Attack on Kiel

This was my first solo game  and the rules used were "A Fistful of Tows 3" , I found that the rules as written were very easy to solo play with.

The models used were 3mm from Oddzial Osmy of Poland and are mounted on 30mm square mdf which worked very well with a ground scale of 10mm to 100M

Game Setup

This is a game set in 1985 It is a Soviet 2nd line regimental attack on a West German brigade comprising of a panzer grenadier battalion , mixed battalion and panzer battalion all supported by a battery of M109’s.

The Soviets will need to secure the town and bridgehead in order to advance further into West Germany , the town pieces are to scale as i did a screen capture from google maps which represents and area of 6Km by 6Km. or 10 cm to 1 Km

The red numbers spots denote the soviet objectives in order of priority , i have decided not to put down roads due to the ground scale.The first is a bridge and a town with good logistical access of road network.

The second and third are major hills in the area.

Soviet Quality = Marginal , Artillery = Accuracy 4+; Response 2+

West German Quality = Fair , Artillery = Accuracy 3+; Response 2+

Visibility is good , Weather is Clear

Rules Mods

the only modifications i used were to combine the infantry and itv vehicles into one stand , i treated this single stand as two stands for game purposes and just marked those stands if they were traveling in their vehicles , for combat i rolled the equivalent number of dice as thought they were separate stands.

Turn 1

The soviets have advanced on Kiel , their artillery caused two coy of the grenadiers to be suppressed and together with massed fire form the other parts of the regiment managed to eliminate one of the german grenadier coy’s. 

The germans managed to pour some accurate fire into the lead battalions which resulted in the loss of one from each soviet coy.

It is now the beginning of turn 2 , the Soviets need to secure a bridgehead to continue the advance

Turn 2

Both sides engage in an artillery duel causing the engineers and the panzer grenadiers to become suppressed but the engineers manage to create a bridge which will allow the Soviet regiment to cross the stream.

Turn 3

The Soviets cross the stream and enter into the town , the West Germans respond the this attack and close combat ensues , both sides take heavy casualties , the panzer grenadiers are whipped out but manage to take both the Soviet mechanised battalions with them , the Soviets lost 1 stand to each battalion and also failed another quality check as they were at 2/3rds strength ,this town has been costly to take for the Soviets.

The West Germans realising that the town was lost move the panzer battalion to cover the central hill and their HQ.

Turn 4

The Soviets move through the town and take up defensive positions on the outskirts of the town and the West Germans complete their manoeuvre to defend the centre hill.

If the Soviets advance and try to take the defended positions on the hills they would surely be severely bloodied , if the West Germans try to retake the town they themselves would suffer extensive casualties.

It is now down to who would get any available reinforcements or win the artillery duel.

Perhaps those who read this aar would like to comment on what would happen next.

This is the final ending position of the forces involved.

In any event i decided to end this battle here as i think that if either the West Germans decide to retake the town or if the soviets try to continue the advance then both sides would be severally bloodied and perhaps loose more than they would gain.

After thoughts

i thought that the rules flowed very well for a solo game , they do have a lot of of information with regard to the various combat systems in the various vehicles used in the game , the West Germans had Leopard 1A4 & Marder Ifv , whilst the Soviets had T62 and btr60's. one thing i did notice is that if you do not suppress you opponent you will be on the receiving end of a lot of firepower.

Once i got the general hang of the rules the game preceded reasonably quickly with the four turns being completed in about two hours which did include rules lookups and some thought pondering on what to do next with the specific side.