FoW: Mid War Counter Attack

My apathy towards painting continues- 2 weeks hardly painted a thing. However a couple of boxes of PSC Shermans turned up today so that should change things as Southcon is next weekend and I am still short 3 Shermans. Dale and I got together for a game tonight to test out my alterative Sherman list for Southcon.

	Soviet Tanks- Conscript
1x	Sherman	75
7x	Shermans	480
8x	Shermans	525
9x	Razvedki (FT)	230
4x	BA 64	100
	Sporadic I 153s	90
		1500

Dale was running an auflakrung and forgot his stugs so we eyeballed in 3x marder II and 3x pak 40s- and as it tutrned out we were probably about 50 pts over but what as he left his half tracks off table probably worked out about right!

He ran approximately:

	Dale's Aufklarung (Approx)
	Armoured HQ	75
1st	Armoured Zug	255
2nd	Armoured Zug	255
	AT Zug (2x pak 38s)	80
	At Zug (3x pak 40s)	220
	Heavy AA (2x 88s)	255
	Tank hunters (3x marder II)	270
	Limited Stukas	135
		1545

We decided ot do a counter attack as we'd never tried it and so I got to attack.

So somewhere in the Ukraine in the Autumn of 1943 an aufkalrung company assembles to drive off yet another Soviet attack as the german retreat towards the Dneiper River. The Gerrmans manage to get everythng on table, ambushing with the pak 40s. Dale deploys in the top right corner.

 I deploy opposite him- BA 64s leading the way.

Another view of Dale's main bastion.

 Turn 1 the M3A1s full of Razvedki advance on the woods.

Only to be ambushed by pak 40s- 3 vehicles are destroyed and 1 bailed. 4 teams are killed. A couple of shermans are knocked out by the first of many airstrikes.

Turn 2 the razvedki assault the panzergreandeirs, killing two teams. The surviving Germans pull back.

 Shermsn use shooting too successful to consolidate into the woods and minimise pak 40 shots.

 A view from the German lines- the tiger is our objective.

 Finally the Crop dusters of Doom show up- only to be shot down by the two 88s. Has noone told the pilot about the new true LoS rules?

 The marders swing across to contest and strengthen Dale's right flank. I bet he wishes the tiger was not there only for show.

Pak 40s knowck out two armoured cars- one of whcih had been bailed for two turns directly in front of them!

 Yet another airstrike- this one kills the last of the razvedki, but all the Shermans are missed!

 Hmm- how the hell do we deal with this AND using the new hens & chicks rules?

 Simple- head for the other objective- the 88s made moving anywhere near the centre of the board very, very difficult! Dale's infantry have just arrived on the objective in the top right corner.

 My Shermans swing out and kill a Marder but I lose two Shermans to the 88s.

 Meanwhile Dale's infantry fail to dig in twice in a row so my other Sherman company close in for the kill.

A pak 38 kills a Sherman but we have managed to whittle this platoon down a bit too.

 Meanwhile the marders move forward to contest.

 How the hell do we deal with this when conscript? Assault?

 Dale takes knocking out his marders seriously- a bit of battle damage and no superglue to fix it- my Shermans missed two turns in a row which is not that surprising needings 5s, but Dale missed too, needing 3s!

 The final assualt- Dale charged the shermans. killing one and bailing another, the last Shermna fought off the Germans killing 2 teams (over two rounds) and then the surviving Germans retreated and broke!

Game 4-3 to the Soviets.

A fun game- air power really hurt early on but got pretty lucky with saves vs the stukas- my planes only managed to kill a a pak 40 (and a single infantry team to finish off the frist panzer grenadeir platoon). I mangaged to lose my battalion commander somewhere in the middle, and airstrike finished off my armoured cars in the penultimate turn, and I was down to total of 4 working tanks aat the end with no battalion commander! I was never really in control of the game and was damn lucky in the end to come away with a win in a tough but fun game.

As for the Southcon list I like both versions. Dale (and Pooch) prefer the Churchill list for fun factor and so I rolled a D6 after the game (1-3 Churchill version, 4-6 the Shermans). I rolled a 2, so it looks like the Lend Lease Stuarts, Shermans, Churchills and M3A1s will be fielded for Southcon- hopefully Kent and I can get a final practice game in next week.

Craig

Operation Cobra- a fly over

A small video we made using my camera flying over the US advance.

A blast from the past.

Back in 2006 we ran a Cobra breakout game- with about 40 Shermans, 15 priests and a single 105 battery (I was running US rifles- we also had 2x armoured companies and some armoured rifles). The table was 16ft x 6 and my 105s had to redpeloy to get back in range of the enemy twice!

The battle raged all afternoon but the Germans just won after 6-8 hours thanks to Dale managing to avoid the temptation (and pleadings of his co-commanders) and saved his ambush until the death and so prevent the US Stuarts grabbing the last objective. It was probably the most entertaining multi-player game we have played with 4 player per side and about 12000pts of stuff all up. 

As the first overview shows our attack came unstuck just short of the objective.


The bridges across the river are our final objectives.


That is a lot of stuff- even on a 6ft wide table!


Hummls wait in the wooded hills (12 ft back!)


My fifles lead the advance- no boccage rules back then, all hedges were very difficult going.




Conjestion following the advannce.



