Friday 14 October 2011

World War III is coming

Just dug out my Challenger 2 rules for my 1/300th scale moderns that I seem to have lots of.
Reorganising the armies to 1980-1986 standards.
Sorting through my US, Soviet, German, UK and NATO troops.
All excess is being put on E(vil)bay to pay for other projects.
Got rid off so far late 1990's US and North Korean/China. Next up will be 1990's Uk and stock of BTR152's followed by some Russian T80's and BTR60's (the later if I can't find a valid use)

Gave the rules to my Friend Scott to read, so in a few weeks time there will be a battle report. If I don't start using these micros I gotta loose them.

Jon

Saturday 8 October 2011

France 1940 - Czeh Panzer kompanie Vs Escadron de combat

France 1940 - Czeh Panzer kompanie Vs Escadron de combat
Flames of War, 1750 points

Czeh Panzer Kompanie

HQ: 2x Pz38(T)
Zug 1: 4x Pz38(T)
Zug 2: 4x Pz38(T)
Zug 3: 4x Pz38(T)
Zug 4: 5x PzIIC (Early)
Zug 5: 2x Pz IVD

Escadron de Combat

HQ: 1x S-35
Plt 1: 4x S-35
Plt 2: 5x H-35
Plt 3: 5x H-35
Plt 4: 5x H-35
Plt 5: 5x Panhard A/Cars
Plt 6: Infantry Platoon
Plt 7: 4x Hotchkiss 25mm A/T Guns
Plt 8: 2x 105mm M1935 Artillery Guns


Set Up:
Looking up the table. The Mission rolled was Encounter; the Germans were the attacker and chose the right side of the table leaving the French the left which contained a dominating hill overlooking the town.

German Deployment
French Deployment
The Germans deployed a Kampgruppe consisting of 2Ic and 3 Pz38(t) in the middle flanked on their right (On the road leading to the town) by the PzIV's and on the Left flank a reduced platoon of 3x Pz38's + the CIC (on the road at the top of the picture). There objectives were one on the road leading to the town and the second was just the other side of the stream (Where the hand is).
The French Deployed the 105s and infantry on one objective behind the single house at the top left and the 25mm's in the wood (not visible) on the hill in the middle left protecting the second objective. The S-35's were deployed on the forward slope near the corn field.


French Turn 1:
Both the artillery and Anti tank guns dig in, whilst the Infantry drank a bottle of wine which affected their ability to dig in. The S-35's moved down the forward slope towards the corn field near the town.
German Turn 1:
The Panzer IV's headed up the road towards the road junction in the town whilst the middle Pz38's moved past the corn fields towards the houses using them as cover. The other tank platoon moved cautiously along the road.

French turn 2:
The Infantry finish their wine and manage to sober up enough to dig in. The french 105's range in on the PzIV's at the road junction missing both tanks but bailing a Pz38(T) hiding behind a house next to the PzIV's.  Some of the S-35's move to better firing positions whilst the other stationary tanks open fire on the PzIV's but also miss.
German Turn 2:
The Bailed Pz 38 fails to get back in. The PzIV's move forward to a better firing position in the town whilst the hiding pz38's pop out for a shot at the S-35's, all shots bounce of the thick armour of the S-35's. Meanwhile the other Pz38's move further along the top road towards the lone house.

Sorry had to go to bed here whilst writing this so now I am awake I will continue....

French turn 3:
One of my reserves arrive and I use the wood the other side of the stream by the single house as cover also giving some additional protection to the infantry from those lurking panzer's.
The duel between the tanks in the town was going nowhere and I had to start maneuvering some of the s-35's into better positions. The 105's use their staff team to repeat bombard the bailed  pz38 to no effect.

French tanks trying to out manouvre the Germans
German Turn 3:
The Bailed Pz38 still stayed bailed. No German reserves turned up, maybe they found some barrels of wine. Again the panzer's in the town played peek-a-boo with the S-35's and managed to bail one. The panzer's on the top road left the CiC hiding on the road and moved towards the newly arrived H-35's and engaged them at close range bailing one, before storm trooping behind a hedge.

French Turn 4:
The bailed H-35 stayed bailed an the S-35 remounted. A second platoon of H-35's moved on and headed to support the S-35's in the center. The platoon near the infantry moved two tanks into the woods and bogged one. The return fire from the two stationary tanks managed to destroy one of the 38's behind the hedge. Meanwhile the gunnery duel in the town only resulted in a a bailed Pz.IV. The 105's attempt to range in on the PzIV's resulted only in a ranged in marker.
German Turn 4:
The bailed Pz38 decided to stay bailed (This was quite funny considering it had protected ammo, that 105 hit must have shaken them badly). A reserve platoon arrives on the road to the town. The Pz IV remounted and the Pz38's in the town started there peek-a-boo maneuver.  The result again was a bailed S-35. The duel between the tank platoon near the infantry turned in the Germans favour and resulted in 2 burning and one bailed H-35's who passed there morale.

