"Sowchos 79 Annual "Big Game"" Topic

I thought some of you may like to see the results of our annual "big game" this year, being Sowchos 79, an Eastern Front game played on a 7.5' X 12' table in Phong Nguyen-Ho's palatial basement. Ted Hodson provided great food and Dawson Geldart, Ted Dyment and I provided the other three players, with Phong and Dawson taking the Russians.
It was an epic 15 hours of gaming over two days and – surprise, surprise – we finished!
Here is the link to the AAR.
link

Two tall payers and a set of corn tongs "wink".
Actually, I was awake the night before the game worrying about that and cursing myself for not carving off a foot from the west side! But remarkably, it all worked out.

Wow…just wow!

I agree, Wow. I really love seeing winter games that look like they give players frostbite. Lovely pictures.
Mark

Lovely site, great terrain. The lead sheeting is inspired.

How I missed this is a mystery. Your 'work' is always an inspiration.
Have you gamed this where the Russians have won?
Perhaps the pzivf2 is a deal breaker? Surprised the 76.2mm and sloped armor didn't do better.

Thanks, Brucka.
Only gamed it once, but the Germans capitalized on the 10" to 20" range, where many of the panzers seemed to outgun the T-34's, especially the PzIVF2. But mostly it was a numbers and tactics game – I think if the Russians had pulled their T-34's back towards the town rather than sit out in the open to face more than twice as many German tanks, eventually in enfilade, they may have fared better.

I guess suppression counts quite a bit even firing on better armed units. If you were to do this on an 8x5 in 20mm would you half the amount of units? I believe you use the 15mm (printed) ranges?

We halved everything up for this game in 20mm. I'm not sure how I would handle it on an 8X5 table in 20mm (always a problem with BFWWII as it is written for 15mm).
You might consider lopping off the north and west side of the table, as most of the action happens right around Sowchos 79. Could probably lose a foot off the south as well. Drop the convoy, and maybe pull a few of the lighter German tanks out of the mix to compensate for the first 5 turns and pro rate entry times accordingly.
Or, as you suggest, halve the forces involved, but that might be more iffy for scenario balance.
The really interesting part of this game was seeing how, in late '42, the infantry were so ineffective against armour, lacking efficient hand held AT weapons. The -2 tank fright in CC was a big factor.

Gives you pause to think of the Romanians and Hungarians on the Northern Flank of Operation Saturn. Which I believe is the River Chir itself?

Impressive! Great looking table.