Deep in the Woods - Force on Force AAR, Belarus 1943

Background

Belarus 1943.  After the failure of the inept Sonderkommando Dirlewanger’s attempt at eliminating Kapitan Deyna’s Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) partisans (read here), the German command turn to a regular Heer unit to try and destroy the partisans.  

Table Set up

The game is played on a 3ft x 2.5 ft game mat.  The area is heavily wooded, closed forest which provide cover and potential ambush points.  The terrain hampers movement, reducing all movement to Cautious movement of 6 inches.  One side of the table also consists of a boggy area and is even more difficult to traverse.  

Six numbered hotspots have been placed on the table from which the German forces will deploy.  The reinforcement level is 5, therefore German units will deploy on anything other than a 6 being rolled on a d6.  Roll d6 and consult the reinforcement table to see which German unit deploys and roll d6 to determine which Hotspot they deploy at.  The Reinforcement table with full scenario details can be seen/downloaded here.  

The forces

Armia Krajowa (Regulars)

All ex-Polish army troops and/or experienced partisans and therefore treated as Regulars.  Troop Quality d8 and a Morale of d8.  Deyna has managed to replace the casualties taken in the last game.  

HQ unit – Kapitan Deyna armed with SMG

2 Sections each consisting of:

• 1 NCO with SMG

• 3 partisans with bolt action rifles

German Heer Infanterie (Regulars)

The German unit are trained troops with a Troop Quality of d8.  They are suffering from low morale due to the heavy losses they took in the Soviet Winter Offensive and also due to the duties they have been tasked to perform.  Their Morale dice is therefore d6, apart from their Leaders who are still d8.  If a leader is attached to a team they will use d8 for morale.  

The Germans start with one section already deployed consisting of:

• 1 fireteam with 1 LMG team of two men and one NCO (leader) with SMG.
• 1 fireteam with 4 bolt action rifle armed men, one of which is an NCO (leader).  

Roll randomly for each team to see which Hotspot they deploy from.  

Turn One 

Initiative is with the Polish Home Army.

Being the first turn there are no Hotspot Reinforcement rolls.  German rifleman squad A declares Hidden.  The Home Army units move forwards cautiously 6 inches.  The German LMG team move forwards.  

Turn Two

Initiative is still with the Polish Home Army.  The Hotspot Reinforcement rolls deploys 3 Germans with bolt action rifles and grenades at Hotspot 3.

Home Army team A move up through the forest, they fail to spot German rifle team A that is in hiding.  They now react to the movement and Fire on Home Army team A.  They get 2 successes which beat all of the Polish dice causing 2 casualties.  The Morale roll is equal success and failures and team A is Pinned.  

Deyna and Home Army team B cautiously move forward.  The remaining German teams hold their positions.

Turn Three

Initiative is rolled and it now switches to the Germans.  The Hotspot Reinforcement roll deploys another 3 Germans with bolt action rifles and grenades onto the battlefield at Hotspot 2.  A line of field grey now faces the partisans.

Rifle Team B that deployed at Hotspot 3 in the last turn move forwards.  The LMG team have LOS on Home Army B and open up on them.  The withering fire of the MG34 rakes the Poles, their defence die manages to negate one hit but two of the Home Army fighers fall including Team B’s NCO.  The Poles now fire back but obviously shaken by their losses they fail to score any hits.  They pass their Morale check and Stand.  

German rifle team A open fire on Home Army team A.  The Reaction test is a tie so the Germans can press home their attack.  They hit three times causing 1 casualty.  The sole survivor of the squad is the NCO who returns fire with his SMG without any result, he passes his Morale test though.

German rifle team D now elect to fire at the remnants of Home Army team B.  The Germans win the Reaction test and fire.  They hit with all 3 dice but the Poles defence rolls are even better.  They now return fire.  They score a hit but it has no effect.

Turn Four

The Germans win the Initiative roll yet again.  Mercifully for the Poles the Reinforcement roll is a 6, no further German units deploy.  

German rifle team A continues it’s fire on the last survivor of Home Army team A.  Incredibly the Polish NCO reacts first and sweeps them with his MP40.  He scores 3 hits taking two of the Germans down.  But it’s his last action as the remaining Germans both hit beating his defense die and he falls fighting to the last. Home Army team A has now been vanquished. 

German rifle team D presses it’s attack on Capitan Deyna and Home Army team B.  They win the Reaction test and fire.  The Germans miss completely, the return fire from the Poles has 3 successes but the German defence die beat them so no losses to either side.  

The German LMG team fires at Capitan Deyna and Home Army team B but although hitting twice, the Poles use of cover means they take no casualties.  

German Rifle team C moves up to flank the surviving Poles.  

  

Turn Five

The Poles gain the initiative this turn.  The situation is desperate.  Does Deyna take his few remaining men retreat back into the cordon held by the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger or try and slip though the German line ahead of him?  The Poles decide to try hiding out for this turn.

The Hotspot Reinforcement roll is for Hotspot 5 and 3 Germans with bolt action rifles led by an NCO with an SMG deploy.  

German rifle team D move forwards searching for the Poles, but they fail to spot them.  The two survivors of German rifle team A do likewise.  They also fail.  Its now German rifle team C’s turn and they succeed! The Reaction test is a tie, the Poles have initiative so act first and open fire.  There are 4 Pole successes the Germans can match 2 die but take 2 casualties.  The remaining German passes his Morale test and gets a shot off but it does nothing.  

The German LMG team and German team E who just arrived march to the sound of the guns and advance through the woods.  

Turn Six

The Germans win the Initiative roll.  The Hotspot Reinforcement deploys 3 Germans with bolt action rifles and grenades and an NCO/Leader with an SMG at Hotspot 1.  This is right near the Poles and they go into action straight away merging with the survivor of German rifle team C.  They all elect to Fire on the Poles, winning the Reaction test and firing first.  They roll 5 successes and the Poles can only match one die.  Against overwhelming odds the gallant Deyna and his men finally fall.   

Conclusion

Against the trained Heer unit and ending up completely outnumbered it was inevitable that Deyna’s time was up.  Having men  on the table at the start of the game made a big difference for the Germans.  This helped to slow the partisans down from the start.  The d8 quality of the Heer forces also made a difference as the partisans were matched equally.  In the previous game they had  outclassed the Germans.   And the final difference between the games was that except for one turn the Germans were consistently reinforced.  Deyna’s luck had run out.

I've really enjoyed these two games.  I played the first game using SHQ figures from my 1/76th collection and then a combination of Artizan, Warlord and Wargames Atlantic 28mm for this game.  I played the first game as an asymmetric game using Ambush Alley for rules.  This game was played using Force on Force which is the first time I've used it although I've owned it since the Osprey version was published in 2011.  The mechanisms are mostly the same just some nuances to be aware of for Kinetic Operations (Regulars v Regulars).  The AA/FoF system is one of my favourites.  

As an historical note regular Heer units were widely used for anti-partisan operations.  There is a misconception that it was only SS, Police and local auxiliary forces that were responsible for all the "bad things".  The record of many Heer units on the Eastern Front and in other theatres such as Yugoslavia and Italy is very far from being clean.