The two marks (Mark and Marc), continue their chronological newsreel AAR series thru the sands of time  with Combat Commander as the metaphor of their exploration of squad level combat in WWII.

Soviets Pushed Back in Stalingrad

As the battle rages in the city of Stalingrad, the Nazi army makes a slow advance through the city.

Dom-inated by the Nazis

Dom 31 is an important building in Stalingrad. The Russians must hold against the advancing German troops. Nearly surrounded, the Soviets must hold fast until relieving forces arrive.

Here is are the forces just before contact:

The Germans began their assault with heavy fire that destroyed the Soviet forward MMG squad. Sgt. Sviddrov held fast, his men taking our Bierman as he tried to advance. But the Germans were too many. They were able to move quickly and hit the building hard, rushing in with bayonets fixed and trench knives in hand. THe Russians didn’t stand a chance! They quickly moved to secure the next building and one of the far buildings.

The Soviet reinforcements eventually made it into the area and brought some tough fire onto the German position. But it was not long before another squad made it into the main building. Sgt. Rodimtsev and a squad had earlier been ambushed near the tree-lined building objective.

It was too late for the Soviets. The Germans took held four of the five objectives in the area. The Soviets could not hold their positions and were forced into a surrender!

The end of the engagement:

Game Notes
We just had time for one game tonight.

Scenario 37, Dom 31 is from Combat Commander: Battle Pack #2 – Stalingrad in the Combat Commander Series. I could have set up my units better. There are some setup restraints. I shouldn’t have had my MMG so far forward. Regardless, the units in Dom 31 (objective 4) couldn’t hold against the onslaught of units that advanced. But more than that, the Germans had Ambushes aplenty.

I got Rodimtsev and a squad forward to try to pry the enemy out of Objective 3 once Objective 4 had fallen. Their single squad was ready to Advance into my hex with FOUR Ambushes! The dead units were piling up.

Korolev came onto the scene and made a rush past Objective 2, pouring fire into it to drive out the lone German squad. One squad was was abel to Advance in but another lone German squad got into Objective 5 and had two ambushes! That was the last unit for my Russians to surrender.

I had several runs of discards (and the Germans did too actually) but he was hoarding every Ambush he could get. I should have kept my forces back but by taking objectives he was scooping up the VPs. It was a relative short and harsh fight. Good game, though.

The astute reader of this series may recollect that the next battle in order is M5 from Combat Commander: Battle Pack #4 – New Guinea. Somehow or another I put it in the list farther up and so it turns out we’ve already played it. So on we go in the Stalingrad fights.

Current standings: Allied-Axis, 13-22.