Adrian Carter
Senior Member
I had never played a Red Factories’ scenario before so I thought it was about time I did. We plumped for RB6 Turned Away. The action was set in the southeast of the Barrikady on 15 November 1942. A Sturmgruppe of the German 79. Infanterie-Division attacked elements of the Russian 344th and 650th Rifle Regiments, the179th Independent Engineer Company and 138th Divisional HQ Guard Company who had their backs to the Volga River. The Germans had to control the predesignated Russian HQ building to win the game. The Russians just had to stop them.
This appeared to be a popular and balanced scenario based on the ROAR record of the original Red Barricades scenario with 128 Russian wins versus 90 German wins. We played the more recent Red Factories version and I have no idea what the differences are. My regular gaming buddy, Johan, attacked with Germans and I defended with the Russians.
Start of Game. I decided to make DD41 my fortified HQ based on the assumption that the Germans needed to cross more territory from the gullies to approach the victory building. I placed my remaining dummies and forces to try and confuse my opponent about the true whereabouts of my HQ. I also used my remaining fortified building counters to slow the attack to the HQ. In retrospect, I think I was a bit light in my defence of the north and offered them an opportunity to approach from this area of the map.
Start of turn 4. The Germans had made slow progress in the north by this stage of the game, but my defensive line was holding well after falling back. In contrast, the Germans had made much better progress in the centre and were pushing hard for the HQ building. The game was finely balanced at this point.
End of Game. The Germans won by pinning the Russian 9-2 leader and breaking the two MMCs in the fortified HQ building with some murderous, adjacent MG fire in the Prep Fire Phase of the final turn. This was so close. If the 9-2 leader had not been pinned he could have applied his leadership modifier and one of the squads would not have broken. This would have been enough to deny entry of the Germans to the fortified location and elicit a Russian win. This is a great introduction to the Red Factories module and was close right up to the end.
This appeared to be a popular and balanced scenario based on the ROAR record of the original Red Barricades scenario with 128 Russian wins versus 90 German wins. We played the more recent Red Factories version and I have no idea what the differences are. My regular gaming buddy, Johan, attacked with Germans and I defended with the Russians.
- German advantages: Elite MMCs, 9-2 leader, MGs and DC
German disadvantages: Gullies funnel attack, time - Russian advantages: Concealment, uncertainty about HQ, HMG
Russian disadvantages: insufficient infantry
Start of Game. I decided to make DD41 my fortified HQ based on the assumption that the Germans needed to cross more territory from the gullies to approach the victory building. I placed my remaining dummies and forces to try and confuse my opponent about the true whereabouts of my HQ. I also used my remaining fortified building counters to slow the attack to the HQ. In retrospect, I think I was a bit light in my defence of the north and offered them an opportunity to approach from this area of the map.
Start of turn 4. The Germans had made slow progress in the north by this stage of the game, but my defensive line was holding well after falling back. In contrast, the Germans had made much better progress in the centre and were pushing hard for the HQ building. The game was finely balanced at this point.
End of Game. The Germans won by pinning the Russian 9-2 leader and breaking the two MMCs in the fortified HQ building with some murderous, adjacent MG fire in the Prep Fire Phase of the final turn. This was so close. If the 9-2 leader had not been pinned he could have applied his leadership modifier and one of the squads would not have broken. This would have been enough to deny entry of the Germans to the fortified location and elicit a Russian win. This is a great introduction to the Red Factories module and was close right up to the end.
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