SoCal SmackDown 2011 - Game 3

Well now, I've played two games and lost 1-6. One more game to go for the day. One more chance to redeem myself. One more chance to get a win.

I'm in a slump. I need a Slump Buster. I channel Tony LaRussa. I swap out the CiC and Pz III platoon leader for the panzer-grey Panzer III's painted by Sentinel. Yeah, I benched two toy models. C'mon, it's not unheard of. People line dice up and smash the offending dice for failure to roll good numbers.

We all gather around the TO's table at the center of the hall and breathlessly await our assignments. Hugo! Hugo? Wait, Hugo only plays German. Wait...erm...argggh! Blue on blue. Again? Le sigh.

I shake Hugo's hand and get a peek at his army across the table.



Le Gulp.

Two Tigers? Again!?

Hugo's playing a Grenadier Company.

Along with the two obligatory platoons of Grens, he has the aforementioned Tiggers, a couple of Marders, Nebs and an AA platoon to get to an even six platoons.

In case you've forgotten what I'm running-

11.PD Line-Up

HQ 1x Pz III L/M, 1x PZ IV F-2
P1: 4x Pz III L/M
P2: 3x Pz IV F-2
P3: 1x Tiger 1E
P4: 2x 8-Rads
P5: 3x Nebelwerfers with staff and obs

Mission: Hasty Assault. It's a new mission for me. This was the ?? on the mission listing before the tournament. The TO made his decision on the final mission added to the rotation.

I get to be the attacker! Hurray! No? Yes! You don't want to be attacking in Hasty Assault? Why? I place everything on the table. Hugo's Tigers go into ambush. Rot roh.

SoCal SmackDown 2011 - Game 2

Okay, lunch time is over and I've pizza-fied myself and ready for battle! We all gather around the raised platform where Tim and other TO's (Warmachine, WH40K and WHFB, etc) sit with their laptops. The pairings are announced and my opponent is announced - MK. Cool, MK's a great dude! Wait, MK always plays Germans. I'm playing blue-on-blue for the 2nd Round?

Well, I swallow and hide my disappointment. I didn't understand that day how I could be facing a German list after only Game 1. It was until later that I understood the Swiss Chess System was being used by the TO. The Swiss Chess System is basically a randomly determined opponent in Game 1 and then in each proceeding round you are paired with an opponent who has similar points.

Okay, I get it now. Still, I would think though there had to be an Ally who lost 1-6 that I could be matched up against. I later found out that most of the Axis got smoked in Round 1.

Time for Game 2.

MK's German Pioneer.

HQ
1x Pioneer Platoon
1x Pioneer Platoon (in ambush)
2x Tigers
1x AA Platoon
3x Nebels
1x KV-1E
Limited HS-129

11.PD Line-Up

HQ 1x Pz III L/M, 1x PZ IV F-2
P1: 4x Pz III L/M
P2: 3x Pz IV F-2
P3: 1x Tiger 1E
P4: 2x 8-Rads
P5: 3x Nebelwerfers with staff and obs

Mission: Fighting Withdrawal

Everybody gets everything on the table. No KG concerns this time.

SoCal SmackDown 2011 - Game 1

It's Saturday morning and 12 players (6 Axis and 6 Allies) show up to IVth installment of Maus Haus. The TO was hoping for more players. but the NoCal (northern California) group had their own tournament this weekend and couldn't make it down. This might be the last 2-day FOW tourney in this area, as it's apparent it's too hard to get large numbers of players on holiday weekends because of travel and family commitments. Secondly, other FOW groups usually have their tourney going at the same time, so the pool of players able to participate in a "long" tourney is relatively small.

Now to Game 1.

I drew Eric K's US Mech Infantry list.

5x Grants
5x Stuarts
4x M10 Wolverines
1x Armored Rifles
1x Armored Rifles
unknown platoon

I'm running 11.PD

HQ 1x Pz III L/M, 1x PZ IV F-2
P1: 4x Pz III L/M
P2: 3x Pz IV F-2
P3: 1x Tiger 1E
P4: 2x 8-Rads
P5: 3x Nebelwerfers with staff and obs

Mission: Encounter

Half-on, Half-off for both of us. Eric puts his 2 Armored Rifle platoons and the unknown platoon in reserve. His M10's are held in Ambush.

