Tripps
Member
While its still fresh in my mind I thought i'd jot it all down.
As the Russians in the winter of '45 (minus the snow), and 1000 ME points to choose from, i went through both sides selection options before finalising.
3 T34's (plt)
Company of green Rifle
Platoon of green SMG
3 82mm Mortars,
1 HMG
2 76mm gun (long barrel) I think off the top of my head M42?
1 76mm gun (short barrel)
1 Jeep
I wanted a force that would suit all circumstances and although I was light on HMG's i figured the direct fire 85mm HE from the T34's would more than compensate for this.
Upon seeing the map, small rolling hills with moderate trees, 2 flags in the middle in a little village - i looked at overall strategy.
I had 2 reasonable starting spots for overlooking guns near the center and a little off to the right of center, as well as a good position for the Company HQ spotting for 2 of the mortars - he could also provide HQ bonus to the 2 guns.
I put the short barrel gun in the most obvious position - to be honest, he was more bait, I figured if anything opened up it was going to be taken out quick, so i thought i would use this gun first to test counter battery fire from ER.
The 3rd 76mm gun was attached to the jeep to move to a more favourable position.
1 plt of Rifle was to move up from the middle-ish - split squads, and moving early - for obvious reasons, they were the decoy
On my left was quite a large hill but no cover on it - on the other side towards ER was a large block of trees, and i thought he would make for that to provide 1. flanking fire on the objectives, and 2. a launching pad for the smaller flag.
So 1 T34 went up there along with a platoon of Rifle, there was a wheatfield, so i was hoping they would be able to flank his flankers
It was a long shot, but something had to go up there.
Also the remaining mortar in some trees further back, with different LOS angles than the other support guns.
The right flank was the push, 2 squads of rifle on the backs of T34's with the remaining squads and the SMG plt following along behind, to cut inwards through some trees and light buildings towards the main flag.
The 2 T34's moved down into a sheltered valley which then rose on ER's side, they moved up this until they had LOS to the middle and turned inwards.
Risky? Would ER move a AFV over the hill and engage the T34's from the exposed flank? I doubt it, the 2 squads provided cover and 'eyes' - and at least one gun had LOS to the hill.
Game starts, ER has quite a lot moving up the middle, well, a lot of contact markers anyways
My left hand T34 starts dueling with a StuG? at the far right diagonally across the map, but with low percentages to hit we both withdraw.
The T34's start pounding his advancing markers, taking out 1 HT, and scattering his advance in the middle.
About 6 turns in my jeep on my right has just found a good spot for his towed gun when HMG fire starts hitting that area, i unhitch the gun but the jeep does not survive the HMG fire (his HT dropped it off before being hit).
There goes any further repositioning, and ER knows there is a gun here now.
What surprised me at the time was the spotting of the gun/jeep - it was through quite a few trees, and made me even more cautious about opening up with the guns on the hill.
The mortars had joined in with the T34's - just a little, just to compound the damage from the T34's.
About a third of the way in ER opens up with a gun on my left hand T34 from right back near his end of the map, it gets one shot off before being targetted back in return, and the close shot eliminates the gun (PAK 75 as it turns out) - good stuff 85mm HE
It also confirmed cover in the winter without the snow - there is none!
My guns were staying quiet for the time being....
ER did open up with 1/4 of a light arty spotters ammo - so i knew he had that now.
And there begun a period of calm, where the birds came out and sung songs, men hiding in the trees and shacks ate some iron rations and had a drink, every now and then a few shots rung out to disturb the peace, just enough to remind everyone there was a war on
Anyways, during this time i was stealthily getting my SMG plt up to the main flag, starting with split squads in case of ambush, and the rifle plt up the secondary flag - same process.
Whenever they got close however, ER's troops would open fire and because they were green and split, they bailed - real quick, which is not a bad thing because it meant they didnt hang around and die :laugh:
And they would recover and try again, each time revealing more of ER's forces.
