My 1,500 list consisted of a PIV HQ, two platoons of three PIV H, a GpPzGrenadier platoon, Quad 2cm AA, and a King Tiger.
The matches between Jeff and I are usually throw down slugging matches, and last night was no exception.
The Udarny exploited the gap created by ousting my Sturmkompanie from their hastilly setup defenses, and only a blocking force of Panzers could be mobilized to attempt to halt what could become a major breakthrough.
I assembled a force of Panzer IV H's backed up by Panzergrenadiers and a lone King Tiger and it's attendant Quad AA's.
The mission started smoothly with my Panzergrenadiers and PIV H HQ advancing towards the objectives, while the first turn had my King Tiger show up from reserves. First successful reserve roll I've had in ages, and it was a doozy! Jeff's massive heavy armor, meanwhile, pushed into the dead center of the table with his entire force.
Perhaps emboldened by this show of agression Jeff's air support decided to show up early - and proceed to cause nothing by showy fireworks without actually hurting anything.
On the next turn I had another amazing round of reserves - this time the first platoon of PIV H's joined the fray, hastilly advancing off to the right flank. My grenadiers advanced onto an objective and successfully dug themselves what ended up being their own graves a few turns later. The King Tiger laser-beamed the tail end charlie IS-2 while the PIV H's only managed to kill two exposed infantry stands while pinning the platoon.
On Jeffs turn he rolled to rally his pinned down supporting infantry. Fail. Battalion re-roll. Fail. Commissar re-roll. Fail. The 'Fearless' troops had had quite enough of Comrade Yvanski and decided to bury their heads a bit deeper this turn instead of advancing into the German defenses. A few long range shots from the IS-2's that continued the advance failed to not only dislodge the dug in grenadiers but pin them as well. The only bright spot of the turn for Jeff was watching my very own air support dice betray me and have three of the flying tanks show up. Ironically enough, the only thing killed by the air support was both of the Quad 2cm Anti Aircraft. The survivors will be shot.
The next turn saw the kettle finally starting to boil over. My flanking force of 3 PIV H's continued their advance around the rear of Jeffs IS-2's and proceeded to put three long range shots onto his Battalion command - bailing him! Meanwhile my King Tiger moved to the edge of the woods and got yet another hapless Russian Tanko in his sights - only to completely duff his firepower roll. Ding!
Meanwhile, Jeff had the audacity to not only fail to get his battalion commander in, but advance and assault my dug in grenadiers! The IS-2's came rumbling up, survived my sole panzerfaust shot, and proceeded to grind two stands into a fine paste. My grenadiers happened to really like those two fellas, so got out of the trenches and tried to show those Commie bastards what-for! So, the panzerfaust - in his excitement - completely missed and Jeff saved both of the other hits on his top armor. So much for vengeance.
However, apparently my germans were screaming really loudly, or perhaps not wearing any pants because Jeff failed his counterattack roll. Yay! Vengeance! Bolstered perhaps by the failure of the IS-2's to grind out my germans Jeff's Infantry charged into the remaining grenadiers who were too busy celebrating their (short-lived) victory over the communist dogs that they failed to score a single hit in defensive fire. This would prove costly as Jeff butchered two more stands and forcing me to fall back out of my position down to only three stands, while only killing one stand in retaliation. The one stand must have been a company favorite, though, because the remaining infantry decided that they had in fact had enough of this mess and retreated off of the table.
Despite losing a company, and failing to completely remove my panzergrenadiers, Jeff was in position solidly ontop of the objective. I had to get in and contest it this turn or lose the game.
My panzergrenadiers failed to unpin, but my delayed PIV reserves finally made it onto the board - racing to get rear shots on Jeffs bailed out Battalion command. The other PIV platoon was down to one effective, due to having a thrown track on one tank, and the other being a smoking wreck. I advanced and tried to put as many shots on the hapless commander - but failed to run him off the table or turn him into a wreck. Drats! The King Tiger saw itself getting within contest range of the objective and completely missing a (very) close range shot at an IS-2, but buying me yet one more turn...
The Udarny exploited the gap created by ousting my Sturmkompanie from their hastilly setup defenses, and only a blocking force of Panzers could be mobilized to attempt to halt what could become a major breakthrough.
I assembled a force of Panzer IV H's backed up by Panzergrenadiers and a lone King Tiger and it's attendant Quad AA's.
The mission started smoothly with my Panzergrenadiers and PIV H HQ advancing towards the objectives, while the first turn had my King Tiger show up from reserves. First successful reserve roll I've had in ages, and it was a doozy! Jeff's massive heavy armor, meanwhile, pushed into the dead center of the table with his entire force.
Perhaps emboldened by this show of agression Jeff's air support decided to show up early - and proceed to cause nothing by showy fireworks without actually hurting anything.
