Roads to Moscow: Tank Brigades

[MengJiao]

  A hard place to get on the map: two tank brigades are set to block the way to Moscow.

[MengJiao]

  A hard place to get on the map: two tank brigades are set to block the way to Moscow.

  Burning a lot of fuel, the SS and a tank regiment of the 10th Panzer at least get into the picture and blow up a battalion of T34s:

[MengJiao]

Dawn Comes.  There are a lot of 10th Panzer Panzers on the road, but not much fuel and the Russians have the initiative.

[MengJiao]

Dawn Comes.  There are a lot of 10th Panzer Panzers on the road, but not much fuel and the Russians have the initiative.

  the Big Picture after 10pz and 18th and 19th Tank have each taken one impulse:

[MengJiao]

  I've played at least 4 versions of the battle at Mozhaysk (at the Moscow River on the Moscow highway):

  1) Stand and Die (1991, GDW, I think) == a fantastic game, but pretty misleading about the battle
  2) Borodino 1941 (in the 1990s, Clash of Arms) == I never quite got the system and, probably due to my misunderstandings, the game seems misleading
  3) Computer version: Moscow 41
  4) This version.

   In this version, much is clarified.  For one thing the scale allows the 7th (motorized, apparently -- at least they have some bicycles) infantry Division to come in from the South.  In the above Big Picture of the morning of 12th October, the Bicycle REcon BN of the 7th Motorized has just gotten to the edge of the map -- they are purplish blobs SE of the weather boxes.  And this game solves a few other puzzles such as what was up with the 11th motorized regiment attached to the SS Division?  Apparently it had been shredded by airstrikes (along with the Division Commander) and turned up late and in a very battered state.
   Also in the versions of the battle up to this point it is very hard to see how the Russians held on for over a week, but in this version some answers seem to be on hand:

    1) for the Germans: Not much fuel and the arrival of fuel is unpredictable and ever-decreasing as the rains begin
    2) Soviet airstrikes doing massive damage
    3) 4-5 Russian Tank Brigades -- not super well-armed, but with some t34s and some tight command structures, they can be effective -- plus they always have fuel
    4) Motorcycles == the Russians have a useful number of motorcycle companies, whereas the Germans' most deeply penetrating unit has bicycles
    5) Lenin Cadets and other high morale troops on the Russian side versus the SS, which seems to have been a little under the weather at this point
    6) Other stuff -- sort of interacting with the above and shown to some degree in earlier games:  Russian command (pretty good and flexible), the 32nd Infantry Division (big, well-trained and well-armed), lots of AT guns, MG companies, Rocket artillery, troops escaping the pocket, assembling and joining the defense in division (reduced) strength, tanks and entrenchments.

Anyway it all makes for a pretty interesting battle.

[MengJiao]

Dawn Comes.  There are a lot of 10th Panzer Panzers on the road, but not much fuel and the Russians have the initiative.

  the Big Picture after 10pz and 18th and 19th Tank have each taken one impulse:

Late Afternoon on the 12th: the advanced guard of the 32nd Soviet Division arrives almost in time to save the 18th Tank Brigade from being wrecked.

[MengJiao]

Dawn Comes.  There are a lot of 10th Panzer Panzers on the road, but not much fuel and the Russians have the initiative.

  the Big Picture after 10pz and 18th and 19th Tank have each taken one impulse:

Late Afternoon on the 12th: the advanced guard of the 32nd Soviet Division arrives almost in time to save the 18th Tank Brigade from being wrecked.

Late in the day, the infantry battalion of the 18th Tank Brigade survives, though battered as it throws back one attack and then is finally rescued by a second counter attack by the main body of the 18th, a regiment of the 32nd Div and some engineers:

[panzerde]

Great AAR! I'm really liking the look of this system. Going to check it out a bit more, I may have to pick it up.

[MengJiao]

Great AAR! I'm really liking the look of this system. Going to check it out a bit more, I may have to pick it up.

I'll have to do another on this system.  I just packed this one up since I'm going on vacation.

There's a lot to like with this system -- and all the more with this improved iteration (the first was Roads to Leningrad).  I guess the main thing I like is the focus on battles in 1941 when both sides have some hit-or-miss aspects.

For example in the Mozhaynsk battles, the Russian 32nd Infantry Division, when dug in with army-level assets, is about as strong as a slightly battered Panzer division running low on fuel and the main struggle is between those formations.  The Russian Tank Brigades are especially interesting in this system: they give an important if small manoeuver componet and they can command army level assets.

Other fun things are the airpower representation and the impulse movement system as well as the very good maps and research.