Campaign 2016, May 7th & 8th

[leopard]

Calm before the storm again, and as with the last event something of a variation in the physical size of the forces.

First up, Bolokov and his merry bunch



For the first time my artillery battery is pictured to the right, including the Stalinets tractors for the 122mm guns.

A reasonably infantry heavy force..

Wondering on going for a third Strelkovy company in place of the guns and more flame throwers...

Then we come to ze Germans.



Who fit in a single KR half sized tray, with their objective markers and a soviet casualty marker. Still setting them up will be quick.

All now packed away ready, terrain packed as well with the urban roads finished as well as the rural ones now, need more buildings and to make some hills.

[Baldie]

Think I would rather face the tiggers, but only just

[leopard]

Game 1: attacking a strelkovy battalion in breakthrough

Result, 6:1 victory... I'm amazed, was an unusual Soviet list though from a player who admitted he would struggle v tigers.

Piccies from all games tonight, decent start though

[Baldie]

Booo to you comrade turncoat

[leopard]

Game 2: my Strelk attacking Grenadiers in Cauldron, 6:1 victory as the enemy broke and ran.

Killing tigers with pioneers

[leopard]

Game One
German Tigers attacking Soviet Strelkovy in Breakthrough

Enemy Forces: Strelkovy, Guards (Fearless-Trained)
Battalion HQ: CiC, 2iC & Commissar
Strelkovy: 1x SMG platoon & 4x PTRD
Strelkovy: 1x SMG platoon & 4x PTRD
6x 120mm heavy mortar
3x KV1e
4x ZiS-3 Anti Tank Guns
4x 122mm OBR 1938 Howitzers
Limited IL-2 Air Support

Always an interesting mission Breakthrough, I was approaching this one expecting a defeat, until I saw the enemy list, small infantry platoons, with no attached pioneers are not really suited for anti tank work, especially heavy anti tank work.

Deployment


The enemy deployed everything in one quarter and left the other empty, the logical apparently (informed post game) was to have one SMG platoon cover the guns while the other raced to the objectives, so they saw no need to deploy in both and didn’t want to split the guns. There is logic here for a small army.

However as you can see this enabled the German forces to deploy to avoid the enemy, we had first turn so our Tigers could deploy to see the KV-1e.

The CiC ended up with motivation on a 2+, stormtrooper on a 2+ and the ability to unbog easily, the Tiger that deployed with him had rapid fire and the one in reserve re-rolls to hit.

Turn One
German
Tigers advanced somewhat cautiously, taking care to hug buildings and woods for air cover, four shots at the KV-1e saw one killed



Slow progress towards the objectives avoiding the enemy guns as far as possible

After pausing to fire the Germans ended up thus:



Again hugging woods and buildings, trying to keep the much weaker Pz-IIIN safe with the goal of terrain hopping round the back of the hill onto the objective.

Soviet
Somewhat predictably the Soviet force that aimed to advance did so, the IL-2 arrived and was chased off by the Luftwaffe. The surviving KV-1e moved into a field for a bit of cover, but didn’t even attempt to fire being unable to hurt never mind hit a tiger at range from the front.



The heavy mortars tried and failed to irritate the Tiger they could see, always a nervous moment though as they don’t need to get lucky often to wreak this list.

Turn Two
German

We held position and tried to remove the KV-1e, to no effect as we missed or bounced off armour

Soviet



The Soviets continued to move to the objectives, with the second platoon also upping and starting to redeploy towards the right.

Again the Avocet mortars didn’t manage anything.

And again air didn’t do anything as it failed to turn up for either of us.

Turn Three
German

The Hs-129 arrived, and managed to remove four of the SMG teams near the objectives.



As the tigers moved up to get closer ranged shots they still managed to miss the honking great green KV-1e, unseen to the right of the picture the 2iC continued on his merry way.

Soviet
More troops moved up



The 122mm battery finally discovered how to fire and ranged on a Tiger, thankfully missing, his pinned infantry from the air strike stayed pinned so dug in, others continued to move up, the KV-1e went to ground to be irritating and harder to hit.

Turn Four
German
Reserves arrived!


And right in place as well, nicely in assault range of a weakened enemy platoon with no defensive fire to speak of that could hurt either tank.


At the turn end we had finally nailed a second KV-1e, the third stuck about though, we also forced the remains of the Strelk to break off as they didn’t fancy being mauled so we only got one team of them, but had a firm grip on the objective, as yet not live though.

Soviet


The surviving KV-1e moved up, out of sight in the woods for cover and the remaining infantry regrouped, the survivors digging in to wait for reinforcements before moving to counter, they also finally nailed a Pz-IIIN with the ZiS-3, before they went back to ground for the rest of the game.

