Between the 14th and 22nd November I played J103 Lenin’s Sons from Journal 7 against Aaron Sibley. This was our follow up game to my stunning victory in Burn Gurkha Burn where my master plan relied on him rolling a 12 on the very last roll of the game – which he happily obliged.
So, he chose the scenario and took the Russian defenders against a solid SS attack. Looking at the setup it was obvious to me that trying to cross the open ground was a recipe for disaster, even with a few Engineers and their smoke. The defenders in the woods looked pretty substantial – even though I knew some would be dummies – so I settled for a slow grind forward.
The plan was to place a firebase in Building Level 1 of V1/V2 to suppress the defenders on the hedge line and also to force the defenders on the edge of the wood back so that my main force could push through the southern part of the woods making use of the path. The remainder would push through the north hoping to hit the dummies and then forge ahead.
I kept a single squad in the very south ready to make a dash for the hedge line if chance allowed to hopefully open that part of the board for my firebase to join the final fight.
That was the plan.
This was the setup.
With the German forces as follows:
This is what happened…