The second of the two scenarios I played over the weekend was Kampfgruppe at Karachov from Journal #2 played on two halfboards. My opponent was David "I kill beaver not squirrel" Brown. I had played this before as the soviet and it was my belief that the sovs had the easier time of it; I wanted to play it as the German.
My initial set up put heavy emphasis on denying the use of 32I4. I put the 75L in 32C4, the HMG+8-1 in F4 and the 50*mtr in G5. The daisy chains went in I5 while the other I placed illegally and were lost to me. The 9-1+mmg stack went in I5. My plan was to slow the soviet down but above all not to lose a lot of troops so that the reinforcements could tip the scales at the end.
David moved on board pretty aggressively, although that is easy to do because of the cover of the woods. However, one of his last moves put a T-34 with a 458+.50cal+8-0 riding in hex 32Q5. This drew fire from my 9-1 stack, causing a two double breaks and a malfunctioned .50cal. Never use riders to carry a HMG; the target is too tempting as a bail out causes the MG to malfunction half the time. My half of turn 2 saw me skulking back after placing the daisy chain in hex I4.
David began maneuvering on turn two, bringing his t-34's into the woods hexes of K3 and K4, although it costs him one bogged tank. Keeping concealment, he sent a mess of troopers around the K2 crag hex with the 10-2, although I did not know that at the time. David took some licks up front, but did manage to break a couple of units as well, including the 9-1 stack. They fell back to get rallied by the 8-0 in hex H6.
Turn three was more of the same. David inched forward while I fell back, breaking some units in revenge for the space given up. My fire was able to keep David off balance, especially since both his 8-0 leaders were wounded by this time, making rallying a more difficult proposition.
Turn 4 saw the 10-2 stack making it's presence felt, forcing me to move out of the G2 area to the last few buildings on that side of the road. I still hadn't lost anything permanently. However, my 75L had broken after one shot, so David was able to move two tanks up, ending on in I9 and another freezing me in I5. His bogged tank ended up becoming immobilized, while another lost its MA.
At this point my counterattack came on board. My Stug (probably stupidly) took the bait of the isolated T-34 and cruised up to H9 for a mercy killing of the exposed T-34. The reason it was stupid is that by my next MPh, the sunken road was denied to me by the presence of soviet infantry. In essence I had traded one tank for one tank. My 838's took position in C1 and D5.
David was very much behind the curve at this point. My HMG, which had been firing with some effectiveness, became the object of a freeze move, followed by some aggressive movement by the 10-2. I could not seem to kill any tanks in CC, despite two ambushes and assault engineers. However, in the bottom of 5, my 75L repaired and David threw in the towel.
This is a popular scenario. I really chewed up my opponent the first time I played it, so I assumed it was pro-Soviet. ROAR disagrees, which I did not know when I suggested the scenario. The Germans have been winning a fair bit more often than the soviets. I tend to think that if the soviets do not crush the initial force before the reinforcements come on board, they will lack the strength to win.
My initial set up put heavy emphasis on denying the use of 32I4. I put the 75L in 32C4, the HMG+8-1 in F4 and the 50*mtr in G5. The daisy chains went in I5 while the other I placed illegally and were lost to me. The 9-1+mmg stack went in I5. My plan was to slow the soviet down but above all not to lose a lot of troops so that the reinforcements could tip the scales at the end.
David moved on board pretty aggressively, although that is easy to do because of the cover of the woods. However, one of his last moves put a T-34 with a 458+.50cal+8-0 riding in hex 32Q5. This drew fire from my 9-1 stack, causing a two double breaks and a malfunctioned .50cal. Never use riders to carry a HMG; the target is too tempting as a bail out causes the MG to malfunction half the time. My half of turn 2 saw me skulking back after placing the daisy chain in hex I4.
David began maneuvering on turn two, bringing his t-34's into the woods hexes of K3 and K4, although it costs him one bogged tank. Keeping concealment, he sent a mess of troopers around the K2 crag hex with the 10-2, although I did not know that at the time. David took some licks up front, but did manage to break a couple of units as well, including the 9-1 stack. They fell back to get rallied by the 8-0 in hex H6.
Turn three was more of the same. David inched forward while I fell back, breaking some units in revenge for the space given up. My fire was able to keep David off balance, especially since both his 8-0 leaders were wounded by this time, making rallying a more difficult proposition.
Turn 4 saw the 10-2 stack making it's presence felt, forcing me to move out of the G2 area to the last few buildings on that side of the road. I still hadn't lost anything permanently. However, my 75L had broken after one shot, so David was able to move two tanks up, ending on in I9 and another freezing me in I5. His bogged tank ended up becoming immobilized, while another lost its MA.
At this point my counterattack came on board. My Stug (probably stupidly) took the bait of the isolated T-34 and cruised up to H9 for a mercy killing of the exposed T-34. The reason it was stupid is that by my next MPh, the sunken road was denied to me by the presence of soviet infantry. In essence I had traded one tank for one tank. My 838's took position in C1 and D5.
David was very much behind the curve at this point. My HMG, which had been firing with some effectiveness, became the object of a freeze move, followed by some aggressive movement by the 10-2. I could not seem to kill any tanks in CC, despite two ambushes and assault engineers. However, in the bottom of 5, my 75L repaired and David threw in the towel.
This is a popular scenario. I really chewed up my opponent the first time I played it, so I assumed it was pro-Soviet. ROAR disagrees, which I did not know when I suggested the scenario. The Germans have been winning a fair bit more often than the soviets. I tend to think that if the soviets do not crush the initial force before the reinforcements come on board, they will lack the strength to win.