NZ Masters Day 2

Breakthrough vs Rob Torrence. My hope- flanks shots on KVs for a point before getting BBQed by the flame tanks.

Soviet Heavy Assault Gun Regiment

1x IS-2

4x ISU-122 with 1x 50. cal AA

SU 122 + V.S. Rat

4x ISU-122 with 1x 50. cal AA MG

4x KV-1s

5x KV-8s- flame tanks (CT)

Turn 1- I do my fort knox defence, hoping the combo of panthers and pak 40s will tempt Rob not to drive straight over then- not sure if its agod idea as there are plenty of LoS blocking woods etc to limit my flank shots. 

 Here they come!

 The ISU 122ss reach my pickets on turn 1. The infantry stand offered to surrender but was crushed in the assault.

 

 However 2 ISUs bog- I consider assaulting but decide its a bad idea. 

 However, in my next turn the panthers and pak 40s bail the 2 ISUs and command JS 2 so I take the opportunity to charge and capture them all! That was not what I expected! The other ISUs and KVs are heading round the woods behind them- one KV has fallen prey to a stuka strike, another fell off the table and was broken. Yikes!

 Turn 3 the reserves turn up- flame tanks! Again my offer to surrender is turned down. The Zyrinis appear and kill 2x KV 1S and survive return fire and kill the last KV in the next turn. As thy try to flee the ISUs they are destroyed but they have done their job.

 Yet another lucky airstrike, this one kills 3x KV 8s! Things are going unexpectedly well, though it is still touch and go.

 In the end the panthers move across to contest on turn 5 and I kill the last of the KVs to break the
Soviet company. In his last turn Robs last act is to drive his ISUs at my infantry and hits with a breakthrough gun on a  6 and my infantry fail their morale check taking the company commander with them.

 4-3 to me. I almost managed a 5-2 but Rob deserved the extra point, he played well but the dice abandoned him at key times and to tell the truth I was not expecting to pull this one off at all so was rather happy to walk away with 4 pts.

Game 5: Nicks Romanians

Nick was in 2nd place, me about 5th or 6th equal so as a bit surprised to have to face the Romanians from hell in a Fighting withdrawal but the games were based on who hadn't fought in the top half dozen or so as well as by swiss chess. 

·         HQ :  @x P/K, 2x P/Shrek, 2x 60mm Mortar

·         Vanatori Motoizata platoon (full)   Panzerfaust SMG, 8 MG

·         Vanatori Motoizata platoon (full)   Panzerfaust SMG, 8 MG

·         4x 47mm Schneider guns

·         4x HMGs

·         4x 150mm Skoda M34, 1 Observer rifle

·         4x 100mm Skoda M40 guns, Observer rifle

·         5x Soviet T-34/85

Anyone who does not rate minor allies has not faced this particular list, it came 2nd at  Winterfest (36 layers) and was 2nd at the Masters. I got lucky and got to defend and hoped Nick didn't have enough infantry to attack properly- I was to be proved wrong very, very soon... 

The Romanians mass for the attack on their traditional enemies...

 Doesn't seem so many of us.

 I hid my Ztrinis and nimrods in a wood as nicks artillery has a large template and is very dangerous. Unfortunately he targetted a nearby GtG infantry stand and hit it (needing a 6) on the first roll of the game- i was lucky to only lose only one Zyrini.

 RV Romanians and T34/85s advance- a classic shot!

  I return  fire, paks bail 2 then I fluff my panther ambush and only hit 2 T34s and bail them both. A stuka then bails another! Nicks return fire with his overwatch 75mm TACs takes out 2 pak 40s! 2 panthers are destroyed and the third bailed and fails to remount.Turn 3 I need to take off a platoon and eventually decide on the Nimrods but actually needed them too. 

The rest of the battle was so intense that I forgot to take any more photos. On turn 7 I fired a  shrek and 2 of the last 3 T34/85s killing them both! the last one ran away. On his last turn out of infantry I had to survive tow artillery bombardments and did. I had to lose 1 more infantry stand to force a stay on the board check, had I done so I would have been broken as the commander fled with the sole survivor from the pak platoon earlier. 

