Soviet Tankovy is on the frontline - battle report part 2

Battle two was a Free for All scenario. I faced it off against a fellow people's commissar, commanding a Soviet Strelkovy Batalon (Guards). For those who did not read the previous battle report, my company composition was this. His force setup, as far as I can remember was:

Fearless/Trained
Big Strelkovy (around 20+ bases), with 45mm guns attached
Small Strelkovy - barebones, with only a commissar upgrade
Small Cossack platoon (5 bases)
2x SU 76
6x T-34 (F/C)
4x 152mm howitzers
Sporadic I-153

We both deployed our forces covering the objectives. I immediately noticed that the only units able to effectively hurt the KV 85s were the howitzers and his airplane. This is why I was extra careful to spread out my precious heavy tanks and hide any remaining ones so that they would not be an easy target for the artillery. I also moved my recon a bit to hide it behind a large patch of woods, well out of line of sight of any significant anti-tank. Since I won the 'who goes first' roll, I moved my guys up to concealed or out of LoS positions with the exception of the KVs which rolled onwards to glory through a centrally located bunch of crops.

My first turn did no damage to the gone to ground Soviet infantry but I gained enough ground to concentrate my T-34s (including Mariya) and KVs on the small infantry platoon covered by his medium tanks and howitzers.
In response, my opponent also failed to do any damage, since even after a successful hit on one of the KVs with the 152mm rounds, the top armour of the heavy tank was strong enough to deflect the hit.

Turn two, the real part of the assault began: both my KVs and T-34/57s moved into positions from which shooting at the enemy T-34s was possible. I fired the full salvo, and.... got a bail! Wow. Not a whole bunch of damage. Fortunately, at the same time, my regular T-34s took a couple of pot shots at the howitzers and managed to eliminate one.
His turn two was similar to the first one, although the results were a bit different. He was able to get his aircraft in on my positions, which killed one of the T-34s and a howitzer round hit Mariya, killed her tank and she was forced to switch to a new one - this time a KV!

Now I got a bit frustrated but succeeded with my own motivation roll and decided to go on with the overall plan. The good thing was, that now I had a really powerful KV tank and still all of the T-34/57s left. It was time for revenge.
The truth is, revenge was not coming :) I shot from stationary positions at his howitzers and tanks and only managed one or two bails. His response was devastating though - he hit my T-34/57s 4 times at long range and with only 1s to penetrate, I rolled 3x1. With this salvo, two of my tank killers were dead and another one bailed. What was even more annoying is that on the other flank, my BA 10s were in a duel with the assault guns and winning, until a single die plane, with re-rolls of successful hits managed to wipe out 4 of my cars, forced a morale check and they fled the battlefield.
Seeing what was happening, my opponent decided to put some pressure on the flank that was not covered by the KVs. He only decided to do it with his Cossacks though, which were not a difficult opponent for my T-60 tanks.

A bit later, also on the main axis of attack the tide was turning. Finally, I got a good round of shooting and managed to eliminate all but 2 of the T-34s which was enough for me to give orders for an all-out assault.
This meant that while I was grinding his howitzers and infantry to dust with the KVs (one of them hitting on a 2+ !), my T-60s were machinegunning down his isolated cavalry. The results were pretty obvious - I killed all of the advancing Cossacks and in the end, managed to wipe out the defending infantry to the last man, capturing the objective.

Since the opponent was not an experienced general, I was helping him a lot in this battle so that he would understand at least the basic limitations of certain types of troops. This combined with a round or two of lucky rolls, meant that the battle was very far from being one-sided. A good start for a new Soviet commander I would say! There was nothing he should have been ashamed of! :)

Soviet Tankovy is on the frontline - battle report part 1

 

Hello, after a series of rants, I thought I would do a couple of battle reports. So here it goes:

Last week I went to Wrocław (Breslau) to refresh my Mid War skill. Like I mentioned before, I decided to go for a Soviet Tankovy this time. Reason for this being that I do not think my Romanian Cavalry is enough of a competitive force for the ETC environment (which is what I am aiming at in the end). Also, this gave me the chance to assemble and paint some of the models that were waiting for their turn for a long time and to purchase some new ones :P Unfortunately, my old, clumsy airbrush failed so I did not get the Chance to do a proper paintjob on those Soviet beauties :(

