Post by Timf on Aug 23, 2016 8:23:07 GMT
Late 44, 2 nations, 2 companies - hot infantry on infantry action on the Don.
So forces - Dan Germans consisted of a Confident Veteran force with a couple of platoons of infantry, light support artillery in the form of 81mm mortars (two observers), pair of AT guns, pair of Infantry guns, pair of SPAA, 4 x PzIVs and an MG platoon. He parcelled out his tankhunter bases to the infantry.
Mine was based around a volunteer Infantry force from Budapest - the Onkentes Puskas Szazad, with a pair of Fearless Conscript R/MG infantry units, CT 120mm mortars, CV Assault pioneers, 3x CT Csaba armoured cars, 3x CV 75mm 40M ATGs, 2x CV StugGs and a 149mm howitzer artillery unit. Likewise my light mortars got attached out to infantry units.
We played under 3rd Ed which I had done a couple of games of but was new to Dan and there are some subtle changes in there (mostly to the good).
The table layout roughly had a ridgeline diagonally cutting the table, at one end a small town and outlying field structures, an extensive road network with hedging, a forest cutting to the ridgeline from one halfway point, some rough rocky terrain on one side and one end with heavy wooding. Dan ended up defending and took the woody end. With one objective deep in a wood near his baseline and me selecting one a tad more in the open on a hillside as near the centreline as I could have.
We ended up playing Pincer as a mission. Dan's force on table consisted of his two infantry platoons, one per objective and his mortars dug in behind a hill with observers out wide. He also had his MG unit in Ambush. The rest were in Delayed Reserve. Everything of mine started on table, with an infantry unit on each wing, the right side supported by the Assault Pioneers and the 2iC. Mortars set up on the hill-line to my left flank with an observer for the 149mm in there, and their own observer moving cautiously with the infantry on the right flank. The main artillery unit set up in the fields on my righthand baseline. ATGs started limbered in the centre behind the Stugs and the Csabas started on the left flank. Everyone was dug in and gone to ground for infantry and guns.
The Csabas opened with a recce move towards the central crossroads near the closest objective. My assault began with a generally move forward by the infantry, those on the right using the forest to block enemy vision and those on the left using the lack of enemy to race towards the broken ground. The Stugs moved forward followed by the guns. The ridgeline caused some serious line of sight issues for the guns and their observers, so the mortars rained on the infantry defending the front objective and the guns failed. Dans return fire peppered the armoured cars for no effect.
With Dan's heavy armour in reserve my best chance was to run for the front objective with my infantry, and assault it with full force before his Panzer's arrived - and so the next couple of turns consisted of doing just this. The left flank consisted of a general advance. My recce used their Eyes and Ears to allow guns to range in on the pesky infantry defending the closer objective and with a staff team continued a murderous bombardment (as it turned out a little too murderous, but since the unit legged it on morale the lower casualty rate if we had done bunker buster properly would probably still have seen them leave - at least that's my excuse). The mortars pounded away. The infantry force I had deployed reached the objective area - the assault pioneers set up in cover, the conscripts charged ahead and the Stugs set up beside them to further pound the defending infantry. This had the desired effect and I had infantry all over an objective and just needed to survive to my next turn.
This, however, turned out to be easier said than done. The MGs popped out of ambush and shredded the conscript infantry unit. 85% casualties but the Fearless men did not break and run. Fortunately, Dan got no reserves. My artillery and mortars then did a number on Dan's MGs while my remaining infantry stayed heads down, and the Stugs tried to hold the objective. As his infantry moved off the second objective to try and contest the one I tried to hold, an exchange of views occurred over a couple of turns. Dan's tank arrived and joined this fight, his AA arrived and ran to suppress my infantry on his right flank - but also to deal with the pesky Csabas that had finally got across the river and were threatening the other objective.
The final turns saw a fair amount of action. On my left flank and at Dan's rear objective his AA and infantry guns cleared up my recce sneak attack but were now facing dug in, gone to ground infantry in a position to force continuation of the game. My artillery was fully functional and firing to kill his tank force, although my own Stugs succumbed to Panzershrek armed infantry in an assault on the primary objective leaving Fearless infantry to finally decide upon Discretion and the Better Part of Valour - but since Warriors cannot hold objectives his two tanks were too far away.
This was the end of turn 6 and so we called it a draw. Dan had secured his rear objective and while he was in command of the forward one it was held by two tanks under heavy artillery fire, with some ATGs coming into support and staring at a tooled up veteran assault pioneer unit lurking in cover nearby - we all new what was coming and that the result would simply come down to how the dice gods favoured each side in one assault.
|Great, fun game - down to the wire. A few rules mistakes a few tactical ones. It started looking like I was going to walk it in turn three with Dan getting no reserves, but actually the MGs in ambush which originally Dan felt was a mistake were just the ticket needed to delay my win and push me into an attrition game. We will do the artillery properly next time but I should have made better use of the Stugs in taking objective and moving at the double would have been a good thing. Similarly I need to remember the bogging rules - Difficult terrain is bog on a 1, not a skill check. Ah well, this is the issue with being rusty on a ruleset. Hopefully we can run more Flames out again....
