Campaign 2016, May 7th & 8th

[leopard]

Game four, attacking German paras in surrounded.

1:6 defeat, tough nut to crack,

[Baldie]

MW FJ dug in, yes would think they would be a problem.
Can see Colin sharpening his entrenching tool as I type.

[leopard]

Game five, Tigers against US armoured rifles, in dust up, another 6:1 defeat...

Didn't take pictures today due to bright sun washing them all out.

Three wins, two defeats, all 6:1.

Germans need work, thinking back to 2. Panzer, but with a tiger in support. Something a bit more radical planned for the Soviets to retain the ability to munch tanks but gain something for dug in infantry...

Concept is two lots of rifle/mg with an embedded smg, pioneers and flame throwers as usual, both at full size. Drop the prisoners and scouts so a conventional list now, maybe support with t-34 or su-85 and something else but not sure what

[leopard]

Right, unillustrated write-ups for the final two games, there are a few pictures but they didn't really come out, final game on a winter table, i.e. white under bright sunlight threw the phone into a tizzy.

Ho Hum, on with the tell if not show.

[leopard]

German
Strelkovy attacking Fallschirmjager in Surrounded

Have 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

Deployment
With 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 Plan
The 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-Game
The 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 One
Germans 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 Two
More 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 Three
Yet 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 Four
Germans 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 Five
All 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.

[leopard]

Game Five
Panzers attacking US Armoured Rifles in Dust Up

Enemy List
HQ, carbine team, jeep & M3 halftrack
Armoured Rifle Platoon
Armoured Rifle Platoon
Rifle Platoon (Trucks)
Armoured mortar platoon
recon platoon, jeeps and half tracks
5x M3 Lee, upgraded guns
4x 105mm guns
:use: 2x flak half tracks

Deployment
Well we had one platoon and the HQ on, so they sat on the objectives, the enemy put all the troops and guns on table, all dug in round the objectives, artillery to the rear.

This would be a tough one, to be honest I was hoping to kill a couple of platoons before being rolled, the Tiger in reserve could perhaps punch through if they got careless.

Turn One
The US got turn one, but were unable to do anything due to the mobile battle rule, so just dug in, everything. We shuffled up a bit and fired to little effect, but set up to hit the artillery with the HQ tiger, the other moving to thin some troops down with the escort tanks. Luftwaffe though nailed a gun.

Turn Two
A three gun battery blew a tiger up, not the HQ thankfully… ouch, roughly half my firepower on table deleted. Return fire took out a second gun, unable to hit the third due to range but moved up post firing.

Turn Three
Americans down to two guns settled for dropping clouds of smoke, a now lone Pz-IIIN moved to get a shot at the troops that would face the reserve tiger if it turned up ever, the other killed a couple of infantry, then pulled back to face reserves arriving.

Turn Four
The M3 arrived, positioned themselves out of sight, some infantry went to assault the lone panzer III, but just drove it off after it killed one of them, again the reserve tiger failed to arrive, we failed to nail the gun despite three hits, a couple of shots at the M3 missed.

Turn Five
M3 nailed the 2iC, more of his reserves turned up, getting rolled was highly likely, the reserve finally arrived, utterly out of place, doubled to try to get into place.

Turn Six
M3 got behind the CiC, 10 rounds, seven hits, armour saves… 3x ‘1’ and 3x ‘2’, one dead CiC, left with a single tiger and a single light panzer, out of position, and enemy armour on the objectives.

6:1 defeat, ouch.


Not sure of the final positions as had to leave before the end of the rounds, but we were not in the top three or the bottom spoon place, figure mid table.

[leopard]

Overall.

The tigers are great fun, but not a viable list alone, they just are too darn small, however I can see one being added to other panzers as a road block.

The Strelk need enhancing to take down prepared infantry, while not diluting the anti armour capability, the artillery and medium mortars are unusable, they just die too fast. Thinking of dropping the 'always attacks' and 'infiltration' schticks as well, we can of course also still be highly aggressive as defenders and its cheaper.

As always though great fun, and at a venue that serves ice cream!

three wins, two defeats, will settle for learning more refinement for the Soviets and trying the unusual with the Germans.

[Baldie]

Good reports again, thanks for sharing.
May try to get to some events myself next year.

[leopard]

Good reports again, thanks for sharing.
May try to get to some events myself next year.

Can recommend a couple down this way, Early and Mid War seem a lot more fun than Late War, less gimpy tricks and seeing all manor of things and thinking "if they only made one why do I keep seeing them?"

[Baldie]

Love EW and MW
My crazy Russians will get to crush the enemy and advance on all fronts until we reach LW when they retreat back to Moscow to face the final assault on the motherland

Got a Strelk list to use, until I face Colin and hit him with tracked swarm