For those that did not read the previous articles, the list that I used went like this:

HQ Mariya in a T 34 + tank escorts
CP 3x T 34, 3x T 34/57
CP 10x T 60
SP 3x KV 85
SP 8x BA 10M

Since this was supposed to be an ETC list built to be more of an all-rounder than an anti-tank force, I decided to check it against one of the possible opponents for an all-comers company: Remer Gepanzerte. The scenario we played was Hasty Attack, which was pretty balanced for the rosters we played. My opponent's lineup was:

HQ + Remer
2x Infantry platoon with panzerknackers
2x Panthers
3x Pak 40s
2x 8-rads
3x Nebelwerfers with a 5cm gun

The table was pretty heavy with ruins, which we decided for simplification were LoS blockers. We placed the objectives and he decided he would start with the following forces on the table: Remer + an infantry platoon supported by the Panthers on the central objective, Pak 40s on the flank. Pretty standard, solid anti-tank setup. Good for him!

My choice was the T-34s and BAs. I was counting a bit on the possibility that I can push the flank objective and force him to move his Panthers and while doing this creep my T 34s up to get side shots on the value 5 armor of his tanks.

The first turn went without anything major happening. I moved my forces cautiously so that he would not be able to shoot them on their way forward.

On the second turn, I got all my reserves ready to arrive on the table, so I split them up, pushing the KVs on to the flank objective, and T 60 rushing down the middle of the table. In the meantime, his Panthers began to hid behind the infantry and closed in on his Pak 40s.

Turn three saw me assaulting a lonely Nebelwerfer observer with Mariya's tank escorts and trying to shoot Pak 40s with 3 shots of KVs while lifting gtg with the armoured cars. Unfortunately, this turn I also began to loose some BAs and made a fatal error of sticking out my KV commander who got hit on a 5+, failed his 4+ to save and died on a 3+ :( This was also the turn where I realized I would not be able to take out the Panthers most probably and needed to concentrate on killing other stuff.

Turn 4 I put my plan into practice. Since he revealed his Pak 40s in his shooting phase, I moved up my 6 remaining armored cars to do some serious shooting. My T 34s approached the positions of his infantry, screened by the T 60s as the follow-up wave. I rolled the dice for shooting... and scored zero kills with around 8 hits :( But this was not the important part. The important part was T 34s assaulting a ruin full of Germans. I formed a line next to Mariya and used tank escorts to draw them out. One kill by the 2+ skill tankodesantniki made them counterattack and go base to base with my tanks. After several rounds of tough hand to hand, Mariya died but the Germans were down to only Remer, who returned to his starting position.

On turn five it was revenge time for the Soviets as the newly arrived Nebelwerfers deployed in an unprotected corner of the table and were wiped out with the T 60 MGs. At the same time, Remer got what he deserved and a salvo of 76mm shells ended his misery. On the right flank however, history was not developing so good for the Soviet Tankovy, as after another canonade of Pak 40s and Panthers, most of the BA cars were dead and the remaining ones fled.

Remaining several turns were all the same: Soviets trying to avoid the Panthers and Panthers hunting the Soviets :) Until... my opponent decided to finish off the immobilized KVs. He did manage to kill one, but the last remaining one passed the morale roll and shot back at what turned out to be an exposed side armor of one of the killer cats! The Panther exploded and all of a sudden, this mistake by the Germans became a big opportunity for the Soviets.

With only T 60s effectively active on the battlefield, I rushed them towards the flank objective, occupied by 8-rads. Bad placement of the opponent's troops meant that I could have wiped out the Pak 40s with a charge to the rear only if I could pass the defensive fire of the 8-rads. Since this was the only way I could win, I went for it. Unfortunately, my opponent's shooting was good enough to stave off the assault which effectively costed me the game.

In all honesty I was expecting such a result but I needed the physical evidence. And I got it. Now I can say for sure: my build of Tankovy vs Remer is a no-go :)

Congrats to the opponent (first time we played against each other), who also turned out to be a really nice person and a promising general!

