GermanStrelkovy attacking Fallschirmjager in SurroundedHave come across Mike Parker’s Fallschirmjager before.. evil swines.
Major Von Der Heydte
HQ panzerknacker SMG teams, 2x light mortar, 1x sniper
;german: 3 squads, SMG panzerknacker command
2 squads, SMG panzerknacker command
3 squad pioneer, supply vehicle, SMG command
Allied Flak36, extra crew, half track
Allied Tiger 1E
Allied 2x 8-rad
DeploymentWith the centre of the table to defend, and objectives on the centreline the Germans deployed into two lines, with the pioneers in ambush, tiger and 88 in the centre along with the 8-rad.
I went with the two Strelk on one side and the prisoners on the other with the heavy artillery.
Battle PlanThe plan was to send in the prisoners more or less as a distraction and to force the infantry facing them to hold position and not reinforce the other flank. On the other side I expected the prime unit to face razor wire so the secondary unit was the prime assault force, typical tactics, roll up, flame then assault.
Pre-GameThe ambush went down as expected in front of my main force, despite this we still went for the infiltration, unable to get into contact with the wire, mostly in a wood, left some teams exposed.
Turn OneGermans stayed put largely, though the 8 rads moved to face my secondary force, largely to get out of sight of the artillery, they took down a few of my infantry, but more annoyingly removed a pair of 122mm guns.
My own lot moved up to the wire, I decided not to try and cross it as with conscripts this would result in a few teams being exposed but not enough to actually do anything, also didn’t fancy the flame throwers ending up isolated.
Artillery missed, not unexpected, would have been a two gun bombardment anyway as the ZiS-3 rolled up, aiming to make the start of a hole for the prisoners.
Turn TwoMore German MG fire, thinning out all three infantry to a level, nothing too serious but having been in this position I knew they were bleeding too fast. last two 122m guns were also removed, so much for the god of war, the tiger and Flak36 enjoying themselves.
We removed a length of razor wire with three pioneers and started to pour through, however we would be facing the infantry and pioneers so a lot of rifle/mg fire.. hmm.
Turn ThreeYet more fire, the germans facing the prisoners and secondary force pulled back to be out of assault and flame thrower range. More thinning out, the prisoners no longer had QoQ and thus no real chance to assault an unpinned enemy.
Flame throwers went in from the primary force, and all eight shots missed.. the assault was thus bounced by a lot of shots, grr. on the other flank we fired to no effect, but advanced, would be able to assault next turn but not flame the critical 8-rads..
Turn FourGermans continued to trade space for time while firing, I now had the SMG and primary force below a strength, so the primary force withdrew into the wood, essentially to prevent the platoon loss, realising this was turning we tried to kill something, second two flame throwers managed to kill a single team between them, 16 flame shots, one dead team.
a minor assault got a single enemy team for a cost of three of my own, the enemy just broke off.
This was rapidly degenerating into a hopeless situation.
Turn FiveAll or nothing, all three infantry were tasked to advance, but the secondary were unable to unpin so pulled back to volley fire the PTRD, to no effect beyond a pinned 8-rad. both other infantry forces bounced, crippled, the scouts likewise.
Called it the end of the turn, 1:6 to the Germans, we hadn’t the forces to remove a platoon from them and all forces shattered.
The Strelk need a capability to handle assaulting veteran dug in troops, we managed to kill about four teams over the game, due to low weight of fire and poor firepower.
Them the breaks.