire, where they were easy meat for even my light forces. Surrender was quick.

I think this was a game where Badger's best chance would've been to confront the madness of just flat out storming the wire. With a Surrender value of 15 compared to my 6 he could lose 2 for 1 and still win on attrition. Looking back, I think Badger played the Russians in this game with too high a regard for the lives of his men. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- August Bank Holiday Offensive #1. I take a tanking
- August Bank Holiday Offensive #3. And punishment in Stalingrad