This week, me and one other local player played a pair of games as preparation for an upcoming local tournament which will be 1500 points Late War.
My apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pictures; I had to use my mobile phone to take them this time.
In our first game, we played Hold the Line.
He was using a FHH Panzergrenadierkompanie from Grey Wolf Revised, I was using a Guards Tankovy Batalion (Guards quality) from Red Bear Revised.
My list contained the following:
Guards Tankovy Battalion (Guards) - Fearless Trained
HQ: CC T-34/85
Tankovy Company: 6x T-34/85
Tankovy Company: 5x T-34/85
Motorised Anti-Tank Company: Cmd Rifle, 4x 57mm ZiS-2
Tank-Rider Company: Cmd SMG, Komissar, 6x SMG, Maksim HMG
Spetznaz Platoon: Cmd SMG, 2x SMG, 2x captured Sd Kfz 251/1 (Fearless Veteran)
Heavy Mortar Company: Cmd Rifle, Observer Rifle, 4x 120-PM-38 mortar
His list was as follows:
FHH Panzergrenadierkompanie - Confident Veteran
HQ: CC Panzerfaust SMG, 2iC Panzerfaust SMG
Panzergrenadier Platoon: Cmd Panzerfaust SMG, 6x MG
Panzergrenadier Platoon: Cmd Panzerfaust SMG, 6x MG
Anti-Tank Platoon: Cmd SMG, 2x 7.5cm PaK40
Tank Destroyer Platoon: 3x Panzer IV/70(V)
Anti-Aircraft platoon: 3x Sd Kfz 10/5 (2cm) (unarmoured)
Self-Propelled Artillery Platoon: Cmd SMG, Staff, 4x Hummel
I would be attacking this game.
The battlefield looked like this:
Unfortunately, our river sections aren't all painted yet.
There is a ford where the dirt road crosses the river.
The objectives were both in woods; one all the way at the back and the other as far forward as I could place it.
German deployment. The Pak40 and Panzer IV/70 platoons were held in ambuch.
Soviet deployment. The ZiS-2 guns, without transports, would be rather unwieldy in this scenario. I planned to use them to protect my mortars from any armoured counter-assault.
The Tank-Riders were riding on the backs of the T-34 platoon in the middle of my DZ.
On my right flank, the 6-tank company was ready to infiltrate towards the forward objective, which was only being defended by the German 2iC hiding in the woods.
Of course, that one-in-six chance of giving up the first turn if you infiltrate reared its ugly head; to make matters worse, my Spetznaz were just a little too far back to keep the Pak40s away from the edge of the woods.
For good measure, the Panzer IV/70s were also put into play, although I kind of questioned my opponent's decision to place these overloaded vehicles in a forest like that.
Still, the ambush delivered. My tank company threatening the objective was wiped off the battlefield by the combined firepower of both ambushes and the Hummels.
Still, my forces continued the assault. The other T-34 platoon dismounted its passengers and moved to engage the Panzer IV/70s, knocking one out and bailing another. Since the third vehicle had bogged down trying to make a Stormtrooper move last turn, this meant the platoon had to take a morale check. Fortunately for the German leadership, they passed.
While all of that was happening, on my left flank, the Zis-2s were moved up into the concealment of the fields.
Meanwhile, on my right flank, the minimum-sized Spetznaz platoon decided to show what they were made of; they disembarked from their half-tracks and charged the PaK40s.
They lost one of their teams to defensive fire, but managed to destroy the guns and drive off the command team and 2iC.
This meant my opponent would have to use his one or two SMG teams (2iC and a sole surviving command team) to take out these Spetznaz or lose.
German turn 2; fire from the Hummels and a Panzer IV/70 managed to knock out three of the five T-34s in that company, forcing a morale check.
Of course, they promptly failed it.
To add insult to injury, the bombardment had also pinned my Tank-Riders, although I hadn't lost any of them yet.
The command team of the PaKs passed both his platoon morale check and his last man standing check, allowing him to join the 2iC on his desperate counter-assault onto the objective.
After raking their positions with SMG fire, they charged the Spetznaz. Defensive fire was ineffective, and the storm of grenades and SMG fire from the half-dozen Germans was enough to take them out.
The Germans had managed to reclaim the objective, putting the Soviets in a very difficult position.
Soviet turn 2.
The Tank-Riders move across the fords towards the objective. They are now the last true hope for Soviet victory here, taking cover behind the burning or abandoned wrecks of their comrades's tanks as they advance.
Rapid fire from the ZiS-2s managed to bail out the single operational Panzer IV/70, forcing another platoon morale check which was promptly passed.
At the same time, the 120mm mortars let loose against the Hummels, dealing no real damage.
The Panzer IV/70 finally unbogged!
And immediately got bogged down again when trying to move into a firing position...
The Germans didn't deal any real damage with their shooting, but reinforcements do show up on my far right, behind the woods in the back.
The Tank-Riders stormed forward and charged the disabled Panzer IV/70s, capturing them without any real effort.
However, German fire on the next turn is devastating, wiping out more than half the company.
The following platoon morale check was failed, which meant the Soviet forces would automatically fail Company Morale on their next turn.
All in all, this was a very interesting game, although things went pretty badly for me at the start. If I would not have lost the first turn, things would probably have looked very different. Still, I think I fought back pretty decently.
I do feel that my list wasn't great for this scenario.
In particular, the ZiS-2 guns didn't really add much to the force. I think I would do better if I replaced them with something a bit cheaper and maybe bulked out my other platoons a bit more.
No comments:
Post a Comment