I elect to KG an F-2 with a Pz III L/M, to bring me to 6 platoons. I choose to bring the Pz III L/M platoon (CiC attached), the F-2 platoon and the Tiger.

11th Panzer Division vs Rota Razvedki in Encounter

OOB P's Rota Razvedki

HQ CiC, 2iC Rifle w/motorcycles
Razvedki Platoon (9 stands) in M3A1
Razvedki Platoon (9 stands) in U/C, armed with Boys AT
4x SU-76M
9x Stuarts
6x 81-BM-41 mortars in trucks, Observer Rifle team
4x ZiS-3 AT guns

1,575 pts (ermmmm.....)

11. Panzer Division circa Dec 1942, near the Chir River

HQ: 2x Panzer III L w/schurzen
P1: 4x Panzer III L w/schurzen
P2: 3x Panzer IV F-2
P3: Panzer Pionners w/Goliath and in Trucks
P4: 2x 8-rads

1,500 pts


Eh, I wrote down P's army and input it into Easy Army and it spit out a cost of 1,575. It's 1,670 if the mortars switch from 81mm to 120mm. I thought P said they were 120mm mortars. Meh, I probably messed up the force list as he read it to me.

Mission = Encounter.

Warning, many many pics to follow. I took 67 pics during the battle, but it was whittled down to I'm not sure how many. Secondly, since there are so many pics I don't want to put the battle summary at the end. Some of you may not want to stare at all those pics. Instead, the battle summary is below in the large blank area in white-font. Highlight the area with your mouse to read my thoughts.

Begin White Font

Well, a hard fought 3-4 loss. Considering I was probably out-pointed, I fought well. Again, I wasn't nearly as aggressive with the Pz IIIM's as I should have been. They are FA6 for goodness sake. I also misread the ROF on the Stuart, giving it ROF 3 instead of 2. Oiy. Plus, I'm immune to AT7 and I forgot the Stuarts had Hen and Chicks, hampering their movement.

I also blew it with the Boys AT rifle, it being a passenger fired weapon. Knowing the capabilities of the weapon would have helped and I would have pointed out it couldn't fire with Paul's guys dismounted and not worried about the U/C's flanking the Pz F-2's.

Those were the two big mistakes. The pioneers never unpinned and simply served as target practice for Paul's mortars. I was happy with the way I dispatched the SU-76's as they were a big threat at the beginning of the game.

This will be the basis for the army I'll take to Maus Haus IV for the Labor Day SoCal Smackdown. I need to add 250pts. I see many versions of this 1,500pt force. I could drop the F-2's and take all Pz IIIM's and add Marder IIIH's and a Auf Squadron as support. It'd be a very fast moving army and in the enemies face real quick.

End White Font

Rumble - 46th Guards Tank Brigade vs Feldenhalle

It's May Day 2011. What better way to celebrate all things "red" than with an After Action Report featuring the 46th Guards Tank Brigade! This game was played between Paul and myself waaaaaaay back on Sunday, Feb 13, 2011. Subsequent events that occurred later that month and hinted at in prior posts delayed its posting until now.

Grab a cold one and I hope you enjoy it.

When Unreliable Bites - 654th vs the Trees

Paul and I got together at Brookhurst Hobbies a few weeks ago. I dusted off the 654th schwere Panzerjaeger Abteilung, while Paul brought an IS-2 Regiment.

Two things you, the reader, should note:

(1) I'm going to start taking notes in the future. By the time I get to editing and uploading the photos from the game, I sometimes forget the place in the action.

(2) I blame the WWPD guys for the dice photos. I am compiling evidence that there are dice gods, despite their denials!! {{j/k guys!}}

(3) This is this blog's 100th post. Thanks for the continued support and visits!

Click below to continue...

3rd Guards Mech Corps clubbed like baby seals

Over the X-mas break, I managed to get one and only one game of FOW into the books. It's a myth that the holidays allow plenty of time for gaming. Wrong! Shopping, Family, more Shopping, Decorating, Cooking, and again Shopping are very large gremlins who feed on a gamer's spare time.

