OA22 After the Disaster - AAR

von Marwitz

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OA22 After the Disaster - AAR

My second playing of the scenario, this time as the defending Russians instead of the attacking Germans.

I opted for putting some effort in delaying the Germans in their entry phase which worked to an extent. Ultimately, it cost me a few squads that could not fall back in time after breaking (though I misplayed at least one that should have escaped). I did have a strong position around the central building but not as massive as the one of my previous Russian opponent.

When my tanks entered, I was able to catch one of the German King Tigers in Motion in an unfavorable position. The AFPh shot did not yield a hit alas. As the key to this scenario for the Russian IMHO is to inflict German vehicle losses for the large amount of CVP these generate, I was of course looking forward to kill the King Tiger next turn.

The Germans assaulted my IS-2 with both King Tigers - quite audacious, as I would gladly trade one of my IS-2 vs. a King Tiger. I hit one in the turret (good) but the shot did not penetrate (bad). That was the end of my first IS-2 which had at least served the purpose to keep the King Tigers busy and managed to have them maneuver out of the focus of the German attack.

The German reinforcements entered rather cautiously. The position of the Russian Guns was known to the Germans before their entry and had caused some KIAs among the German infantry. Of course, this enabled the Germans to move their vehicles to avoid the threat of the guns. Nevertheless, I did manage to dispatch of one of the Panthers before one Gun crew was taken out.

I concentrated my tanks with the other Gun on one side of the building to be able to put up a significant threat to any approaching German AFVs. At this point, the Germans should have advanced agressively towards the central building from the other side but instead elected to pound it for a turn from the distance. This might have been a mistake that cost him the game.

The King Tigers approached from the far side, my tanks fired and hit - but only the impenetrable hulls. The return fire cost me another IS-2. On the bright side, I killed a ht with MG fire and continued to harm and delay the German infantry that attempted to close in.

In Turn 6, the Germans had closed in and the Russians were under dire pressure. At that point, I was missing 11 CVP to push the Germans over the CVP-cap. The surviving crew of one of my IS-2's had managed to recover a Gun, the original crew of which had previously died. A Sniper recalled one of the King Tigers, while I lost another IS-2 with one remaining.

Before the last German half-turn, I had mostly brokies with some GO Russians that had advanced out of Trenches into the central building in both levels. So the Germans needed to kill everything at Ground Level, move in to eliminate most of the upper Level units for FtR and to break the rest by Advancing Fire or to kill them in CC. In addition; the 127 crew of the remaining Gun would need to be killed or scared away from it.

My infantry got a severe beating but still managed to stop some Russians closing in. More importantly, some of the units at Ground Level survived the PFPh. At the start of the German last MPh, the Recalled King Tiger had to move first. The Russian vehicular crew turned around the 122L Gun for a shot, got a turret hit and killed the King Tiger! Still one CVP to go to push the Russians over the CVP cap. This was finally achieved by a FPF-shot of a surviving Russian squad that scored a K/2 on an approaching 468 for a Russian win.

Good and fun scenario to play both as the Germans and the Russians with interesting toys in it. Recommended.

von Marwitz
 
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von Marwitz

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Why? Nothing in D5.341 says it has to move first. Perhaps there is another rule I overlooked?
Interesting! Reviewing the rules, I could not find anything in the rules to that effect, either. Probably, I had in mind, that possible Passengers/Riders must first unload/dismount before the vehicle can begin to move towards the friendly board edge. I must have played that wrong for years...

For the sake of our game, it would not have made a difference, though, because even if I had not destroyed the tank (possibly later during the MPh) the Germans did not gain Control of the central building.

von Marwitz
 
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