SP 21 Matira's Secret

Mike205

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In this scenario some battle hardened veterans of the U.S. Third Armored division armed with a top secret weapon attempt to seize some board 20 real estate in Dessau, Germany. In April 1945 chances are its value was low.
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Psst! What’s the big secret?

Why it’s a sup, sup, suppeeeer Pershing! An experimental T26E4 with a frontal armor value of 26 thanks to all the scrounged panther armor welded to the front.
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Facing the invaders is a crappy force of 2nd liners and conscripts well armed with squad weapons and a couple of decent leaders, backed up by a King Tiger. You can see where this is headed…

As the attacker, taking a look at my opponent’s defensive setup, I figured I’d come in on the Y 7 crossroads with my tanks and spread out my elite and 1st line squads on either side, sweeping up to Y 2 and then north to take the V2 & Q2 VLs. I decided on this approach because the Germans seemed mostly oriented towards the west and northwest, and I wanted a piece of the KT which was perched near the V2 building.
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Coming on board my Sherman advanced in the lead and took a bounding fire shot at a concealed stack in the Z2 department store, while my squads fanned out to the north and south. I kept my elite units to the north where I expected the most contact and kept the 1st liners south of the Y7 road backed up by the halftracks which bypassed around several buildings to get into position on the BB 7 road.

Little did I know that the only forces in the south west were dummies, a conscript unit which disrupted in turn 2, a 4-4-7 and lmg that broke turn 1, and a HMG squad that was initially placed in the AA1 house facing north. In German turn 1 there was a mad scramble as units from all over the map started to move south to block my push. One of these units was the KT, which lumbered down to Y3, no doubt excited about torching the Sherman laying down hate on the department store. As it slid into Y3, the super tank opened fire, scoring a side hit on the turret, blowing it clean off.
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Turn three saw the German HMG crew heroically hold off a horde of 6-6-6 squads in the stock room of the department store before dying in CC, while the elite Amerikaners were slowed by a couple of 2nd line squads toting lmgs and conscripts which formed a new defensive belt situated X3 to S7. By this point I was really starting to worry I’d run out of time.

That’s when I decided to pull a hail Mary and threw everyone into the fight. I lost a half track to PF fire and squads were breaking all over the place but the Germans weren’t in good shape either, with ELR’ed and disrupted squads surrendering enmasse as the Americans ground their way forward.
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By end of turn four I’d pushed up to V2 and U5 but at the cost of my franken-tank, which died at the hands of a panzerfaust toting squad. How easily the mighty fall. U.S. turn five witnessed a charge for the VLs, with an American schwerpunkt led by a FT HS and 10-2 overwhelming the V2 building and several squads and halftracks braving fire from a conscript squad in S6 to reach the undefended O5 VL for the win. Minus the allure of a science experiment taking on a King Tiger there’s not much else to this. Take out the cool tanks and it’s just a late war city fight. Still a lot of fun though.


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This AAR is dedicated to the chief welder of Matira's secret.
 

Hovned31

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I played this one against Mark DeVries a couple of years ago. I lost as the Germans. The only thing went right for me was burning the Super Pershing with a CH from the King Tiger on my first shot of the game. That alone made up for the loss.
 

Mike205

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I played this one against Mark DeVries a couple of years ago. I lost as the Germans. The only thing went right for me was burning the Super Pershing with a CH from the King Tiger on my first shot of the game. That alone made up for the loss.
With the low ELR, this one is tough on the Germans.
 
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