Flames of War Battle Report 2; Red Army Strelkovy vs SS-Panzergrenadiers

This week, I played a couple of 500-point games testing for a possible Infantry+Mechanised Aces league.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Aces system: it's a small escalation league style campaign, ideal for new players to start grasping the rules.

I brought along a Red Army Strelkovy force from Red Bear Revised while my opponent would be using a SS-Panzergrenadier list from Atlantikwall.

At 500 points in this league style, you play regular scenarios on a 48"/120cm x 48"/120cm table, with distances between deployment zones shortened a bit in some scenarios so they actually work on this table size.

The scenario ended up being No Retreat, with the German player defending.

My list contained the following:

Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) - Confident Trained

HQ: CC Rifle team, 2iC Rifle team, Batallion Komissar team, 4 PTRD teams

Strelkovy Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7x SMG

Strelkovy Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7x Rifle/MG

Machine-Gun Company: Cmd Rifle, 3x Maksim HMG

Mortar Company: Cmd Rifle, 6x 82mm mortars

The PTRDs were combat attached with two to each Strelkovy Company.

My opponent went for something a bit more elite:

SS-Panzergrenadierkompanie (10th SS-Panzerdivision) - Fearless Veteran

HQ: CC Panzerfaust SMG team, 2iC Panzerfaust SMG team

Panzergrenadier Platoon: Cmd Panzerfaust SMG, 4x MG

Panzergrenadier Platoon: Cmd Panzerfaust SMG, 4x MG

Heavy Platoon: Cmd SMG, Observer Rifle, 2x 8cm GW34 mortars

He decided to Combat Attach both mortars to one of the Panzergren platoons, which would be held in Ambush.

My deployment:

Our table was a crossroads village in the middle of a wooded area. My adversary elected to defend the village side of the battlefield.
I would have my Rifle/MG Strelk in the woods on the right flank, the mortars in the middle, the other Strelk unit slightly to the left of that and the HMGs on my far left, also in a forest.

On my first turn, I decided to be a bit reckless with the Strelkovy advancing on the left, moving them forward towards the objective on the double.
This turned out to be a rather unwise choice when the German platoon appeared from ambush on German turn 1.

The battlefield at the end of my second turn. Note the German platoon in the buildings between both objectives and the remnants of the left Strelk unit hiding behind the black building closest to the camera.
The rest of that unit?

Casualties from the first round of shooting. I'd forgotten just how much firepower a couple of MG teams are able to lay down, supported by a couple of mortars. Especially against troops moving at the double.

I won't be doing that again.

My opponent's defensive setup. The SMG team up front was actually on the bottom floor.

After my HMG teams moved up into the forward edge of the forest they deployed in, they started laying down fire on the defending platoon.
Return fire from the two MG teams covering this part turned out to be rather underwhelming.
Yes, they needed 4+ to hit there.

Some of the other teams moved to the other side of their building to take on the Strelkovy unit approaching from the right.

Meanwhile, the mortars pinned both the remnants of the left Strelkovy and my own mortars.

Positions at the end of German turn 2. German reserves had not been showing up, which was kind of unfortunate for him. Especially since the right Strelkovy unit was now within assault range.

After some heavy fire from the mortars and SMGs pinned the defending Germans, the Strelkovy charged into the building, easily eliminating the two teams defending there. The rest of the Germans fell back a bit, holding on to the other two buildings they had troops in.

German return fire was withering, but failed to cause casualties thanks to the proper cover of the building they just captured.

However, there was some better news for the German defenders; their reserves has finally arrived, moving up into a wooded area on my right flank.

They would have to make their presence felt soon, though, as the Soviet infantry now stormed the next building, taking it easily. The first German platoon was now down to their command team and the attached mortars, but both the Company Commander and the 2iC were around along with them, moving to contest the left objective.

In the next German turn, the reinforcing infantry moved up into the church while the mortars brought down some pinnign fire on the Soviet infantry hiding in their most recently captured building.

The Strelkovy decided to stay in this building, laying down some fire to try and take out the command teams contesting the objective from the building across the street. However, their shots proved ineffective.
Meanwhile, the HMG company was moving up to provide covering fire from a closer position.

On German turn 5, the reinforcing Panzergrenadiers stormed the Strelkovy positions, after they were pinned by accurate mortar fire.
Their charge proved highly effective, forcing the heroes of the motherland out of the building despite the Komissar's spirited attempts to keep them in the fight.
Things were starting to look grim for the Soviets, but the Germans had taken some serious losses as well.

Endgame. The reinforcing Panzergrenadiers continued their charge across the battlefield, chasing down the remnants of the Strelkovy Company.
This charge cost them, though, taking the platoon down to only two teams.

At this point both forces were teetering on the brink: The Soviets had lost both Strelkovy companies and one team from both the HMG and the mortar platoons. The Germans still had two incredibly low-strength platoons left, plus their Company HQ.

As we had run out of time to play, we decided to call it there; officially a draw, but I don't think I would have been able to win unless I'd gotten very lucky.


And so my second game using Soviet infantry ended. More successful than the previous game, but still not great. If I hadn't effectively wasted one of my main platoons at the start of the game, I think I could have done a lot better here.
Oh well, you live and learn.