Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Frozen Garage Battle

Had a game with Riha (also known in internet land as The Mathamagician) the other night.  Hasty Attack at 1780.  I ran the same list as in my previous post: 1. Fallschirmjäger from Cassino.  Riha used 101st Airborne from the Nuts! book, complete with all the crazyness.  He had two full airborne platoons with attatched HMGs, two M18 Hellcat platoons, a recon patrol and a two-gun medium mortar platoon.  We used the new experimental TD rules.  Think we got in about 10 turns, maybe more as both of our forces were decidedly roughed up by the end and niether of us could really gather the numbers to finish the other off desicively.  As we were banished to the unheated garage you may be able to see the icicles hanging from our eyebrows.  Additionally this game ran a bit long into the next morning, didn't get done until after midnight!  The game was finally decided by Rock-Paper-Scissors- do my last two StuGs assault his last three Airborne guys in buildings or do they jump out and assault me?  He lost and charged in, missing all his attacks.  We then rolled nothing but twos to swing back for three rounds before he finally bailed a StuG and his friend ran away.  4-3 Win for Riha!
Here we are about two hours in.  His first Airborne platoon has already been wiped out in an assault on the far left objective.  His second is moving to try again.  He's also lost one TD platoon to fire from StuGs and bunkers, but not before recon and both TDs eliminated my Marders before they could even hit anything.  Mortars hiding in the back.
Myforest objective guarded by the weapons platoon and the remnants of the small FJ after pushing back the first assault by the  Airborne.  
Town objective defended by large FJ and StuGs.  Burning Marders in the field...

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Sunday Night Encounter


Played a game of Encounter sunday night against my friend Reno, 1780 points.  His list was:
Soviet Legkiy Samokhodno-artillyeriyskiy Polk (Light Self propelled artillery regiment) from Red Bear
HQ- Su-76 with tanko
5x Su-76 with tankos
5x Su-76 with tankos
4x Su-122 with tankos
4x Su-122 with tankos
5x IS-2 with tankos
Foot scout platoon (9 stands)

My list was: 
1. Fallschirmjägerkompanie from Cassino
HQ- 2 SMG with Knackers
Full FJ platoon with 3 Panzershrecks and a HMG attatched (14 stands)
Short FJ platoon with a HMG attatched
LG40 recoiless rifle platoon with 3 Stummelwerfer mortars attatched
FJ tank hunter platoon with 4 Marder IIs
Heer assault gun platoon with 4 Stug IVs
Heer Nebelwerfer battery
Fortifications- Panzer II turret, 2 2cm flak nests, HMG nest, 3 trenches and 2 barbed wire

The board:

Reno decided to take the side with the small town and deployed one Su-76 platoon, one Su-122 platoon, and the IS-2s.  Bulk of his army deploys in the town, Su-122s deploy to cover the other objective.

I started with both FJ platoons and the Marders on the board.  Big FJ platoon, a HMG nest and a Flak nest on one objective, Small FJ,  the Marders, the Panzer II turret and second flak nest on the other.

Turn One- Reno goes first.  IS-2s and Su-76 platoon rolls forward, one 76 bogs!  Su-122s move up to the woods.

Big FJ platoon moves for the tree line, HMG stays to keep an eye on the objective.  Really shouldn't have placed that wire there...  Small FJ aggressively moves out of their trenches through the plowed fields, also leaving their HMG behind.  Marder IIs (ignore the proxy Marder IIIs) sneak up behind the big hill.  Neb observer moves to somewhere he might later be useful.  

Turn Two-  Reno continues his advance.  IS-2s cruise forward and nuke the flak nest!  First kill goes to Reno.  Su-76 unbogs and they move forward also.  Su-122s hug the trees.

My turn two, Big FJ and company commander get (mostly) into the trees, small FJ gets (mostly) into the crops, Marders advance along the hill and sneak some concealed shots at one of the 122s, scoring a bail and a kill!  Observer digs in.

Turn Three- Reno gets a reserve platoon on his first try and chooses the second 122 platoon.  Random deployment lets him choose, he reinforces the weak objective.  Su-76s move back from the FJ threat.  IS-2s move up and kill one of the shrek teams in the woods.  Su-122s remount and move up to assault the small FJ platoon, killing 3 stands!  The FJs fight back but the Su's save, but fail the motivation to counter and must fall back.

No reserves for me this turn, small FJ fail to unpin but dig in, big FJ can't dig in, Marders miss thier shots on the 122s...  Not looking good!

