On 26 October, 2008 Pet Shop Comics and Collectibles in Louisville, KY hosted a 1750pt Late War Flames of War Tournament. It was a great event, especially for me as it’s the first one in the Louisville area that I was able to play in rather than run. Out of 20 possible slots we had 18 players show up so where able to qualify three players for the US Nationals.

I decided to try a Udarny Strelkovy for this event despite never having played it before and ended up doing pretty well with it and having a lot of fun too.

My force was modeled off the 1st Guards “Moscow Proletarian” Rifle Division that forced an opening in the German lines between the 78th Sturm and 256th Infantry Divisions in the opening stage of Bagration.

History and List for my Force.

Round One.

Round one was Encounter facing a Grenadier force played by a new local
player, Mark. Mark's force had two full combat platoons, a platoon of
three Tiger I's, a 105mm battery, 82mm Mortars, a unit of PAK38s and HMG
platoon . He then formed a small KG to get an 8th platoon.

The table was very open. Just a few clumps of trees and a river for
terrain. I deployed simply enough with an Udarny Co on the left and the
right and the IS-2 Co in the middle where there would be some cover from
long range Tiger shots. My opponent countered with a Grenadier platoon
on the left and the right, Tigers in the center-left and his 105's
backing the Grenadiers on my right. His Grenadiers on my right had a few
small woods blocking line of sight, towards my otherwise in the total
open Udarny Co. So I decided to make the attack on my right the main
effort and I deployed my CO and BN Kommisar there, with the 2IC then
going with the left Udarny. My plan: Broad front advance with the IS-2's
keeping the Tigers entertained while the Udarny pushed on both
objectives.

Round 1 - Table.

My intial deployment.

I won the roll for first move and was able to double time my right
Udarny forward. On the left, I did not double time and only looked to
get as far as the stream bed where I would have cover and concealment
and with the curve of the stream I could actually approach to within
charge range on the far left board edge or shift right into the center
of the enemy lines (possibly to flame and charge the Tigers). The IS-2's
lumbered to where three of them could get a shot on a single Tiger while
staying out of LOS of the other two Tigers. Out of the three shots, one
came up as a "6" and the that Tiger easily brewed up.

1st Tiger kill of the day!

In my opponents fist move he dug in both Grenadier platoons and dropped
smoke on my IS-2s. My Double timing Udarny thus only received a few
shots against as only three Grenadier TEAM had LOS with a reduced ROF
due to the digging in. A better more might have been to push into the
woods and bring any guns to bear against my Udarny. He did shift his
Tigers more to my right though and got one with in 16" and pinned my
Udarny with that volley the other Tiger hit an IS-2 which but the round
bounced. He did move one TM into the woods, but that was just a FO which
ended up being a mistake as it was within 10" of my teams allowing me to
kick off my charge on the right a turn earlier than I expected.

So in turn three my left Udarny Co settled into the stream bed but still
took some grievous losses from the full Rifle/MG and HMG fire despite
bulletproof cover. In the center two IS-2's still concentrated fire on
Tigers, no hits while the other two shifted fire against the Grenadiers
on the right I was getting ready to assault. That fire killed two
Grenadier teams and now still having QoQ, the defenders could not muster
enough shots to pin the assault. So, I saved the Flamethrowers, shot the
SMGs and went in against the FO and the Grenadiers who where drawn into
the combat. I could only get into contact with the FO with a few teams,
and rather than counter attack my opponent simply pulled back his one
team that was within 4" ending the combat. My consolidation let me then
move enough to contest the objective.

1st Udarny Company clears the right flank.

In my opponent's turn his Grenadiers on the right did not shake off the
Pin from caused by my SMG and tank fire from the previous turn. So he
went with direct fire from his 105s and the pinned shooting from his
Grenadiers. That cause my right Udarny to get pinned, but only a team or
two lost. His two Tigers continued to shoot at IS-2s destroying one.

With the BN Commander my right Udarny where able shake off the Pin, and
then move to assault the Grenadiers and 105mm guns simultaneously
clearing all of his units from the right. Reinforcements did not appear,
and so Game 1 end as a 6-1 win.

Round Two.

Round two was a Hold the Line Mission against a Fallschirmjager force
played by Doug Olds. Doug had a full FJ Platoon, a two squad FJ Platoon,
a two squad FJ Pioneer Platoon, a platoon of 4 x Stug-III's, LG-40
platoon, PAK40 platoon, a weak HMG platoon which combat attached out,
and his HQ has attached Mortars. Doug had sporadic ME-109s too. We
played on Point 213 from VB?

The table for Round 2.

