Panzer Scenario 11 Redux part 2

 Martin and I continued our Panzer game.  The real fun happened on Turn 7 and 8.  And then we found an oops...

We played out a number of turns starting with Turn 6 but the important stuff happened turns 7 and 8.  The Axis infantry moved up so I had an SU-76 go adjacent to spot (spotting is by unit dummy!  So only the SU would have seen them till they fired or came out of full cover anyway).  The Germans did a close assault - wrong phase!  OK, oops.  It cost the Germans a lot of squad power and the Russians an SU-76.  Down at the bottom right the T34s moved around and fired on the Tiger and a PZIV.  The PZIV brewed up but the roll for Special Ammo on the Tiger came up short and the regular shot bounced right off.  All the German return fire did was immobilize a T34 so next turn in the crossfire I was hoping for a kill, Germans got first shot and blew apart both T34s...  

Starting over from Turn 6 in two weeks.  Not making the same mistakes twice (perhaps all new mistakes instead!).

Panzer scenario 11 redux

 Finally got round to the rematch of Panzer scenario 11.  Things are going better for the Russians this time around.  When nobody scores a hit things are even...

Situation at the end of turn 5.  The Germans have to pry the village away from the Russians, at least enough to make sure neither side gets points for it.  The Tiger fired at the 2 T34s but with smoke, movement, and cover did not score a hit.  The T34s shot at the Panzers near the bottom left and with range and smoke -same story.  The infantry creeping up to the town have not been spotted yet since they are low crawling.  One of the guns in the town took a pot shot at a tank at the far left but with smoke the to hit was 1 percent and it missed.  With the Germans pumping smoke like crazy it is going to end up a knife fight all around.

Panzer Scenario 11

 Finally got round to playing Panzer/MBT.  I have some ASL to unlearn and some Panzer to learn!

The game situation.  The Germans have 20 turns to take the town outlined in blue.  Whoever has control of 10 of the buildings get a boatload of points.  My Russians setup all in the town (they could have been anywhere on most of the map with the tanks and in woods or the buildings for the infantry and guns)

First blood goes to the Russian Mortar.  Able to fire without being spotted past three hexes is a big deal.  An excellent roll kills a German HT.  The passengers survive though.

Russian positions end of turn 1.

German positions end of turn 1.

End of turn 2.  The Germans take out a Russian gun.  They are much easier to kill in Panzer then ASL...

End of turn 3.  No kills this turn.  The Russian Mortar annoys the two Open top German vehicles at the bottom right (in the woods).  It would go on to Suppress one then the other the rest of the game.

End of turn 4 and things are starting to look bad.  The Germans take out another Russian gun and a badly placed SU-76.

End of turn 5.  Exchanging fire and no kills.  The Germans plop a bunch of smoke.  Another ASLism to unlearn.  Smoke needs no to-hit and is as easy/hard to place moving or not.  Though can only place using short halt move.

End of turn 6 and this one hurts.  The Russian 57mm gun (the only one really capable of hurting the Tiger) is taken out.  Inevitable with 3 to 5 tanks firing on it.  It had even gotten a HVAP shot at the Tiger but missed the to-hit roll.

End of turn 7 and another Russian tank (A T35-76) dies.  We played on two more turns but it was really all over at this point.  All the Germans need do to win is take 6 town hexes and with the overwhelming tank strength or three Russians to 9 German it was not going to be pretty.

I did learn not to fire too soon and that the guns should be IN the buildings instead of alley ways.  The Germans will have to close with them to take building hexes.  We are going to play this again in two weeks to see if I can put up a better fight the second time around.  After that one to more scenarios and all of the optional rules we agree on.  

Panzer Scenario 3

Panzer scenario 3.  My first game in a while I had to relearn some things and learn about suppression if in a hex with a Brew Up for the first time (or perhaps I forgot...)

The scenario is a meeting engagement, basically the first scenario with infantry and guns added to the mix.  We played it with variable penetration and the turret facing rules.  Each side gets points for enemy kills and holding the VP hexes.

Both sides move into position on turn 1.  I should have moved my Panzers for the hills...

First Blood goes to the Germans and their superior optics!  At this range the German gunnery is superior to the Russian
armor.

End of turn 2.  Things are looking very good for the Germans.  They get two kills and a bail out result with no damage to them.

End of turn 3.  The first German casualty and it is a brew up too - causing the other units in the hex to be suppressed.  This will mess up their gunnery and being in the way of the other German stacks messes theirs up too.

End of turn 4.  The Germans move about and get another kill to no loss of their own.  Things still looking good.

Turn 5 and things go from good to bad.  The Russians kill two tanks for the loss of only one.

End of turn 6 and things go VERY bad.  The Germans lose three tanks, another one being a brew up.  The Russians lose nothing.

End of turn 7 and time to throw in the towel.  The loss of the command tank last turn caused all of the Germans within a hex to be broken and all of them failed to recover.  With only 2 runners still on the board vs 4 Russian runners who are not broken it is time to run (walk for the tank crews that have broken tranks) hills.

