NQM Goes to Stalingrad

I may have mentioned that Chris K has been running an Eastern Front campaign for over 30 years now. I have played in a lot of these games over the years, and nowadays I can't often recall where we've got up to. 

But now we are doing Stalingrad.

Chris set the game up on his big table in his conservatory. He's played half of it solo (the northern half), and for this Tuesday, Richard, Steve & I were on duty to play catch up with the Southern Zone. Richard and Steve were online, with Richard as the German Corps commander, and Steve as his Soviet opposite number. Chris and I pushed the toys around and played Divisional commanders.

North is to the right of the railway line. We're playing to the left.

Richard sent forwards his recce, and found our positions. The shelling commenced. All our heavy guns are on the far bank, and initially out of range.

First order of business was to ferry across reinforcements before we were overrun.

Richard was attacking on two axes. This is the southernmost. We've taken some heavy casualties (missing bases really need casualty bases to keep track of what's going on), but we are dishing it out too.

The Germans start to bomb the river barges. This is very effective, but we scare them off with some AAA. Fortunately for us Richard decides this is costly and futile, as we have loads of shipping. What he doesn't appreciate is that we don't have loads of troops, and they're really vulnerable when on the river.

Oh no! We've been hit!

And then the Panzers turn up. We stall them initially with some demon dice rolling.

More flippin' Panzers at the other end. And they've got artillery and air support.

At the other end they break into the suburbs. This brings them into range of our heavy guns. These are a bit hit and miss, and require early resupply.

We are rushing reserves up from the river, but they are still making inroads.

Oh no! They've also broken in to our defences at the north end. This is at some cost, and we have stopped them getting to the river. However, we are sorely in need of some reinforcements.

Phew! That's where the game was halted. Both sides need to reorganise and consolidate their positions. Could be a long slog.