Patton’s Nightmare, scenario #12: Stalking the Night Fantastic

Tanks hunting tanks in the dark, but with limited illumination rounds, now this was a really fund scenario for me! It was American Minor Victory and I will post a better AAR later but before I do, I want to play it again and see if I can do better.

Ok, I did another play of this scenario as it’s a quick one even with 20 turns but only 17 counters. I am not sure what the American Colonel counter is used for but I used him to help me find hidden Soviet armor hidden the forest this time. The initiative is lowered by one for every step lost on both sides, so it bottoms out quickly. The Soviet can dig-in armor, put them in town, forest or hill tops and spread them out to prevent a Major American victory but if the American do a good search and use the illumination at the correct times, they can clear the map of Soviet armor, as the American armor is much stronger and in my second play the American won a Major Victory. This time they had time to finish the job. I am still not a hidden rule fan but you can really play with it or without it.

This little tank vs tank scenario is just a lot of fun. Russians have 6 pretty serious tank units on the 2 boards, playing hide and seek against 11 units of US tanks from M-4s to M-29s, some pretty weak and some pretty tough. It starts in fading light with 8 hex vsibility and the light dwindles fast as this fight ended up with 1 hex visibility for the moonless or overcast night. I started by placing the Russian T-34C on board 18 in the town, with the JS2 and Su-85 on the hilltop on board 21, the KV-8s and M-4A2 holding the town on board 21. US has a limited number of illumination rounds, so the Russians have a tough time staying hidden for long. US enter from the south edge of the eastern board. I split the force with the 2 M-4s and 2 Jumbos heading towards the town, thinking the "if it were me, I'd hide there" game. As twilight was coming, there was no chance to spot and shoot at anything until visibility had dropped to 4 hexes, which was just enough for the first exchange between M-4s and the T-34, with the T-34 taking a step loss to a step loss for the M-4s. The Jumbos rolled along trying to get a flank shot on the t-34 while it was watching the M-4s and succeeded in finishing off the T-34 under the swaying illumination. Shermans passed their morale check and both M-4s and Jumbos moved north looking for more targets, while the heavy force moved along the west edge skirting the swamps and looking for higher ground from which to see better on their next illumnation. The Russians were setting on that hilltop and one M-26 step was lost, but US fire destroyed both steps of the SU-85 and reduced the JS-2, which decided to back away and head for cover that was not illuminated. The US heavies pursued the JS-2 towards the town as the Shermans and Jumbos approached from the other side. Illumination is a two-edged swoard, and presented the poorer armor of the M-4s to successful long range (5-hex) shots from the Russian Sherman and one of the KV-85s, finishing off the single step Sherman and reducing the second one. The Jumbos returned fire and managed to reduce a KV-85, and return fire from the surviving Sherman step reduced the Russian Sherman. By this time, the US heavys had moved up from the other side and without additional illumination, got into adjacent hexes and took out the rest of the Russian armor without further loss. Major US victory, with the US losing 3 steps of M-4 and 1 of M-26. This is just a cool shoot-em-up scenario, good for playing an odd mix of tanks, night rules and illumination.