Panzer Grenadier Battles on March 29th:
Spearhead Division #16 - Final Accounting
Don't mess with the 107th
Author dricher (Soviet Union)
Method Face to Face
Victor Soviet Union
Participants unknown
Play Date 2014-05-13
Language English
Scenario SiFo018

The Germans can approach this from a passive perspective, using their mobility to delay the Soviets while avoiding engagement, or they can go gutsy and set up a defensive line on either flank of the woods and try to prevent the Russians from getting around them. My opponent went gutsy. He entrenched on either side of the woods, with a stronger right supported by a well-positioned left. I countered by coming in strong on his strong side, to include both ATGs, while a weaker force established a position in the edge of the woods north of the road. My goal was to push through his right, wheel towards the rear of his left, and encourage him to remove himself from board 6. My right flank was intended to prevent the Hail Mary play of sending a mobile force into my rear where I could not catch him. We both clearly intended to fight in the east.

On turn two everything went bad for my opponent. His dice are normally very strong, while mine tend towards below average. In fact, he won initiative every turn of the game. But what he didn’t realize is the number 107 is my lucky number. And I was running the 107th Division. Hence the dice gods blessed me. I took two shots at an SPW251, and the second shot made the miracle hit, blowing it to bits. Then I unleashed my OBA on the HMG unit in the same hex, and scored a step loss and demoralized it. Then he rolled for leader casualty on his only good officer, his Captain, and it turns out the Captain was standing next to the spot where a shell landed, and he was blown to bits. On turn three, another dose of OBA caused a compound morale failure on the same HMG, sealing it’s doom. He began withdrawing his right flank, and my ATGs reached the road. Two turns later his left flank was being threatened by the pair of guns, and it, too, began to give way.

On his right, my forces came at him strong. His opfire caused some disruptions, but nothing worse, and even my poor commissar was bored. And now I was cornering him. I caught a platoon of Grens in the woods, and demoralized them. As they ran, I kept chasing, until finally my recon unit launched a questionable assault all alone. It had the effect of pinning the Grens until I could get strong reinforcements into the assault. He tried to sneak some motorcycles through the woods, but my Sergeant was leading a cleanup force through the middle, and he saw the folly of continuing.

My heavy assault against his demoralized Grens managed to roll a 1 on the 30 column, and he passed the morale check. But then he had to make a recovery attempt. The free shot came up as a 6, and the triple step loss probably meant my highly charged units committed some horrible war crime in those woods. But the step count stood at five losses after eight turns. He had totally abandoned the left flank by then, and my ATGs were on the cusp of setting up in the southwest corner of the woods, providing a commanding sweep of the board against his mobile and lightly armored units. My opponent conceded that he would not be able to maintain a position on the board without yielding another step loss, and offered me the victory. Soviet major victory, and zero step losses for the Russians.

This scenario is a tough little nut to crack. The Germans have a mobile force capable at moving 3 to 4 times the speed of the Russian. I think a more mobile solution attempting to slow the Soviets, and then using the motorcycles to try and punch out a gun, followed by an armored charge might be able to break through the Soviet line and send one unit in the rear. The Russians are so slow they have little chance of pushing forward while eliminating an occupying unit in their rear. The challenge is making that hole. Turning this into a meeting engagement can certainly slow the Soviets enough to prevent them from clearing the board quickly, but my incredible luck on turn two caused so much damage to the Germans so early they just never could recover. If my opponent could have held the position for two more turns I suspect I would have been battling for a minor victory.

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