However, C and I got a game of Encounter. Or should I say I lined up my tanks and he mercilessly shot them to pieces.

Fair Warning: Numerous pics to follow....

The Fighting Withdrawal that Wasn't

I played Michael K last month on Game Day at the Knights of Columbus. It took awhile, but I downloaded and resized the pictures and can now share them in an AAR.

I pulled out 1,500pts of 11th Panzer Division. Michael though wanted to go to 1,750pts and use his Panzer Pioneers. I was cool with that and I selected Priority Air Support to get close to 1,700. Michael also had 7 Dice of Air.

My Force:

CiC, 2iC - Pz III L/M
1st Platoon - 4x Pz III L/M
2nd Platoon - 3x Pz IV F-2
3rd Platoon - 7x R/MG Pioneer Stands plus Goliath
4th Platoon - 2x 8-Rads
Priority Stukas

Michael's Force:

Very vague (it's been over a month), but he has 2 platoons of 3x Pz III N's. A Ferdinand. A Pioneer Platoon. Another foot slogging platoon with a puppchen. Priority Stukas.

We rolled up Fighting Withdrawal. As the armored force, I get to attack.

MW AAR: 229th Sep Tank Reg vs Finns

Daniel and I played Roadblock last month.

Initially I wanted to play 1,500 pts, but Daniel would have none of that and wanted 1,750pts. I threw in 200pts of Sporadic Sturmies to bring my force up from 1,495 to 1,695. The night was getting late and I didn't want to bother with the other 55pts.

Here's my force:

229th Separate Tank Regiment
HQ Sherman
8x Shermans
8x Shermans
3x BA-10M's
2x SU-152's
Limited Sturmoviks

Daniel ran the tank Finn force.

By memory he had:

2x KV-1E's
4x T-28's
4x T-26's
1x Platoon of Pioneers
2x BT-42's
1x Platoon of mortars
2x Flak vehicles

I'm sure I am forgetting the rest of his force.

Onto the battle. Roadblock has the attacker select a platoon to ambush. Daniel pleaded and whined and finally I decided on the T-26's. The T-26 and T-28 had the same gun, so I went with the platoon with weaker armor to wipe them out.

The Shermans ambushed, while Daniel had the KV-1's escort the T-26's.


The Road

Random pics of D-man vs Paul

I took these pics awhile ago; actually I took them back in August when D-Man was here.

In honor of D-Man's b-day, I thought it appropriate to finally put them up. Okay, I admit, the pics got lost in the Photobucket shuffle. Sorry D-Man! =)

First of all, before you go and try to analyze what force D-Man is trying to model, save yourself the time. D-Man never met an Army List he didn't ignore. The battle for D-Man is how many big cats he can place on the table. LOL

The pics do memorialize the special day when D-Man brought KT 214 out for its first test spin. I've posted the pics recently of the King Tiger Sentinel painted for D-Man on a rush order.

It's also the 2nd game. D-Man blew up my tanks rather quickly in the first game. I lasted long enough for Paul to arrive to take the next shift. Paul's a great guy and put his Soviets up against D-Man's cats. The Mission parameters was basically line up the tanks and start shooting - - just what D-Man likes. =)

Here's the pics of the game.

A small sample of D-Man's cats.


Paul's scary white legs and a line of tanks.


Paul sends a big platoon towards Pz IV's and StuGs on the left flank.


They die gloriously!



Paul calls in the VVS for air support!



IS-2 get in on the action.


KT214 goes up in smoke to the VVS! There was much cheering and D-Man covering his face in shame and disgust.


KT 214 and Dedov share a vodka after the battle.



A fun game was had by all and a great way to send D-Man home. Thanks to Paul for being on the receiving end of several 88mm shells.

Mid-War AAR: 229th vs Mittlere PzKp

Paul invited me over to his place for a game of FOW. It took a couple of weeks for a weekend to free up, but we got a game in two weeks ago.

Hold the Line was rolled for the mission and Paul "won" the dice roll to attack.

229th Separate Tank Regiment
HQ Sherman M4A2
8x Sherman M4A2 w/tankos
8x Sherman M4A2 w/tankos (reserve)
2x SU-152 (ambush)
3x BA-10M (reserve)

I'm not 100% solid on Paul's panzerkompanie.