So, I'm feeling pretty good right now. A 6-1 start and now I get to
Attack on a board that's only 4 x 4 and allows for lots of covered and
concealed approaches. I placed my objective on the left edge of the
board as it seemed to have more gates through the Bocage. I placed my
man Udarny Co on the left, with the CO and BN Kommisar + Scouts to lead
the infiltration of the main Udarny. My opponent placed three segments
of wire on that flank so that have stumbling over the Bocage I'd have to
hold up on the wire in the field. The problem for him was that the point
where two segments of that wire met where right on the road and I
figured that my IS-2s could bolt down the road and clear two of the
segments easily. Meanwhile my 2nd Udarny would press on the right to
keep the FJ from reinforcing against may left. Mortars set up in rear
and the 76mm Regimental Guns were set to push up to a Bocage section
where they could shoot across and field at FJs and HMGs on the opposite
side of the field.

Doug had on FJ PLT on the left (the big one) and one FJ PLT on the
right. He also had a the FJ Pioneers in Ambush somewhere out there.

Great plan. Dream situation for Udarny with Infiltration Scouts. Or so I
thought....until a one was rolled for first turn. So I did not get the
first move and Doug's ME-109s swooped right down on my IS-2's parked
fender to fender in two ranks on the main road. Scratch two IS-2s! Ok, 2
IS-2 is still enough to deal with 4 Stugs in the narrow corridor of the
road though the Bocage. So my move finally came. My two remaining IS-2s
rambled forward and my Udarny and the left and right pushed forward. On
the left I pushed a lone Sapper Team through a gate into the next field
to clear the left wire segments while my two remaining IS-2s plowed up
the center and right wire sections that both overlapped the road!

1st Udarny Company and IS-2 approach "The Wire."

Doug got in some reserves in his turn and moves the Stugs over to the
left where I was pressing. Doug chose not to shoot at the lone Sapper in
the wire to keep his "Gone to Ground" His dang ME-109's showed up and
scratched a third IS-2! Luckily the IS-2 Co Cdr held firm with his
Fearless morale check.

So now it was time to get the assault going with wire finally cleared.
So may left Udarny Co went "Over the Top" of the Bocage in two separate
fields. With Doug hanging onto his "Gone to Ground" I was not confident
that I'd get enough hits to Pin his FJ's so a I had to cut loose with
the Flamethrower which got a single hit, but the crucial pin. Initially
on a few stands got into contact. But Doug made his counterattack
motivation and through in not only with the full FJ platoon but sent in
his CO and 2IC as well! So what we ended up with was smoothening like 9
FJ stands battling out with maybe 15 Udarny. BLOODY!!!! It ad to be the
most savage melee I ever had in FoW and though my Udarny killed the FJ's
to the last man, my own losses were also over 75% and my boys failed the
required Motivation checks despite the BN CO and BN Kommisar coming up
with three "1's!" Gruesome. My scouts then used the "shooting to
successful" rule to assault up and then consolidate on the objective. My
last IS-2 got a lucky hit on a concealed Stug-III and bagged the 2nd one
for the day. Over on the right my 2IC's Udarny finally got in a position
assault Doug's weaker FJ platoon on the right.

Scouts and the last IS-2 try to hang on to the objective.

In Doug's following turn he brought on some PAK 40s that had 4 shots
bounce off my IS-2 now right up on the road intersection. He popped his
ambush with the FJ Pioneers on the left. Which moved up onto the Bocage
across the street from my scouts. The Pioneers flamed my IS-2, bailing
it out and killed 2 of the three scout teams. The scout commander
rallied and went back in trying to move towards the IS-2 to save it, but
to no avail. The last of my units on the left where gone and my force
was right at 50% with no Battalion Commander. Doug had held, but at a
high cost. He lost his big FJ platoon, half of his Stugs and all of his
PAK 40's in one PM-120 bombardment as the PAK 40s where all bunched up
on the main road where they had pushed in from off board. His Pioneers
went down to their last team following another round of PM-120
bombardment, and though they held on, he chose to have them leave the
field and save the VP.

Now it was getting real serious. It all came up to my Udarny on the
right. They managed to shake of the PIN from the fire they took in the
previous turn without having to resort to Kommisar motivation and went
in. Many of my stands would be blocked from firing so again I had to
" burn" a flamethrower to get the Pin. This melee went much better as the
flames claimed more teams and I did better on initial hits. Doug,
determined as ever survived the 1st round and counterattacked back,
taking my last Udarny below 50%. The Udarny then followed with a counter
attack killing off the last FJ and the Udarny making a morale test to
stick around after the carnage.

That left only the Stug-III's and the LG-40's on the board with the two
FJ PLTs and PAK 40's destroyed. With the FJ Co the long dead, the game
fell to me as a 4-3 with a single Udarny Co of about 6 teams left, the
PM-120's and 76mm Regiment Guns far to the rear. Very close but one of
the most fun and most challenging games I've played to date. I thought I
had this game wrapped up many times, but Doug continued to show me how
wrong I was. I'm sure that I was just to darn aggressive. I was very
fixated on the infiltration and immediate assault. I think that given
tight packing of the FJs along the Bocage rows that my P-120mm Mortars
could have done some good works and really reduced the FJ strength and
fist and thus letting me preserve more strength in and through the
assaults. I also learned that even a full tricked out Udarny can be
handled roughly by a full FJ Platoon. I really made a big mistake
placing my main effort on the left where the BIG FJ unit was. So I
considered myself lucky with a 4-3 for my 2nd win of a three round
event.