On the next turn I had another amazing round of reserves - this time the first platoon of PIV H's joined the fray, hastilly advancing off to the right flank. My grenadiers advanced onto an objective and successfully dug themselves what ended up being their own graves a few turns later. The King Tiger laser-beamed the tail end charlie IS-2 while the PIV H's only managed to kill two exposed infantry stands while pinning the platoon.
On Jeffs turn he rolled to rally his pinned down supporting infantry. Fail. Battalion re-roll. Fail. Commissar re-roll. Fail. The 'Fearless' troops had had quite enough of Comrade Yvanski and decided to bury their heads a bit deeper this turn instead of advancing into the German defenses. A few long range shots from the IS-2's that continued the advance failed to not only dislodge the dug in grenadiers but pin them as well. The only bright spot of the turn for Jeff was watching my very own air support dice betray me and have three of the flying tanks show up. Ironically enough, the only thing killed by the air support was both of the Quad 2cm Anti Aircraft. The survivors will be shot.
The next turn saw the kettle finally starting to boil over. My flanking force of 3 PIV H's continued their advance around the rear of Jeffs IS-2's and proceeded to put three long range shots onto his Battalion command - bailing him! Meanwhile my King Tiger moved to the edge of the woods and got yet another hapless Russian Tanko in his sights - only to completely duff his firepower roll. Ding!
Meanwhile, Jeff had the audacity to not only fail to get his battalion commander in, but advance and assault my dug in grenadiers! The IS-2's came rumbling up, survived my sole panzerfaust shot, and proceeded to grind two stands into a fine paste. My grenadiers happened to really like those two fellas, so got out of the trenches and tried to show those Commie bastards what-for! So, the panzerfaust - in his excitement - completely missed and Jeff saved both of the other hits on his top armor. So much for vengeance.
However, apparently my germans were screaming really loudly, or perhaps not wearing any pants because Jeff failed his counterattack roll. Yay! Vengeance! Bolstered perhaps by the failure of the IS-2's to grind out my germans Jeff's Infantry charged into the remaining grenadiers who were too busy celebrating their (short-lived) victory over the communist dogs that they failed to score a single hit in defensive fire. This would prove costly as Jeff butchered two more stands and forcing me to fall back out of my position down to only three stands, while only killing one stand in retaliation. The one stand must have been a company favorite, though, because the remaining infantry decided that they had in fact had enough of this mess and retreated off of the table.
Despite losing a company, and failing to completely remove my panzergrenadiers, Jeff was in position solidly ontop of the objective. I had to get in and contest it this turn or lose the game.
My panzergrenadiers failed to unpin, but my delayed PIV reserves finally made it onto the board - racing to get rear shots on Jeffs bailed out Battalion command. The other PIV platoon was down to one effective, due to having a thrown track on one tank, and the other being a smoking wreck. I advanced and tried to put as many shots on the hapless commander - but failed to run him off the table or turn him into a wreck. Drats! The King Tiger saw itself getting within contest range of the objective and completely missing a (very) close range shot at an IS-2, but buying me yet one more turn...
Read on for more of the action and some glorious pictures!
Jeff's turn saw his Battalion command hop in his tank, take a short-range shot at my weakened PIV platoon - and miss. His IS-2's on the objective shot at my Company Command - and missed. Two IS-2's flanked around the sides of my King Tiger - and scored one hit! I failed my save and it all came down to this...a single firepower 2 roll. Jeff rolls the dice...and...and...and...THE KING LIVES! I was never so glad to see a "1" rolled. Whew! Between my pinned down grenadiers, and the sole King Tiger - if Jeff had destroyed him then I had nothing in range to contest the objective on his next turn, so I dodged a really big bullet there.
What ended up being the last turn of the game saw my lowly PIV H's put three shots onto the Battalion Command, watching Jeff fail three saves, and watching me pass three firepower checks. Victory to the little guys! I don't care who you are, Panzer IV H's are absolutely worth every point. Who cares that I can only bail an IS-2 from the front at short range. Pfft! My King failed to hit anything, but my Company Command killed the last of a platoon of IS-2's, forcing Jeff to take a Battalion Morale check, and because he no longer had a living Command team he decided to forfeit the field to the Germans on this day.
The hastily assembled blocking force of panzers successfully closed the penetration, thus allowing the Totenkopf Division to marshal it's Panthers for a counter attack next week!
This game was unusual in that Jeff's dice betrayed him. I don't attribute the win to anything I did really, but on Jeffs amazing ability to not only hit anything, but fail all the morale he was forced to take, and fail the firepower rolls for the few hits he *did* score - and the game still came down to the wire with a huge furball right on the objective.
Good game Jeff, here is to next weeks game! Nice little mini-campaign we're running too, it's been a blast so far!
Thanks for reading!
Great pics and report man!
ReplyDeleteThat was a great report!
ReplyDeleteAs I am just now getting into Flames of War myself (after repeated past attempts), these battle reports are a lot of fun.
Considering that I have selected the Germans as my starting force, I was happy to see the Soviets put to flight!