So forces - Dan Germans consisted of a Confident Veteran force with a couple of platoons of infantry, light support artillery in the form of 81mm mortars (two observers), pair of AT guns, pair of Infantry guns, pair of SPAA, 4 x PzIVs and an MG platoon. He parcelled out his tankhunter bases to the infantry.
Mine was based around a volunteer Infantry force from Budapest - the Onkentes Puskas Szazad, with a pair of Fearless Conscript R/MG infantry units, CT 120mm mortars, CV Assault pioneers, 3x CT Csaba armoured cars, 3x CV 75mm 40M ATGs, 2x CV StugGs and a 149mm howitzer artillery unit. Likewise my light mortars got attached out to infantry units.
We played under 3rd Ed which I had done a couple of games of but was new to Dan and there are some subtle changes in there (mostly to the good).
The table layout roughly had a ridgeline diagonally cutting the table, at one end a small town and outlying field structures, an extensive road network with hedging, a forest cutting to the ridgeline from one halfway point, some rough rocky terrain on one side and one end with heavy wooding. Dan ended up defending and took the woody end. With one objective deep in a wood near his baseline and me selecting one a tad more in the open on a hillside as near the centreline as I could have.
We ended up playing Pincer as a mission. Dan's force on table consisted of his two infantry platoons, one per objective and his mortars dug in behind a hill with observers out wide. He also had his MG unit in Ambush. The rest were in Delayed Reserve. Everything of mine started on table, with an infantry unit on each wing, the right side supported by the Assault Pioneers and the 2iC. Mortars set up on the hill-line to my left flank with an observer for the 149mm in there, and their own observer moving cautiously with the infantry on the right flank. The main artillery unit set up in the fields on my righthand baseline. ATGs started limbered in the centre behind the Stugs and the Csabas started on the left flank. Everyone was dug in and gone to ground for infantry and guns.
The Csabas opened with a recce move towards the central crossroads near the closest objective. My assault began with a generally move forward by the infantry, those on the right using the forest to block enemy vision and those on the left using the lack of enemy to race towards the broken ground. The Stugs moved forward followed by the guns. The ridgeline caused some serious line of sight issues for the guns and their observers, so the mortars rained on the infantry defending the front objective and the guns failed. Dans return fire peppered the armoured cars for no effect.
With Dan's heavy armour in reserve my best chance was to run for the front objective with my infantry, and assault it with full force before his Panzer's arrived - and so the next couple of turns consisted of doing just this. The left flank consisted of a general advance. My recce used their Eyes and Ears to allow guns to range in on the pesky infantry defending the closer objective and with a staff team continued a murderous bombardment (as it turned out a little too murderous, but since the unit legged it on morale the lower casualty rate if we had done bunker buster properly would probably still have seen them leave - at least that's my excuse). The mortars pounded away. The infantry force I had deployed reached the objective area - the assault pioneers set up in cover, the conscripts charged ahead and the Stugs set up beside them to further pound the defending infantry. This had the desired effect and I had infantry all over an objective and just needed to survive to my next turn.
This, however, turned out to be easier said than done. The MGs popped out of ambush and shredded the conscript infantry unit. 85% casualties but the Fearless men did not break and run. Fortunately, Dan got no reserves. My artillery and mortars then did a number on Dan's MGs while my remaining infantry stayed heads down, and the Stugs tried to hold the objective. As his infantry moved off the second objective to try and contest the one I tried to hold, an exchange of views occurred over a couple of turns. Dan's tank arrived and joined this fight, his AA arrived and ran to suppress my infantry on his right flank - but also to deal with the pesky Csabas that had finally got across the river and were threatening the other objective.
The final turns saw a fair amount of action. On my left flank and at Dan's rear objective his AA and infantry guns cleared up my recce sneak attack but were now facing dug in, gone to ground infantry in a position to force continuation of the game. My artillery was fully functional and firing to kill his tank force, although my own Stugs succumbed to Panzershrek armed infantry in an assault on the primary objective leaving Fearless infantry to finally decide upon Discretion and the Better Part of Valour - but since Warriors cannot hold objectives his two tanks were too far away.
This was the end of turn 6 and so we called it a draw. Dan had secured his rear objective and while he was in command of the forward one it was held by two tanks under heavy artillery fire, with some ATGs coming into support and staring at a tooled up veteran assault pioneer unit lurking in cover nearby - we all new what was coming and that the result would simply come down to how the dice gods favoured each side in one assault.
|Great, fun game - down to the wire. A few rules mistakes a few tactical ones. It started looking like I was going to walk it in turn three with Dan getting no reserves, but actually the MGs in ambush which originally Dan felt was a mistake were just the ticket needed to delay my win and push me into an attrition game. We will do the artillery properly next time but I should have made better use of the Stugs in taking objective and moving at the double would have been a good thing. Similarly I need to remember the bogging rules - Difficult terrain is bog on a 1, not a skill check. Ah well, this is the issue with being rusty on a ruleset. Hopefully we can run more Flames out again....