Best guess -

Mittlere Panzerkompanie
HQ Pz IIIJ, Pz IVF2, Famo
3x Pz IVF1
4x Pz IIIJ
3x Pz IVF2
4x Pz 38(t)
2x SdKfz 7(20mm Flak)




The battleground with me defending the close table edge. Paul slapped his objective on the other side of the river bend. I thought I was screwed when he did that because the whole area was open. I considered if I made the right choice for table side to defend.

I place my objective in the trees. Paul painted the objective as a smoking Su-152; I hoped it wasn't a bad omen.



And away we go! Game starts. Paul starts by bogging 2 of this tanks in the forest. FAMO trundles over, avoids a bog, to help out.



Panzer III platoon says "Cya!" to the bogged tanks.



I doubled my Sherman platoon into the village, hiding behind buildings and seeking concealment. See the group of 3 tanks facing the building? Okay, now look at the middle tank. That boy didn't move the rest of the game for various reasons. It got crowded and there was no place to put him without putting him in the open and losing concealment for the rest of the platoon. That tank didn't shoot or move and the crew just picked their nose the whole game. =)



Pz 38(t)'s making a dash down Paul's right flank past the 2iC burning tank.



Paul second point of attack reaches the road. I manage to pick off a tank using the 32" range of the Sherman 75mm. It's a big difference versus a T-34's 76mm range of 24". Pauls Pz III's can't hurt me at 32".



Paul's cat, looking for belly rubs between turns.



At this point I realize I have nothing to contest an objective once Paul's tanks reach it. I send the dismounted tankos out into the open and racing towards the objective. They suffer heavily, but rally from pinning and proceed towards the objective.

Paul's F1's smoke a couple of my Shermans, while the Pz 38(t) go for the flank. This first platoon of Shermans did yeoman's work, scored good kills on Paul's forces.

It's been about 2 turns, no reserves for me and I'm holding onto my ambush.



Paul sneaking to the edge of the village. We try to snipe one another. Paul leaves a couple of tanks in the open, which means no concealment.



Reserves arrive. I form a gunline. This formation is bad news if artillery or airpower is present.

Tanko survivors hang onto the objective.



Paul's forces take a withering fire. Not shown in the screen is the decimated Pz III platoon with its lone survivor fleeing the board. Paul picked up the burning hulks because he knew the end was near.

What's not apparent in the photos is how close Paul is to winning. His AA flak platforms kept blowing apart the tankos. I had nothing to contest that objective. I waited too long to pop my ambush, otherwise the Su-152's would be in that forest.



The Pz 38(t)'s eventually sneak into the forest (I back 4 tanks into the forest - bogging 1 - after this photo to counter the flanking maneuver) and get side shots on the Shermans. He finds out that AT6 versus SA4, doesn't work too well. I make my saves and then rotate the turrets and blow apart the 38t's.

What slowed down the 38(t)'s were the BA-10's, who skirted around the other side of the forest to threaten them. It cost Paul a couple of turns to deal with them (making them Disengage twice).

I pop the Su-152's on Turn 4. They blow up the CiC with FP1+. Paul is down too many platoons and auto-fails.

Game to the 229th!

I'm getting used to the 229th. The trick is to make sure I am focusing all my fire on one platoon at a time. I want at least 5 tanks firing. When the platoon is stationary, I was rolling 10-14 dice at a time. Even if I need 6's, I'm going to get 1 or 2 and with FP 3+, there's a good chance a panzer is going to die.

Another thing I learned - the tankos aren't sacrificial lambs. I was close to morale checks with the 1st platoon. If Paul killed a couple more tankos, I ran the risk of the Sherman platoon failing morale and leaving even though they only lost 2 tanks.

The 2nd platoon's gunline was devastating. 16 dice of goodness roaring down range made short work of that flank and kept the objective from being claimed.

Paul also failed all of his platoon checks. A bit of bad luck there. There's also the matter of a couple of failed Stormtrooper rolls that left the F1 and IIIJ tank platoons in the open and exposed.

Paul's fun to play with and his fiance was gracious enough to cook a Thai meal. Yum!!!