KV - The Soviet Steel Colosus in Flames of War

Hello, today I would like to share with you some thoughts on what I have been playing around with a lot recently - the KV tank in Flames of War. As the preparations for the ETC/GT continue, I have been thinking a lot about what type of list should I bring to these tournaments and was also painting a lot of models. Since one of my current hypes are Soviets (right after Romanians of course!), naturally the KV was quite often one of the subjects of these preparatory activities :)

While fiddling with the tanks I thought it would be nice to see what is their impact on the game throughout the 3 periods. I did some analysis and here are the results:

Early War

As far as I know, the only types available to the Soviet player are the variations of the KV-1 itself and the KV-2. In this period, this tank is like a mobile fortress - with frontal armour of 8 or 9 and side armour of 7 or 8, it is impervious to most shooting. The only guns I can think of that can penetrate the tank from any distance are the German 88s or heavy howitzers like the Czech Skoda 150mm. In Early War, the KV goes wherever it wants and kills whatever it wants dead....slowly :)

There are some downsides to this choice in an Early War Soviet list though: cost, skill rating and the Hen & Chicks rule. Effectively, your tank might be invincible, but it will be unable to cause any real damage to the enemy because your cost to effective firepower ratio (including the H&C) is so poor. Also, despite its turret-rear machine gun mount, this steel monster is still vulnerable to some infantry assaults (e.g. pioneers, panzerknackers, some anti-tank rifles) so you have to be careful who do you pick your fight with.

A separate story is the KV-2, which is one of the most useless point sinks I have ever seen in this game. With a huge 152mm howitzer mounted in an armoured turret, this tank has seemingly amazing hitting power. It will never use it though :) The RoF of this weapon is only 1, which means that in a regular game, it will only shoot several times tops. Apart from this, there is the Bunker Buster rule coupled with Hen & Chicks, which effectively prohibit it from shooting other tanks. Overall, I think there is no tactics that can mitigate these issues. It will simply not pump enough accurate shooting to have any real effect on the battlefield. Still, It will almost never die, if that makes you happy :)


Mid War

This is the Golden Age of the KV. Don't get me wrong - it is not nearly as invincible as it is in Early War but the impact to cost ratio is significantly higher in my opinion. This is mostly reflected in the popularity of the Soviet Mixed Tankovy Batalon for which the main source of strength is the Heavy Tankovy company that can comprise of up to 7 KV-1e/s tanks for a fairly decent point cost.

In Mid War however, hard counters to the might of the KV start to emerge. For starters, you have the Pak40 guns, that can be really dangerous at short distance (especially considering the basic score needed to hit the conscript Soviets is 2+). Also, Germans have access to heavy tank destroyers like the Ferdinand or the Hornisse and medium tanks like the Panther. All of these can get rid of the KV horde in a blink of an eye making the Mixed Tankovy vulnerable to unfavourable pairings. With a correct pairing however, the heavy tanks will roll forward and trash everything in their path until the enemy cries for mercy :)

Another fact worth mentioning is the appearance of the KV 85 in this period. For a really hefty price of over 600 pts you can get a mere 3 of these tanks. Why are they so expensive then? Well, for starters, they are still a KV! Their front armor is still 9 and although their side armor is reduced to 7, their gun gets a great upgrade to what is effectively a copy of the Pak40 (AT 12, rof 2, fp 3+). What is more, the 85s are rated as Guards, meaning their skill is trained and they are no longer limited by the Hen & Chicks rule. Compared to the conscript tanks, I think their role changes from anti-infantry to anti-tank heavily - you just do not get enough of them to survive at a close range and with better training and no H&C sniping becomes a valid tactic.

Oh, I forgot to mention the KV-2! It is still crap :)

Late War

Now, this is where it gets interesting. The main list where you can use the KVs in Late War is the Gvardeyskiy Tyazhelyy Tankovy. Normally, you would think: well, up until Late War there are so many counters to these tanks that they are no longer a valid choice. But hang on... When talking about them in isolation, this might be at least partly true. But when you consider the full picture of the list, then it might turn out that prospects for this list are not so bad as they seem. First of all, you will no longer be able to field the KV-2.... NOOOOOOOO. Your choice is limited to the KV 1e, KV 1s or KV 85. An additional model is also introduced, in the form of the KV 8s flametank (which is a very good tank in the end!). Since this is a Guards list, the core companies are not subject to H&C any more and are rated fearless/trained - not so bad. Another good news is that the tanks are fairly cheap: 3 KV 85s are about 330 points, whereas KV 1 of any type are around 250.

