von Marwitz
Forum Guru
RPT105 Flaming Star - AAR
In this small 5.5 Turn 1945 late-war shoot-out, the Russians need to rush quite some distance forward to capture more than half of the given building hexes. They are supported by 6 bad-ass IS-2 tanks. The Germans have not enough infantry to cover too much ground and thus need to do their best to delay the Russians. In this they are aided by 4 Tiger I tanks, which cannot stand up to the IS-2's but as long as they are in commission, they will be able to seriously impede the Russian infantry.
I had played this before as the Germans. In that playing, I placed all 4 Tigers way back together behind the hege in the 44AA hexrow. The idea was to prevent the Russian ganging up on just a pair of Tigers had I deployed them 2 each on each flank. The infantry was more forward. It needs to be and I thought its PF might dissuade the IS-2 to get too close to the Tigers. My cardinal mistake, though, was not to garrison the 44S7 building because everything within would be stuck there with no chance to retreat. The Germans have to man that building, though, to delay the Russian approach. What happened in my game was that the Russians moved an IS-2 behind the wall in bypass of 44S7. This compromised my entire defense: The Tigers would only be able to score turret hits against a Turret armor of 18 with their TK of 20. In turn, that Russian tank would be able to pick of one Tiger per Fire Phase. Doh! Serious, serious mistake not to garrison the 44S7 building with sacrificial infantry so I lost that playing.
Well, this time, I would be the Russians to see how the Germans would undertake to pull it off.
When I received the German setup, I quickly realized that this would probably be a short game. Doing some LOS calculation and eyeballing, I was sure that I'd see two German Tigers from my setup-area and it did seem likely that I'd see a third one. I set up 2 IS-2's each CE so that they could attempt Prep Fire shots vs. the Tigers in Russian Turn 1. Even taking Mist into effect, in case LOS would be there, I would be looking at 5x a Final TH of 7 and 1x a Final TH of 6. As a hit with an IS-2 vs. a Tiger is almost certain to take it out, chances were that I would destroy at least two and still with good probability all 3 Tigers targeted.
And this is exactly what happened: 3 of the 4 Tigers went down in the first Russian PFPh, predecided the game. With the Tigers gone, my Infantry could move rather freely and I had even 2 IS-2's free to move.
As ASL is ASL, and crazy things can happen, we went on to play. The German infantry shifted a little, the last German Tiger changed position, but there was of course the writing on the wall for him to be rushed.
In the AFPh of Russian Turn 2, the last German Tiger went up in a blaze and the garrison of the 44S7 building was broken (8-1 GO, 467+MMG had been reduced to a broken HS) and a Russian 628+LMG with the 9-2 was sitting ADJACENT. So at the start of German Turn 2, the situation was quite hopeless for the German defender and we called it a day.
That my Russians won so easily was definitively the result of the German setup that allowed me to pick off the Tigers before they could even fire a shot.
Here is a picture of the Situation at the start of German Turn 2 when he conceded:
von Marwitz
In this small 5.5 Turn 1945 late-war shoot-out, the Russians need to rush quite some distance forward to capture more than half of the given building hexes. They are supported by 6 bad-ass IS-2 tanks. The Germans have not enough infantry to cover too much ground and thus need to do their best to delay the Russians. In this they are aided by 4 Tiger I tanks, which cannot stand up to the IS-2's but as long as they are in commission, they will be able to seriously impede the Russian infantry.
I had played this before as the Germans. In that playing, I placed all 4 Tigers way back together behind the hege in the 44AA hexrow. The idea was to prevent the Russian ganging up on just a pair of Tigers had I deployed them 2 each on each flank. The infantry was more forward. It needs to be and I thought its PF might dissuade the IS-2 to get too close to the Tigers. My cardinal mistake, though, was not to garrison the 44S7 building because everything within would be stuck there with no chance to retreat. The Germans have to man that building, though, to delay the Russian approach. What happened in my game was that the Russians moved an IS-2 behind the wall in bypass of 44S7. This compromised my entire defense: The Tigers would only be able to score turret hits against a Turret armor of 18 with their TK of 20. In turn, that Russian tank would be able to pick of one Tiger per Fire Phase. Doh! Serious, serious mistake not to garrison the 44S7 building with sacrificial infantry so I lost that playing.
Well, this time, I would be the Russians to see how the Germans would undertake to pull it off.
When I received the German setup, I quickly realized that this would probably be a short game. Doing some LOS calculation and eyeballing, I was sure that I'd see two German Tigers from my setup-area and it did seem likely that I'd see a third one. I set up 2 IS-2's each CE so that they could attempt Prep Fire shots vs. the Tigers in Russian Turn 1. Even taking Mist into effect, in case LOS would be there, I would be looking at 5x a Final TH of 7 and 1x a Final TH of 6. As a hit with an IS-2 vs. a Tiger is almost certain to take it out, chances were that I would destroy at least two and still with good probability all 3 Tigers targeted.
And this is exactly what happened: 3 of the 4 Tigers went down in the first Russian PFPh, predecided the game. With the Tigers gone, my Infantry could move rather freely and I had even 2 IS-2's free to move.
As ASL is ASL, and crazy things can happen, we went on to play. The German infantry shifted a little, the last German Tiger changed position, but there was of course the writing on the wall for him to be rushed.
In the AFPh of Russian Turn 2, the last German Tiger went up in a blaze and the garrison of the 44S7 building was broken (8-1 GO, 467+MMG had been reduced to a broken HS) and a Russian 628+LMG with the 9-2 was sitting ADJACENT. So at the start of German Turn 2, the situation was quite hopeless for the German defender and we called it a day.
That my Russians won so easily was definitively the result of the German setup that allowed me to pick off the Tigers before they could even fire a shot.
Here is a picture of the Situation at the start of German Turn 2 when he conceded:
von Marwitz