AAR - Nephew versus the 3rd Gv Mech Corps

D my nephew is in town for the next couple of weeks. He's been chomping at the bit to play FOW, going so far as texting me taunts for the past month. His FOW experience started last year when he last came to visit and was immediately hooked.

I rolled up Hold the Line, but D isn't really interested than any other mission that doesn't involve two sides facing off across an open table and blasting away at each other. Taking and holding objectives is unnecessary distraction to the desired festival of slaughter and carnage he wants to bestow on my forces. In short, he likes to blow things up.

D wanted to use his 5 Tigers from the Tigers Marsch box that he painted up. Plus, he bought 3 Stukas and wanted them to be in his force as well. Given that SS-Tigers in the box is nearly 1,300 points and the Stukas at least another 100+ points, he was set. I placed 17 Shermans (CO, 2 platoon of 8 Shermans), 3 ISU-122's and 3 BA-64's to round out my 1,500 points. Basically, I subtracted the IL-2's and Spetsnaz from my force. Sure, I was giving him some extra points, but he's my nephew.

The ISU-122's were deployed on a hill with two good lanes of fire to dominate the center table. The two Sherman platoons split up and took one side of the table for some flanking action. D kampfgrupped his CO and one Tiger and placed them in the center while the other 3 Tigers held his left flank behind the forest.

I took pics, but they more for D to take home with him rather than an extensive Battle Report. He posed with several of his tanks and Stukas to show his friends.

D's Tiger Ace skills are the anti-bogging one and ROF3.

The first game was Stuka heaven. I lost the 1st Platoon on Turn 1. I foolishly grouped them together. He took out 4 tanks, bailed 1 and it promptly failed morale. Sad face for me.

The ISU's destroyed 1 Tiger. They had another chance at killing another Tiger, in fact, I had 2 hits, but my FP roll is snake eyes!! Arrgh! Sad face for me again.

The Stukas showed up again and blew up one ISU. Eventually, they would come again and again and finally remove the only threat to his Tigers.

The Shermans had no chance. The game ended up with 2nd Platoon hiding in the forest. I forced D's Tigers to come get me. The Shermans did manage to get 2 penetrating side shots. Firepower check! One and one. Snake Eyes again! Arrggh! Sad face again!

I made a show of me repeatedly hitting my head on the table and D patting my back, saying "there, there".

2nd Platoon is reduced to smoking hulks. Game over. Only the Company Commander and the Platoon Leader survive the inform STAVKA to send heavier tanks to the sector!


The 2nd game, saw D putting 2 Tigers away and then adding 3 Jpz IV's, a Panther, 2 88's and 2 PaK40's. Again, D is all about getting to use the models he has built and painted. Historically accurate lists only get in the way. D gets Clever Hans again.

I kept my list the same.

This time, I spread out my Shermans. I stretched them to the limit of the 4" command radius. The image of those Stukas smoking a platoon on the first turn is still fresh in my mind. Still, I deployed in similar fashion, albeit with more space between the vehicles.

D put 3 Tigers on the left flank behind the forest. The Panther took the road and the 3 Jpz IV's held the middle behind a hill. The 88's were also in the middle and the PaK40's took the extreme right flank.

I won first turn, the ISU-122's took pot shots at the 88's, but missed. 1st Platoon on the left flank headed up and hid behind the trees. Ditto for 2nd Platoon, though 4 of the tanks turned their turrets to face the menace of the Jpz IV's and the 88's. Finally, I rushed the BA-64's to a bend in the road. My plan was to bait D into moving his Panther. I hoped if he advanced his Panther, 1st Platoon could eventually reach a position for flanking shots.

D pushed his Jpz's forward and blocked the LOS of the 88's! He didn't realize it until he wanted to shoot. The Panther moved up and blew up a BA-64's. The armored car patrol failed to disengage and watched their comrade BBQ inside his vehicle. The Jpz fire was ineffective against the ISU's. The Tigers moved into the trees, bogging one. No Stukas showed up on any of the 5 dice. Whew.