The gunnery duel swings in the Germans favour.
French Turn 5:
The armoured cars arrive and re-enforce the French's right flank. The tank platoon in the centre continues forward intermingling with the S-35's. The Left flank platoon manages to remount and un-bog and maneuvered to finish off the 2 remaining Pz38's to no avail. The artillery failed to range in. and the gunnery duel in the town was ineffective.
German Turn 5:
Another reserve platoon arrives on the road to the town and again the tanks in the town start to play peekaboo. The previously arrived platoon moves to block the newly arrived armoured cars and mange to bail two of them forcing a disengage test which they pass. The panzer 4's manage to kill a S-35 that was trying to outflank them. The duel near the single house continues and once again bails a couple of the french tanks which pass there morale.

French turn 6:
The last tank platoon arrives from reserve and moves on to support the artillery and out flank the now annoying panzer platoon near the house. The Recon platoon fails to remount and moves to bring there guns to bear. The Artillery from this point onwards is not worth mentioning as they either fail to range in or range in on the third roll and can not hit anything.  The H-35's supporting the S-35's break cover and head towards the field on the German side of the table.
German Turn 6:
The panzer's now being outflanked decide to advance to point blank range of the H-35's the other side of the stream. The Panzer II's arrive on the road to the town. Whilst the previously arrived platoons move around the German left flank to counter the French armoured cars. This leaves the armoured cars with 1 burning and 2 still bailed who fail a disengage roll and fall back. The panzer's point blank charge results in another burning tank and one bailed.
German tanks start to move up their Right flank.
French Turn 7:
Now the French are in trouble. The Germans have committed their reserves and there is nothing to stop them. I need to finish off  that platoon on my left flank and Bolster my right flank. This move or shoot rule is now annoyingly hindering me. The Tank platoon on the hill flanking the panzer's half moves towards the panzer's, The armoured cars continue to scuttle away to oblivion. The S-35's manoeuvre to bring all guns to  bear on the exposed right flank, whilst the H-35's that crossed the road now move towards the German objective.
Finally a mighty PzIV falls. The combined fire manages to bail the 2 charging panzer's who promptly pass their motivation and stay in the game...Boo!, This means that I have 2 tank platoons tied down for another turn.

The Charging panzers are in trouble.
The french Right Flank is in trouble.
German Turn 7:
The two panzer's remount and then obliterate the remaining tanks in front of them. The platoon hiding in the town now moves to engage the french platoon threatening the objective. The Panzer II's swing through the corn field also heading towards the threatened objective. Meanwhile the 2 Left flank platoons move further along the flank to start their climb up the hill to the French objective, bailing several Armoured cars on their way.

French turn 8:
Doh...one platoon down. The Middle platoon now moves onto the German objective and the A/T guns in the woods now turn there attention on to the closing Germans. with good results. The second PzIV is destroyed and3 Pz38's in one platoon bailed. The platoon on the french left looses one and passes its morale test.

The french Right Flank.

German Turn 8:
The surviving Pz 38 crosses the stream and hides behind a wood taking a pot shot at the S-35's. Only one of the 38's remount and moves further round the flank. The middle 38 platoon rushes to protect the objective supported by the PzII's, resulting in it being contested. The German panzer's move up the hill towards the woods and target the armoured car platoon which is again peppered with fire and is either destroyed or bailed and passes another motivation test but must again fall back.