All this mucking about came to an end in the final third of the game, started with ER opening a can of 150mm on a shack killing the 2 guys inside, and being targetted in return with the remaining ammo from the 2 82mm's on the hill.
I was relieved, because now i could move them away, and if the guns did open up, and ER returned fire with the arty spotter, it wouldnt be targetting 2 guns, 2 mortars, and an HQ...
With ER taking out the building with the 150mm, the dust blocked LOS to the little 76mm gun and his StuG?, so I opened up with it, area targeting areas of his likely buildup, as well as with the right hand 76mm, which couldnt be shot at by the StuG?.
Er moved his StuG? forward, and i engaged with my remaining gun, it had a T round (the other had 7), which could penetrate, but it persisted in shooting AP rounds, which bounced every time.
The duel lasted as long as it took ER to realise he was not going to get a similar shot like i did on his PAK, and every time a 76mm shell bounced it would have made him worry - so, figuring fighting guns with AFV's is not a good idea, he withdraws - at the same time, I move my left hand T34 up from blocking LOS cover to get maybe a couple shots in while he's targeting the guns, and as it turns out, the StuG? loses LOS to the guns, spots the T34 instantly, swivels its body, and shoots... blah
Meanwhile my tank commander has finished scratching his ass just long enough to spot the incomming round - dasvidanya, comrade.
So, last few rounds, ER smokes with his arty on the main flag, and charges, i respond by moving 1 T34 in to cover the smaller flag, and everything possible shoot whatever they can on his forces moving in on the large flag.
In the end, 65%-35% to me, the main flag was neutral, the smaller flag mine.
The T34's did the lions share of the damage, with about 15 casualties each, followed by the guns and mortars averaging 4-5 each - plus ER's 2 guns.
ER's PIV L70 (forget the proper name off the top of my head, will edit when i get home) did about the same as the T34's, plus the T34 Kill.
Interesting game, came down to patience more than anything else, we were both very wary of each other, and was like two old wary lions circling each other rather than the mad chaos of other games
Would rather not play ER again, must have aged a few years in the short time period we played :laugh:
As the Russians in the winter of '45 (minus the snow), and 1000 ME points to choose from, i went through both sides selection options before finalising.
3 T34's (plt)
Company of green Rifle
Platoon of green SMG
3 82mm Mortars,
1 HMG
2 76mm gun (long barrel) I think off the top of my head M42?
1 76mm gun (short barrel)
1 Jeep
I wanted a force that would suit all circumstances and although I was light on HMG's i figured the direct fire 85mm HE from the T34's would more than compensate for this.
Upon seeing the map, small rolling hills with moderate trees, 2 flags in the middle in a little village - i looked at overall strategy.
I had 2 reasonable starting spots for overlooking guns near the center and a little off to the right of center, as well as a good position for the Company HQ spotting for 2 of the mortars - he could also provide HQ bonus to the 2 guns.
I put the short barrel gun in the most obvious position - to be honest, he was more bait, I figured if anything opened up it was going to be taken out quick, so i thought i would use this gun first to test counter battery fire from ER.
The 3rd 76mm gun was attached to the jeep to move to a more favourable position.
1 plt of Rifle was to move up from the middle-ish - split squads, and moving early - for obvious reasons, they were the decoy
On my left was quite a large hill but no cover on it - on the other side towards ER was a large block of trees, and i thought he would make for that to provide 1. flanking fire on the objectives, and 2. a launching pad for the smaller flag.
So 1 T34 went up there along with a platoon of Rifle, there was a wheatfield, so i was hoping they would be able to flank his flankers
It was a long shot, but something had to go up there.
Also the remaining mortar in some trees further back, with different LOS angles than the other support guns.
The right flank was the push, 2 squads of rifle on the backs of T34's with the remaining squads and the SMG plt following along behind, to cut inwards through some trees and light buildings towards the main flag.
The 2 T34's moved down into a sheltered valley which then rose on ER's side, they moved up this until they had LOS to the middle and turned inwards.