On my next turn, 1st Platoon pushed forward, some skirting around the trees, and 3 tanks going into the trees (no bogs this time, yay!). The platoon was positioned well to shoot at the PaK's and still hide from the Panther. The two BA-64's rushed past the Panther, again providing tempting targets and giving D a choice to shoot them or risk both cars rushing behind his AT guns (either 88's or PaK 40's). The ISU's blew up a Jpz IV. 2nd Platoon bailed another.

D reply was to blow another BA-64 away with his Panther and bails the other. The Tigers trundle on into the forest. The bogged Tiger remains bogged. His Jpz IV remounts and joints in getting 2 hits on the ISU's. They both bounce. The 88's get a clear shot at a Sherman and blow it away. Stukas fail to arrive.

The Jpz IV platoon evaporates under the combined fire of the ISU's and Shermans. So do the 2 PaK 40's, thanks to 4 tanks of 1st Platoon. The platoon leader and 2 other tanks risk bogging and exit the trees, and see the beautiful flank of the Panther. The Panther brews up. The sole surviving BA-64 rushes to flank the 88's. Part of 2nd Platoon reverses to pull away from the trees, anticipating the Tigers.

Stukas don't show up on 3 dice. D is getting frustrated, wondering if his guys are drinking too much Schnaps. Two Tigers get to the edge of the trees and they kill one Sherman. The 88's bail another.

1st Platoon, freed from the Panther threat, charge up the left flank and aim at the 88's. 2nd Platoon moves around the corner of the forest, away from the Tigers to concentrate on the 88's.

Game is pretty much set here. I'm trying to get D to fail Company morale, rather than destroy his Tigers. This happens in the next 2 turns. His Stukas do show up (2 dice), but he misses both shots. =(.

D's elation for the night is somewhat deflated because of his Stukas. I say it happens and airpower can be unpredictable. D says he spread his forces too wide. It's the good general who can recognize his mistakes after the game. I'm proud of him.

Good and fun games though.

D announced his German army is complete. He then bought himself a M4A1 Sherman, a Sherman 105 and an AOP Grasshopper. His next army is going to be American. =) D is happy again at the prospects of his next force.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turns 6 and Conclusion

Only Pete's grenadiers stood in the way of the objective once the AT ambush was eliminated.

Pete was free to pull his Marders away from the removed objective and he did so last turn. The surviving Shermans of the Right Flank Platoon moved their 6", trying to get a clear LOS at the Marders between the small hill and the trees. Two tanks had good LOS. Amazingly one Marder was hit and destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Left Flank platoon moved up, managed 2 Main Gun hits and 2 MG hits on the dug in grenadiers. Pete made all his saves.

Assault phase.

I won't add any more pics. It was back and forth and back and forth.

1st round, I don't kill anything. Pete passes tank fear and charges.
2nd round, I kill 2 stands and Pete's Panzerknacker kills 1 M4.
3rd round, I kill 1 stand, Panzerknacker kills another M4.
4th round, I kill 1 and Pete kills 2 M4's. (this is getting ugly)
5th round, I miss and Pete's bails an M4.
6th round, I remount and kill 1 stand. Pete bails another M4.
7th round, I kill 1 stand and he bails. I fail motivation and break off.

I think Pete's CO with the Panzerknacker killed or bailed all the tanks except 1.

Conscript tanks need more than 6 tanks before assaulting dug in grenadiers.

Pete rolled extremely well, though, he admitted. It didn't seem that way to me. I thought Pete's dice rolling was right about average during the assault.

Left Platoon is wiped or captured. Right Platoon is in no condition to contest the far objective.

Game over.

Good game, Pete!

I do hope visitors enjoyed the AAR using Battle Chronicler. I'm sure some of you would have preferred the AAR all in one post. Perhaps in the future when my AAR skills improve. I took copious amounts of notes and pictures to build the maps and then to describe the turn by turn action.

I think Battle Chronicler is a great tool and I'll certainly try to do another AAR with it soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turns 4 and 5

229th Turn 4


After surviving the ambush relatively unscathed, the Left Flank Platoon advances (6", thank you very much Hen & Chick) to confront the AT gun ambush. I manage 2 hits with 75mm main guns and 3 hits with machine guns. It's enough to destroy two AT guns and pin the surviving gun.