German tanks move to counter a french attack.
French Turn 9:
Now that the lone 38 has scuttled off this release the left flank platoon that moves down the hill towards the road in the general direction of the nearest objective. Two of the Anti tank guns move through the wood to protect their flank. The Armoured cars again mill around. A gunnery duel now develops over the contested objective but to no avail. The A/T guns now mange to blow up another Pz38 and bail one more.
German Turn 9:
The Bailed tank stays bailed and the lone Pz38 scuttles into the middle of a wood. 2 38's now advance upon the wood within assault range of the A/T guns. The gunnery duel at the contested objective is more or less a turkey shoot with 2 french tanks ablaze and 1 bailed. On the hill all available guns fire upon the A/T guns and the resulting MG fire pins and also destroys two of the A/T guns (Good FP rolls at a critical time). A shooting too successfully move brings the tanks with in assault distance of the guns. DF fire bails one tank and the remaining tank its the one A/T gun killing it. The French platoon passes its morale and the platoon commander and observer now assault the tanks. The observer hits the one operational tank and does nothing but the tank then fails its motivation for counterattack due to the hit and retires leaving the bogged tank to its fate. The remaining tank fails its morale and flees the field.
German tanks posed to assault the wood.
French turn 10:
The left flank platoon continue to head towards the objective. The remaining A/T gun moves through the woods to boister the exposed flank. The armoured cars again mill around unable to do anything. The tank platoon on the objective fail to do anything and the S-35's act as mobile pill boxes.
German Turn 10:
A second platoon advances up the hill towards the wood and in doing so obliterates the Armoured car platoon who promptly does what the French are renowned for. meanwhile the gunnery duel at the German objective comes to an end with the french tanks following the armoured cars off the table.

The Pizza's are ready so game over.

Under Fair fight the game is a:
 3-3 Draw

After Game report:
Hmm last time the Germans faced the french they got their ass whooped. What a difference Pz38(t)'s make compared to the usual PzI/PzII mix. I should have ignored the panzer's on my left flank and headed straight up the middle. Our after game discussion concluded that the french should have marched onto the objective then played at being pillboxes. the armoured cars were wasted and should have re-enforced the guns in the wood.

List wise the Germans were quite strong and no modifications were seemed to be needed other than to maybe drop the Pz IV's and put in more 38's or even a second PzII Platoon.
The French Artillery let them down and 2 guns is not really worth taking. A way is need to make sure you have all 4 guns. This will cost the French either a S-35 or 2 H-35's to have 4 105's. The discussion also included the possibility of adding the 75's instead of the 105's due to their longer range in the A/T role.

All this as we ate the pizza's....Yum Yum

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Soviet infantry Vs German Luftwaffe Company

Russian infantry Spring their Ambush.
Just a quick battle report from when I visited my Friend Richard.
I had taken along my Mid War Russian Infantry knowing that he had a Luftwaffe Kompany. Both lists were to 1500 points. My choices in the Russians were limited as I had dispose of my KV company and Assault Guns earlier in the year.

Russians
HQ+Commissar
2 Full Company's each + Commissar +1x HMG
5 T34/76
GOW Battery consisting 4 122mm & 4 76mm
4 Katushkas

Mission was Hold the line and I got defend. I deployed the GOW battery on a hill at the back and held a Infantry Company in ambush.

German Luftwaffe was
HQ
2 Platoons Infantry
1 Platoon pioneers
2 Marders
3 Stug`s
1 HMG Platoon
2 88's
and a Battery of French 76mm's

As the Germans Advanced I sprung my Ambush and decided to cover both objectives in a way to stop the Germans Outflanking me. The German fire was mostly inaccurate but the Russian casualties slowly built up.

The Stug's were the danger and along with infantry that were threatening my right flank. On my left flank the Germans now used a corn field to good effect and advanced unseen.  The Marders, 88`s and Stug's were slowly killing Russian teams. Turn 3 my T34's came on and started trading shots with the Stug's in an effort to prevent them advancing.  The German Infantry weathered the Russian fire better then the Russians were doing and eventually assault a less than half strength Company. The Russian artillery was trying its hardest to knock out the Marders and eventually killed one. The Russian infantry fought off 3 assault seeing 1 platoon off and reducing the over to under half strength but by this time both the company HQ and the Commissars were dead and there was nothing to stop the Russian Company Fleeing the field. The German understrength infantry platoon that was left holding the objective after the assault was then un merciless pounded over open sights by the GOW and Fell under the rain of fire. The Russian tanks held the Stug's up for two turns allowing the 2nd Infantry Company time to deploy on table.
Germans Advancing
The Stug's moved to seize the most forward objective whilst there escorting Infantry were gunned down by the newly arrived Infantry Company. The Luftwaffe artillery had managed to range in on the GOW in turn one and in the whole game only managed to kill a 122mm and a 76mm. the 3 remaining 76's were all that were left to take on the Stug's.  In the critical turn they only managed to Bail a Stug and with the end of the Russian Turn came a German 4-3 Victory.


Postmortem:
As predicted the Stug's were the main threat. I should not have spread my infantry company out thinly as I did and should have kept it nearer the first objective relying on the GOW to protect the rear objective. I also should have bought on the second infantry first instead of the T34's. I really wasted this unit in a fruitless delaying action.
Richard is a good tactical player and although he had not played in a while used some good tactics. Next time I may not be so merciful..LOL