Clash of Steel: 2nd Battle of Jassy

Once again the Wollongong Wargamers used the alt-history Post War period Clash of Steel rules to replay a large armoured engagement of WW2. Tanks only, and with a swag of dynamic ever-changing scenario inputs, these rules are perfect to replay large swirling tank battles where armour was queen of the battlefield. 

Daniel was fresh back from the AusArmour Tank Fest up in Cairns, swanning about in Panthers and Leopards and the like, so there was no need to ask him which side he wanted to play for!

An 8x6 table was set up to represent the Prut River valley. Whilst the river itself is impassable to armour, it is interspersed with many fords and a stout Class A road bridge in the centre of the table. However the field expedient timber trestle bridge would require a cross check, and the first tank to fail would also collapse the bridge.

In our previous game the Soviet team has invariable come off worse - far worse! So I tilted the points slightly towards the Red Hordes...and naughtily snuck in an extra T34-85 platoon...

As we set up the game it emerged that we would be playing Mission 3 The Long Run which suited the Prut river crossings as objectives very nicely! However the random Mission Rules #4 meant we had to find 40% of our forces to place into Immediate Reserve, and that the game would only last 7 turns.

So Daniel was left with his Tiger IIs and a single JagdPanzer IV troop on table...

Whilst the Tiger Is and second JagdPanzer platoon would have to go into reserve.

No point worrying about what the Russians put into reserve - we had so many AFVs it was a relief to get the table space to be honest!

The Russians didn't hesitate to use their Scout T34-85s to Spearhead onto the centre objective. This was rather unfair on the Germans, as they had no Scout capable units - must get those Pumas painted up!

Hence I was picking up Victory Points (VPs) right away. I think at this stage Daniel was feeling a little daunted - particularly as his reserves didn't show up!

When in doubt, send in the Tigers!

These were superbly well positioned in the centre of the table, covering all approaches across the river Prut.

I tried dashing swiftly past them - nothing to see here!

But they weren't having it!

The timber bridge was now down....

And the centre crossing a death trap...

 

We tried sprinting for the German rear on the far left hand side...

That didn't work either!

Bizarrely, despite the steady attrition of my forces, I was still way ahead on VPs as my rear echelon was still picking up points for two of the objectives. 6 points a pop for nil effort...

But Daniel was fast catching up to me as he wiped out platoon after platoon as his reserves started to show up, gaining 3 VPs for each platoon totalled. With only two turns to go it was a race to see if he could catch up with his superior AFVs...

At this point I played a dirty trick with the Tactics cards. Just as the single objective Daniel held, thus far inert, was due to deliver double VPs, I played a card that removed it from the game! So the game went to the Soviet 'Liberators'!

Daniel still enjoyed the game however, and is not only a convert to Clash of Steel, he also agrees that it works in the WW2 context for staging large but fast armoured engagements. So far we have confined ourselves to fielding late war vehicles that exist in the Clash of Steel timeline, but see no reason why we couldn't use Flames of War data cards for early or mid war games, so long as the battle being recreated was mainly an armoured affair... Clash of War anyone?