Risky? Would ER move a AFV over the hill and engage the T34's from the exposed flank? I doubt it, the 2 squads provided cover and 'eyes' - and at least one gun had LOS to the hill.
Game starts, ER has quite a lot moving up the middle, well, a lot of contact markers anyways
My left hand T34 starts dueling with a StuG? at the far right diagonally across the map, but with low percentages to hit we both withdraw.
The T34's start pounding his advancing markers, taking out 1 HT, and scattering his advance in the middle.
About 6 turns in my jeep on my right has just found a good spot for his towed gun when HMG fire starts hitting that area, i unhitch the gun but the jeep does not survive the HMG fire (his HT dropped it off before being hit).
There goes any further repositioning, and ER knows there is a gun here now.
What surprised me at the time was the spotting of the gun/jeep - it was through quite a few trees, and made me even more cautious about opening up with the guns on the hill.
The mortars had joined in with the T34's - just a little, just to compound the damage from the T34's.
About a third of the way in ER opens up with a gun on my left hand T34 from right back near his end of the map, it gets one shot off before being targetted back in return, and the close shot eliminates the gun (PAK 75 as it turns out) - good stuff 85mm HE
It also confirmed cover in the winter without the snow - there is none!
My guns were staying quiet for the time being....
ER did open up with 1/4 of a light arty spotters ammo - so i knew he had that now.
And there begun a period of calm, where the birds came out and sung songs, men hiding in the trees and shacks ate some iron rations and had a drink, every now and then a few shots rung out to disturb the peace, just enough to remind everyone there was a war on
Anyways, during this time i was stealthily getting my SMG plt up to the main flag, starting with split squads in case of ambush, and the rifle plt up the secondary flag - same process.
Whenever they got close however, ER's troops would open fire and because they were green and split, they bailed - real quick, which is not a bad thing because it meant they didnt hang around and die :laugh:
And they would recover and try again, each time revealing more of ER's forces.
All this mucking about came to an end in the final third of the game, started with ER opening a can of 150mm on a shack killing the 2 guys inside, and being targetted in return with the remaining ammo from the 2 82mm's on the hill.
I was relieved, because now i could move them away, and if the guns did open up, and ER returned fire with the arty spotter, it wouldnt be targetting 2 guns, 2 mortars, and an HQ...
With ER taking out the building with the 150mm, the dust blocked LOS to the little 76mm gun and his StuG?, so I opened up with it, area targeting areas of his likely buildup, as well as with the right hand 76mm, which couldnt be shot at by the StuG?.
Er moved his StuG? forward, and i engaged with my remaining gun, it had a T round (the other had 7), which could penetrate, but it persisted in shooting AP rounds, which bounced every time.
The duel lasted as long as it took ER to realise he was not going to get a similar shot like i did on his PAK, and every time a 76mm shell bounced it would have made him worry - so, figuring fighting guns with AFV's is not a good idea, he withdraws - at the same time, I move my left hand T34 up from blocking LOS cover to get maybe a couple shots in while he's targeting the guns, and as it turns out, the StuG? loses LOS to the guns, spots the T34 instantly, swivels its body, and shoots... blah
Meanwhile my tank commander has finished scratching his ass just long enough to spot the incomming round - dasvidanya, comrade.
So, last few rounds, ER smokes with his arty on the main flag, and charges, i respond by moving 1 T34 in to cover the smaller flag, and everything possible shoot whatever they can on his forces moving in on the large flag.
In the end, 65%-35% to me, the main flag was neutral, the smaller flag mine.
The T34's did the lions share of the damage, with about 15 casualties each, followed by the guns and mortars averaging 4-5 each - plus ER's 2 guns.
ER's PIV L70 (forget the proper name off the top of my head, will edit when i get home) did about the same as the T34's, plus the T34 Kill.
Interesting game, came down to patience more than anything else, we were both very wary of each other, and was like two old wary lions circling each other rather than the mad chaos of other games
Would rather not play ER again, must have aged a few years in the short time period we played :laugh:
