I got a rare chance to play PG face-to-face in November, and we tried MOL #4, Sol'tsy: Problems at Maloye Utorgosh. Two maps, 18 turns, and designed by PG scenario artisan Mike Perryman.

I see Vince Hughes played this one back a while ago, and had a German win. This time, the Soviets won as the German conceded early. I was the Soviets, and was helped by some atrocious rolls by my opponent (several 12s on morale checks in the first turn!, and repeated 7s when checking for his own fire). I was able to get some of his tanks in a crossfire between my T-28s and 45mm AT guns, eventually killing three steps. But the big break came when my force advancing down the western side got the jump on his troops in the wheat field due to an early fog-of-war turn end. When his troops tried to pull back, they were hammered by my OBA. I had three powerful groups closing in on the town from different directions, and we called it quits.

I thought the scenario was interesting, a classic PG assault situation. With some different rolls it could have turned out very differently.

Maloye Utorgosh 15th July 1941

Scenario played : 26th July 2009

The advancing 8th Panzer Division had encountered increasing opposition since July 13th. On the morning of the 15th it became a full-blown Soviet attack. Soon the Panzer Division was cut off and under fire from nine enemy Divisions, and desperate calls for help went unanswered since 8th Panzer’s supporting Division, the 3rd Motorised had just been hit by a Soviet pinning attack at Maloye Utorgosh. At best, 3rd Motorised could hold position whilst 8th Panzer broke out and escaped to their lines. At worst, they would be cut off themselves.

The battle at Maloye Utorgosh kicked off with Soviet advances from the north and east at 0815 hours. Some 4 battalions led the assault, supported by a mixture of varying tank quality and a heavy mass of artillery support. The Germans set their MG coys in M.Utorgosh along with artillery and AT guns and the ‘stubble-hopper’ infantry dug themselves in at the grainfields and were generally not observable. They set their 3 platoons of PzIII’s, one at each ‘corner’ of the L-shaped line. The infantry and tanks would concentrate on destroying the eastern attack of the Soviets, meaning the northern wing would be dealt with by the town defences and any reinforcements left from the east part of the battle.

The Soviet attackers were allowed few targets to actually use their OBA against, whilst the German tanks and their own OBA hindered Soviet AFV moves. Right from the off, Russians began falling on the east side of the attack, 100 men in the first 45 minutes. In the next half hour around another 200 became casualties in what was turning into a massacre of the east wing. The Germans lost 50 soldiers themselves and came under pressure when Soviet troops finally entered the grainfields and vicious close-combat in the fields ensued. Despite this pressure, the attack was beaten off with the Soviets, if not killed, then the vast majority of others fleeing and demoralised.

Meanwhile the northern attack was being engaged at range and very much disrupted. The Soviets failed to get within 400 yards of Maloye Utorgosh and yet still suffered heavy losses. Only one bright spot occurred in the battle when six T28’s went head to head against four PzIII’s and destroyed them all. Two of the T28’s were eventually taken out by German infantry, but the Soviets had notched a mini-tank win against the Panzers.

Overall though, the slaughter had been pretty one way traffic, with the town never under threat. Both attacks from the north and east had been decimated and thrown back. The Soviets retreated in much disorder having sustained around 500 losses plus 4 tanks. The German defenders lost around 200 men and 6 tanks, but the attack had been truly beaten off.

Germans set up in town with perimeter defenses spread out in a rough semicircle a few hexes outside of town. Soviets entered from north and east and immediately started taking heavy losses but the Soviet tanks were able to disable the German armor and force the German perimeter defenses back. As the Soviets approached the town from the northeast, the German artillery kept firing and disabling Soviet infantry. With all the disrupted and demoralized troops and with so few leaders, the Soviet advance was uncoordinated and slow. In the end the Germans held four town hexes and one was being battled for and the game ended in a draw. This was a fun scenario that could easily go either way. Well worth playing again and again.

Played solo. Germans set up in town and in the fields near the town. All units outside of town set up dug-in. Soviets entered from north and east edges and slowly made progress toward the town, but struggled to make any impact on the German units in the town. German morale was 8 and they had a leader with a -2 morale modifier in the town, which made it almost impossible to do any significant damage to units there. Eventually the Soviet units formed a rough semi-circle around the town and continued their artillery fire and frequent advances to the town to attempt assault, but all attempts were met with accurate artillery and opportunity fire that broke the Soviet units and sent them scurrying for cover. In the end the Germans held all the town hexes while the Soviets took significant losses and lost the game. This game seemed to be determined by the qualities of the leaders. The Germans had very good leaders while the Soviets didn't, and they struggled to recover any unit that had broken.

The worst scenario of the Sol'tsy campaign. As the Soviet player you come on two differing boards from the north and east. In our game the northern attack neevr got going and the eastern attack was stopped in its track. I felt the game was unbalanced though this may be harsh on Vince whose set up was very good. I was unable to use my artillery as all his troops other than AFVs were in limiting terrain and it was a frustrating game for me.