Game two of the tournament was Surrounded. At first I thought I might be attacking, since I reckoned my opponent was playing a finnish infantry company. It turned out however, that he was actually fielding Panssari.
Panssari
F/V
HQ: 2x T-26
Platoon 1: 4x T-28
Platoon 2: 3x T-34/85
Platoon 3: 3x T-34/76
Platoon 4: 2x BA 10M
Platoon 5: Full Pioneer platoon (with flamers)
Platoon 6: 3x German StuGs including a StuH (C/V)
Platoon 7: 2x Pak40 guns + hero + 2x close defense teams
The table had a big bunch of buildings near the center as well as a patch of woods - a perfect hiding spot for the Panzers. I deployed my force more or less in a balanced way, with each infantry platoon sitting on one of the objectives and guns streched to cover possible approaches. Of course, in this mission it is not possible to have the maximum focus on the right objective so I at least tried to have an even split of units.
A few of the initial turns went quite well - he only managed to destroy one of the Pak40 guns but not before it managed to kill a T28 while my planes took out a T34/85 and one of the armored cars. Things were looking quite good for the Romanians. On the other flank, the Panzers were slowly making their way through difficult terrain to help the beleaguered allies.
The next couple of rounds were not as successful. Mg fire from the tanks managed to kill 3 Pak40s and I was only causing bails to the Finnish tanks. I was also forced to sit tight in my foxholes as any movement would mean a torrent of fire. Fortunately, my tanks finally moved into combat positions and fired 8 shots upon the outflanking StuGs causing ... 0 damage... Return fire was punishing as I lost 2 tanks straight away.
I managed to hide from the assault guns and got into a skirmish with 2 remaining T34/76s with some assistance of the T34/85s. Again, my tanks did absolutely nothing but his fire was devastating. I lost 2 more Panzers while the last one decided to run away. So much for tank support.
The bright side of things was that my 47mms managed to kill one of the T34/76 while combined fire of guns and mortars managed to bring the pioneer platoon down to 1 base and make it turn its tail and flee.
On the north, T28s were setting up an assault against my reluctant trained infantry. They managed to get a limited charge in, but lost one tank due to defensive fire from a 47mm. On the next turn, he repeated the maneuver with 2 remaining machines. This time, there were no 47mms to respond as they were brought down to only 2-3 guns and failed their morale check. Still, defensive fire from a panzershreck stopped one of the behemoths while a successful counterattack killed the other one. Romanians consolidated and wiped out the whole platoon. Up until now the battle was really bloody. I lost all my guns and tanks while the Finns lost the T 28 platoon & the pioneers. Also, the two T34 units and the armored cars were reduced to single tanks. The only intact units of the battle were my heavy mortars and the StuGs. Time was running out.
Realizing that, my opponent decided to switch the focus of his attacks. He went all out for the other objective and pushed with his last remaining guys. In the melee that ensued, I managed to destroy the T34/76, the last armored car and most of the Pak40 unit. But I was also in trouble as this combat costed me my heavy mortars and 81mm mortars. I rolled my company morale and failed it, abandoning my positions :( A win for the Finns!!
When we counted up the losses, it turned out that I sacrificed around 80% of my troops while I managed to kill around 70% of the Finns. This truly was a bitter and bloody fight.
What needs to be mentioned is that I normally win against this opponent. This time though, he was the better general, remaining in a calm, efficient command of his soldiers. Congrats!
No comments:
Post a Comment