by Marc M, 20 July 2025
As Turn 4 of the Blood and Fury scenario By Their Deeds Alone begins, elements of the US 66 Armored Regiment are maintaining a defense of the objective city and an exit point at the southwest of the map. They have support from two Apache units of the 3rd Attack Helicopters. Two Soviet formations are en route to the objectives and a third arrives this turn. Both sides have artillery strikes available. The US has suffered no losses, and Soviet casualties have been very light.
Pre-Turn Correction
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And I realize I’ve made a mistake – the one I mentioned in the first part of this series. The stacking limit in the game is two friendlies per hex. Mounted infantry don’t count, but once the infantry north of the objective city dismounted in a hex that already contained their Bradleys and a Patton unit, that hex became overstacked. The rules don’t penalize this heavily. Once you discover an overstack, you move a unit to an adjacent hex. I have to move the Pattons into a disadvantageous position, but at least they weren’t reduced or destroyed.
Turn 4
The Soviet 48th Guards Tank Regiment formation activates after having to sit out Turn 3. Now we can shuffle the second End Operations card back into the Formation Deck. The addition of 10 T-80 units should make a big difference to the Soviet efforts. The GTR formation arrives from the northernmost entry point. This gives them some cover and gives the US forces two groups to cover in the north.
The Apaches activate next. No targets are in line of sight, so they move. Helicopters can change movement mode at the beginning of their activation – Normal Flight, Nap of the Earth and, if they want to use their ATGMs, Hover. The Apaches remain at NOE to take advantage of cover from woods and hills.
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of World At War 85: Blood and Fury from Lock ‘n Load Publishing; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article, with new installments each Sunday
One unit moves to lie in wait for the 200th GMR formation while the other moves to engage the 48th GTR formation. The Shilka anti-air unit attached to the 200th GMR attempts Opportunity Fire on this second helicopter. With a +1 To Hit modifier for a long-range shot, the Shilka makes no hits, and the helicopter unit continues on. It’s worth noting that non-AA units can fire on aircraft, but the penalties make hits really difficult to achieve.
The next draw is the second AH formation card, so the helicopters are up again. The unit to the west holds in place. The helicopters covering the GTR formation transitions to Hover and fire their ATGMs.
They target the tanks stacked with the HQ. We roll four attack dice but get no hits. The helicopters pass the Missile Reload Check so the ATGMs will be available next time.
The next draw is the Battle Event/Friction card. Rolling on the Battlefield Events table generates Forward Reserves. A single die roll assigns this to the Soviets. They can flip a reduced unit to full strength or bring back a destroyed unit. The Soviets haven’t lost any units, but the 245th GMR has a disrupted BTR unit and a disrupted infantry unit. They return the BTRs to full strength.
The 66th AR activates. The infantry unit’s Missile Reload attempt fails, so they’re out of action for now. The Patton unit that moved out of the overstacked hex heads into Objective A toward a firing position.
Another Patton unit in the city fires on a 245th GMR T-64 unit to the east and scores a hit. The T-64s get an additional defensive die from the city hex but roll no saves and are disrupted.
The AR activates again and this time the ATGM reloading succeeds. The easternmost Patton unit breaks concealment and fires from its Improved Position at the disrupted T-64. Two extra dice from HQ support help score three hits. The tanks roll no saves and are destroyed. We replace the unit with a wrecks marker. Three hits landed in a city hex, so we roll for fire or rubble. A roll of 1 means no effect.
Another Patton unit breaks concealment in the objective city and scores two hits on a second T-64 in the hex. With bonus dice from the city and wrecks, the unit rolls two saves and is unaffected.
The final Patton unit executes a Move and Fire at the cost of one attack die and generates two hits on another T-64 unit. The Soviets roll one save but the second gets through and disrupts the tanks.
The infantry fire ATGMs at the recently restored BTRs. At long range the ATGM’s To Hit number increases and the attack scores no hits. The Missile Ammo Check fails so they’ll need to pass a Missile Reload check before firing again.
The 200th GMR activates to the northeast. The BMPs move into cover. One takes Opportunity Fire from the nearby Bradley unit. Unfortunately for the US, there are no hits and the Missile Ammo Check fails.
A T-80 unit executes a Move and Fire, entering a woods hex. The tanks fire on the unit and score two hits. The Bradleys get three defensive dice, one inherent die from light armor, one for the city hex and one for ATGM fire into blocking terrain. The defensive dice generate two saves, a 6 for their armor and a 5 for the terrain.
The Bradleys take four hits from another Move and Fire with HQ support. They only roll one save this time and are destroyed. The GMR activation concludes and we draw the first End Operations card.
The next Formation Draw is the 245th GMR south of the objective city. The disrupted T-64 recovers and fires on the nearby Patton unit, scoring two hits. The Pattons are in an improved position so they ignore the first, but the second lands and disrupts the tanks. The two mounted infantry units in the city dismount into the westernmost hex. Ideally they’ll be able to provide ATGM fire but for now they’re Ops Complete. The remaining BTR moves into the city.
The second remaining T-64s execute a Move and Fire with HQ support, targeting the closest Patton unit and scoring two hits. The Pattons are in an Improved Position so they ignore the first hit. A save roll dispenses with the second.
The second End Operations card wraps Turn 4. We remove all the Ops Complete markers and the units are ready for the next turn. All formations activated, so we’ll reshuffle all cards into the Formation Deck for Turn 5.
End-of-Turn Wrap-Up
The US and Soviets traded hits but only lost one unit each. For the US, losing the recon unit was a loss of ATGM firepower. Maybe more significantly, they lost a forward spotter for their artillery delivered mine strike. The Soviets lost a T-64 unit, which blunts the impact of the 245th GMR a bit, but they have a bunch of T-80s headed toward the objectives.
There have been several times when a US formation activated with two draws in a row. And remember, Turn 2 didn’t really happen since it started with two End Operations draws. I’m not the best shuffler but the size of the Formation Deck itself is a factor. There are only a total of 10 cards in the deck right now, so the chances of drawing two activations or two End Operations cards in a row are fairly good. When we get to Turn 6, we’ll add two more, a close air support card for each side, so hopefully that’ll help and the turns will feel a bit more balanced. On the other hand, that’s sort of what giving NATO formations two cards is all about. And, this randomness is part of a pretty neat dynamic Blood and Fury creates.
World At War 85: Blood and Fury AAR – By Their Deeds Alone
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4 ~ PART 5 ~ PART 6
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