Baron Maps available for everyone (migrated thread)

My son and I have developed, over time, a house-ruled game that is very complicated, which I can explain if anybody's interested, but the basic structure is that each nation fights as a separate force (with its own setup territory) and the units enter the game year-by-year starting with a 1939 turn. There's more rules involving support units, Forumini generals, etc., and some of the items you see on the map are proxies for everything from pillboxes and barbed wire to pontoon bridges. This game was the most ambitious we have ever done, because it used the water spaces on the Buna map to incorporate the sea as well as land units - we used five land and four sea objectives to keep the action going in various isolated spaces. Only one area of the land map commands a broad field of fire:


As per the rules, the Chinese and Japanese need to set up adjacent to each other and start fighting before the Americans arrive to help:
screen shot pc

The Poles, as always, are in the forest and surrounded:


We were short on time and played an accelerated three-turn version of the game, so the map filled up fast:


Things turned against the main Japanese force once the Americans showed up: 

The Allies won the big first tank battle, but that left a lot of disrupted Soviet tanks that were easy pickings for the German heavies:


The Americans liquidated the Japanese almost to the last man, but the hot action was elsewhere:


The French came to the aid of the Poles, but the Soviet navy was inadequate to help the American fleet:


The forest clearing could have been an interesting battlespace, but the Axis locked it down early:


The panoramic view gives a sense of what this map can hold:

WOW! That looks insane!  If that was only a 3 turn game, how long did it take to play out? BTW, those maps are beautiful!

Summertime, so finally got time to play on a Baron's map! This is the Citadel map, which is a true long range maps with open fields and little cover apart from some cities and forests around the edges. In other words, a map where the German optics might actually matter. In my scenario, it is 1945 and the Red Army is closing in on Berlin, riding tanks and trucks alike. The Germans have taken up defensive positions in a city and the surrounding areas, while their mechanized infantry is racing for a minor counterattack to capture a smaller city before the mechanized Soviet troops can gain a foothold there. The objective for the Red Army is to swarm over the fields and capture the fortified city, which will not be easy given the dug-in guns and heavy armor facing them. An experimental Maus, originally camouflaged for urban combat in Berlin, has been rushed out to meet the advancing Soviets.

The army sizes are about 1000 points for the Germans and 1200 points for the Soviets. Standard rules apply, but with a house rule where destroyed vehicles remain as wrecks on the battlefield and provide 5+ cover to infantry. For the Maus, I use the Sharpedia card.

The battlefield seen from above with Soviets advancing from the south:


A closer look at the armored T-34 swarm equipped with tank riders:


The fortified German city, occupied mostly by Volkssturm, Panzerfausts and a few SS soldiers. Here are also the newly arrived Panzers (the Maus is by PanzerPainter):


The veteran German mechanized infantry protected by a couple of armored cars (big thanks to Stalker6 for the nice 15mm painted Puma!):


The Soviet truck column is harassed by air raids, but manages to get into positions in the smaller city before the German mechanized infantry does:


On the other side of the battlefield, the T-34 swarm meets fierce German resistance as they try to close the distance between themselves and the enemy in order to get in some nice shots. Their tank riders have jumped off and is advancing through the forest (not yet visible on this pic):


A close up on the action. While the wrecks starts piling up on both sides and the surviving tanks get disrupted and damaged, a Panzerfaust manages to sneak up on an immobile T-34, delivering the final blow. As can be seen in the adjacent hex, his commanding officer didn't make it:


Two Soviet tanks are able to break through and challenge the Maus. While they come close, neither is successful in harming it, and they are subsequently destroyed by the AT firepower surrounding them:


On the Eastern side, the Soviet infantry which captured the smaller city destroys the incoming German mechanized infantry with some help from their IS tanks. Moving on towards the forest close to the objective proves difficult due to the Tigers. All IS-2s and other heavy tanks are destroyed and the infantry tries to move across the open fields. Katyushas are moved up in a last ditch effort to destroy the entrenched Germans in the forest. Notice the two T-70s which were able to move up and attack the Veteran Tiger's rear due to it being disrupted:


In the end, all Soviet tanks are destroyed while several heavy German armor, MGs and AT guns are still in position. The Soviet infantry remaining is not able to assault these positions across open ground without support, thus concedes. This chaotic battlefield is what remains:



This was a fun, but exhausting, game! The Germans rolled incredibly well on their initiative rolls winning almost all of them, meaning that they could force the Soviets move first and then position their Extended Range tanks in optimal long range positions. This proved deadly on the Eastern side where the Tigers were able to pick off the IS tanks by staying just out of their ranges exposing themselves to few shots from the IS tanks. Honestly, I had never thought of how NONE of the Soviet tanks have Extended Range before I scrambled around checking the cards ("Surely the IS-2 or 3 should have it right? Right??")! On the Western side, the T-34 swarm was able to rush close enough to destroy all Panzers with the exception of the Maus.

That looks like an awesome game btw....thanks for the pics & AAR.

Very cool! Thanks for the pics and the AAR!