Turn Five
German
Ok time to get aggressive


2iC moved to join the reserves, mostly for extra MG fire against infantry, the CiC and second tiger rolled out, expecting artillery but risking it to cut off the Soviet infantry reserves and threaten the second objective somewhat., post the above being taken we caused a single casualty on the remains of the Strelk who broke and ran, but could do nothing to the guys in the field.

Soviet
Seeing the clock ticking the Soviets pushed forwards


The KV-1, using a Pz-III as a chock moved to contest, and then killed it, other troops moving up

Turn Six
German
Objectives Live! however a KV-1e contests it so the game continues another round

We toasted the KV-1 and moved up.

Soviet
Deployed to assault, they had no choice really


Showing the advanced Tigers and the Soviet horde approaching, they were hoping to assault and force the Tigers to break off so they could consolidate forwards and contest once more.

in they went..



We didn’t have the MG fire to stop them so the assault went in, with Soviets unable to actually hurt the assault consisted of both sides testing to motivate and tigers trying to roll back and forth.

The assault ended as it only could really, Soviets finally failed a motivation check and broke, the 2iC motivating on a 2+ really saved the game here.



Won by the Germans start of our turn Eight with the objective secured and held.

6-1 victory in a game I expected to be defeated in.

A game that started with my teammates noting only a moron would have brought tigers…

My opponent noted when he saw the draw he knew he had lost as he really had no answer to Tigers, banking on no one being daft enough to run them given the number of hard counters they have.

Fun game, with a healthy amount of luck, the only air strike of the game was mine, the rest of the time the planes chasing each other off or just not turning up.

[leopard]

Game Two
Strelkovy Attacking German Grenadiers in Cauldron

Enemy List
HQ, 2x sMG panzerknakcer teams & 2x 8cm mortar
8x Rifle MG teams, light mortar, panzerknacker SMG
8x Rifle MG teams, light mortar, panzerknacker SMG
2x ieIG18 infantry guns
2x Pak70
4x rifle teams, scout platoon
2x Tiger 1e

Deployment

The Germans elected to deploy the two infantry platoons and put the tigers into ambush, the deployment of the infantry was somewhat questionable.



Naturally here you cannot see the rest of the board but what we have is German troops hard up against a wall, so they can see over it, with another wall limited line of sight to about 3” and providing a nice area for Soviets to deploy 8” away, within assault range.

The platoon to the right had a better deployment covering the area beyond the walls.

I had expected them to deploy the first ones in the wood, covering and contesting the objective but being a heck of a lot harder to hurt.

I had no real idea where the Tiger would drop.

The soviets then deployed, randomly


I elected to leave the artillery and scouts in reserve and put all the infantry down, the aim being to just swamp them in bodies given the amount of terrain to hide behind.

The prisoners are to the left, 8” from the Germans with the intention of going for them ASAP, the larger platoon is in the centre, likewise within 8” of the second platoon but only with a few teams and the smaller Strelk off to the right, more as a distraction really.

Deployment was completed with the immediate ambush Tigers, to the right, again not where I expected, again expecting them in the woods



Interesting…

Turn One
Germans

The tigers moved slightly then fired, they got rid of two PTRD teams, that was really it, the rest of the Germans held ground, missing an excellent chance to fall back a bit.

Soviet
The first lot of reserves arrived, we brought on the heavy guns, more because they could deploy to the left and not be in the way



Then in the centre the prisoners advanced, to within striking distance



The main Strelk doing likewise, Af lame thrower from the main streak later and the enemy was pinned with two teams dead, SMG fire didn’t manage anything, the other infantry just advanced.

In goes the assault.



Who says conscripts are rubbish, Five German teams evaporated

the countered, killed a couple but were then all but wiped out and the prisoners ended the first turn on one of the objectives, sadly not yet live.

Turn Two
German
The tigers pulled back, realising the need to counter the threat in the centre was more than the need to take pot shots at teams further away.



They killed a few SMG teams with machine guns supported by the second infantry platoon.

Soviet

More reserves arrived, the 82mm mortars deployed, the scouts in the building to the right, out of sight, with every intention of staying that way.



We then piled forwards



SMG teams held the objective, unable to hurt the tanks they didn’t even try, the infantry however could so moved up to get into position, again a bit of ineffective fire at his troops didn’t d much.

Turn Three
German
The tigers split to counter the new arrivals and his infantry fell back for safety and to prevent his army breaking if they died, again the machine gunned some troops, but nothing too serious.



Soviet


Again we piled forwards, eyes firmly on the tigers as the assault troops moved into position with pioneers and flame throwers. The second company was also getting into place, we now held one objective and contested the other.



