Round 1 - The Battle is Joined - Turn 4
soviets versus Garni as axis; All options on; Stock scenario, NOT played blind; Soviet password = ^m[cWg^^ Axis password= r2d2
Download the Soviet replay of the Axis Turn4
Synopsis of the axis turn.
The axis turn is quite passive this time, which is probably a strategic mistake as closing the road to Didzluliai from where my main reinforcements are coming must be a priority for the axis. This is, of course, why I have all my eastern guys down here ready to pounce this turn if he tried to close the road.
On the Slabada hill the axis set up a LOS overlook on the northern flank and appears to have stopped to dig-in in the center. The axis player already has a Minor Win and may well feel that they have done enough to win.
Synopsis of the soviet turn.
Our artillery lands where I expected his infantry to push forward on the hill. He stood pat, so all we managed to do was scare up some squirrels for supper.
What has the enemy left us? At first glance, not much. We will scout out to see if the division HQ has moved, if not we have a shot at capturing it. It has an atkstr of 4 vs our frontal armour of 3. This gives the enemy roughly a 50/50 chance of disrupting each of our guys. He will disrupt both of them (thus preventing the overrun of the HQ) ~25% of the time. Still, for the potential 40VPs for the HQ it is easily worth the chance. If it has moved then we will not have sufficient APs to sweep the city looking for it, so we will simply set up LOS as best we can to try and see his truck mounted reinforcements arrive.
In the south I want to get most of the BT-7s to the west of the city, but the way he has set up it looks as though he will have at least 3 opfire shots as we cross the fields in front of him. To mitigate this as best as possible I intend to send two BTs west and use the other two to entice his opfire at long range (and thus make it less effective), and take a pot-shot at that AC that we can see. They will then return to cover. The infantry column will move up the road as best as possible. One thing to note is that I intend to block his LOS down the road by over stacking a key hex. Try to over stack by as little as possible, otherwise you give the enemy an advantage in direct fire due to the "target density" bonus.
Placing more than 12SPs of units in the hex marked with the red X prevents the highlighted axis tank platoon from having LOS onto the three hexes marked with green Ys. Note that because of the elevation difference, units in the hex marked Z still have LOS onto the open ground to the NW. I will use the 2SP truck from one of the AT gun platoons that we have lost and a dismounted rifle platoon and its transportation. The enemy will see our units move into the hexes marked Y, but at the beginning of his turn they will all disappear and he will not be able to target them (so we can safely leave mounted units if need be). Also, should he shoot up those front units our units behind will regain the blocked LOS but he will not until next turn! (unless he tries to run into those hexes).
The highlighted mg platoon in the image below is a big pain due to the LOS he has both south and west. Plus, if he spots the guy in the woods to the SW next turn he will likely do some serious damage. To move it we need to get it to retreat from direct fire or disrupt it and then assault the hex pushing it back and forcing it to give up its LOS. However, we do not want to leave our guy hanging, so the assaulting platoon will need to be able to continue moving after the assault to the relative safety of the hex to the north of his buddy platoon as shown by the green arrows. If the direct fire (shown by the red arrows) is not successful then both platoons follow the blue arrows, getting out of LOS and providing retreat option support for each other. If the mg platoon retreats due to direct fire then the assaulting platoon can simply fall back.
red arrows=direct fire; green arrows= movementif DF successful; blue arrows=escape route if DF fails
On the Slabada hills the enemy has shown us four AFVs on the north side of the hill and we have seen about the same number on the south side. If he has split his forces along each side of the hill, and the forest/rough terrain running E/W across the hill provides a natural barrier to communication between the two forces it would seem that the enemy is somewhat flat-footed. We have 14 platoons of AFVs of various types so we should be able to overwhelm one of his flanks or the other. We currently have our weight on our right foot, and it would seem natural to swing N with everyone as best we can, especially as he has shown us engineers on the main road. The intent on the initial rush would be to draw opfire at max range (it is likely that each of his units have sufficient APs for two attempts) and then close as quickly as possible, to get off close range shots with the hope of disrupting his guys, so that next turn if he sticks around we can round them up. It is likely he will fire eight times (hopefully sub-optimally as we are choosing the targets) and that we will fire 5 times at the best odds that we can manage. That should be pretty even results wise.
The ordering of the moves is key to reduce the enemy's effectiveness. The criteria to consider when deciding which order to move the units are: frontal defence strength, does the unit have enough APs to move and fire, is the unit limited to proximity that it can get before firing. Thus, we move the guys with the best armour who will not be able to fire at the enemy and cannot close all the way first. Then the guys that can fire but cannot close all the way. Then the guys who cannot fire but can close, and finally the guys who can close all the way and fire. This way we expose the most protected guys who will not affect our offensive capability to the enemy opfire, giving our shooters the best chance to close pointblank range on the enemy. Our infantry will rush forward also - they will be most useful if the enemy sticks around for next turn.
So what actually happened?
Download the end of Soviet Turn4
Download the Axis replay of the Soviet Turn4
Sure enough the enemy division HQ was in its start hex, they are now being held at the pleasure of comrade Stalin.
The LOS blocking exercise went close to plan. While the BTs were drawing opfire at max range the enemy fired at 2:3 and destroyed one of the tanks (so much for all that careful planning!). The carcass of the tank is in the hex that we intended to over stack, so I decided to use a rifle platoon, an mg platoon and the mg platoon transport for 12 SPs plus the wreck makes 13. LOS blocked! Two platoons of BTs made it to the west to join their comrades, leaving two to support the infantry attacking up the road into town.
The mg platoon whose LOS I wanted to clear was disrupted and assaulted, so that bugger will have to wait another turn to be a nuisance.
On the Slabada hills we attacked as diagrammed (or close to it) and managed to get one of our best protected tanks brewed up on the first move over the crest - DOH! Luckily the rest of the opfire draw operation went off okay (though there were some Ds and retreats). Then our firing guys marched up and got two great results against the PzIIIs brewing up four of the enemy standing on the ridge line. I suppose that as it it is that time of day they must have been silhouetted against the late afternoon sun.
red arrows=opfire; yellow arrows= enemy movement
One final point that will likely not be new to anyone, but if it is will probably elicit a soft curse or two. Note that because of the path that the attacker must take along the dirt road when the opfire goes off (it it does go off) then the target will present a flank shot to the T26 hiding in the bushes. This will happen regardless of how the attacker orientates his moving unit as the CS engine chooses the orientation along the road, and opfire occurs as the unit transitions into the target hex. Please note that the way the engine calculates LOS some hex edges of blocking terrain will block LOS and others will allow LOS along the edge. Remember to use the LOS tool to verify that your ambush hex has LOS to the intended target hex.
Combat Results Analysis
| LOSSES INFLICTED BY: | Expected | Result | Cumulative Expected | Cumulative Result |
| Axis Direct Fire | 4.05 | 5 | 33 | 52 |
| Axis Opfire | 5.58 | 3 | 7.12 | 3 |
| Soviet Direct Fire | 2.15 | 5 | 12.1 | 19 |
| Soviet Opfire | 0.38 | 0 | 1.6 |
1 |
See full graph Download full spreadsheet
VP Status (axis minor victory)
| Beginning of Axis Turn | End of Axis Turn | End of Soviet Turn | |
| Axis Unit Losses |
74 |
74 |
83 |
| Axis Unit VPs |
191 |
191 |
246 |
| Soviet Unit Losses |
109 |
114 |
116 |
| Soviet Unit VPs |
338 |
355 |
363 |
| VP Hexes |
500 |
600 |
600 |
| Total VPs |
647 |
764 |
717 |