Defending Kobrin - the battle

The table.

The Germans advance, the Russians have been spotted in the wood west of the river. 

 Ivan has prepared his defences in the woods.

 They await the inevitable assault.

 The Russian blind in the wood to the north is spotted as a dummy blind, clearing the way for the German 2nd platoon to move up the left.

 The German 1st platoon methodically take apart the inferior Russians, but it takes time.

Second platoon move into the woods, but impatiently the armour pushes too far forward on a bonus card. The very next card is Russian blinds and the 45mm ATG lets fly. With a well aimed shot the first German tank brews up, all bar one of the crew escape. The next shot finds its target and although it fails to destroy the tank it damages the main armament, putting it out of action. 

 The 45mm continues to hit the remaining tank, eventually the crew bail out expecting each new hit to turn the tank into a blazing coffin.

 The Russian crew find the range and punish the tanks !

 Second platoon move through the wood. Once in place they will have sight onto the Russian ATG.

 The Russian big man Ivor Varuka planning the defence from the cover of a wood.

The Germans having learned the lesson of impatience have moved into position to lay fire down on the brittle Russians. However the blank card ( marking the passing of a turn ) has not been kind to the Germans and there is only one turn left.

 The final position after 10 turns. The Germans were unable to cross the the river in the given time. When they did take a chance luck was against them and one armoured platoon was history. Steady fire upon the Russians reducing their effectiveness via shock worked well and given more time they would have prevailed.

A Russian victory however, they had slowed 3 Panzer Division.

The heroic ATG team remained at their gun to the bitter end.

Defending Kobrin

The second battle from the 41-Drive on Minsk skirmish campaign book. Elements of the 3rd Panzer Division are approaching Kobrin. The Soviet 205th Motorised Division have set up defensive positions to cover the retreat of of their Tank Divisions.

The Soviet troops may start in foxholes or trenches.

They have 3 Platoons of Infantry and a 45mm ATG. The infantry platoons have prepared squads with extra grenades and Molotov cocktails.

The German force objective is to exit 2 AFVs off the eastern edge. They have a platoon of two PzII tanks, a platoon of two PzIIIs and two platoons of infantry.

All the woods are dense (no vehicle movement) the streams have steep banks and marsh along most of their length, vehicles may only cross at the bridge or the fords.

Although the Russians are dug in and outnumber the German Infantry they are of low quality and lack the leaders to motivate them, (one of the strengths of IABSM is that the rules can model a small highly motivated confident force to combat a larger less motivated force). This won't be an easy task for the Germans however,  the close terrain does not suit the German armour. If their infantry do not protect them the Russian infantry will have plenty of opportunities to close assault the German armour.

As the Russians had prepared squads for such an event I added a tank killer card to the deck, which would allow one squad to close assault any German AFV within range.

Other cards in the deck:

Russian Big Man 1

Commisar

Tank Killers

Platoons 1 to 3

ATG

Russian Blinds

German Big Man 1 to 4

Rapid Deployment

Axis Rally

German Blinds

Platoons 1 & 2

Armour 1 & 2

After action report to follow.