The night was lit up by the burning hulls of Russian tanks!
My sixth and final game of the NATC 2016 (MW 1650) was against James and Russian mixed Tankovy. The mission was Encounter which meant I was going to be attacking a ton of Russians be it infantry dug in, small tanks or rockets. James was the first player I've ever played against that had enough rockets firing to actually use the devastating bombardment template. That thing is a physiological weapon it I've ever seen one. We were paired on the desert table, which means it was going to be easy to see each other the whole time. This game also marks the 100th battle report that I've done for Covering Fire!
Big Willie's Pioneers
OC and 2IC
Full Armoured Pioneers
Half Trucked Pioneers
Armoured Mortars
4 x 7.62 Marders
2 x 8-Rads
2 x 2cm SP AA trucks
2 x Panthers
James Mixed Tankovy
OC in T34
7 x T34s
10 x T26s
10 x T26s
8 x Katushkas
Infantry platoon
Anti-tank rifle platoon
AA platoon
Set Up
German objectives are far right by the the oasis and top right by the village ruins and Russian objectives are left by the hill and just off camera slightly further left
Russian infantry and rockets guarding one objective
German Pioneers guard both objectives
Armoured Pioneers ready to roll out
Turn 1
Panthers begin advancing using the dunes as cover
Half tracks decide that they will take cover from the potential of eating some pie plate
Boris, can you see anything? Shut Up Ivan...
Turn 2
Panthers move up to try and pick off rockets
After taking out one, the Panthers spread out
Marders arrive from reserves and move up and prepare to dig out some Russian infantry
Turn 3
The first pie plate takes out the observe and a stand of pioneers, while the Panthers turn to face the newly arrived Russian tanks
T34s go up in smoke against the Panthers
Marders pick off a stand of infantry
Turn 4
More T34s fall to the Panthers, T26s have also arrived from reserves and are immediately into the attack
Marders dig out another stand of infantry
Turn 5
The Panthers continue their fighting withdrawal taking another couple of T34s with them, the T26s continue to advance behind their big brothers
Slowly the Marders chip away at the infantry
Turn 6
The Panthers knock out all the T34s and start working on the T26s
The Marders now have half tracks working to help dig out the Russians
Turn 7
The Russian tanks just keep coming with the Panthers moving to ensure they don't expose their side armour
The T26s continue to advance into the teeth of the Panthers
Turn 8
The AA trucks advance and try to help the Panthers with no luck
The Marders get caught with a pie plate and lose two of their number
Turn 9
The AA trucks hide behind the hill hoping to avoid the return fire
The T26s knock out a newly arrived 8-Rad
Turn 10
The Russian take out an AA truck!
The Panthers and 8-Rads manage to knock out even more Russian tanks
The pioneers stand tall backed by the Panthers, hoping that the Russian will break....but they prove to be fearless...
Marders begin moving to try and help the Panthers
Turn 11
Armoured pioneers realizing that the Russian tanks might break through move to reinforce
The Panthers move again too, as they continue to take out more Russian tanks
The Russians still will not flee the battlefield!
Turn 12
The OCs T34 catches the Marders in the open and destroys one causing the platoon to flee
The Armoured Pioneers arrive and use their flame thrower to less than stellar results....
The Panthers finally destroy then break the remaining Russian tanks!
When the dust settled of the 28 tanks that James had I had destroyed 26 of them causing one to flee and the OC to be left. Had there been another 30 min or so I could likely have pushed on the right flank with my Panthers and pioneers but this game ended in a tie 3-3 for each of us. I had an amazing time with James and think that I saw T26s in my sleep for several nights afterwards. This was the perfect game to end the tournament on, it was a slugfest all the way and we both had a great time.
Some great photos here. Keep up the great work. Hope to see you at Nationals.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob, I hope to be there too! Just think in a years time there is a very good chance I'll be back in Ottawa and we will be able to get our weekly games going again.
ReplyDeleteThat would be great.
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