Adding 2 and 2 together we come up with a combination of tanks that can fight infantry (KV 1s, KV 8s) and medium tanks alike (KV 85s). Downside is that you cannot take both types in one company. Still, you can pick and choose whatever suits you best. But what about heavy armor - how do you deal with this? Well, in this case, the list itself offers some options and, in my opinion, the best one you can get are artillery batteries. The really good thing about Gvardeyskiy Tyazhelyy Tankovy is that you can field two confident/trained batteries of Soviet guns: 122mms (AT4/fp 3+) and 152mm (AT5/fp 2+). They will help you to take out the tanks that you do not want to duel with. You just need to make sure that they are well hidden, only sticking out their observer (coming at 15 pts per battery :( ) so that they cannot be sniped.

Overall, whoever trumpets the death of the KV in late war is plain wrong. You can still build a strong Late War list based on this tank.



Ok, so this is it from my side - do you have any experiences running KV lists?

Preparing the Tankovy Batalon for Mid War hell



Ok, so I tested my Romanians (Romanian Cavalry) a few times so far in relation to the ETC setup. The tests were not so promising to be honest. There are some glaring weaknesses about this list that can only be avoided with a good pairing. With the ETC pairing mechanism however, you can not really guarantee that you are able to avoid your obvious counters. The lists need to be a bit more balanced and built so that they can handle all-comers with a slight tendence to either: anti-tank, anti-infantry or utility.

This is the reason why I took up another challenge: to build up and test a Soviet Tankovy Batalon. But why not go the obvious way and play Mixed Tankovy? Well, there are two main factors:

1. It is too obvious for me.
2. The list is vulnerable to bad pairings.

With the second factor, I figured that any pairings against anything that has 2+ panthers in the list plus maybe another anti-tank platoon (like the Pz IIIs or Marders) is pretty much the end of the line for Mixed Tankovy. Its biggest advantage is in how it handles infantry lists - and in this area it really shines. The issue is that with ETC pairings nobody will ever let their infantry be attacked by the Mixed Tankovy. This is why I decided to build a more balanced list. I did check the possibilities with Mixed Tankovy - don't get me wrong. But my personal feeling is that there is not enough decent anti-tank in that list to be able to build a nice all-rounder.

So how did I manage to switch the balance towards utility with Tankovy? The main mechanism was to give the anti-infantry role to big, cheap tank units while the heavies work as the primary source of anti-tank. The really good thing about Tankovy Batalon (Red Army support) is that you can get Medium Tankovy companies equipped with up to 3 T-34/57 tanks (AT 11, Rof 3, FP 4+) in your combat platoons, which is not possible with the Mixed Tankovy briefing. Also, the Guards Heavy Tank companies, although substantially more costly than the Heavy Tank companies of the Mixed Tankovy, give the possibility of using KV 85 tanks (AT 12, Rof 2, FP 3+) that are not subject to Hen & Chicks rule. This is a massive change in the role of the tank. What is normally percieved as an infantry mincing machine now becomes a mobile Pak 40 pillbox. And personally, I can't wait to see how the tests turn out.

Also, like mentioned before, the primary source of anti-infantry power comes from big units of light armour. This is why I used a full company of 10x T-60 tanks, which costs less than 200 points and 10x BA-10 which are probably the best recon element you can get in a Mid War list. So as far as assaulting goes, I still have the power of 10 cheap throw-away tanks, 10 armoured cars, 7 T-34s or as a last resort - 3 KVs.