Turn Four- Reno keeps it up.  Both of his other reserve platoons arrive.  Scouts come in from the town, Su-76 platoon comes in to back up the Su-122s.  IS-2s kill another shrek team, (I really shouldn't have put them on the front edge) The Su-122s finish off the 2iC and small FJ platoon except for the lone HMG team hiding by, er, guarding the objective.  2+ morale FTW!  But things quickly get weird...

Reno assaults the big FJ platoon now that he's killed two of their three shrek teams.  Good plan right?
Here they come!
Lucky shrek kills one in defensive fire!
Tanks and their tankos miss all of their swings.  FJ come back and the shrek kills the platoon commander too!  The three remaining IS-2s fall back, FJ consolidate back towards the objective.  Stupid barbed wire is still in the way...
Things are starting to turn my way a bit.  Reserves finally!  StuG IVs come in just where they need to, reinforcing the now weakly defended objective.  They fire at the Su-122s, hitting all three BUT they all roll 6's and bounce the shots...  Marders continue to miss everything they shoot at.  FJ move behind the hill (and arond the stupid wire) hiding from the IS-2s who have no commander.

Turn Five- Reno gets his scouts and Su-76s in the town moving back towards the FJs, now that the main thrust has stalled.  Full Su-122s move up to support the small group.  He runs his company commander over to promote for the IS-2s a new leader.  They then try to kill the HMG nest but fail.  The Su-122s in the field shoot back at the Marders (who failed to Stormtrooper the turn before) but miss.  Su-76s also miss the Marders.

My remaining reserves decide to arrive.  Both come in anywhere i want and I bring both on up the middle.  The weapons platoon moves up towards the trench line.  FJ platoon digs in behind the hill.  The StuGs fire on the three Su-122s in the field, bailing one and killing one.  The survivor runs away!  First platoon kill goes to me.  The Marders then fire on the Su-76s at full ROF, hitting all five!  Three explode, two are bailed, but they stay on the board.

Turn Six- Reno begins to feel the pressure.  Both bailed 76s get back in and hide behind the woods.  The remaining 122 platoon moves to shoot at the StuGs but miss.  His Scouts and Su-76s both come right at the FJ platoon's flank, but the 76 shots miss as well.  The IS-2s charge back to assault range, bringing their company commander.  The Su-76s charge in to assault, and rifle fire drives the open-top vehicles back, but not before the shrek team kills one.  IS-2s try next.  The brave shrek team kills another IS-2 in defensive fire but the tanks come through, killing two teams.  FJs counter attack, the shrek bails yet another IS-2!  The last IS-2 and the CO keep up the assault, killing two more teams, but the FJ's won't give up.  The shrek team kills the CO, who transfers to the last IS-2, retreating.  Another platoon for me and a new Iron Cross for the shrek crew!  FJs consolidate further back towards the objective.

My FJs dig in again now that they are in a better position to cover the objective.  The StuGs make a river crossing at the ford to try and support the FJs.  The weapons platoon take up position in the trenches.  Marders keep along the hill to put pressure on the 122s.  The Nebs fire on the back end of the Scout platoon behind the small woods, killing none, but pinning them.

Turn Seven- Reno's Scouts stay pinned.  The Su-122s move to fire on the Marders but miss.  The two Su-76s that were hiding try to move through the woods to fire on the Marders but one bogs while the other misses.  The Su-76s stay and Volley Fire at the FJs but miss all of the shots.  The CO in his borrowed IS-2 moves behind the FJs but misses MG shots.  CO gets crazy and assaults but misses.  The FJs panzerknackers finish him off.

On my turn the StuGs move towards the town objective at full pace, firing at some Scouts but missing.  The Marders stay put and divide their fire at both the Su-76 in the woods and the Su-122s, killing the 76 and 3 122s.  Both make morale checks to remain on the board.  Nebs fire on the Scouts again, hitting 5, but killing none.  

Turn Eight- Reno's single Su-76 in the woods remounts and moves through the woods to fire on the Marders, bailing one.  The final Su-122 also fires on the Marders hitting one and killing it.  The Su-76s on the FJ side makes a final desperate assault but fails, as the heroic shrek team kills one in defensive fire and the assault stalls.  

The StuGs move within range to capture the objective and MG the Scout platoon, killing three.  The Nebelwerfers fire on the Scouts as well, killing three more.  The Marders fire on the last Su-122 killing it.  The Scouts run, leaving only the two Su-76 platoons on the board with no CO.  The Soviets break at the beginning of their turn.  6-1 to me, but it wasn't over until the very end.  The first few rounds looked pretty bad for me.  After the game Reno admitted he should have been a bit more aggressive on the objective and supported the IS-2s early.