Over and Done With, Game 2 - Eastern Front Chain of Command, 1941
This is the second game of a two-game set played earlier this week. They're both short games where the outcome rested almost entirely on one or two units. Check the previous post if you want more info. Without further ado, I'll get right into it.
For the second game, Alec and I swapped sides. He would take the defending Germans, and I would attack with the Soviets. We re-played the patrol phase, and this time the Jump Off Points ended up skewed to one side of the table.
Both sides had 8 Force Morale this game. The Germans had 7 support points, the Soviets 11. We intentionally duplicated the error I made last game of giving the Soviet platoon too high of a force rating. You will see this ends up biting me in the ass later.
I purchased a pre-game barrage as support, and because of the Russian special rule "Wrath of the Gods," the Germans will only deploy on a roll of five or six in the first turn.
I deploy another support option, a Maxim medium machine gun, in the center, watching into the yard of the thatched izba and the structure itself, where the Germans have a JOP.
I deploy two squads in the treeline along the road, hoping to perhaps recreate Alec's bold rush from the last game. The squad closest to the enemy JOPs is on overwatch.
In the German phase, a tank fails to deploy through the barrage - I learn that Alec has bought the Panzer II D Flamm, a flame-throwing light tank. That's very bad news for my very flammable Soviets, but hopefully not crippling. It's worth noting that Alec couldn't have brought this is it wasn't for the error I made calculating force ratings. Really shot myself in the foot there.
The Germans do get a squad on, placing it back in the forest on overwatch. This is starting to look kind of like the last game, just on the opposite flank.
With plenty of points and knowing a German tank was likely, I've brought a T-34 with the 76mm main gun, and it deploys on the road near my edge.
The second Soviet squad inches up a little so that all of the riflemen can join the firing line along the dirt road's edge.
A third Soviet squad deploys on the Soviet right flank, with no German JOPs nearby to oppose its eventual advance.
The Germans roll up three phases in a row here, but have little in the way of activation dice. In the third phase, they try to get the tank on, but it fails to get through the barrage again. I may be in luck. The Germans are accumulating Chain of Command points, though.
I have to keep the pressure on, so I roll the T-34 up. The fast tank makes fairly good progress.
On the other side of the worker's dorm, the infantry make poor progress toward the woods, just edging away from the shelter of the building.
On the other flank, I place the second Soviet squad on overwatch, generating a standoff on that side.
The Germans roll up another double phase, but the only unit that comes on is the dreaded flammpanzer...
Er, well... Actually, I don't have a model for one, or even a standard Panzer II, so the hull of a Panzer 38t will have to stand in for this small and angry little tank. It is on overwatch.
That thing has a 36-inch range and can quite literally melt my squads, so I have to take it out right away. Unfortunately, the buildings and forests break up the line of sight badly. I don't have time to wind my way around the trees for a shot from outside the flamethrower's range. With the fate of two squads on the line, my T-34 zips up the road, on the hunt.
In the next phase, though, a squad falls victim to the jets of flame from the little tank, shooting right across the fenced-in yard and nearly making bacon of the local pigs.
The first shot kills a man and wounds the Junior Leader, reducing his Command Initiative. It only inflicts one point of shock, but flamethrowers double any shock, so the squad ends up with two points. The wound on the JL has no effect on morale, fortunately.
Unfortunately, it is a German double phase, and the second gout of flame drops another two Soviets as it inflicts four more shock. You can see the devastating power of the flame tanks.
After failing to come on in the previous phase, a second German squad arrives, right behind the first. I wasn't thinking of charging with the flame tank in the area, but it seems Alec has learned from my mistake in the previous game and wants to avoid a losing melee. That being said, neither side's infantry has fired a shot yet.
At the top of the Soviet phase, the T-34 wheels around the corner of the log izba with a clank of wheels and steel track. But it can't fire this phase due to that movement.
Not far away, the third Soviet squad moves into the safety of the woods where so many died last game. I don't expect them to contribute much here, but I wanted them out of the line of fire from the German JOP in the house.
It might be wise to pull my infantry back from the flame tank, but instead I deploy the Senior Leader, who rallies three points of shock off to keep the wounded squad from pinning or breaking. For now, the line holds.
And not too soon, either, as the Panzer II fires at them again, killing two more men and inflicting six points of shock, pinning the poor Ivans.
The German tank then rotates on the spot to face the T-34. If this were a standard Panzer II, this would be no contest, but flamethrowers are incredibly effective against tanks, where three or four shock is enough to make the crew bail out.
A brief aside: I see no reason why the Panzer II can't do this, as the rules allow tanks to move 1d6 while firing their weapons at full effect. The turn on the spot is certainly no more than 1d6 of movement, and because of the way the flamethrowers fire, there is no movement penalty. I think it's an unfortunate side effect of flame tanks treating movement like vehicles but firing as if they're shooting at infantry. And there's no point hiding behind the house, as flamethrowers ignore cover so long as they can see the target - which can get a bit frustrating, to be truthful, as I imagine you would be safer from a flamethrower attack sitting in a stone house than in an open field. But oh well.
Also, I suppose we shall assume the German commander was turned out of his hatch and caught the movement of the T-34 out of the corner of his eye? I doubt he'd have the visibility to notice the Soviet tank from inside the turret, especially while operating the flamethrower.
Grumbling aside... I decide to move the T-34 forward before firing so that I will need a need a 6 on 2d6 to hit (target in the open, firer moved) instead of a 7 (target obscured).
This is a mistake. Alec plays an interrupt at the cost of a CoC die and unleashes the flame tank. Officially, I believe interrupts only apply to infantry, but we have always played it to include supporting armor. It's usually not that big of a deal.
The jet of flame puts on two points of shock. I'm lucky that it isn't worse - one more would have put the tank out of action. But with the shock, the T-34 misses its shot. Not good.
As this goes on, the Soviet Senior Leader is frantically pulling shock from the pinned Soviet squad.
The next German command roll, by sheer luck, does not let the flame tank activate, and the German units fail to come on because of the barrage.
I have one shot to kill this thing - the Soviet tank commander pulls a point of shock and fires again, scoring a hit. However, incredibly, the shell skims off the light tank's armor, doing no damage at all.
In fact, the Germans still have a second phase, and the flame tank turns on the spot again before giving the pinned Soviets another shot. This breaks them, and the Junior Leader routs off the table with them, pulling Soviet Force Morale down to three and marking the end of the game.
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This was a brutal one. I think even Alec felt bad about just how devastating the flame tank can be. A couple things I think I could have done:
I could have pulled my infantry back as soon as the tank made itself known, forcing it to chase me down and expose itself to the T-34 at range. But I was the attacker, so this seems like a dubious strategy when the defender has no reason to come out.
Alternatively, I could have tried charging across the road with both squads as soon as the tank came out. The flammpanzer wouldn't want to burn up its own allies. However, there were two full-strength German squads I would have had to attack from the front in light cover, and I think the situation would have gotten tricky again even if I managed to kill the German infantry and capture the JOP. I would have had to face the little flame tank one way or another.
I had a good time, but fighting against any flamethrower-equipped force is tricky, and I just didn't have it here. My infantry did little more than be a target, and his single tank won the game for him. Although it is a terror on the battlefield normally, my T-34 was felled by the light tank.
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