Battles we are winning or losing. Assesment and discussion.

So who’s been in a good fight lately? Lets hear about your army, how they did and why. If you can list it go ahead! If not a good summary, containing why you either won or lost from a tactical hindsight would be awesome.

My last battle was against a highly skilled player using the Russians for the first time over his usual US Army.

150 points.

His army: Russia
2 Fanatical Snipers
7 PPSh-41 SMG
3 Cossack Captains
1 Commusit Partisans
5 PTRD-41 Anittank Rifles
4 Mosin-Nagant
4 T-70 Model 1942 Tanks

My army: Germany
1 L3/35 Tank (Italian)
1 Stumpanzer IV Bummbar
1 Elite Panzer IV Ausf. D
1 Sd Kfz 234/2 ‘Puma’
3 MG 42 Machine Gun Teams
1 SS-Panzergrenedier
1 Blackshirts (Italian)
1 Mauser Kar 98k
1 Wehrmacht Veteran Infantryman
1 Wehmacht Expert Sniper
1 SS-Haupsturmfuhrer
1 Wehrmacht Oberleutnant

7 turns with an objective in a grass hex, adjacent to a large city.

His tanks made quick work of my vehicles and all that remained were my Bummbar and his last T-70
His troops advanced from a forest and slaughtered most of my men in a gunfight from forest to city (1 hex distance)

We fell back defensively and his anti tank unit took the objective in turn 6 with 2 MG’s and another anti tank following behind.

In the end, my Brummbar Bombarded and killed his last 2 SMG’s and was killed by his T-70.
His troops from the forest, rushed the city and were slaughtered by my Sniper, mauser Kar and Oberleutnant, All my MG 42 teams were killed early on defending the edge of this town.

My oberleutnant made 3 succesful cover saves in his rush for the city. We were surrounded on both sides. The good roles I made, saved the last 4 untis I had in there and we focused on the objective for the last 2 turns.

All his men were killed and it was only his T-70 holding the objective in turn 7. I used my Oberleutnants angriff ability to move my sniper and Weirmacht Veteran Infantryman into his hex with +1s. We destroyed his tank with those 3 units remaining. The Veteran had been running accross the board the past 3 turns, trying to make it to the city after unsuccessfully trying to engage his disrupted T-70.

The closest game we’ve had yet. I believe I won because I picked off his officers one by one which gave me the initiative in turn 6 and we were able to move into the city hex adjacent to the objective losing my Mauser Kar and Haupstermfuhrer while killing his anti tank gunner occupying the space. My Sniper, the last 3 games has always been one of the last surviving units.

I was ready to admit almost certain defeat as we entered turn 5 but our defensive move into the town to regroup, saved the game. He got very unlucky moving into the city, being disrupted and killed and my Oberleutnant passing 3 cover rolls in a row. My Brummbar also did an amazing amount of damage before being killed. Another mistake he made was the misplacment of his snipers. They were not in cover and were killed my my machine guns early on.

He won coin flip and should have chosen the side of the board that gave him the quickest access to the city but he didn’t. The forest tripped up his men and slowed his advance. However, he used his tanks brilliantly. With a move of 5, they were all over the board destroying my vehicles. He won the tank war but lost against my infantry.

This is the second game where my Germans have won against literally 2-1 numbers by taking a key defensive position and using it aggressively towards the end of the game.

That’s cool! I can’t find these damn D-day packs anywhere. I wanna buy a LOT of them.

@Audacity:

He won the tank war but lost against my infantry.

This is the second game where my Germans have won against literally 2-1 numbers by taking a key defensive position and using it aggressively towards the end of the game.

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Everything (including tanks) is there to support the guy on the ground.  Also the point values are fairly well researched on each piece where good troops can beat numerous bad troops.
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Yes you are VERY right. But he did get a tad unlucky with my men passing so many cover rolls in his assault on the city. You know what though? That little bastard also passed 90% of his cover and movement rolls last game. So I guess his luck ran out.

