A Sneak Peek Battle Report by Mike Haught and Casey Davies As Casey and I worked together on Stalin’s Onslaught we found that forces included had a lot of character. Casey loves his Soviets and Ive always enjoyed interesting defensive armies and so I gravitated toward the Sturmdivision. When the project was finished, Casey and I thought it would be fun to put together a sneak-peek battle report from Stalin’s Onslaught, featuring the all new 78. Sturmdivision and Udarny Strelkovy army boxed sets. After a week of smack talk and calling each other names, we threw together a table and assembled our augmented army box set armies. We decided to go with 1750 points, so we bulked out the army deals. I wanted to test the defensive abilities of the Sturmdivision, so I grabbed some trenches and gun pits. It was a good move considering we rolled Free For All for our mission—I wasn’t about to face Casey’s mega Devastating Bombardment template with out my trenches!

The board was rather open on one side with a few forests and fields. I deployed on the otherside, defending the outskirts of a town. I placed my trenches in a rather uncreative line, using the small village as an anchor point in the centre. I took pride in the placement of my gun teams. I stuck a heavy machine-gun team in each building and sited my guns down each dirt road. However, there wasn’t enough trench line to go around, so I had to leave a few guys out. Casey deployed on his side. As he took each unit out of his tray I sort of twitched. I nearly had a seizure when he plopped down a full Katyusha battery and an eight gun Gods of War battery. This was going to be intense…

Turn one! I beat the odds and rolled to get the first turn. I quickly dug in my troops that were left out of the trenches. My StuG assault guns rolled up on the hill and blasted a Soviet artillery gun, then promptly failed to stromtroop of the hill… Casey’s troops lurched forward, slowly grinding toward my lines. Then his evil artillery lashed out with all the fury of the Red God of War. There is no hiding from a Katyusha battalion’s 12x12” devastating bombardment. It blew away my 15cm infantry guns, leaving nothing but small pile of smoking rubble. Then the God of War opened up on my disobedient StuG platoon. He hit all three tanks, two of which promptly failed their saves. As the Soviet guns quieted down for a moment, the StuGs and the lone command stand of the infantry guns turned in their uniforms and rage quit the game. Excellent way to start!

Turn two! Without any mobile forces I decided to just sit in my trenches and hope for a break. The Maultier rocket launchers flung some 15cm rockets back at Casey, destroying a 122mm gun and two Katyusha trucks, which killed any more Devastating Bombardments from being dropped on my head. That was something, anyway! Casey kept moving his infantry and tanks forward. Irritatingly, he was moving outside my heavy machine-guns' range. His God of War battery failed to unpin, so that was fortunate for me! His Katyushas tried to retaliate against my Maultiers, but failed.

Turn three! I prioritised the Casey’s tanks as the Maultier rocket lauchers’ prime threat. They bombarded and bailed one tank, despite having eight under my template! I decided to open up with my PaK40 guns against the mine roller tanks but failed to hit. The other PaK40 shot at some infantry running in the open, and got one. Casey shrugged off the attempt to stem the tide of his Soviet horde and pressed forward. The PT-34 mine roller tanks decided to pause and return fire against my rocket launchers and PaK40. Miraculously, the tanks missed the Panzerwerfers completely, as did the Katyusha battery! However, they had better luck against the PaK40, destroying it. The God of War returned with a vengeance and killed a heavy machine-gun in a building.

Turn four! I decided to press my luck and fired another bombardment over the tank platoon, which resulted in one dead and two bailed tanks. Casey’s infantry stumbled into view of a PaK40 anti-tank gun and I managed to destroy a team—a moral victory! Casey wisely kept his tanks away from my infantry, which would literally eat his tanks for breakfast. Instead, he traded shots with the Maultiers finally knocking out two launchers.

Turn five! Things are looking grim for my grenadiers. The Maultiers are nearly destroyed, but manage to lob another bombardment onto the God of War battery, killing two more guns. On the left flank, my PaK40 takes another opportunity shot at the Soviet infantry and manage to get another team. Meanwhile, Casey had been sneaking his infantry through the woods on the right flank. He then let loose his assault, which pushed the grenadiers out of their trench, destroying most of the Sturm platoon in the process. The Maultiers also fled the field. The end was near!

Turn six! The game was drawing to a close and I decided to go out in a blaze of glory. My machine-guns in the houses opened up with lethal vengeance on the Udarny troops, who were finally in range, but failed to really do anything. I then gathered the remnants of the Sturm platoon, my 2iC and CiC and charged into the breech in a hopeful attempt to break the enemy platoon. They managed to move the platoon back a little, but failed to push them off the objective. Unfortunately, my troops decided that was all they had in them and the company retired, after being savagely defeated!

Casey's Final Thoughts Wow, that devastating bombardment is insane. Katys are fragile and you don’t have the huge template long, but it is very worth it for that first couple of turns. It also means that the enemy has to dedicate assets to making the Katys less effective. I think the main thing that won me the game was the deployment of Mike’s HMGs, Since they were bunched up in the middle of the table it was relatively easy to avoid then. If they were spread out amongst his infantry they would have caused me more problems, and I would have had to approach the game differently.

Mike's Final Thoughts The dice betrayed me, but those of you who have played me know this isnt new. In fact, if i actually started rolling well, you should be very concerned! But that aside, I still enjoyed the game. I could have used a few more lucky breaks, but thats the nature of wargaming. There is a lot of cool toys available for a Sturmkompanie and it will be a great army in the hands of a competant general!  I'll have my vengeance, Casey!