Flame throwers fired, only hitting one tank, but managing to bail it out, the surviour didn’t have the shots to bounce the assault.

in we went



The assault went on a bit, he was motivating on a 2+ so would come down to which unlikely event occurred first, him failing to counter or failing an armour save.

In the end he broke, so the bailed tank died the leader backing off, we could technically have started a second assault but not with anything that could have pushed it home.. so we didn’t.

Both objectives now firmly held

Turn Four
German

German reserves finally came in, but weird the tiger stayed put, and shot a few teams.

The reserves were the infantry guns, far to our rear and ignored for the rest of the game.

His troops dug in and kept their heads down.

Soviet

We the tiger up close there was only one thing to do, so we did it.



Again took a few casualties doing it, but thats two dead tigers, the enemy now had a crippled infantry platoon at half strength and two infantry guns on the table, not enough to break but not really enough to do anything either

Turn Five
German

Ineffective fire from the infantry guns, and nothing else.

Soviet


We advanced towards his surviving troops



The prisoners also went forwards, being assault troops after all.

Post the assault there were no Germans left


Turn Six
German
Company broke, game over.


Another 6:1 victory, though slightly expected this time, I;d have viewed a 5:2 win here as a poor performance to be honest in this terrain and against that enemy list, they really needed HMG, the tigers are nice but way too many points without good support.

And yes I;m aware my own tiger list has essentially no support, but it also doesn’t have an army that can be shot out from around it.

My team mates both lost games however so we headed to the third round in third place.

[leopard]

Game Three
Soviets against German Panzers in Free for All

Enemy List

HQ: Panter & recover half track
2x Panthers
2x Panthers
2x 8-Rad
3x armoured 37mm flak half tracks


Mwahahaaa, This wasn’t scary, I knew it would come down to the fact that if I could get into assault range I’d won, weight of numbers when he only has top armour 1 will win it every time.

The trick would be getting into assault range…

I was offered a 3:$ defeat before the game even started… I mean to be honest, who takes Strelk, and against an ETC player as well, I should be grateful for the 3:4 as opposed to being wiped out.. apparently… or something..

Thus the gauntlet was well and truly down.

Sit back and strap yourselves in, this is a good one…

Deployment
Free for all uses alternating deployment, the trick was to split the enemy, we ended up thus, I think You will agree the enemy is suitably split.



We started with the prisoners, off the the far left out of shot, which were counted by panthers, which I expected to drop last but there you go, then the main force went down in the middle, countered by the other panthers to the other side…

Dropped the artillery only to see the flak tacks deploy on the left, out of sight, the 8 rad are behind the trees in the middle, lurking in an indecisive way and as you can see my main force is to the right, facing just two panthers, mortars and scouts went to the right to look scary.

Battle Plan
I’ve faced panthers before, the trick here would be to keep the enemy busy on both sides, the prisoners are expendable so they would be expended to keep the highly dangerous flak half tracks busy for a few turns, time I need to get the proper infantry up close.

Scouts were tasked with staying hidden, but by being in the woods to the left making an advance down that flank look more scary than it actually is.

I have no real idea what my opponent was thinking really.

Turn One
Germans

With the first turn the action was timid to say the least

to the Left:


Flak half tracks moved up to shoot the exposed prisoners, well, thats what they were put there for so didn’t complain, a slight gap for panzers to fire through, between them they got a few stands but not much.

To the right:


Panthers started to dance, trying to stay out of sight of my artillery kept them that side of the wood, they moved as if they thought my infantry could actually hurt them…

Well who am I to tell and ETC player he is making a mistake there?

Cannon fire at range killed a team or two.. pffff.

Soviet
I;m convinced he expected me to start digging everything in.

To the left:


Prisoners advanced to face off against his half tracks, we hadn’t a cat in hells chance of actually assaulting them, but had to give the impression we intended to try, truth be told those half tracks and panthers could have collapsed this flank in two turns had they tried, but they didn’t.

Artillery fire found the halftracks to no effect though.

Turn Two
German

Half tracks fall back to the left


They seemed actually afraid of SMG teams, this had to be capitalised on, if we played aggressive they fell back.. hmmm

More shooting on both flanks took out a few more teams.

Soviet
On the right the advance continued in an orderly fashion, the Panthers having retreated to the fields to gain cover from whatever it was they thought we carried.



to the left

Prisoners continued an advance, the medium mortars upped sticks and moved to join them, no serious expectation of being dangerous, the idea was to take fire then pull back, basically to waste enemy time.

The central unit upped and advanced also, with a bias towards the left and the ZiS-3 also started to roll up a little.

Still couldn’t actually kill anything though.