4-3 to me. Another absolute nailbiter that I was again lucky to win. The key probably being on turns 4 and 5 when my infantry on my right ,managed to stop 2x assaults vs vets by hitting with 7 out of 9 DF dice. Had either failed it as all over, the bailed panther would have been captured and I'd have had nothing at all left to keep Nick off either of the central or right objectives. A great game and once again I was happy to walk away with the extra point as it could have easily been 4-3 the other way. Another great game. 

Game 6: Encounter vs Steve Chambers and his motostrekovy 

• HQ
• 1x platoon @ 7x SMG
• 1x platoon @ 7x SMG
• 3x Ba64
•  9x T-70 obr’43
• 3x IS-2
• 4x SU-100
• 4x SU-122
• 3x Spetnez & 2x captured Sdkfz 250/1
• Limited Sturmoviks

Both Steve and I are long time Soviet players and his motostrek is not dissimilar to mine so I knew I was in for a tough game.

I defend the village to the left of the table with Nebs, pak 40s, panthers and a single infantry platoon

 Turn 1 Steve advances- all his tanks are on table.

Steve's turn 1 The SU 122s crawl into close range and I miss them all with my pak 40s and panthers! The SUs then kill 2x pak 40s and their command stand.

 Turn 2 I smoke the JS 2s to keep them moving then an airstrike of a single stuka comes in. Steve declines to try to drive it off. What could it do? Two dead and 1 bailed SU 100s (even with  rerolls to hit) and the survivor fled!

 The panthers though start ranging in on the SU 122s and eventually kill 2 bail one and again the survivor flees. Not only that but a panther shot goes through the front of the command JS 2 meaning they are command less! Steve so forced to move his 2iC forward to try to appoint a new commander, a job that would take a few turns! Unfortunately though the next turn both were bailed by panthers and the platoon fled (much to my relief).

 Meanwhile the battle of the lightweights begins. 9x T70s vs a panther who will win well the way these particular panthers roll firepower tests, the T70s!

 And again from another angle.

 And again the next turn, finally a shot goes though and the panther dies and what do I haveto show for it? 2-3 bailed T70s. Having tried to do a similar trick myself several times in the past and only actually pulled it off once or twice so I was suitably impressed with these little guys! 

Again form here the game was a but tense to take photos off. The T70 continud rampaging, leaving a trail of destruction including- 2x infantry platoons and the nimrods but the panthers slowly hunted them down. The game was long and intense and as the last 1 minutes ticked by (and with a need to get to the airport to catch my flight) I finally managed to hunt down those pesky T70sand also his reserve infantry as they assaulted in. The Zyrni coming onto their own in the last few turns to hold one objective and hunt down infantry. 

4-3 to me. again a really close and thoroughly enjoyable game. The dice gods favoured me in the end but we both had our luck and the T70s almost won it for Steve. It was very, very close.

Placings

Steve Hill's with Motorised SS (2x jagdpanthers and Barkman) on 32 points- was a clear winner.

Nick and his Romanians on 25 pts were 2nd.

 Steve Chambers and I were placed 3rd equal on 22 pts but as I beat him the trophy went to me so our game ended up being hard fought tussle for third. 

 I think there were another 4 or so players on 21 and 20 pts so it was really, really tight- as one would expert in this type of competition.

So there we have it 6 extremely tough games, none of which I felt I was ever on the bag for me and all the wins could have easily gone the other way. The first two games vs Bob and Bede I was lucky to get any points an as very glad to do so.

The Hungarian force

I was happy with my force, it as not a standard tourney force and performed well vs what often felt like superior forces so it did better than I'd hoped. The airpower was probably the stand out unit and swung 3 games for me (or got me some much needed points) and I was really, really glad to have the third infantry platoon, it was critical in all games. 

The only thing I struggled with as the lack of stormtrooper to get back out of trouble with the Hungarian tanks, makes them pretty fragile at times. I can honestly say for once I wouldn't make any changes to the composition. It all combined ell when it had to. I got pretty lucky at times but was a fun force to use and made for 6 very enjoyable, if someone nerve wracking, games.

Craig