Time to resume the tale of our Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion, establishing control over an MSR leading ever deeper into German territory, to give time for their Corps to withdraw.
To recap, here's my annotated map from the briefing :
We currently hold KT 1, 2, and 4, with some enemy contacts spotted in among the trees in KT 3 but no positive contact established. The same is not true of KT 1, where Soldat Reinhardt, in our Tiger, has eliminated 3 (!) T-34s before repositioning, and his dismounted Panzerjager team bagged an SU-76 from a covered position within the Western wood. This leaves one T-34 near KT 1, and sound contacts near the other AoAs...
Kruger of the Panzerjager team orders his fireteam partner to fire, but this particular projectile misses. The T-34 buttons up, however, and begins pressing into the underbrush, searching for either the infantry or the Tiger. One of our armoured cars on the ridge now spots an enemy T-34 and suppresses it with its 20mm autocannon (though this won't do much damage against a proper tank...) Meanwhile, a Russian SU-85 pokes its head out of that wood, likely hoping to establish a line of fire along AoA Centre...
And is swiftly taught a lesson in getting to a firing position first by our King Tiger. That circle near the top of its hull is the exit point of the shell currently blasting a hole through its gun mantlet. Score another for massive German armour weapons!
Reinhardt, having fallen back while repositioning, now spots yet another future kill coming up along the Southernmost edge of AoA North. It lasts about as long as you may expect by now...
An update to our positions, for your Situational Awareness :
You can see our Heavy Armoured cars in KT 2, the Armoured Car Section in KT 4, positioning to ambush anything that comes near the crossroads, and 2 Section along the ridge in the Southern field. The T-34 in the North field is within Reinhardt's sights from his position on the edge of the South field (the tank symbol near the centre of the picture), the one in the centre is under suppression fire from 2 Section, and the one crossing the woods in KT 1, where the Tank hunter team is frantically crawling away - their Panzerfausts expended - is Reinhardt's crew's next target.
At this point, our dismounted reconnaissance troops begin pushing forward, in order to probe whether there will be any more to the Soviet assault, or if they are on the back foot. Once we've set them off balance, I intend to counter attack decisively and break their formation thoroughly. Of course, while they are content throwing themselves on our guns, I am content to let them continue... :D
Our brave dismounted reconnaissance elements bound forward through the woods to the North of the MSR. In the distance, you can see mortars impacting Key Terrain 3 to suppress enemy positions there.
Observing the situation as Reinhardt rotates to engage the central T-34s who have now begun pushing through the woods in KT 4 to support their isolated brother in the South, the Majorgeneral decides that the counter attack will occur in the Northern AoA. This is because :
1) The covered approach offered by the treeline on the North of the MSR leads directly to the dip in the ground, which may offer yet more cover.
2) Our dismounted reconnaissance can follow along by bounding from woods to farmhouses, and hopefully discover and engage enemy infantry before they engage our armour.
3) Bounding armoured cars followed by the Tiger will have long fields of fire to cover each other along, rather than cutting through successive treelines into an open area as would be required in the South.
Unfortunately, while HQ was pondering, we suffered our first (and only - spoiler alert) armoured loss of the day.
One of the T-34s survived to cut through the woods and engage the Armoured Car Section HQ car just outside of KT 4. 2 crewmen, including Oberfeldwebel Schilling's second, are killed, while Schilling and his driver run for cover. The T-34 and its two surviving friends, however, are swiftly dispatched by our Tiger and King Tiger in retribution. Matters briefly get tense as one of the T-34s survives a shot from the Tiger (!), likely having been overpenetrated by the beast of a gun at such a short range, and fires a shot at another armoured car. Luckily for the Fatherland, the shot misses, and the T-34 is disabled with the next shot. At this point, the Soviet attack is on its last legs. As I align Reinhardt with the Armoured Cars to the North to begin pushing forward in out own counter attack, the Heavy Armoured Cars engage and destroy two T-34s maneuvering at the far side of the Northern AoA. They fired wildly on the move, but in their panic, did nothing but anger the local ents (their shots hit trees in the forests near the center of the map).
At this point, the battle was largely decided. Soviet infantry were seen running forward as we began to push along the South edge of the Northern AoA, as per our Course of Action outlined above, but as it happened, they were just bringing a request for ceasefire from the beleaguered Soviet commander.
The situation at the end - The rightmost plume of smoke is joint between our armoured car and its assailant. On the MSR, at the left of the image, smoke drifts from the last T-34, after an HE round hits it from one of our Heavy Armoured Cars intending to scatter its crew. Reinhardt, at the centre, still unbuttoned (he did not close his hatches once!) bounds forward to the central farm complex, where one armoured car watches for enemies to the front or in the farm.
The battle was short (12 mins in-game!) and bloody (my brother had lost all his armour and a few of his infantry by the end). AAR points for this from my end include :
Experienced German armour is worth far more than its weight in gold. Reinhardt alone bagged near enough to half of the enemy armoured company, all from largely the same position in the Southern AoA.
Good positioning wins the day. For one reason or another, I managed to occupy all Key Terrain I had identified as essential to controlling all 3 AoAs very early on. This meant that, first off, a whole section of tanks was destroyed before the Soviets knew what hit them in the South, and second, that the Soviet SPG, potentially a threat in the right position, was able to be eliminated by our King Tiger quite comfortably when it moved late into the Central AoA. Overwatch on all three major areas was key to our success.
This map was neatly divided and largely open, chosen based on a thumbnail and my brother's mention of a "Kursk" theme. It didn't quite lead to a large battle, and wasn't conducive to much maneuver - positioning at the start largely dictated the winner. On other terrain his numbers may have been able to spread out more and exploit the fact that most of my force was very lightly armed and armoured.
From my point of view, AAR points for the Soviets include :
The decision to cut through the woods partway through the battle was unexpected, and may have been the most decisive action of the combat, had it been done with more force. This kind of non-linear thinking may have allowed the Soviets to severely hamper my forces, or even defeat them, had they not already been largely crippled within the first 5 minutes of fighting by losing an entire arm of their attack.
The Soviets should have selected effective firing positions and occupied them immediately, or else focused their large numbers in one location for a breakthrough. Separating their forces at the start makes sense for probing all areas of the defense, but staggering losses in all locations meant that they were unable to re-coalesce for combat, and delayed movement (or something) at the start meant they were caught in the open when they tried to move forward.
Better use of their (seemingly numerous) infantry resources, which appear to have been kept in reserve for most of the battle, for reconnaissance or screening of their armour, may have allowed the Soviets more flexibility as well as more intelligence about my positions. If he intended a slower deployment of his armour, accompanying their advance with infantry would have provided more targets for me at the very least.
All in all, as I said, it was a fairly one-sided affair, but I hope it provides an interesting look into the Combat Mission games. Once my computer is up and running again, we intend to get another game going, and it's my intention to document it much like I did this one, potentially posting each round in more detail as the game progresses.
Farewell for now!
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