The ridge line proved a formiddable obstacle. Panzers lurk in them thar hills. My infantry are still on point.


With 5 or so time on target possibliites we managed ot destory the few anthers silly enough to shoe theselves as thhey attempted an early counter attack.


The Germans taking a toll on our shermans.


Send in the infantry!




We near the objective after seveal hours of hard fighting.



Dale's reserves finally show themselves- and halt the advance.


Craig

FoW Mid War: Tankovy vs Fallschrimjager

Kent and my practice for Southcon continued tonight. I decided to try something different and came up with a lend-lease tankovy to test out. Not sure how it would fare but it looked amusing- all equipment was provided by the brave workers in American and British tank factories:

             

Soviet Lend-LeaseTankovy- Conscript    

• 1x        Stuart 40
• 8x        Stuarts           240
• 8x        Shermans- 3x 50 cals         540
• 3x        Churchills- FT (No H&C)    450
• 9x        Razvedki (FT)           230

                        1500

Kent ran the same FJ as last week:

• HQ with 2 stummels
• 2x full FJ platoons
• 2 HMGs (combat attached)
• 3x pak 38s
• 3x stugs
• Priority BF 109s

 We rolled up a pincer, another of the new scenarios we hadn’t tried. 

Deployment: FJ dig on behind the objectives, stugs in ambush. I throw the stuarts out wide and Shermans, Churchills and Razvedki on my right.  

 Turn 1- advance. I double time the the stuarts to draw out the stugs- Kent is forced to react to this threat!

 M3A1s screen the churchills and defensive fire from their AA MGs shoot down 2 BF 109s on turn 1!

 3 stugs, 12 shots (against the double timing Stuarts)= 9 hits (even at long range) and 7 dead Stuarts! I was hoping one would be bailed and prevent me losing a VP- it worked, just! However Kent did pass 8 out of 9 firepower tests- yikes!

That worked...I think. Stugs lurk in the distance.

 Shermans move forward ot engage the stugs-and managed a single long range hit- which destroyed a stug (you can't do that at long range with a T34!)

 Still return fire and air power manages to knock out a couple of Shermans.

 Ha! Take that stug- AT 10 baby!

 The next turn another stug is bailed- Kent is rolling far to many 1s for armour saves- not moving helps me to hit. I am getting used to the new H&C, if those stugs were in cover as well as at range they'd be impossible to hit while I am moving!

A lucky stummelwerfer strike pins the razvedki for two turns- this is evened out by Kent failing to roll  reserves on turn 3 and 4.

 Kent ponders his next move. My churchill was lost to a panzerkanacker as it tried to force him off the objective.

 The churchills have forced the FJ back off the objective and the 3 remaining shermans move to assist (and get away from the last stug)

 Kent launches a final assualt to reclaim the objective- his second FJ platoon has arrived in the pincer move, just in the nick of time.

Dale gets hold of the camera:)

The final assaults go in but the Soviets have too much defensive fire between the Churchills and 50 cals. Here they come!

In the last turn the Shermans passed a morale check from a BF 109 strike to deny Kent a point.

victory to the Soviets.

Thoughts? 

I really liked the lend lease tankovy. It is very moile with the Stuarts and packs more of a punch that the Soviet version I had also considered (T34s, KV 1s)- for a start T34s would never be able to duke it out with stugs at long range. Sure I got lucky but if you throw enough dice then 1s should appear!).  Originally I took it as it didn't have enough Shermans for the 2x Sherman companies I wanted to try but the Churchills addd a bit of oomph to the list so I think I have setttled on the list for Southcon. 

We both took away a few ideas for attacking and objective placement in this mission- not sure I 

agree with the defendiing behind the objectives strategy as it meant if I pushed him back Kent would have to coutner attack and that is exactly what my razvedki and churchills wanted. 

 

Afterwards we also discussed how to make Kent's FJ more effective defensively by using the stummels as an HQ platoon with the 2iC and not attaching the HMGs, or even making a small KG, to get 6 platoons for deployment as this would have meant that Kent would have been able to have both pak 38s and stugs on table. 

A good game- I look forward to the next rematch.

Craig

MW Cossacks vs Panzers

I decided to test our a possible tourney list tonight and Finn decided to join me. He's been wanting to play FoW for some time- so I set up a No Retreat and gave him a panzer company to use (2x IIIL/Ns, 4x IIILs, 3x IVGs, 3x werfers, 3x luchs) and I attacked with the cossacks (supported by guards: armour 5x shermans, 3x SU 76, 8x stuarts).

The Russians weigh their left flank- panzer IVGs in the cornfields, 4x panzer IIIs in ambush).

 From the German perspective.

 Turn 1- the Cosscaks advance.

Shermans sneak round the woods.

 A panzer IV pops out and destroys a Suka, but then failled to quite get out of the way of return fire and brews up.

 Shermans and ambushing panzer IIIs- the Shermans managed to not hit one in 3 rounds!

 Meanwhile the infantry sneak though the woods and the moutned cossacks dismount. With the panzer IIIs out the Stuarts race down the flank.

 The cossacks push the panzers off the objective.

 The panzer IIIs then manage to destroy the entire company! Ouch

Game to Finn, he enjoyed his first game and I think we'll try to play a few more games with tanks- they are nice and fast and don't take too much sussing out to use.

Craig