Takana toinen Sturmovik Commander -peli, jossa käytimme skenaariota. Pelaajat: USA - MinerMe, Neuvostoliitto - UrielVentris, Saksa - Mösö.
Raportti jälleen englanniksi, koska vieläkään ulkomaalaiset eivät ole suomea oppineet.
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Luftwaffe raid on Murmansk
(Updated 12.12.08 at 10:41GMT)
The Scenario
This time, we played a “Strategic superiority scenario 2: Bombing raid”. A point value of 300 was selected (recommendation is 150-600 points). There were three players: Soviet, US and German. Raid takes place in 1943 (we like that year).
The Task
Germans were to make a raid on Murmansk harbour. As the readers should know, the northern Soviet harbour of Murmansk was the destination of Allied arctic convoys. The objective of the German raid was to hit the oil supplies in the harbour and ships waiting for the return trip to the UK.
Here are some inspirational videos:
Konvoi 4: Luftwaffe bombing Murmansk and Arctic convoys (in Russian)
Luftwaffe Attack the Port of Murmansk (Sep 1941) (in German)
In our scenario, there were both ground targets and ships in harbour. We did not use the Water & Fire rules.
Fig. 1 The board. The small white dice next to the ships show the remaining hits. Murmansk harbour was printed from Google Earth and pasted together from quite many pieces.
The Squadrons
Soviet Air Forces
4x Yak-9
2x Mig-3 (w/ rockets)
= 148 p
USAAF
1x P-38 Lightning
5x P-40 Kittyhawk
1x P-51A Mustang
= 126 p
Allied A-A (placed on two of the largest ships)
2x M1939 61-K (37mm)
2x M1939 52-K (85 mm)
= 80 p
Luftwaffe
1x He 111 (w/ bombs)
3x Bf 110G (w/bombs)
3x Fw 190A
1x Bf 109G
= 298 p
Fig. 2 Two Luftwaffe bombing groups with escorts
Fig. 3 First Allied interceptors
The Miniatures
This time all planes were 1/300 from Heroics & Ross (if I remember correctly). The ships were 1/1700 Axis & Allies: War At Sea miniatures. The oil tanks I bought from Ebay some time ago.
The Story
Two Luftwaffe groups started their approach: Slower Gruppe A with He 111 and Bf 110G from German player’s left and faster (Gruppe B) with two Bf 110G’s from right. Allied choose to intercept the Gruppe A with deployed fighters. First shots are exchanged between the fighters speeding to meet each other.
Fig 4. First two rounds of approach.
Fig 5. First shots between the fighters (round 2).
On round three, too anxious pilots try too much: two collision take place in the air as pilots try to be at the same air space at the same time: Allied loose a P-51 Mustang, a P-40 Kittyhawk and a Mig-3 while Germans loose an Fw 190A. We decided that the pilots of the collided planes may not bail out (otherwise we resolved the bail-outs at the end of the game).
Fig 6. Fatal collisions in air.
First Allied reinforcement arrive: three Yak-9’s and one Mig-3 barely visible in top right corner of the Fig 7 (not very good contrast over the harbour terrain). One Fw 190A opens throttle to meets Yak’s. On next turn, three Kittyhawks follow the Soviets and the Germans are in trouble. The speeding Fw 190A notices that after wing-over move there are three Yanks at his six. He goes down from the Kittyhawks’ deadly fire. The Bf 110Gs dive to avoid the incoming planes, but the gray Bf 110G is late in his dive and manages to drop only two level; he is still within the range of the Soviet guns.
Fig 7. Allied reinforcements.
Situation starts too look very bleak for Gruppe B. Only one Bf 110G and its escort, Bf 109G, are left. The Allied have six fighters against two German aircraft!
Fig 8. Gruppe B in trouble.
At the same time, Gruppe A is getting ready to attach the ship at sea. The remaing Fw 190A escort has scored twice: P-38 Lightning and Mig-3 are down. Both bombers are still in the air and both fly over the cargo ship on its way to the harbour. The German decision is to strafe the ship with Bf 110G this turn and to bomb it the next turn. He 111 takes the risk and flies towards the oil tanks. The Bf 110G’s bomb drop short of the ship; frustrated the pilot hear the rear gunner’s negative damage report. Then the rear gunner notices that the Mig-3 that was following them is down. The water pillar from the bomb hit the Mig-3 destroying it.
