Game ThreeSoviets against German Panzers in Free for AllEnemy 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…
DeploymentFree 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 PlanI’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 OneGermansWith 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.
SovietI;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 TwoGermanHalf 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.
SovietOn 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 ThreeGermanMore 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.
SovietThe 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 FourGermanHis 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.
SovietThe 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 FiveGermanOn the right they shuffled a bit in a weird dance, and managed to land enough hits to pin that horde
Bovvered?
SovietNeedless 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 SixObjectives live!
GermanThe 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
SovietWe 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 SevenGermanThe 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 rightNo 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.
SovietObjectives 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…