Brief report - MW 1500 Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers vs Rota Razvedki

SoSpill vs Xelee - 1st V3 game


Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers - Eastern Front

HQ - CiC + 2iC knacker SMG 2x251/1c                                          80
Gepanzerte panzergrenadier platoon with knacker and 4 251/1c        235
Gepanzerte panzergrenadier platoon with knacker and 4 251/1c        235
3 Pak 40                                                                                       220
2 Stug f/8                                                                                      340
3 Nebelwerfers                                                                               115
2 3.7cm AA halftracks with armour upgrades                                   125
Limited Stuka G                                                                            135
                                                                                                   

Rota Radzveki - Eastern Front

HQ - CiC + 2iC + komissar + 3 DShK AA MG on truck                 95
9 team rota platoon with 5 captured 251                                       205
7 team rota platoon with 4 captured 251                                       160
7 T-34/76 + 3 T-34/56                                                                 635
4 SU-122                                                                                    245
Sporadic Shturmovik                                                                    145

Hold the line - Panzergrenadiers attacking. Defenders have two platoons on the board - both in ambush!

 

Turn 1 setup. We played the creek as bogging but the fords cross country terrain for a quicker game. The infantry were placed out of their tracks after the photo. Pak 40s on a skill check hill. Nebelwerfers at the back with 3.7cm AA watching out for Shturmoviks. The other panzergrenadier platoon was placed in their halftracks at the top of the photo. They were on the road just to the left of the photo below.

 

 

 Turn 1 - The half tracks move up onto the ford. The Paks all make their skill checks and move to the edge of the cliff overlooking the objective. The stugs and infantry move forward to the ford. The only shooting in the german turn was firing smoke at the 2iC as everything else was in ambush.  

The ambushes - 7 T-34/76s shoot at the Pak 40s and 3 T-34/57s Stugs. 2 Pak 40s destroyed. 1 Stug destroyed and 1 bailed but morale save made. 

 

The large Rota platoon ambushes. The flame thrower shoots hoping to vaporise the panzergrenadier platoon. 

1, 2, 2, 6. 1 halftrack destroyed, 1 infantry team destroyed.*

Turn 2 - German counterattack. No more photos. 

Shoot and assault the rota platoon. Brought below half strength and failed motivation. No losses to the panzergrenadier platoon!

The panzergrenadier platoon assaults the 2iC. 

The T-34 platoons fared somewhat better. 1 stug, 1 pak 40, 1 neb barrage and potentially 3 planes with 6 tanks under a template. End result - 3 bailed tanks. 0 destroyed. The planes were all shot down.

Turn 2 - Russians. Destroyed the stug. Pak 40 survived as the tanks moved to cover both objectives and shot up the panzergrenadier platoons near the forward objective. 2 teams lost.

Turn 3 - Panzergrenadiers drive down road, shoot and destroy the 3 AA DShKtrucks. and stormtrooper out to contest the rear objective. The Pak 40 destroys a T-34. The nebs also get a T-34. Air arrives but is intercepted.

Turns 3 - Russians - No reserves. T 34 platoon has to contest both objectives. T-34/57s shoot and destroy the Pak 40. T-34/76s shoot and assault the panzergrenadiers on the rear objective. Two teams destroyed and the panzergrenadiers break off. 1 T-34 gets stuck in a building where it remains for the rest of the game.

Turns 4-7 The T-34s get whittled down by nebs, air and infantry assaults under smoked cover. The panzergrenadier platoon contesting the rear objective gets wiped out by the rota platoon reserve on turn 5. However, the T-34s now reduced to 2 tanks are contesting the forward objective. The panzergrenadiers assault them and destroy them. The only rota halftrack near enough to contest was bailed by an airstrike and didn't remount*. The rota didn't manage to destroy the panzergrenadiers with shooting so it was a 4-3 victory to the germans.

*While writing this I noticed the same mistake was made twice. When a transport team is bailed or destroyed in the shooting step, the platoon must make an immediate morale save or the transports are sent to the rear. If the panzergrenadiers had failed their save they could have jumped out of the halftracks and moved back 4 inches. This would have given them 11 dice defensive fire as opposed to 12 with the halftracks (using the AA MGs as well). The second instance of this occuring was more important as the rota may have been able to bring the halftrack foward close enough to move and contest the objective. They may not have been able to however as there were teams overwatching the rota so the 16" limit to bringing transports forward may have applied. Xelee might have the relevant photo.

Overall this was a very enjoyable game. The list choices were affected by the transport, air and AA rules. AA seems to be almost essential and 3.7cm armoured AA is great (3 shturmoviks arrived once but were all shot down).

Dystopian Wars : FSA renegade stealth fleet vs loyalists - SoSPill vs Xelee

Captain Herodius McMillan surveyed his fleet with pride. The crews had spend the last week removing every vestige of colour from their ships. All ships were jet black except for the cruisers that had been captured overnight in a surprise attack. Following the replacement of the senior officers and key NCOs the 3 cruisers were combat ready. 

