Saturday 16 June 2012

Krisis at Kharkov - part 5 - random reports

As well as the forthcoming multi-page epic report from the German CO, A number of players have offered their thoughts on the game.  I reproduce them here and also take this opportunity to refer you to reports by Alan Paull and Chris Kemp.
Panzers of 19PD trundle forth.  Photo by Tom Mouat
Adrian Hussey (23 Panzer Division)
Lessons from a Megablitz Newbie - No. 1: Never, ever, allow any part of your brain to forget the scale of the game, even momentarily. Otherwise you may end up expecting an entire Russian cavalry corps to react to a single regiment of panzergrenadiers like a screen of skirmishing cossacks... I can officially report that this is a Very Bad Idea..

Patrick Wingfield (11 Cavalry Corps)
Lessons from a Megablitz Newbie - No. 2: While a cavalry corps can take on a single regiment of panzer grenadiers it is not quite the same thing to take on a Panzer Korps especially after the cavalry have been attacked by aircraft in the interim.

Trevor Ringrose
Lessons from a Megablitz Newbie - No. 3: Its The Roads, Stupid

Lt. Gen Bassetov (21st Army)
On the Soviet left 21 Army attacked along the line at dawn on the first day. The Naval Rifle Corps, supported by Army assets, rapidly broke the Romanian defenders and the Army's tank brigade exploited the break-through to a distance of about 18km. In the centre the Wellingrad Militia Corps encountered stiffer resistance.
Overnight the enemy stabilised his front with tougher German infantry divisions. 21 Army concentrated on a narrower frontage and over the next two days launched a series of concerted attacks on the enemy. These could not break the enemy defences, but the sacrifice of 21 Army at least tied down rather more powerful German forces, preventing them from contributing effectively to the crisis of the operation elsewhere.
Both the Naval Rifles and the Wellingrad Militia performed with admirable determination, and were fought out by the end of day three.

Alan Paull
I had the privilege of commanding four different infantry divisions at various times. I'm glad to say that I only managed to lose one and half of them, culminating in being the meat in the sandwich between fore and aft Soviet units on the last day. I like to think that a small handful of German PBI from 11 Div were still holding out in the church when the panzers arrived…. [I can dream]
28th Army presses on - but the Luftwaffe has noticed!  Photo by Jim Wallman

12 comments:

Milgeek said...

Phew! This looks amazing, but also a little scary to a someone like me who's just starting in the hobby! :)

Don M said...

Excellent game there well done Tim!

Chris Kemp said...

Don't be scared Stephen,

It took Tim years of dedicated meglomania to ammass this number of toys. Along the way we have had loads of fun with much smaller forces, and a large part of that for me has been the narrative, and producing some very dodgy scratch-built stuff where the toys were not readily available.

Kind regards, Chris

Tim Gow said...

Stephen Beat
As Chris says - this lot took a long time to assemble and my collection includes a number of other collections acquired from others over the years. Also, as Chris was too polite to point out - a lot of it is cheap tat!

Tim Gow said...

Don M
It was certainly an entertaining if somewhat tiring day!

Tim Gow said...

Chris Kemp
Well said - knocking out all these dodgy toys has (and continues to be) great fun.

Paul said...

Nothing dodgy about these toys!

Kharkov Krisis is an epic!

Looking forward to more...Please.

Al said...

Epic!

Tim Gow said...

Paul
They're OK if you apply the 'three foot rule' - even better from three continents away!

Tim Gow said...

Al
It's the only way to approach the Eastern Front!

Paul said...

We do not count the East Island as a Continent Tim!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Sounds Brilliant