July's SNS game: BKC!

Overall view. Germans are crossing the river at far left.

BKC stands for Blitzkreig Commander, a WW2 armor game where a miniature or stand of troops can either be a platoon or a single squad/tank. Based on the Warmaster Ancients system (and heavily modified) I love this command control mechanism and a game of BKC is never boring. I modified a scenario from Avalanche Press' Eastern Front board game. The Germans would be crossing a river to invade the Soviet Union on the first day of the Eastern blitzkreig. The German player, Russ, had to make dice rolls to see if the infantry and vehicles made it across on ferries, rubber rafts, or wading equipment while the engineers tried to disable a roadblock on the bridge.

Meanwhile, the two Soviet battalions one in each town, could not deploy until their HQs rolled for an activation. There was little Soviet armor available. The Germans had to seize at least one town and exit troops from the table.

The first of the German armor and infantry deploy towards the road fork.

The German plan seemed to be send the armor down the road and cover the flanks with the two infantry battalions. At first the only Soviet unit ready for action was a battery of 45mm AT guns. However, out of command range, they could only act on initiative! Back at the bridge, the German pioneers seemed to be having difficulty clearing the bridge, so more tanks tried to wade the river.

The lead German armor reaches the range of the Soviet 45's. Battle begins!

The right flank German infantry made very good progress, while a second wave of armor and the right flank battalion moved more slowly. The Soviet 45mm tried to engage the lead armor, but scored few hits. The pioneers at the bridge still had trouble with the roadblock, and the German motorized column waited impatiently on the far side of the river.

Germans organize a better attack, and take out the ATG battery.

As the armor advanced, the hapless 45 mm ATg crews were wiped out and the armor prepared to deploy towards the two towns. In the towns, the Soviet command had a terrible time trying to organize themselves into a defense. The regimental command finally got a couple of 76mm batteries in position to try to slow down the enemy, and the T-26 company finally began moving.

The Soviets prepare to defend their towns.

The 76mm battery on the Soviet left was overrun on the hill as the German right flank began to encircle the left town. On the Soviet right, it too soon had a line of advancing infantry converging on the town as the Soviet command finally got their act together to organize resistance. On the central hill, incoming tank fire soon neutralized the regimental troops and the German armor split to attack both towns.

Hurrah! A panzer II platoon burns.

The Soviet fire made hardly a dent on the German armor, although the German left flank infantry battalion took some hits from small arms fire in the town. Suddenly a blunder on the part of the Germans... Friendly Fire took out the leading Panzer II platoon!

The German right flank assaults the first Soviet town.

Russ executed a brilliant assault on on my left flank and soon the Soviets had lost half the town. Return fire managed to take out a couple of infantry platoons and a tank, but it was obvious that the Germans were winning. Time had run out, the Regimental command stand was fleeing, the leftmost town was falling, and the German motorized column had finally arrived and was destroying the Soviet right flank. Germans won. Of course, it was just the first day of the invasion.