Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Endgame.... or maybe not....

As I position myself to clear out the remaining nests of resistance, a rumble from the North edge turns into a Soviet counter-attack Event ! With trepidation I roll the forces that are activated (some ? markers wind up being nothing or advancing without activing). A T-26 and some truck borne infantry emerge from the North, bearing down upon my re-organizing forces.

The intitiative cards favor me, however, and my tanks, MTR and MGs make short work of the T-26 and the trucks. Thankfully only the T-26 AFV (and not a T-34) was activated and not further East where they could've added to my woes to clear the board or further west where they could overrun my mortar. The end result :the Soviet counter-attack had blundered into a trap !

The Soviet Counter-attack stopped cold !
Since the counter-attack occured, I had gained an extra 30 minutes to win the scenario, so I had about 35 minutes to clear the last of the board. No problem..... right ?

Not so fast. As I move into Farm (E) with my Pz III covering from the south and the Pz IV covering from the North, they activate a dreaded T-34 M40 in the  woods (G). My attack toward the farm is stopped cold until I can deal with the monster.

The T-34 is in the upper right corner while the Infantry and 251/1 scramble for cover.

My tanks move to engage but the T-34 is in an defilade position- we have no shot. Thankfully, neither does he as the infantry and APC scramble to make themselves "non-visible" as possible.

The T-34 takes the bull by the horns and breaks the deadlock by backing out to the road. Luck favors the Soviets this time and he passes his radioless check, moves back and gets his shot off at the Pz IV before he can respond (damn initiative cards !). The shot pierces the hull, immobilizing and stunning it. Thankfully, the crew pass their "oh crap !" MC and don't bail. Now if they can only rally....

While the T-34's attention is drawn to the Pz IV, the Pz III manages to slip around the flank, and due to initiative cards (the Soviet got 2 in a row, now the Germans did as well and I didn't pull the "Re-Mix" card) slammed a round into the T-34 turret side. The tank is immobilized and the crew panics and bails.

Endgame 12:37 PM

With that last flurry of action, the Soviet resistance breaks, and since I've activated all the ? markers and only the soviet 76.2mm Infantry gun in the far corner is still active with over 25 minutes left for me to win the scenario, I declare victory (I've got a feeling that the gun crew would high-tail it out of there).

My men and I scramble over the abandoned T-34 to get a better look at this beast....

The end result is a victory in a little over 37 minutes.

My casualties are:
1 Infantyman
251/1 APC (and 2 crew)
Pz IIF (and 3 crew).
1 Immobilized Pz IVE (which should be repaired before the next scenario).
My leader gains 8 elan points (need 2 more to get promoted to 8-1 !)

Enemy casualties are much heavier:
51 infantry (including: ATR, LMG, HMG, 82 MTR, 2 x 45 AT, 76.2mm IG)
3 Trucks
2 BT-7 (1 chased off, the other destroyed)
1 BA-6
2 T-34 M40 (1 destroyed, 1 abandoned)

All in all, a fun game (it took longer to play out than it normally would because of the picture taking, notes etc). The events made it unpredictable to be sure. The counter-attack was unexpected and mercifully short-lived ! My little Kampfgruppe advances to the next scenario.

Advance East ! Its always East......

No comments: