German vs Soviets - 1500pt Mid War

I was unable to make it to the tournament this weekend, I decided to actually play a game.  I've been trying to convince my friend Andrew to buy his own army, so I invited him over to play.

I'm sick of Late war, and I love mid war, so we decided to play 1500pt Grenadiers against Strelkovy in mid war.  I don't play infantry as much as I'd like to becasue I'm so slow at painting them.  You can so a lot of our armies aren't painted...mostly all the infantry.

Scenario - Encounter

German Grenadiers - Andrew
Grenadier Platoon - 4 squads
Grenadier Platoon - 4 squads
Artillery Platoon - 4 - 10.5 cm guns
HMG platoon - 4 guns
Anti-tank Platoon - 3 - 7.5 pak 40's.
1 Tiger Tank. 

Soviet Strelkovy - Me
Strelkovy Company - full 3 platoons, HMG, 3 light mortars
Strelkovy Company - 2 platoons, HMG, 3 light mortars.
Artillery Company - 8 - 76mm, 4 - 122mm guns.
Tank Destruction Company - 4 - 57mm guns.
Tank Killer Company - 4 - SU85's.

I had to declare my reserves first, so I decided to start with my biggest strelkovy Company, and the Red God of War Company on the board.

Andrew has played this quit a bit, but is still inexperienced.  And he shows it by the platoons he chose.  It will come back to haunt him in the end.  He decides to start with both grenadiers platoons, and the Artillery.  I would have either attached the HMG's or start with the HMG platoon on the board.

Now ever time I play strelkovy, or play against strelkovy, i'm remineded that the board for FoW is way to small.  On a 6x4 table strelkovy can hardly ever make all their units fit on the table to start.  That is the only reason I choose encounter.  because half my units start off the board.  I couldn't even imagine playing hold the line with this army.

Anyway I pretty much had to start my Red God of War across the entire back of the board.  Its the only way they fit.  Remember my rules nazi...you can't stack them side by side or they can't rotate.
http://kagefow.blogspot.com/2011/05/rules-nazi-episode-ii-rotating-to-shoot.html


Then Andrew follows suit, and sets up his artillery.

Next I decide I'm going to go balls out, and just charge the hell out of my biggest strelkovy company.   So I line them all up right in front of his object that I placed in the open.  I love playing strelkovy becasue newer German players totally panic when they see Russians.

Andrew then places both his grenadiers in front of his objectives.

Andrew rolls for first turn.

he decides to dig in his Grens that are infront of my strelkovy and his guns.  he makes both rolls.
he then marches his other Grens forward, as nothing is protecting my right flank, except a couple of 76mm's.

Next, I double move my 32 stands of strelkovy, leaving the HMG behind to cover the objective and artillery.  I can literally see the Germans shaking in their boots.  Then I bombard the Grenadiers the moved into the open.  Again, new German players panic as I pull out the double wide template.   But what they don't realize is that Soviets are shitty.  they can't hit anything.  I managed to pin down the platoon but didn't kill anything.

2nd turn, Andrew gains some confidence.  He continues to move his Grenadiers towards my right flank.  He then opens up his artillery, and is extatic about how many stands he can fit under the template.  Yup Russians are good for fitting lots of guys under the small template.  What Andrew didn't know is that artillery and aircraft do not get double dice when a unit has moved at the double....good for me!  Andrew rolls a lot of hits, 8 or more I think.  As I said, he is gaining confidence....maybe these Russians aren't so tough...I just smile.  I rolled my 8 saves and rolled six 6's and 2 5's...no kills.  "What a waste of good rolls", I tell him.  But I'm pinned.  Luckily they are still more then 16" away from his dug in Gren's.

My Strelkovy start my 2nd turn pinned, and....of course I fail my motivation to unpin them.   But that's OK.  My local NKVD Officer was close at hand, and Comrade Stalin says not one step back.  The commissar shoots one of his own units, and this time the Strelkovy make it and they are back on the move.  But this time only a normal move.  A few are able to shoot but don't do much damage are the Gren's are really dug in.

My Red God of War, turns and fires at the Dug in Grenadiers and German Artillery.  Even with the double wide, the Germans are so well lead that I can only it 3 infantry teams and 1 gun.  I do no damage but both platoons end up pinned.

Turn 3, Andrew rolls for his reserves.  He is thinking he is going to need something soon.  He is right...but fails his roll.  However he does make both his rolls to unpin his artillery and Gren's.   He continues to move his Grenadiers down the right flank,  and I think he is able to get a few shots at the 76mm guns there, but the gun shields protect them. 

His artillery pins down the advancing strelkovy, and manage to kill a few.  And his dug in (and gone to ground) Gren's also shoot at the incoming hoard....this is a rookie mistake.  Although I think he also managed to kill a few, and they are pinned down again.

My 3rd turn, I also fail to bring on any reserves.  But that is ok, I believe the game will be over before I need them.  This time my strelkovy make their unpin roll on the first try.  And they continue to advance.  This time they are with in assault range.  But I need to pin them.  Because I moved and I only have a ROF of 1, I need 6's to hit.  If Andrew had not shot at me, I would have needed 7's, and I would not been able to pin him except for an artillery bombardment.  I shoot at him with my strelkovy, and I only manage to get 4 hits.  this time I will split my Artillery fire and direct fire because Soviets can do that.  I turn my 122's to fire a bombardment at the Germans on the right flank.  I hope this will slow them down enough for me to take the objective.  I get a few kills and pin them down.  Then I'm able to direct fire a few 76mm at the dug in Gren's.  I don't kill anyone, but I get that 5th hit that pins them down.

Now my strelkovy assault.  I believe I still had some 22 stands left at this point.  Now that they are pinned he is only able to muster 7 hits in defensive fire.  Enough to pin any other platoon in the game, but not Strelkovy...he needed 10.  Had he not shot at me during his turn, I may not have been able to pin him, and he would have had double the fire power.

After the first round of assaults Andrew decided to break off to protect his platoon.  This is another rookie mistake and the beginning of the end.  His only chance is to hope he gets his reserves.

Turn 4...he fails both reserve rolls.  I manage to hold off the right flank, and I take his objective.

In the end, when we were discussing his mistakes, i found out he didn't realize, there was no more defensive fire after the first round.  He was afraid I was going to get defensive fire with 22 stands of infantry.

I was also talking to my friend lance the other day, and he didn't realize there can be multiple rounds of assault in the same turn.  Maybe time for a new Rules Nazi Corner...on Assaults.

All in all it was a fun game.  I've been playing Germans far to much and neglecting my soviets.
I think if Andrew had started with his HMG's, and not shot until he had to, my strelkovy might have been slaughtered.  We didn't even see the Tiger tank, or my favorite guns in the whole game the 57mm's.

Between the 2 of us we had 6 platoons in reserve.  Only the Su-85's made it on in the last turn.