I couldn’t agree with you more about supporting the guy on the ground. In most games it seems like there are only troops remaining. The one thing that kind of irritated me is the Americans can buy some really cheap tanks and troops that are amazing. IE: (The Sherman and The Barr Gunner)

Then (yeah, I’m complaining AGAIN) there’s those stupid Screaming Eagle paratroopers that just magically get to land wherever they want because parachuting was SO precise back then. I mean in D-Day for instance (The night prior) Our troops all parachuted onto this tiny little glow in the dark target and they all regrouped exactly where we wanted them. No one got lost, landed randomly or was killed in the jump. Amazing. (Um, there is a little; just a little sarcasm in that story in case anyone got confused)  :|

But what am I complaining about? I’ve only lost to the Americans once and it was against my exgirlfriend 3 years ago who was cool enough to play the game with me all the time.

@Ducky:

What do you need so bad from D-Day? Just get 1939-1945 and North Africa if you don’t have many pieces right now.

DUCKY!! Are you serious? What DON’T I need from D-day??? I want it all. Pill boxes, Veteran Tiger, the spotter, the planes. I really want that that 109 Ace from N.A. thought. WAIT. I just looked at the gallery and your right man. Holly sh*t. Im buying North Afrika like it was crack as soon as I’m paid. The only thing I kind of want is The Fock Wulf. Only becuase the 190 A-4 is my favorite fighter of WW2.

You’ll have to tell me about your little game Ducky. We just set up a 250 point game last night and Im using my Tiger 1 (against the US) for the first time in years. Usually I’ll just put the 2 Panzer Ausf G’s on the board instead of expensive tanks like that or the Jagpanther. I actually have a lot of pieces. They are all mostly from the hundreds of dollars I spent on set one and two, back when they first came out.

@Ducky:

North Africa is no laughing matter! The Reserves are a good set to collect too. They are good at filling out the armies. They have some cool units that on their own need support, but overall make for a stronger force. There are still some good core pieces, like the PzKpfw 38(t), Panther Ausf. D, Rangers, M22 “Locust”, Intrepid Hero, and the newly costed IS-3 (now costs 71). The Panther Ausf. D is just so awesome for what you pay. Here’s the card:

Also!!! The coolest platoon I’ve found so far, it’s not in the expanded rules, but in a .pdf on the official site… German Panther Platoon, 95 points: 1x SS-Panther Ausf. G + 2x Panther Ausf. D… Normally, even with the price drop on the SS one, that would cost 112 points. It’s a pretty deadly combo. I really want to find 2 more Panther D’s now, so I can field 2 Panther platoons and combine them with an ammo dump for a good 200 point tank battle.

Here’s the links to the files with both the expanded rules and the second batch of formations, they are both in .pdf format once unzipped:

http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/FormationsSetII.zip
http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/ERFormations.zip

Thanks Ducky. I just began a 250 point battle VS. Americans. I, for the first time in years, put my Tiger 1 on the field with my new 7.5CM LEL G18 . In the first turn, I took 47 points off him without one casualty. Just a damaged Panzer III Ausf F.

What’s funny is we’ve got seperate units on both sides of the board engaging each other. There’s a field in between. My Tiger ! and the 7.5 have CLOSED down that lane. He straight up moved his artillery behind a town and his tanks even ran for cover. He’s SO intimidated by this Tiger it’s hilarious. Units RUN across the lane and hide. The slaughter on the East side of the field in the first and second turn was so great, he’s re allocating all his units West. Um well, the Objective is in the East surrounded by hills only opened to the east.

I just can’t believe how intimidated he is by this single piece of armor. Why doesn’t his bad ass Hellcat just take me on? We’d both probably die! He mounted 2 quad 50s on Universal Carriers (one in the east and one in the West) and they are both gone.
He has still yet to fire in turn 2 so we’ll see what kind of casualties I take but so far this Tiger has his whole god damn army hiding! It’s ridiculous. But man, what a slaughter for 2 turns. He’s done. All because his movements have all been so evasive and all his presses with Bar Gunners and other grunts have been torn apart by my MG teams. His next firing faze will probably take out all 4 of my MG teams but they’ve taken a few gallons of blood out of his army.

It was fun to see one of his units try to flank and get pinned down in the field. My tiger took it out in a heartbeat.