Final result...
Allies minor Victory.
Right, then. The Allied plan was simple: Crush each advance position eastward of State Farm 79 one by one. I hoped to secure a minor victory, or draw at the worst with this method. I'm a very cautious player on the attack- until I get impetuous and say for instance in another current EF2 scenario where I am the attacker, after 6 or 7 turns of fairly careful organizational movment and artillery prep fire in "To Save Budhapest" vs Jason Stonewall Petho, I RASHLY- (so rashly) extend a company + of wonderful, very missed now, SS Pz V's into a "fake" breach with supporting infantry a mere 250 meters behind(I only had to wait 1 more turn..
:violin: Anyway, they were all captured in the next turn. 17 tanks. Panthers.. :dead: :laugh:
Back to State Farm 79- where I was able to restrain myself from tendancies like this, and I used ALL Russian armor resources in a big wedge to force my way to a minor V. Soccer DJ's German defense was pretty stiff. The last of his advance outposts didn't fall until turn 13(of a 14 turn game)and I was never in a position to get into the city proper- though I made a stab for it on turn 14. Fell short.
Basically, his 88's and STUGs from the heavy cover of the city, using smoke at times and moving around- managed to keep me at arms length. Only a few of my tanks were knocked out this way, but disruptions were very common obviously slowing my advance.(and brew ups started getting more frequent once I closed the gap in territory between us).
German armor re enforcments were an unfortunate variable for the Germans- as they only arrived on the scene to impact events for the last 2 turns. They did inflict casualties when they arrived. If they were there a turn earlier, or if there was one more turn, we may have had a draw.
I think a key was that I moved my entire rear echelon into positions far up on the large eastern hill, and avoided a massacre once the German armor began to arrive. Trucks parked in Forests off the main road in the north alerted me to a German precense there in mid game, in retrospect it was likely just half tracks, but I didn't know then, I thought it could be panzers!- so I kept the HQ and arty moving, and dispatched the KV company- who were duking it out with well covered 88's a little over a km away in the city with minimal effect on both. The KV's had little to do with the rest of the action until the last 2 turns when they did manage- (with a few T34's once it became apparent just how large the northern German force was) to inflict losses in armor to the German side.
Getting my rear echelon on that hill saved me as much as taking objectives, and the timing of German re-enforcments. German scouts did manage a foray up the slope at the end- I just barely fought them off with ATR's asnd AAMG's and direct artillery fire.
This HQ movement also had significant impact on the field because of supply. My initial advance was fast- and the HQ's lagged...so by early game, lots of my armor had low ammo, and the infantry are all doubletiming it, not in range to shoot..ok, infantry gets up, begins to occupy a couple of the taken over advance positions-and to begin the LONG, costly procedure of mop up in the south, and just about then, HQ's are in place, units are coming up to full- then I see all of these "?" marks to the north...so, we move up the hill and out of LOS as quickly as possible, and it takes until near the last 3 or 4 turns to get a majority of my units back into supply! While this is happening, they are taking losses and disruptions..the attack really appeared to flounder for much of the mid game.
Anyway, it was very well fought by my opponent, I enjoyed it- it was up and down- makes it exciting! :laugh:
