Operation Hubertus Part I

Chris over at The Sharp End Gaming has been kind enough to fire me off an early Christmas present of sorts, that being a work-in-progress build of the cornerstone scenario of his Eastern Front estab work for Command Operations: Battles from the Bulge. The settings chosen for this attempt are realistic orders delay, historical weather, standard reinforcement schedules and normal supply for both sides.

I am playing this scenario as the Soviets, in control of the 62nd Army which is arrayed on the west bank of the Volga River with several artillery units on the east bank providing indirect fire support. There are a total of 13 objectives during the scenario, and each one is active from the start until the finish with many of them being a mix of occupation/completion point accumulations.

The Soviets start in control of all objectives except for Skudri Crossing (13 Victory Points) and Mokraya Bridge (5 VP).

The 284^th Rifle Division is sitting on top of the Lazur Chemical Factory Objective (15 VP) and are ordered to defend there with the following modifications: Facing NW, Ambush and Attacks are checked, 2,000 m Frontage, 700 m Depth and Rest at Minimum.

The 241^st Rifle Regiment is literally on top of the Commissar’s House Objective (13 VP) and are ordered to defend there in an All Round Defense Formation with the following modifications: 1,000 m Frontage and Depth, Max Aggro and Rest at Minimum.

The 45^th Sapper Battalion are detached from the 39^th Guards Rifle Division and are ordered to Deny Crossing at the Crossing 62 Objective (13 VP) with the following modifications: Facing NW, Max Aggro and Rest at Minimum.

The 3^rd Battery 2^nd Battalion Artillery Regiment is detached from the 37^th Guards Rifle Division and are ordered to Defend at the Skudri Crossing Objective (13 Victory Points). This move will place them under my direct control in the FS (fire support) tab and allow me to start accumulating the available 7.5 VP (the remaining are awarded on completion of the scenario to whomever has control of the perimeter).

The 8^th Sapper Battalion are detached from the 13^th Guards Division and are ordered to Deny Crossing at the Waterworks Ferry Point Objective (5 VP) with the following modifications: Facing NW, Max Aggro and Rest at Minimum.

The remainder of the 13^th is ordered to Delay from the Pavlov’s House Objective (10 VP) in three fallback steps to the Krutoy Gully Objective (8 VP) with no modifications to the default parameters.

The 37^th Guards Rifle Division is ordered to Delay from the Tractory Factory Objective (10 VP) in three fallback steps to the Skudri Crossing Objective with the following modifications: Rest at Minimum.

This leaves 4,230 personnel remaining which I order to Defend in-situ (to cover the remaining objectives) with the following modifications: Ambush and Attacks are checked and Rest at Minimum.

When 1^st Company 1^st Battalion 117^th Guards (41 personnel) arrive, they are immediately ordered to take a route across the Volga River and up north to the Skudri Crossing Objective to provide support in that sector.

Note: The images above are hosted by a free third-party resource so this post will serve as a test of this site so I can determine how to proceed with an image storage solution.

More to come…