In the end, the list I am going to test looks like this:
HQ: T-34
CP: 3x T-34, 3x T-34/57 (balanced unit)
CP: 10x T-60 (anti-infantry unit)
SP: 10x BA-10 (balanced unit)
SP: 3x KV 85 (anti-tank unit)

The Fighting Girlfriend and her driver :)

Hello everyone, today I will say a few words about my recent favorite Flames of War warrior - Mariya Oktyabrskaya. What I found interesting about this hero and why I decided to write this article was:

1. The moving story of her participation in World War II
2. FoW rules that represent her on the miniature battlefield

The story of Mariya

So for anyone who does not know this, Mariya Oktyabrskaya was a tank driver in the Red Army between 1943 and 1944 (she died as a result of wounds sustained in battle). For her outstanding service, she was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
What was so interesting about her participation in war was that she volunteered for the tank corps as a way of exacting her revenge on the Germans for killing her husband. After she learned of his death, she sold all her possessions and donated a T-34 tank to the Red Army. There was only one condition related to this donation: she is allowed to drive the tank into battle. The Soviets, realizing the propaganda opportunity, granted her wish. She was sent to a 5 month training and she named her tank the "Fighting Girlfriend". After the training, Mariya was sent to the frontline where she served showing extraordinary heroism until her death following the battle of Vitebsk.

Mariya in FoW

In Flames of War, Mariya is represented as a warrior team (retaining the rating of the company/battalion she is a part of) that can be fielded as a part of a Medium Tankovy company or a Battalion Commander driving a T-34 tank. What is so cool about her when she is a part of a company is that the tank that she will drive can be of any type (T-34, T-34/57 or uparmoured T-34). The sad part is that if you select her as a Battalion Commander, you can only use a regular T-34 :(

Her rules changed a bit since they were published in Forces of War and with the current wording they mean:

- she passes skill tests on a 2+
- she passes all morale checks on a 2+. This extends to Company Morale checks if she is your HQ and Platoon Morale checks if she is the command team (in the previous version I believe it was only for her tank).
- she can move and shoot with full rof, obeying the H&C rules

So far, I can see at least 3 decent options of fielding her:

1. Battalion commander - assault monster:

This build incorporates Mariya in a T-34 with an upgrade of Tank Escorts. It means you will have a lone wolf tank that can skirt the enemy flanks and assault units with weak a-t capability using her two 2+ attacks per combat round. Also, her 2+ re-rollable motivation check to counterattack means that she will fight until every enemy team is destroyed or she dies a glorious death.

2. Company (platoon) commander - assault monster:

This is a build similar to the first one but has slightly different advantages. First of all, in Tankovy Batalon lists it releases your HQ slot to be filled in with a different type of tank when necessary. Secondly, it boosts the morale of the platoon from 3+ to 2+ for the purposes of platoon morale checks. And finally, she is still the assault monster herself! :) This can be coupled with a unit of uparmoured T-34s that can be a real pain to get rid of. Downside is that if you want to use Tank Escorts, you need to upgrade the entire unit :(

3. Company (platoon) commander - anti-tank role:

With this build you let Mariya drive a T-34/57 tank and utilize her ability to move and shoot with full rof. This option however, is not possible in a Mixed Tankovy list. Such a pity....not :P

Ok, so this is it regarding the female tank hero Mariya Oktyabrskaya - I will be testing a Tankovy list with Mariya soon enough and will let you know what the outcome was! :)

Wargaming is a waste of time!! .... not

 

Recently I have been thinking whether wargaming is an entertainment productive/beneficial enough for me to spend any more time on it. These thoughts were connected with a new addition to the family which quickly encouraged me to re-assess my daily schedule. Due to my hyperactive nature, there was not so much idling involved in what I normally did throughout the day but new challenges related to the little guy meant that any leftover idle time had to go. I started with a reduction of time spent on reading the internet and/or playing computer games nearly to zero. But was there still some room for improvement? Immediately, I considered wargaming.

This hobby is a time sink, honestly. When you consider all the time you have to spend to figure out what you want to buy, find a good offer, take care of the shipment and then assemble, paint and play you end up with a pretty hefty time investment. What is the return on it then?

