| This Meeting Engagement will surely end in Divorce. | ||||||||||||
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The main objectives: German 1. Control all the towns and roads Soviet 1. Inflict Casualties (minor) 2. Hold Towns and roads (major) Time = 10 hours (40 turns) Opening Thoughts
BATTLE SUMMARYFormat: (German losses – Soviet Losses) The Battle This is a meeting engagement, so turn one sees both sides entering the board moving towards their objectives. Soon the fighting begins. German aircraft spot some JS-3s and eliminate 3 steps! (0-6) In the south the Soviet foot leaves their soft-skinned trucks to advance on foot. They don’t want to take long range fire from the Panthers! In the centre the Soviet T-44s back away from the advancing Panthers and allow the Germans to take the centre town. Without any infantry support they decide discretion is required. In the north Soviet armour opens up against the advancing Germans and knock off 3 steps of Panthers and Pz42ts! (6-6) The tank battle in the north continues with the Soviet air force joining in the attack. With leaders now in sight the OBA begins to fly (16-18). So far the Soviets are holding their own, but not likely for long. Soon the tank battle in the south begins and the Germans lose 1 step as they rip apart the Soviets (lose 23 armour steps!). Those Tigers and Panthers are too deadly, even uphill at long range! In the north the Panthers also begin to clean up as the Soviets are completely outgunned! (18-72) Wow! The tank battle began and is practically over by the 90 minute mark. Soviet only hope seems to be to inflict 50 steps to get a minor victory and to try to stop the Germans from killing everyone! Germans win the initiative and in the south the remaining Soviet armour (another 16 units) is annihilated! I’m going to stop keeping score of the Soviets now as this pretty much guarantees more Soviet steps than German steps will be eliminated. With 8 hours to go the Soviet infantry looks no way prepared to hold off the German advance! They begin to dig in on the hills. Over the next 45 minutes the Soviets have a few victories as their air takes out a Tiger and some La-5s and IL-2s take out a couple loaded Katzchen. Another Katzchen is eliminated by OBA and soon the Germans are up to 30 steps lost. German armour begins to fire on the Infantry in the south hills. As the X7 rockets move forward in the north they come under heavy OBA fire. In the south the German armour begins overrunning disrupted and demoralised Soviets. Some brave infantry counter-assaults and one German armour is reduced! A small victory in a battle that is doomed. At the 3 hour mark the Germans are up to 38 steps lost. The Soviets seem certain to inflict the required 50 steps. Although they need to stop the Germans from controlling all the roads and towns. With 7 hours to go, this seems like a difficult task indeed! It only takes another 15 minutes and the Germans are up to 51 steps loss as the Soviet have some small victories throughout the battlefield. But the Germans are closing in and it feels unlikely that the Soviets will be able to hold out for long Over the next 45 minutes the Soviets score a 2X hit against some loaded KTZN! Although their Colonel is KIA in an assault. The Germans close in on the south town. At the 5 hour mark (halfway) the German nooses are closing in against both towns in the south and the east. The south is almost lost as a couple companies hold out in the east. Soviet air scores a victory as it eliminates 3 steps of tigers! The last Soviet armour opens fire in the east. 2 Pz42ts are reduced before the T-44s are annihilated by the accompanying Tigers and Panthers. The Soviets are out of tanks. Over the next 105 minutes the Soviet OBA makes a killing but the south town is lost. The Germans move in at the east town. First softened by German armour the German foot troops assault aided by Katzchen. They simply overpower the Soviets. Soon by turn 29, the only Soviets that remain are a LT, Kommissar and 3 mortar platoons. They surrender. Time to tally the score: Casualty Count You got to be kidding! Germans lost 4 full armour platoons (and a number of reduced ones), to the Soviets who lost 46 full platoons! GERMAN MAJOR VICTORY AftermathThis was a fun large scenario but again, just too hard for the Soviets. At least the huge OBA factors and air force allowed the Soviets to inflict some serious casualties of their own. In the end, the Germans were just too powerful. Note: In assault, two platoons (STRM and WPN) could assault with 2 Katzchen for 30 power (assaulting on the best column). Combined with +1 leader and +1 attacker better morale meant that they could easily even get the 30 column vs Town hexes. This was just too much for the Soviets who were easily overrun. Scenario Rating: 3/5 – Big fun scenario, but again very hard for the Soviets. |
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| 2 Comments |
Did you have enough wreck counters? Sounds like a blast for the German player.
Actually I forgot to place them! Had I remembered they would've made a small difference and slowed down the Germans a bit (as the KTZN couldn't enter the towns). Although the German infantry is so deadly they could still get to the 30 column quite easy but would need 3 foot units, ie. STRM, WFN and PIO.
Considering that the Germans had 3 hours to spare, I think the final outcome would've been the same. Most of the damage to the Soviet foot troops was done by the German armour sitting just outside town firing in.
It was brutal and fun. But even if the Soviets could somehow hold on somewhere, the best they could really hope for was a draw.