The Right Flank platoon risk bogging to advance to the edge of the trees. They all make the short trip without bogging. The orphaned tank behind them fails his Skill Test and remains bogged. I can't get too aggressive with the three Marders lurking. However, I felt the threat of Right Flank Platoon might keep his Marders from shifting to help the grenadiers.

Pete's Grenadiers Turn 4


Pete pulls the objective on the right flank. Also, he begins moving his 2nd Grenadier platoon to assist their comrades manning the left flank.

In a very spiteful act, the surviving AT gun unpins, then unloads on the Left Flank Platoon, achieving 3 hits and killing the Platoon Leader and another Sherman. Ouch!!!


229th Turn 5


Left Flank Platoon removes the last AT gun after more of tanks move up. The command section of the AT guns fails motivation and leaves the board.

Right Flank Platoon sits tight because the Marders are still behind the hill.

Pete's Grenadiers Turn 5


Pete's 2nd grenadier platoon marches to help the other grenadiers. In the meantime, the Marders make their move. With no objective to defend, Pete leaves to go help out his threatened flank.


Next up...the climatic conclusion to the battle.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turns 2 and 3

229th Turn 2


Left and right flanks advance, using trees to shield them.

Pete's Turn 2


Or so I thought. Pete's Marders advance around the trees and take out an M4A2, then stormtrooper towards the small hill. Nebelwerfers range in and manage to bail a Sherman.


229th Turn 3


Shermans on the left flank skirt the edge of the forest. The bailed crew thinks being outside a rocket bombardment is very bad and hop back into their tank.

On the right flank, the Shermans take the risky option of moving through the forest. All tanks make it except the Platoon Leader, who bogs. He promptly hops out of his tank and takes over another tank so the platoon can keep moving.

Pete's Turn 3


Pete springs his PaK38 50mm AT gun ambush. He gets 6 hits on 9 shots (ROF 3 for each gun) and bails 1 Sherman. I make 5 armor saves.

Pete also elects to withdraw the Nebels from the board. Marder III's move back behind the small hill.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Turn 1

Here's Turn 1 courtesy of Battle Chronicler. The "bending" movement arrows are a new feature of the Beta version.


229th Turn 1


On the left flank, the CiC led the other 7 M4's behind the trees by moving 12". Pete's nebels failed to range in on the group.

Switching to the right flank, the 6 M4's moved 12", using the hill as cover.


Panzergrenadiers Turn 1


Pete's nebels failed to range in on the left flank group of tanks. No other action on this side of the table. I knew the AT gun ambush is still out there and waiting for me.

The understrength platoon lost one of their number when the Marder III's popped from behind the small hill and killed one M4A2. The Marders them failed their Stormtrooper skill test, but it wouldn't matter because I wasn't going to stop moving 12" for a long range shot needing 5's to hit on my shooting phase next turn.

229th vs Pete's Panzergrenadiers - Deployment

The Realm was hopping on Wednesday. Several FOW people were there and were either painting, modeling or creating buildings. Daniel and Paul had a big Strelkovy vs Finns game scheduled for later, but Pete was game enough to give me a game. I had brought my daughter with me because she wanted to see what I do with all the models tanks in my collection. Before the game was set up, she noticed there was a beading store in the same strip mall and was out the door and spent the next 2 hours over there. Girls!

Pete and I decided on a 1,000pt game. I originally suggested 600pts, but Pete said it's easier for him to slap together a 1,000pt force.

229th Separate Tank Regiment

HQ - M4A2
Company 1 - 7x M4A2
Company 2 - 6x M4A2

Pete's Grenadiers

HQ
Grenaider Platoon - 7 stands
Grenaider Platoon - 7 stands
AT Platoon - 3xPak38 50cm ROF3 - in ambush
Nebelwerfers - 2 launchers
Tank Hunters - 3x Marder IIIM

We rolled up Fighting Withdrawal.

Pete put his objective in the center (can't be removed) and I placed my two objectives on the flank to spread out his forces.

I arrived at the Realm with camera and notepad. I wanted to takes notes and then put the notes and pics to good use and create an AAR using Battle Chronicler.

Below is an exported map of the Deployment. (click on picture for 100% version)




Turns 1 and 2 to follow soon.