Well, here is my list of top 4 returns on investment associated with wargaming (I could go on and on but the article would be too long :P) :



IMPROVEMENT OF ENTERPRENEURIAL SKILLS

The hobby costs a lot. Period. With my geeky hoarder nature I will have a hard time parting with my minis to raise enough funds to get my next fix. This means that I have to be really careful with my spendings and only invest when a good offer pops up. Because of this, I have learned how to use e-bay apps, negotiate bulk purchases, use promotions to buy cheap stuff and sell it with a profit. All in all, the hobby made me a pretty hard bargainer :)

 

 

BOOST IN ANALYTICAL THINKING

Ever sat there in front of Easy Army or Forces of War for hours to get your best company composition? I suppose most people would think I am crazy. But reflecting on it I can see it as a mental exercise that is close to solving puzzles. You get your brain working hard to analyze all the possible options your guys can be up against in a game of Flames of War and find the right method of getting the upper hand.

An even bigger thing is the game itself. It teaches you to make the right decisions based on facts (terrain setup, enemy unit's positioning/stats) and assumptions (understanding of your opponent's strategy). It is like trying to get a very complicated process to produce a defined output: a sound win for your troops. It might sound silly, but I find wargaming a very good preparation for my work in an IT department (I am an IT Service Management specialist dealing mostly with process governance) because considering all the possible options and looking at issues from different angles is the core of conducting a battle of miniature soldiers as well as my job.



ENHANCEMENT OF WILLPOWER

Playing wargames for the last ~20 years has taught me one basic rule. Never give up. NEVER. It is a game of endless possibilities and dice. My job as a general is not to sit there and complain about how my dice were bad (although since I am a bit of a control freak I sometimes get a bit frustrated). In games that are not going according to plan my job is to find the winning option in a palette of options that is reduced each time a dice roll goes bad. At the end of the day, each loss teaches you more than a victory does. Focusing on what happened in the past obscures your vision of what is possible in the future. Forget about your mistakes. Concentrate on getting your next move right.

 



INCREASE IN SOCIAL SKILLS

Managing expectations around the game is a skill that I gained throughout the years and also extended it to some areas of my private life. What I understood is that the game is related to an unspoken, unwritten social contract. Every player that I sit down to play with approaches the table with some assumptions and expectations of how the game will be played. These expectations are based on years of experience with all kinds of games, starting with tic-tac-toe and ending with behemoths like Twilight Struggle. An example of such expectation might be: if I play in a tournament I will normally not advise my opponent how to move his troops so that he can counter my moves. Through wargaming I learned to adjust my style of play to meet at least some of these expectations and make the game better for everybody. In practice, this means that I avoid a win at all costs attitude since it never does anybody any good. Same goes for private life. A good lesson coming from wargaming.



These are only several aspects of wargaming that can be beneficial for one's private life or work. I think the big issue is that unlike for sports, there is no one responsible to spread this kind of knowledge around and make people aware that playing social games (including wargames) is in fact a very good mental and social exercise.

All in all, looking back at all these years I spent wargaming, I do not regret a minute I spent on it. I already know that I will try to involve my newborn son in all the good stuff that wargaming brings with it! :)

Achtung! Tentacles of War 2016 - tourney report

With the passing of this weekend, the Tentacles of War have come to pass - another tournament in the city of Łódź (actually taking place in a small city close to it called Zgierz) organized by the Octopus Club of Łódź.


Now a tradition the tourney was a Late War Double:
- Teams playing 2 companies of 1000 pts each - with 50 points that can be passed on to the fellow player.
- Companies can't be repeated, and any combination between Allies-Allies, Axis-Axis can be used.
- There is a catch however - the opponents can choose which company type you count (infantry, mechanized tank) as and if your special rules are not uniform if they work for the team.

For example - if you take a Canadian Rifle and Motor Coy, then you will always be an Infantry coy with the option to go with Night Attack. If you take Grey Wolf Pioneers and BaR SchwerePanzer - then the opponents can choose to count you as either infantry or tanks, both either as regular or always defend.
So it's usually best to pair the companies as 2*Always Attack, 2*Always Defend/Fortified - along the strategy that you take - not to be thrown off by the opponents choice.

I went with P. (another Polish-Rep player), and we took some time to consider our lists. Since a few years back we were reluctant to take attacking lists for the reason that with 3 hours for 2000pts, is not always enough time to resolve the game in your favor- when you're the attacker. And because back then, we had a number of games that finished just before we could win them, we were biased towards playing infantry.
BUT playing defensive is just not our thing :)

And so we were cracking different lists:
KG Westfallen with Marinegrenadiers with 88 Railway cars or Heavy Cat companies,
2* British with Breaching Group and Sexton spam,
US and British Recon or Armoured Car Companies
Tanks?? Russians - maybe, but we didn't have enough to go round - so back to the drawing board...

