Once I finished the balka, I decided to go ahead and play the scenario. I had a great time with the scenario. The Germans are defending a balka and the Soviets are entering from the bottom.
The bottom of the picture shows the German part of the table with the jump off points after the patrol phase and the entrenchments that the Germans picked as support. The top part of the picture is the Soviet entry area. I added a few trees to give some character to an otherwise open table.
The Soviets had the higher force morale and went first. They brought on a squad into the trees. And managed to roll three sixes which ended the turn immediately. This neutralized the effect off the barrage that the Soviets had as support.
The Germans have a double move and deploy a squad to the entrenchments. The squad immediately opens fire on the Soviets in the trees. This squad would take so much punishment over the course of the game. They took seven killed and nine shock. They would deploy a senior leader to attempt to keep them functional. The squad became pinned multiple times.
The next unit deployed was a Matilda II by the Soviets. The Matilda II took one shot at the German squad in the entrenchments and missed. The Germans moved a squad into the trees at the top of the hill overlooking the Soviets. There they also opened fire on the beleaguered Soviet Squad.
this would be the only German squad to take any casualties. They would take one shock and one kill. The Russians then deployed two additional squads to attempt to put pressure on the Germans. Both of those squads ended up taking casualties. The first took two killed and the second five killed and one shock.
Then the Soviets moved their Matilda II forward. It sprinted forward and managed to bypass the German minefield. This caused some consternation for the Germans that had no anti-tank weapons at all. The German MG team from the first squad that was deployed fired repeatedly on the tank. They Germans deployed their last squad in the balka and also fired on the tank. Every time the tank with seven armor saved. On its next activation, it dashed off the table winning the scenario for the Soviets.
The Germans lost but gave the Soviets a serious kick in the teeth. I have worked on the next scenario and have the table set up. But I am lacking fences. I need a few more feet of the stuff. I did order some from Blotz so when that comes in, I will have another 46" of fences. That will work out well.
Seem like a couple typoes in the AAR. For the top picture, persumably the Soviets were entering from the top, not the bottom since that was the German edge with trenches, etc. Also, I expect the Matilda II was deployed by the Soviets not the Germans.
ReplyDeleteDid the Matilda II use it's coax MG or the main gun against the Germans. Even if you allow the 2 lber to have HE (which it probably shouldn't), the MG with 6 dice might well be more effective. As far as firing at the tank with infantry, I suspect you might have done better to have fired on Soviet infantry in order to get their force morale to drop than firing at the Matilda with armour 7.
Thanks for the report and I'm looking forward to trying the campaign.
Chris
You are correct. The Matilda did use its MG as the tank's HE in the rules is terrible. I fired at the tank as once my son realized he could win by driving it off the table, he raced it forward. Since the troops couldn't even scratch its paint, he won. His force morale roles were pretty lucky and even though his infantry was chewed up, it didn't drop significantly.
DeleteI look forward to seeing your AARs on it.
I'll try to fix the typos.
Some typoes/erros in the campagin booklet as well. All PzIVs were armed with the 75mm/L24 gun through F1 model and then with the 75mm L43 (F2/G) and finally the 75mm/L48 (H-J). As far as I know none were armed with with 50mm/L60. That was only used on late PzIIIJ-M AFAIK.
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