654th Jagdpanzer versus Strelkovy

Finally I managed to get in a game at The Realm on Wednesday. Daniel had played 3 games this week and was burned out on FOW and gearing up for an Ia Drang battle. Luckily, Jeff pulled in and was eager to play like I was.

We rolled the Encounter mission. I don't remember the exact composition of his force, except that he had 2 big infantry blobs, a GOW battery, and 3 IS-2's with tankos.

I chose to deploy the StuGs and a grenadier platoon, while keeping the other grenadier platoon and mortars in reserve. The StuGs and grenadiers held the right flank opposite one of Jeff's infantry blobs. The command group of Jagdpanthers and Noak stood in the center across from the GOW battery.

On the first turn, I was lucky and blew two of Jeff's artillery pieces off the hill. The CiC, 2iC and Noak spent turns shooting up the artillery. After the game against Erik's Nisei, I'm very conscious about artillery because the support units of the 654th are Confident Trained and all my armor is Top Armor 1.

The StuGs on the right flank weren't enough to stop the blob. I lost one to arty. 3 hull MG's aren't enough to pin a Strelkovy company. I also didn't advice my grenadiers and dig them in. Instead, I kept them in the trees near the objective, allowing Jeff to advance with minimal casualties.

I got my first reserves and promptly put another grenadier company along with the other one. Again, it didn't advance and all it did was get in the way of the first grenadier platoon and inhibit the maneuver room of the StuGs.

My Jagdpanther platoon arrived on the left flank and charged after the artillery. I knocked Jeff's artillery down out of the re-roll targeting phase, but didn't get him below the magic number.

It also put the Jagds in danger of Jeff's reserves, which showed up the next turn in the form of IS-2's. He had two butt shots on the Jagdpanthers, but only managed to kill one. Whew.

I knew the right flank was going to collapse with a fading CT infantry and bailed StuGs. I wanted to pick off the IS-2's to gain a VP. Jeff rolled 3 saves versus AT16 and I only managed to kill one and bail one.

After assaults and flamethrowers and sappers, the right flank went poof and Jeff captured the objective.

Loss, 1-6.

Good game, Jeff!

Platoon of the match: Noak and the command Jagdpanthers destroyed 5 artillery pieces and 1 IS-2.

The AAR is a little sparse on the turn by turn blows. Instead, I want to focus on the things I learned.

This is my 4th game with the list and I'm 0-3 versus infantry lists.

Against infantry, especially big blobs, I need the mortars. I should have brought them on to pin the Strelkovy as the first reserves. Secondly, I should have used the StuGs to kill the arty observer in the trees. I focused on the blog instead of the observer and paid the price. Finally, I should have advanced the infantry and dug them in. I didn't because I was worried about CT troops getting hit in the open by arty.

I'm seeing where I need to improve with this list. Jeff was real aggressive with the Strelkovy, not fearing 7 stands of CT infantry. Perhaps a platoon of HMG's, could've discouraged him from the advance in the open. The mortars might have, because he asked if I had a template weapon deployed early.

I could swap a grenadier platoon for 10 stand pioneer. I get 3 flame throwers, but lose the R/MG of the grenadiers, which cuts down on my MG dice. The pioneers get pinned easily as CT, further reducing their defensive fire.

All vehicles in the list, except Noak, have only 1 MG. I need more MG dice against infantry.

I am toying with dropping the 2iC Jagdpanther and going with Noak and 3 Jagdpanthers for heavy tanks. The StuGs aren't going anywhere because I'll need them when I face Shermans and T-34's.

The extra points will allow me to add anti-aircraft vehicles for dual purpose use and a HMG squad. I'm not making changes yet. It's only been 4 games with the 654th. I'm still learning how to play it effectively against all armies.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Its Memorial Day Weekend here in the US. Take the time to remember those who serve our country before putting the first steak on the BBQ.

In Game Pics!

First roll of the dice versus the arty. Needing 5's to hit.


The Infantry blob


We need more guys!


I hate Arty!!



2nd Jagdpanthers shoot take stock of the arty


Uh oh, here comes Jeff's reserves


Kill the IS-2's!!



Strelkovy roll tide!