Then maybe mechanized again?
Something with a lot of firepower - so had o have minimum spending on unnecessary stuff - and then it came: we would play mechanized forces from Brittany - Task Force A and the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The drawback, was that one company would be an Always Attack one and the other a regular one, but we prepared to both attack and defend, and play fairly well in 50% forces case.

These are the lists we came up with:

First Battle Encounter against Reksio and Loucyphr

Tankovy and Gvardyjski Tankovy (?)
HQ Matilda
10 Matildas
10 Valentines
10 Lees
Spetsnaz

HQ T34/85
10 T34/85
10 T34/76

We deployed our TD's more or less evenly on the Table, our opponents placed the T34/85's hidden in the center, Matildas on the right and Valentines on the left.
Turn 1: Matildas move torward, we pop 1 TD ambush but only manage to burn 1 Matidla, and move the security sections to better positions.
Turn 2: T-34/85's redeploy for long range shots at the deployed Hellcat's, and are joined by more moving Matildas. Soviets burn 2 Hellcat's and bail one more, we pass the moral. Next turn we have a discussion with P. as I want to break the smaller Soviet Battalion, whereas P. wants to play more cautious.
Eventually we go with my plan - we pop 3 TD ambushes, and burn or bail all T/34's in LoS and kill the Battalion commander. But Lucyphr passes his 4+ moral check on the T34's - so there is a next turn (the turn after that we will destroy the bailed tanks in LoS - forcing another check he will pass - and with that the opportunity to quickly resolve the game is over).
In return fire we loose the rest of the first Hellcat platoon.
Throughout the game we will exchange mostly long range shots, with both sides taking casualties.
Eventually 2 withered TD platoons that deployed center, and engineers arriving from reserve (doubling on arrival to get into assault range next turn) and another TD platoon arriving from reserve will first break Matildas (on the 2nd check I think), and then in a 2 turn battle of maneuver fight through the Lee's (forcing a moral check and breaking them). Then the Specnaz that was located on the right flank (now completely alone - and facing 6 stands of Engineers and 4 Wolverines) tries to assault the Engineers, that were exposed in the open from last turn as they discharged their bazookas to kill as many Lee's as possible. The assault comes in, but the resolute Engineers fight back, and Spetsnaz moves back and is subsequently destroyed. One of the Soviet companies is broken (killed HQ Matilda, Matildas, Lees and Spets) - and the battle is over. At that moment our left flank was held by 1 105mm gun, a Hellcat and 2 armoured cars.




Second Battle Pincer versus "Młode Pelikany" Team

KG Westfallen
4 Panzerfaust Trap Teams
2 Platoons of Ersatz Grenadiers
3 RT 88's
Mortars
HMG's

2HQ King Tigers RT
King Tiger RT
King Tiger RT
3 Pak40s CV

The table had a moderate amount of terrain with a series of 4 forests in the center some wheat fields on the right and a number of small hills to the right and back (defender's deployment zone).

Objectives were placed back-center and front left. 2 platoons of SS grenadiers were deployed to guard the approaches to each. 88s were placed behind the infantry with LoS thru the center mostly blocked by the forrests, but fairly good to the flanks. PaK's in ambush. Warrior Tigers back to left and center right.

We deployed center mostly with a single TD platoon on the left flank. Then we spearheaded the Engineers in trucks towards the forests, together with the rest of TFA.
On the first turn we moved a single TFA TD platoon down the right flank to threaten one KT with possible deployment+rush and flank shots. Center we moved most of the recon M20s and Engineers disembarked into the forests. Some vehicles stayed on the left flank to spray the grenadiers with .5" cal fire.
In the center the artillery smoked grenadiers basically covering the whole advance from effective 88 fire.
With that done everything unloaded with .5" cal's on the 88's. None went down that turn.
Germans didn't deploy their ambushes and moved the KT on the right flank as expected. 88's remained silent to keep their gtg, instead of engaging the security sections on 5's.