Round Three (sorry camera memory filled up at this point)

The last round had me squaring off against Greg Marcum running a Whitman
Tiger Co and a board that was nearly completely open except for a two
large hill in the center with very open slopes. I manage to almost blow
a game with perfect terrain with the perfect mission in round 2, so now
it was time to see how I'd do in the about the worst terrain and worst
mission (Free for All) that I could get facing a Tank unit.

Table for the last round.

Greg had of course Whitman, and 2 x 2 Tiger I platoons. He backed these
up with 3 x Nebs, a scout platoon, and 3 x SdKfz/20mm Quads. He set up
with a Tiger PLT on each half of the table with the scouts on my left,
nebs on my right, and AAA halftracks in the center. There was a small
bit of wood on the right edge that I though I could use to penetrate
back to one objective through and get at the Nebs so I made my main
effort there with Udarny Co 1, Udarny Co 2 set up kind of in the
middle/left where the two hills would give it some initial cover. I
placed my IS-2s on the far left hoping to draw the Tigers that way and
give my right flank action a chance to succeed. My Mortars set up on the
far left to where they where screened by some woods and buildings. My
regimental 76mm guns set up in the center where behind a single building
and some hay fields where they could rush on a objective and by me a
turn if needed.

I won the roll for first turn an double timed both Udarny forward. I
also pressed the IS-2s forward to where all 4 had some concealment
around trees and buildings but where I did not have to get in rough
terrain. They four fired one long range salvo at the Tiger I PLT on the
left and one of the dice came up as a "6" and the failed save + FP
resulting in a destroyed Tiger. My mortars and 76mm guns failed to dig
in.

Greg on his turn proceed to demolish with Tiger MG fire and some AAA
thrown in as well what I "thought" was my main effort on the right. I
lost 8 teams and was already checking morale. His remaining Tiger on the
left scrambled for cover and Whitman made an appeared to booster that
lone Tiger on the left. His Nebs dug in, and his scouts who sued their
recon move to fall back on the left objective failed to dig in.

On my next turn, I figured that a long range duel with a ROF3 re-rolling
miss Whitman was a bad idea so I pulled them out at the double and
marched then over to my center. My Udarny on the left pressed on with a
regular move and was able to take the un-entrenched scouts under fire
killing two and making the survivor run. My PM-120's ranged in on the
unarmored AAA halftracks hitting all but killing only one! My gutted
Udarny on the right made it in to the thin woods on the right edge. This
was a big risk as the Tigers they where facing had a clear line of march
on my right objective.

On Greg's next turn Whitman and the Tiger on the right continued to
shoot at the Udarny Co on the left in the open, Nebs ranged in as well,
but other than getting pinned only a stand or two where was lost. His
Tigers on the right despite having re-roll missed shot at a 76mm Reg gun
but could not kill it.

On my following turn my IS-2s made it to the center of the field where I
could just about range towards either objective. My Udarny on the right
moved to contest the left objective. The Udarny on the right drove
foreword to the woods. My PM-120's finally finished off the AAA
halftracks.

Greg's response was just about a repeat of the last turn with the Udarny
on the left losing another two stands and his two Tigers finally killing
the expose 76mm Regimental gun. But following that he made a critical
mistake and used is Stormtrooper move to shift closer to the right and
within in 10" of my Udarny in woods, who though there where badly
mauled, still had a Flamethrower!

So on my next turn my Udarny on the right came out of the woods, shot
the flamethrower and bailed both tigers following that up with an easy
Fearless "Tank Terror" to capture the platoon. So the game ended with
the loss of his third platoon out of five total and a Final 6-1 for me.

In the end I was tied for 2nd with Mike Pike's US Airborne with 16 VPs.
Mike Pfanenstiel came out on top with a perfect 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 run using
2nd Armored Div with 105s, 155s, and an AOP. Great fun and I feel that I
was lucky to do as well as I did after that very close Game 2.

A special thanks goes to Charles Christ for running this great event and Rick & Jeannie of Pet Shop Comics and Collectables for hosting this extravaganza! I can’t wait for the next event (even if I am running it!).

Enjoy these other great shots:

Mike Pfanenstiel's Championship 2nd Armored Division Force.

Mike Pike's US Airborne Co (Tied for 2nd place)

My own 1st Guards Rifle Undarny Strelkovy force (Tied for 2nd place)

Monte Cassino Board

The very first copy of JR Miniatures new Monte Cassino terrain peice.

The "Festerplatz" board.

Don Belvin's US Airborne

Tony Thompson's Swhere Panzer Co