Wojna Światów - Tournament Report - battle 4

After the first day of the tournament we enjoyed a common dinner at a local restaurant. I enjoyed the walk, maybe not so much the food :P In any case, the time spent with all the gaming buddies was great and we went to our place happy to see them again the next day.
The first battle of the second day was Hasty Attack. I had a quick look at the scoring table and I was around 10th place. My opponent was already announced and .... KVs again :( Since I am not a person that would give up easily, I started to prepare my battle plan!

The opponent's list was:
6x KVs (one of them being the company commander)
8x Matildas (including 4CS)
6x Stuarts
5-6x Mounted Cossacks
2x Katyushas + extra crew + komissar
4x Ba 64
　
This time the table was awfully empty, apart from the flanks which were clogged with a bunch of LOS blockers and some linear obstacles/forest patches. My skill/morale rolls were pretty average, although infantry which was c/t and r/v might have been a tiny bit better. I deployed my 75mm guns so that it would cover the whole length of the table, put the Pak40s in the center, along with an infantry platoon (which turned out to be c/t). I held the other platoon in an immediate ambush so that when my opponent would remove one of his objectives, I would be sure that I have it in the right place.
The enemy deployed his KVs, Matildas and Katyushas. Tank platoons were ordered to dominate one flank each, while the artillery was placed directly in the table center, behind a small patch of forest.
In his first turn, Wojtek rolled for reserves and a platoon of mounted Cossacks appeared. Both the KVs and Matildas rolled forward while the Katyushas targetted the Pak40s but without any luck.
My response was only limited because of the overwhelming firepower advantage the enemy had. I only moved the central platoon of infantry a bit forward, shot 3 times at the Katyushas (scoring 0 hits) and in a mad attempt to get rid of his artillery, rushed the 2iC mounted towards his artillery positions (unfortunately he failed his gallop roll right before the assault and has been killed by Stuarts arriving from reserve). Also, I bombarded the Cossacks with the devastating template, scoring 4 hits but killing none :(
Unfortunately for the Romanians, the major Soviet thrust on the right flank went on uninterrupted. Soon, the KVs started closing in on the packed ranks of the dug in infantry right in the corner while a few of them started hunting for Pak40, supported by the continous rocket fire. In such circumstances, Romanians had nothing else to do but shoot with the big guns and smoke with the 75s. Also, a counterattacking force of Pz35s arrived to put some shots on the Cossacks.
In an tornado of fire, I lost one of the Pak40 guns in exchange for one of the heavy Soviet tanks. Also, Wojtek tried an assault with Cossacks at my thinly held central line but I repulsed it with defensive fire (scored 5/6 hits, most of them on a 4+!). From now on, I started concentrating my shots on the cavalry (managed to get rid of it really quick) and fired a salvo at the Matildas, which were threatening the center (killed 3/8). There was nothing there however, to stop the metal behemoths on the right flank. They were down to 5 when they started their final assault, supported by a newly arrived reserve platoon of BA64s.
The Romanian infantry fought bravely, sacrificing the r/v platoon and pushing the scouts and c/t platoon on to continue the resistance. In the ensuing melee, the Soviets lost 2 more KVs and failed their platoon morale check but the commander was there to prevent them from running away. With a round of very fortunate rolls, the BA64s managed to wipe out my tank platoon that was contesting the objective. Time has already reached the limit and I was in range to contest with my infantry again. Unfortunately, it was pinned and I failed my double unpin attempt :(
Again, the victory went to whoever owned KV tanks :)

Overall, it was a very good game, tense from the beggining to the very last moment. In the hindsight, the thing I could maybe have done better, was deployment. I should have left my Pak40s in the immediate ambush and gambled with the middle objective free of any infantry. Also, I should have placed my CiC and 2iC where the KVs were about to hit for some extra chances to kill the tanks. I was a bit upset, since this was the second time it was sooooo close.