This game I really didn’t plan for it. It was again a midwar Russian v German action with 1800points a side. We rolled a Hasty Attack scenario. Originally Bill was looking to join us after he got off work. I figured he would field 900 points and I 900 points and I would defer to Bill as far as what he would want to field. As the time started to go back and Bill was running late we decided to press ahead so I pulled together a whole force.
Chuck used the same force as before, but this time I decided to switch to an Infantry platoon with what I thought would be some reasonable armor and artillery support.
For my Infantry company I picked, 2 infantry platoons, an HMG platoon, a platoon of 105s, a platoon of 3 Marder III Hs, and a platoon of 4 Pz IV F2s.
With the delayed reserves it meant that starting the game and holding was going to be tough. I deployed a platoon of infantry, the 105s, the HMG platoon and the Marders in ambush.
I was on the defense and Chuck on the attack. As the attacker Chuck placed two objectives and then removes one after the initial placement. This adds even a bit more scramble on the part of the defense which is an element of FoW that I really like.
Above is the initial placement. Chuck decided to attack my right flank. I had the 105s in the middle thinking they could fire over open sights if needed and help take out the Russian armor. With the Marders I figured they could be in the woods on either side and thus be a good asset again to deal with armor. Again another part of FoW that I really like. You don’t have to pick the exact spot of an ambush. You can pick that as part of the game. With a Immediate Ambush rule which I was under I had to place my ambush before the Recon move and then the attacker gets their first move. Really blunts the effect of the ambush and you have to hope you last until the bottom of turn 1 in hopes you’re around to shoot!
We got things a little out of order between the recon move and the ambush placement and the initial move, but we just reasoned it out and given what Chuck wanted to do it didn’t really matter.
So in this case this is Chuck’s recon move going off. He was able to successfully remove my gone to ground markers for a number of units. Well done, BA-10s!
Chuck then rolled up his two T34 platoons behind the BA-10s. The BA10s with their ATRs fired away at my Marders and the T-34s were shooting at the HMGs, and at the Marders but given the move, concealment etc pretty hard to hit on that first turn.
Bottom of turn 1, the Marders opened up and bailed on T34 and brewed up 2. Um, wow, what a gun on those things. Think they’re going to last long? Ha!
The 105s opened up, but it was a hard choice. A bombardment of course catches under the template but the direct fire might catch a tank with a good antitank rating. I went for direct fire and it was obviously the wrong choice. With a rate of fire of 1, I wasn’t able to do any damaged.
Turn 2 and surprise, Chuck gave my Marders lots of love. Lots of love. They were smoking them cause they got’em and I mean lots of them. By that I mean lots of shells. So much for my effective antitank forces. It was looking mighty bleak.
Turn 3 Chuck rolls a couple of platoons of reinforcements, he brings his Pioneer platoon on, his Katyies and a platoon of 76s too.
He rolled up his armor into the now long HMG platoon by the objective. While I was dug in, only the leader stand had a Panzerknacker.
Pretty much a hopeless situation if you ever saw it. Chuck’s attack of course took out my dug in platoon and easily took the objective. Game in 3 turns. Lack of reserves really really hurt. Even then an infantry platoon without more effective antitank assets just wasn’t able to deal with it. Another lesson learned!
With that we picked up for the day. Definitely was a fun one. Till next time!
Maybe risk bogging with a stormtrooper move on the Marders. They to break line LOS and make the T-34s move more than 6″. A delayed ambush would have given them more survivability, but you never know what mission will come up.