Tuesday, July 19, 2016

German Armoured Pioneers vs Russian Mixed Tanks in Encounter


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. 

3 comments:

  1. Some great photos here. Keep up the great work. Hope to see you at Nationals.

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  2. Thanks 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.

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