Fig 9. Gruppe A get ready attack the cargo ship. In the lower picture Mig-3 is down.
A little bit later, the last remaining plane of Gruppe B, Bf 110G attacks the docked ships, while Allied fighters try desperately to shoot it down. They’ve already shot the Bf 109G to pieces. The Bf 110G decides to drop its bombs before its too late. Unfortunately for the Allied, one Kittyhawk trying to follow the Bf 110G at Altitude 1 is caught in the explosion and the planes crashes in the sea. Second aerial kill for the German bombs!
Fig 10. Gruppe B in action. In the lower picture, the bombs have fallen, ship hit and one Kittyhawk down by the shockwave from the explosion.
After having dropped their bombs, the remaining two Bf 110Gs turn to ground attach planes (Zerstörer) and start hitting both the ships and Allied fighters with all they got. They cause much more damage with cannons than with bombs: two ship are sunk.
Fig 11. Remaining German aircraft crate havoc in the Murmansk harbour (click the image for a larger pic).
The Bf 110G from Gruppe A tries to help the other Bf 110G by shooting a Kittyhawk at its tail at point blank (Fig 12). After throwing six hits (four MGs and two cannons), the German player throws the worst handful of the day: one hit by MG. The Bf 110 of Gruppe B was finally shot down after sinking one ship.
Fig 12. No praise for the gunner: six hits, one damage point. The Soviet player (right) and the US player (left) are excitedly pointing at the “cannon snake-eyes”.
The Score
We played the total of nine turns. We decided that at that time it was about bed time for our young observer (not shown in pics). Also, several fighters were already out of ammo. For the result calculation, we used point suitable points values of ground targets (not Water& Fire values).
Allied results
2x Destroyed Fw 190A (one pilot recovered)
2x Destroyed Bf 110G (crew lost)
1x Destroyed Bf 109G (pilot lost)
1x Damaged He 111 (4/5 hits)
1x Damaged Bf 110G (3/4 hits)
Total score: 156.5 p
German results
1x Destroyed P-38 Lightning (pilot recovered)
1x Destroyed P-51A Mustang (pilot lost)
2x Destroyed P-40 Kittyhawk (both pilots lost)
2x Destroyed Yak-9 (one pilot recovered)
2x Destroyed Mig-3 (both pilots lost)
1x Damaged P-40 Kittyhawk (1/2 hits)
1x Damaged Yak-9 (1/2 hits)
1x Large warship (sunk) (with A-A)
1x Medium warship (sunk)
1x Small ship (damaged)
Total score: 186.5 p
Difference: 30 points for Luftwaffe (=exactly 10% of 300 points). Minor victory for the Axis.
The limit for minor victory is 10-50%. There was no margin!
Luftwaffe managed to sink the escort ships for the next convoy returning to UK. The Allied have to either send the convoy back with less protection from the patrolling German U-boats or delay the return trip until sufficient ships are available. In any case, the next shipment of lend-lease equipment and other supplies will be delayed. However, Germans failed to destroy the oil tanks at the harbour, which would have made a larger effect on the warfare in north.
Fig 13. Final situation in Murmansk.
Final Comments
The hero of the day was pilot of Yak-9 “white 21”. His name was Yuri. In the battle, he shot down one Bf 110G and one Bf 109G. Additionally, he passed the skill test while flying at speed 5 at altitude 1. Finally, after being shot down, he bailed out and swam to shore ready to fight the imperialist once again. Of course, the commissar of his unit was not happy to see Yuri walk to base.
On the German side there were two achievers. The other Fw 190A pilot from Gruppe A shot down a P-38 Lightning and a Mig-3. At the end of the game, he could have scored third time if his ammo hadn’t been used up. The pilot and rear gunner of Bf 110G with designation “M8+BP”in Gruppe A got posthumous Iron Crosses for their achievement: One damaged ship (bomb), one sunk ship (strafing) and Yak-9 (rear gunner).
Bombs caused minor damage to ground targets, but the blast engulfed two Allied fighters. Strafing was successful: two sunk ships. A-A fire caused two damage points: one to German and one to Allied(!) fighter. To our surprise, the rear gunners of Bf 110Gs with the firepower of “3/1/0” were quite dangerous to tailing fighters. On the other hand, defensive weapons of the He 111 were almost useless with firepower “1/0/0”.
Once again we had great time!
