Panzer Grenadier Battles on April 26th:
Afrika Korps #28 - "Meet Me at the Pass" Edelweiss: Expanded #13 - Spring Offensive
Army Group South Ukraine #1 - A Meaningless Day First Axis #20 - End Game in Italy
Army Group South Ukraine #4 - Beyond the Prut Parachutes Over Crete #39 - Corinith
Edelweiss #10 - Spring Offensive Road to Berlin #71 - Horst Wessel's Last Verse
Edelweiss IV #19 - Spring Offensive
Fish In A Barrel
Author thomaso827
Method Solo
Victor United States
Play Date 2015-09-12
Language English
Scenario HaSi003

This scenario places a Soviet convoy on the road from the east to west ends of the board with T-34/85s, Su-101s and T-44s defending from the flank. The US sets up either in the woods adjacent to the road or at least 3 hexes away, and board 22 has a lot of woods and light woods along with a good hill to set up with. The only downside with those areas are that they are very near the edge the Soviets need to exit from. The US force is part of an armored cavalry regiment with M-4/76s, M-18s, and 2 companies of mechanized infantry with supporting HMGs and Mortars. Since the US gets a +5 to initiative on turn 1, it is most likely they will go first and can start as though they were hidden in ambush. No aircraft in this one, and the US has 3 18-factor OBA, and the Soviets may have 2 18-factor OBAs if the roll them up. Soviets may also get 4 more T-44 units for reinfocements entering from the east edge. Visibility starts at 3 hexes and increases by 1 each turn with a roll of 4 or more. For my game, the Soviets got the OBA from the start, visibility increased marginally to 7 by the end of turn 9 when the last of the Soviets who were able to left the board, leaving only 1 disrupted unit behind and surrounded. The Soviet reinforcements also never arrived. I set up the majority of Soviet infantry in the leading trucks where they might unload to assist in assaults, with leaders interspersed so that 3 truck hexes had a leader in the middle until the convoy got to the mortars and towed guns further back. The US troops I set up with the M-18s in the edge of light woods where they could use their shoot-and-scoot capability to try to take out Soviet tanks while preserving their own strength. US infantry were set up in stacks with either 2 INF or 1 INF and 1 HMG, along with a leader and their halftracks to either side of the road in the woods for some initial shootint at trucks loaded with troops and then to be in position to fight in assaults that were sure to come. The mortars and their halftracks were in light woods on the hilltop where they could spot for themselves and also spot for the OBA using an LT I stacked with them, and I placed the US commander next to the mortars where he could support them, spot things they might not see, or move forward to assist in regrouping. Things started out with a bang as US got the initiative with 6 activations, allowing the troops in the woods to shoot up trucks, and for the US tanks and M-18s to shoot at tanks. The armor was nowhere as successful as the infantry was, and only one or two steps of Soviet armor was lost, but the leading 4 hexes of trucks were destroyed quickly. The US troops moved forward and after an initial dash of 3 or 4 trucks running off the board, blocked the road in the woods to prevent any more from going that way. This stalled the Soviets and allowed mortars and OBA to destroy or damage several more trucks loaded with guns and mortars, while the surviving Soviet infantry at the front bailed from their trucks and moved forward. The Soviet armor had moved forward as quickly as possible and engaged in assaults with the US infantry, ill-advised in those early stages, and lost several steps of T-34s and T-44s in the process. Things bogged down to a slug fest of assaults and tank fire, with few OBA shots possible because all the leaders were involved somewhere in an assault or were unable to see a target due to the limited visibility. Soviets not engaged found a way around the south of the woods after Soviet armor cleard the light woods of US tanks on that side of the road. In the end, Soviets took 34 step losses, including the double losses for tanks, and left one unit on the board, surrounded and disrupted, for 34 points, while the US lost 20 steps, for a difference of 15 steps, or a major US victory.

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