Using my superb generalship skills (overwhelm the Russians with hundreds of troops) I managed a crushing victory to sweep our German army into the Leningrad suburbs while Ian / Russ' German thrust has bogged down further South (despite Ian also winning a crushing victory over Jono's Green Red Army. Every unit he rolled for was green (as opposed to Regular or Veteran) and so ran away as Ian lined his panzers up on the hill and blazed away.
It hadn't been a particularly good day. The train from Manchester was delayed (wrong kind of sun?) and I had to pick up Kevin (despite telling my teenage son to pass on a message for Kevin to come to our house - which he promptly forgot to do). So we arrived after 7pm. By the time we'd sorted out the army lists and plans, it was closer to 8pm and no dice thrown in anger. Given that it was a 10pm deadline, this was never going to get the full 12 turns in.
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| My infantry take the town then rush to overwhelm the second objective (held by a handful of troops) |
My plan was simple - no flank marches or Fancy Dan stuff that the Germans can bring to the table. I simply marched my infantry (in two regiments) down the table to hoover up the two objectives on my side of the table, then aiming the regiments at the two objectives on Russ' side.
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| On the other table - the massed Germans take the high ground |
I had no idea what Russ had in terms of troops so I aimed to swamp him - using the panzers inbetween them as they could move to one side or the other should anything armoured show itself from the Russian side - by rushing the two remaining scoring objectives.
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| Jono shows the Russian casualties on the other table. |
My motorcycle recon found a few troops in one objective and so I moved the panzers right to support the infantry (not knowing what was there). The first panzer to poke his nose out got blatted by an ATG - so I ordered a quick volte face out of the way as it was clear there was not much Russian strength and the infantry could deal with them on their own.
So it proved and after a brief firefight I'd cleared the Russians from the wood and moved most of my troops in.
Which was just as well, as Russ then revealed his reserve - a hulking tank regiment including T-28's, T-26's and KV-2's (hold me!).
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| T-28's come out to play |
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| Followed by T26-s and KV2's. |
Now the T-28's are corking against infantry - which is why I'd moved mine into the woods. They are less good against tanks and bombers. My AGC called in some JU88's (cunningly disguised as JU87's) and managed 3 hits - killing a T-28 and two infantry stands. Except I didn't. Ian chose this moment (having killed or routed all Jono's Russians on the opposite table) to a) remind us that the Russians had some AA and b) rolled on Russ' behalf (he was in the bar, getting the drinks).
He rolled a 6 - which according to Jono was only the 103rd 6 Ian had rolled that day (I looked over Ian's shoulder during a brief lull in our battle and saw him roll three 6's on the trot - causing Jono to roll his eyes and shrug his shoulders, suggesting this was not the first time that had happened). There were calls for the dice to be inspected and enquiries as to how hot the oven was that he'd been baking the dice in.
So the tank and infantry survived. But I had a Stug and mobile infantry gun that polished off a T-28 and a couple of T-26's in close order. I also called some artillery down on the tanks and got another kill.
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| KV2's? Sod that! The panzers run for it. |
Tactically, Russ should have moved his KV2's up first as they would have made mincemeat of my PzII's and Pz38t's (and been invulnerable for return fire). As it was, the T-28's and T-26's took the brunt of Panzer and Stug fire (I failed to call in artillery twice - needing anything but a 1 to call it in!). The Russians also forced my airstrike away again. But I inflicted some damage on his tanks - then rushed out to wipe out the last of the Russian infantry.
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| I shoot up some of his tanks then make a run for it. |
Most of his T-28's were blazing away at the captured wood as the KV-2's came forward. There was no hope of PzII's taking on KV2's so I changed their order and got them out of harm's way. I had already ordered 2/2 Infantry to escape off the table (another 2 campaign points) and the panzers were already on their way off when we were out of time.
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| Russ gets some shots in on my Stug and Infantry gun as everyone else runs for the wood. |
At the count up I held all 4 point scoring positions and had routed the Russian infantry (not that the latter helped me at the time). I then rolled a 6 which meant we got 9 points so moved into Leningrad (while Ian / Russ were one 'space' behind on the campaign map.
Playing the Russians (as I will do next week) is really hard. Forces are limited and tactically you need a good plan and a lot of luck to do anything. But at least every other week you get to play the Germans!
Ian's Germans showed this by wiping the floor with Jono's troops and they'd wrapped it all up by 9:30pm.
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| It's all over on the other table.... |