A fun game that plays quickly.  Gerardo and I have another game scheduled for the 23rd.  Scenario 5.  When I work my up through the rules we will be playing some of the big honking scenarios in the France 40 module and I'm looking at the Western Front module for some of the scenarios in that one.

Panzer Scenario 1

Played Panzer Scenario 1 with Martin Lane from the UK Last Sunday and Saturday June 30th.  We played with all the advanced rules and some of the optional ones as well.

The setup.  The line of counters is the edge of the playable area and the objective locations are listed along with the initial setup of the Russian and German forces.

End of turn 1.  Both sides moving into position.

First shot and first blood to the Germans!  A track hit causes a Russian tank crew to bail out!

End of turn 2 and the Russian return fire destroys 3 German tanks (I missed a fourth one down in the woods too, 4 German tanks destroyed.

End of turn 3.  The Germans take two of the VP locations but their losses mean they will have to kill Russians in order to get the win.  So far it is 1 Russian killed to 4 Germans.

Skipping to end of turn 6, the past few turns consisted of lots of firing back and forth with only 1 more dead German tank to show for it.  

End of turn 8.  The Russians move out of LOS of Germans to the "south".  They were in a disadvantageous position and only luck kept them from more losses.  The woods and Hull Down made the Germans very hard to hit. 

End of turn 11 and the game.  Germans conceded after this.  The last Russian tank made a run for cover after destroying the final German tank up "North".  This still left the Russians with 6 kills to 2 German kills and with the Russians now behind cover the Germans would have to move into LOS to get a shot at the Russians and the Russians would be on overwatch waiting for the chance to take the shots.   

I've not played the game for over a year now and was looking forward to it.  Martin and I plan to play more of the scenarios (I'm hoping to play through all of them and the MBT ones as well).  I like the order plotting step and how it is carried out - we also used the staggered initiative which helps to make the single initiative roll not so critical, losing the first one does not mean possibly losing all your tanks due to a single DR not going well.

Finally a nod to how awesome VASSAL is.  Martin is in the UK and I'm on the East Coast of the USA.  Since I like to play in the morning and early afternoon this works out with Martin's playing later in the day.  It would take some long arms to play with a physical board and counters at that distance!

Panzer intro games

Played two rounds of Panzer.  First game was basic rules only while the second one we added in the advanced game combat results.

Setup for first game.  VC are for killing enemy units and taking the bridges and crossing point on the river.

End of first turn.  Russian made the mistake of splitting forces while the German made the mistake of only having one unit with LOS to an enemy platoon.

End of second turn.  German tank is destroyed by Russian platoon.  In the basic game the first his is damaged result and the second is a kill.  It could be an instant kill or brew up with a first hit but these opponents were too closely matched.

End of third turn.  An entire German platoon is firing at the Russian Platoon now - the other platoon was on overwatch with the assumption that the Russians would move up to the bridge, but the Russians stayed put and fired instead.

End of fourth turn.  Germans move forward (did not fire - can't move and then fire, can fire and then move).  In the exchange of fire both sides lose a vehicle or two.

End of fifth turn.  First Russian platoon is destroyed by Germans getting first shot.  Other Russians move into position last turn and open fire.

End of Sixth turn.  Russians move forward (blue arrow) and Germans OpFire on them.  The single Russian tank on the hill fires back.

End of eigth turn.  Russians move forward down the valley while other units exchange fire with Germans.

End of Final Turn.  All but Russian tank destroyed.  Part of this is the Germans won the initiative so got to fire first and only surviving Russians would be able to return fire - and there were none..  

That was the end of the first game so we cleared the board and started over.

Setup for second game.  Germans concentrate again while Russians split up again.

End of second turn (first turn was just movement).  Long range exchange of fire for Russians while Medium range for Germans.  Second German stack was not in LOS due to the Orchard since hexsides block LOS.

End of turn three.  More fire exchanged while second German stack moves forward.  Other Russians move to capture bridges.

End of turn four.  Fire exchanged and both sides take hits but Russians take more.

End of turn five.  Germans get initiative again and kill off Russians before Russians can return fire.  Other Russians take the midpoint crossing.  Can they hold it?

End of turn six.  One German group exchanges fire with a Russian at the crossing.  No hits on either side.

End of turn seven.  Exchange of fire, no hits.

End of turn 8.  Russian on the Bridge destroyed.

End of turn 9.  Front German group moves forward one hex to get in medium range while Russians are still at their long range.

End of game.  Germans get Initiative again and destroy the Russians before they can fire.

Overall a good game with the only problem being the standard fire sequence, winning the Initiative roll is THE most important thing in the game and it is nothing but a roll off.  An optional rule is rolling per a subsection of the force each time - what we will probably end up going with is allowing the winner to fire at ONE target, then the other player firing at one, etc...  This gives the winner the advantage without being overwhelming.  The game itself is easy to play but hard to read, combat moves along quickly and figuring things out is easy once you have done it once or twice.