| Not sure about balance, but still a lot of action! | ||||||||||||||
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The Russian set up most of his force near the hill on board 5. I thought this curious, but chose not to challenge his thinking. I set the Germans up mostly in the town and woods on board three west of the river, covering the bridge, but put my recon units in 0809. Gaining the initiative on the first turn, I sent my P204f and SdKfz 222 over and had them race up the east side of the river. The Russians chose to charge towards the bridge. He felt killing me before reinforcements arrived to be the best choice. My Pz 38t managed to hit a couple loaded trucks, giving me an immediate advantage. As his forces continued to attack and seize the bridge, I kept my forces in a defensive position and shot whatever I could. The recon units on the other side of the river began to give the Russian fits. I got within range of the road, and any truck was fair game until he dispatched sufficient force to run them down. They each took a hit, but not until after they littered the road with several burning trucks with dead infantry and drew off some of his force. He managed to move his tanks to the bridge, at which point I began to pummel him from cover. In the end, it was a total massacre. Somehow he had gotten in his head (due to the intro text) that he needed to come after me and get across the river to clear me out. Given the large force at his disposal it just seemed to make sense to him. The idea of hunkering down in the woods and blowing me away as I crossed never occurred to him. His long trek to the bridge using the road (vice moving up behind the woods) and offensive mindset made this an easy win for the Germans. He reached the bridge, and even took it for a time, but never got to the west side of the river. Had he set up smarter and attacked from the woods he may have had sufficient firepower to force a crossing and try to overrun my position. It still probably would have failed, but it would have at least been a closer battle. The Germans lost very little in the battle, while the 5th Tank just took a severe beating. Not sure I see a lot of chance of a Russian victory in this scenario, but it was still a lot of fun to play. |
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| 4 Comments |
| Panzer Grenadier Battles on April 20th: | |
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| Road to Berlin #70 - Gasoline Alley | |
Something, somewhere, semehow seems to have gone wrong w the computer for this play. First, I played this scenario 10-12 years ago, long before PG-HQ was born.I included it in my play log forPG-HQ because it has stuck in my mind as one of the best games Iever played, even though Ilost. Interestingly, historically, the German general in direct charge of the battle thought that the battle on June 22, 1941 was the hardest fought that he encountered for the rest of the war.
In fact, I didn’t play dricher here. I played Mark Kalina FtF at my house in Enfield, CT. Mark is a well known war gamer in Connecticut, but not a member of PG-HQ. He is, however, a veteran gamer of Panzer Grenadier. This remains one of the strangest incidents I can think of.
Craig Martin
@SARACV3, if you submitted the play first and dricher added it later, he may have chosen the wrong matching shared play by mistake.
I can unlink these plays in the database. Let me know both of you.
Gents,
Thanks for bringing me back onto the site after a long absence!
No, I did not play SARACV3. I played against Crickethawk, I believe before he started his account. I did not select another player when I wrote the AAR, so I am also surprised that SARACV3 got linked to this.
Shad,
Appreciate you unlinking.
Thanks for letting me know. I'll get these untangled tomorrow!
Shad