Turn Three
German
More flak gun fire, thinned the prisoners out further, but again they pulled back.



On the right they continued to fire to little real effect, yes they were thinning out teams, but nowhere near fast enough.

Soviet

The advance continued on the left:


We finally also nailed a flak half track with the 122mm guns, the prisoners now seriously thinned moved up, no intention to assault, though that took the enemy by surprise as he had the dice for defence fire ready in his hand.

Note the lone panther lurking behind a building in the centre, this was his CiC and the reason for my central advance, I wanted to nail it.

on the right hand side we also continued



He was visibly concerned about this, I don’t think he actually expected me to keep rolling forwards.

The centre ended thus


the ZiS-3 about as far as I could reasonably get them, while still covering the objectives, they can;t hurt a panther from the front anyway so little point in getting them killed.

Turn Four
German

His scout 8-rad deployed to the right to bolster a failing flank, just about in time



To the left


The prisoners were stopped, the commander killed and as you can see not a lot of them left.

Soviet

The advance in the centre and right continued, but we now take a slight diversion into “ETC land”

Consider the above picture, the mortars to the bottom centre wish to bombard the panther behind the building, they don’t expect to hurt it, but they want to remind them they are there.

one team obviously cannot, but three should be able to thus:



My opponent objected, apparently the two areas marked in red made this impossible, one team to the rear had a fraction behind the signal box, this apparently meant I was firing over it so couldn’t fire - never mind when I turn to face I’m clear..

The other team apparently have about 10% behind a wood so can;t fire either.

This resulted in a referee being called, as the team to the bottom isn’t firing over the signal box at all, indeed has a totally clear shot once its turned, opponent argued if I;m within 4” I cannot fire.. not what the rules say but whatever.

He was told to stop being silly, and still complained that apparently thats how ETC plays it..

Needless to say they fired, and missed, spoiled an otherwise interesting game really.

Back to the action

Turn Five
German
On the right they shuffled a bit in a weird dance, and managed to land enough hits to pin that horde



Bovvered?

Soviet
Needless to say we unpinned and moved forwards



Now fully knowing the sort of player I was facing I played a little game, the team to the centre front with the orange dot is a flame thrower, positioned so as to allow it to be sniped with careful positioning, that would also limit how many hits could be done overall.

The picture shows him checking it during my turn. Sigh.. so easy to bait.

On the left and centre the advance continues


Out of assault range of the German CiC but not too fussed about this, pressure was now on both objectives.

Turn Six
Objectives live!
German
The dance on the right continued, apparently he was trying to mask shots to single out my anti tank rifles and flame throwers, shrug, there are always the pioneers and tank assault:2 is enough against panthers so not really fussed, but kept him amused.



on the right

realising the risk his CiC pulls back, and the panthers finally realise he has to threaten my objectives and advance, aiming to finish the prisoners off then go round behind the wood.

They actually assaulted the prisoners

Took them to one team who gladly fell back into the wood and hid

Soviet
We continued to pile forwards

This looks scarier than it is, we can flame one panther and thats it, not enough to cut the defensive fire down, so the plan was to wait and assault next turn.

on the left


Aftermath of the assault on the prisoners left the panthers in the open, we continued to advance towards the objective.

Turn Seven
German
The dance continued, they reformed front and centre, firing as they came


Pinned again, but not too concerned, with two commissars here and a fearless rating…

on the left the panthers advanced further and fired, removing a mortar team and the last prisoner


Then the utterly unexpected, he assaulted me on the right



No idea why, yes I would assault on my turn, but he had a chance to stop them, and if nothing else delayed a turn to let his panthers contest on my side.

This ended up the mess you would expect as shown, the panther to the right is dead, as is on armoured car, the rest had to fall back, more than 4” from the now live objective.

Soviet
Objectives captured top of the turn..

A third victory, and with only prisoners who don’t count dead, a further 6:1.

Seldom has victory tasted sweeter.


Needless to say this was apparently down to me having a cheesy list, being a gamey player for trying to fire the mortars, for trying to attack tanks with infantry and not just accepting a passive role, for having an always attacks list.. for not making it clear every turn that the prisoners don’t count if killed for… the list goes on.

Didn’t help apparently he lost the first two games as well to other ‘club’ players.

Tears, the sweet sweet taste of tears.


In future will be clearer about the prisoners, until someone tells me to stop it.


No idea of the placings overnight, but having aced three games in a row Ilm pretty happy…

[Baldie]

You gamey git
Ps beer and me are done

[leopard]

Team in 3rd overnight in a combined 2nd and 3rd division on 50 points, 2nd on 56 and 1st on 57.

4th is on 49 and 5th on 42 so still pretty open