The flagship Invincibility's recon flyers had spotted the South Pacific Fleet at dawn. With the captured cruisers reinforcing his fleet Captain McMillan felt confident he could remove the immediate threat to the rebellion allowing it time to subvert more forces.

Captain McMillan's Renegage Black-Stealth-Fleet-of-Gunnery-Doom (680pts):

170 - Battleship Invincibility

180 - Lexington Cruisers x 3 (stealth cruisers)

180 - Lexington Cruisers x 3 (captured cruisers)

75 - Augusta Frigates x 3 (stealth frigates 1)

75 - Augusta Frigates x 3 (stealth frigates 2)

Ten tiny flyer tokens

Captain Barrington Secundum's South Pacific Fleet (690pts):

170 - Battleship Inglorious

220 - A-17 Bombers x 4

100 - Augusta Frigates x 4

100 - Augusta Frigates x 4

100 - Augusta Frigates x 4

Ten tiny flyer tokens

Stealth cruisers take a hit

Captain McMillan ordered his stealth cruisers forward but had little to shoot at except some frigates. One enemy frigate sustained minor damage. The Inglorious moved in front of the frigates to protect them and its main guns got 5 hits on a stealth cruiser. Shrapnel from the hits killed Lieutenant Yuslis who was in charge of the shield generator. He had been busy berating the crew for not polishing the knobs to a mirror shine. Warrant Officer Orsum took command of the generator and quickly got the crew prepared for further attacks.

Captain Secundum ordered his A-17s to engage the stealth cruisers. Poor formation flying blocked one bombers attack run. Exceptional work by WO Orsum's shield crew meant the torpedoes that were on target had no effect.

The stealth cruisers moved into medium range and fired a combined salvo against the Inglorious. Captain Secundus was chortling quietly to himself as he saw the cruisers approaching, already thinking about the carnage his heavy guns would reap as they rotated towards the smaller ships. He wasn't worried when the cruisers got off the first rounds confident in his armour and shields...

Heavy shells began crashing down onto the deck. Two shells penetrated the deck armour. One cut through the ship hitting the reactor core. Inglorious disappeared in a blinding Sturginium flare.

Determined to have their revenge the remaining South Pacfic fleet ships fired everything they had at the stealth cruisers.

Frigates inflict minor damage

Short range torpedo attack against damaged cruisers

Remnants of small flyer torpedo attack force visible, AA destroyed 3 of the 4 flyers.

 

Three short range torpedo salvos were fired at the cruisers. The first salvo missed its target, the second scored 5 hits but one was deflected by the shields causing no damage. The third salvo scored 8 hits. Orsum's shield crew were in excellent form by now and deflected 5 of the hits preventing any further damage to their critically damaged ship.

Having used most of their firepower ineffectively against 3 seemingly unsinkable cruisers the South Pacific fleet suffered the combined return fire of Invincibilty, 6 cruisers and 5 frigates. This gutted the South Pacific centre and the remaining ships fled.

Losses (not counting small flyers)

South Pacific Fleet

Battleship Inglorious

A-17 Bombers x 4

Augusta Frigates x 7

Stealth Fleet of Doom

Augusta Frigate x 1

Captain McMillan was satisified with the results of the battle. He made a note in his log. Big guns and shields = win. Bombers and rockets = fail.

Tankovy after 1st turn in Roadblock

Final Conquest List

Does anyone have 8 spare marders?

Reichsgrenadiers 1750 HQ 25 Grens 120 Grens 120 Pioneers 170 Pioneers 170 Marders x 4 265 Nebs with Pak 40 160 Marders x 4 210 Pak 40s x 3 120 Forts Panther turret 180 Pak 40 nest 45 Pak 40 nest 45 HMG pillbox 80 HMG nest 40

If I wasn't taking a Strelkovy to Conquest, I'd take this instead.

Striped King Tiger supports Pioniers

Well done on a great Total War game on Saturday. I called in for an hour and was impressed how balanced it was. One of the important lessons was infantry need smoke. Along that theme I've made a veteran infantry horde list with two smoke templates and heavy support. It's not the most balanced list but should be fun to play. It's based off a list I saw a while ago on the forums (?Mike McMann's list).

Edit:

To get 8 Platoons - drop the HMGs and take a short pioneer platoon. Add in armoured 3.7cm AA. Can then KG to 8 platoons and have KT, Brummbars, Pioniers + mortars and Fallshirmjager on the board.

Witches' Cauldron - Deployment.



 Optimal deployment for Witches' Cauldron?


Following my comments on Jamie's blog I've added a picture of what I think is a good deployment strategy for the defender in Witches' cauldron. Jamie and I have played this mission twice but each time the defender has lost quickly before reserves arrived. Both times the defender got swamped by a strelk blob.

In the above game Jamie deployed pioniers, stugs and grenadiers in the big forest and had Pak 40s in immediate ambush. Not having thought about the mission much, neither of us had considered the best deployment strategy for the defender. By putting his units inside the forest it allowed the attacker to deploy near the objectives.

Keep the attacker back by deploying on the edge of your deployment zone.