Next turn we moved in yet more light vehicles into 16" of the 88's and lifted their gtg on the 3rd 4+ attempt. Then the combined fire from 3 security sections killed 2 88's.

German turn was mostly uneventful, with the ambush still being kept (it was the only platoon the Schwerepanzerkompanie had on the table). Tiger fire did burn yet another M20 - but no real losses were sustained.

Next turn we pushed further with a TFA TD platoon down the non-protected right flank, securing a small hamlet from ambush with 2 teams from the Recce platoon.
The combined .5" cal fire destroyed a number of grenadier teams, and the ARV closed in and destroyed the last of the 88's, leaving just the command team which passed the moral check.

Engineers assaulted the Grenadiers followed by 1 security section - the exchange resulted in some of the Germans in the center dyeing for 2 Engineers and 2 M20's. This left just 1 stand of Grenadiers, which meant that they didn't Enjoy the War next turn that much and went home. At that moment most of the center was mostly open held by just 1 KT, observer, 88 command team and an observer.
The German Reserves arrived: a KT and mortar platoon (on the previously designated left flank).88's command team passed it's sole survivor roll.
Tigers maneuvered and engaged some of the security sections at long range, but destroyed maybe 1 utility car.

We retaliated by popping 1 TD Ambush in the forests to mop-up the CiC and 2iC in the the center (and succeeded), and moved the rest of security sections for better ambush positions next turn. At this moment we were pretty much on top of the back-center objective.

At this moment the Germans popped the Pak40 ambush on the very far right, but shooting from an disadvantageous just bailed an M20. However 2 Panzerfaust Trap teams which deployed close to the popped TD's managed to score 2 hits, and destroy 2 Wolverines (ups!).

At this moment the time was running low (our original expectations - were well grounded), and we knew that we only had turn 5 to play - and to win we had to destroy the full grenadier platoon which would force a company morale check on the KG Westfallen that they would auto-fail.
That meant we deployed 4 remaining TD platoons and went to destroy the grenadiers.
We also went with 2 Hellcats to shoot at a flank of 1 KT, that we forced 2 HQ KT's to join in. If the KT would be destroyed then we could rout 3 KT's in 1 shot potentially - in the end I failed the FP roll, and it was just bailed...
Meanwhile the full fury of the Tank Destroyers and 2 subsequent assaults only managed to bring the Grens down to 3 stands. They promptly all passed their Enjoy the War rolls.

Because we have a special rule in place for tournaments that says that doesn't allow the defenders to win if less then 6 turns are played and the attacker contests either objective - the defenders could not hope to win - but could still cause us casualties. And that's what they went for. In the end it didn't make much difference, and we finished the game with turn 5 as a draw.




Third Battle Cauldron versus "MiLord" and "Majster"

US 3rd Aroured Tank Coy RV
HQ Jumbo,
Sherman Platoon
Super Pershing
Recon Platoon
2 Sherman Crocodiles

1st Polish Armored Division Tank Coy FT
HQ 2 Shermans
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 AA crusaders

It was over really quick. We deployed 2 TFA TD platoons and 2 regular TD platoons (1 of them in intimidate ambush), spreading out across our deployment zone, as much as possible to limit enemy deployment. MiLord deployed his Recon dismounted and the Super Pershing in a possition which would limit our ability to flank it. However "Majster" didn't have much luck in his deployment rolls and deployed AA and 1 Platoon of Shermans in our close right corner - basically in a shooting gallery. His command tanks he hid in a forest on another flank.
We spearheaded towards the forest where the Polish HQ was and popped TFA TD's close by. On the other flank we popped 2 TD platoons - one on close and one on long range. In the end we saw the Polish Sherman HQ, Sherman Platoon, and AA crusaders burning (actually 1 AA was left bailed out, but it fled. With no models on the table out of the Polish Tank Coy, there was not even an attackers first turn...

In the end 2 victories and a draw, gave us the second place - after Kuba "Kubbek" Charmo and Oskar "Hajmon" Kida, who had the same battle results, but more small victory points.


I went home satisfied with how we fared. Doubles is an interesting aspect of Flames of War, all the more since there is only just 1 such tournament a year :)