AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai V Soviet Heavy Tankovy Batalon- Fighting Withdrawal

As you may have seen I painted up 9 T-35's for our good friend Army Dave for the Welsh Open. Having got them finished and having never used a T-35 before it seemed rude not to have a quick game before they were packed up and sent to Dave. So myself and Winner Dave (yes we have a lot of Daves) continue our Japanese-Russo battles, we rolled up Fighting Withdrawal and set about playing the game.

Japanese Infantry (FV) HQ + Banner Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 2 Type-38 75mm Guns 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Soviet Heavy Tank Batalion HQ T-35 4 T-35s 2 T-35s 2 T-35s 9 KhT-26 Sporadic I-153

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The table

Dave's infantry deploy far forward.

The Heavy artillery hold Dave's objectives.

A infantry platoon holds the middle objective

And a tank platoon covers the far objective

While the last platoon of tanks is held near the middle as a tactical reserve.

The two Short T-35 attack up the middle

While the left flank is heavily weighted with 5 T-35 and the flank tanks. 

TURN 1

The Soviets move out and take a few pot shots.

The Japanese take no casualties and the right flank platoon pulls back
from the advancing Soviets keeping the flames out of range. The Heavy
Artillery stays GTG

The Right flank tanks move out.

TURN 2

The Soviets keep up the pressure.

One platoon of T-35 get frisky.

While the other short platoon covers them

The Soviet Air Force turns up (remembered to roll this turn!)

The Large T-35's and flame tanks shot up the infantry in the open scoring
11 hits but Dave only fails one save...

The Plane makes up for it by taking out a tank and bailing another.

The frisky T-35's charge in but miss 

The Japanese counter attack

and one of the human bullets blows himself up!

But does take out one of the T-35's.

In the next round another human bullet dies but bails a T-35...

...destroying the platoon.

In Dave's turn he ambushes with the AT Guns.

His center platoon moves towards the Soviet left flank.

Realizing the Soviet Air Force is around the tanks head towards the woods
for cover. 

The At Guns open up and destroy 4 flame tanks...

...then the Heavy artillery joins in...

Destroying two more and bailing one. The platoon holds.

TURN 3

Realizing the game was about to slip away from them the Soviets rush
forward.

The T-35's focus on the AT Guns and Tank platoon.

The Seagull returns and attacks the AT Guns.

Finally the remaining short platoon focuses on the AT Guns (the AT Guns
feel a little picked on!)

The T-35's open up at the guns and tanks.

Destroying a tank but causing no damage to the at guns.

After taking shots from 4 different tanks the Seagull finally does some
damage by killing the command team.... not the team I wanted to take out!

After failing to cause any damage with the flame throwers the Soviet Flame
tanks charge in but again make a mess of it and completely miss...

The Japanese counter attack and bail both tanks...

... wiping the platoon out.

The T-35's decide to go in.

killing one base

Two more human bullets die at the cost of bailing one of the tanks.

And the T-35's withdraw.

In Daves turn the AT Guns and artillery target the T35's

Killing three of them and cause a platoon morale check which they fail. On
my next turn the army is below half strength and without a Battalion
commander auto rout.

So 6-1 to Winner, I made a few mistakes in the mission but the more I think about it the more I think the Japanese are going to be hell to shift in the defense in Fighting Withdrawal. You can't break them as if they fail their morale test they just stay on the objectives they are defending! So you need to kill them all... Don't think this is the army for that. Take nothing away from Dave he played the mission well, slowing me down by pulling back from the front line. He also learnt the lesson from the last game we had of not letting two platoons assault the same platoon. I do think he should have assaulted the 2 T-35s on the flank once my middle platoon had been wiped out and when we talked after the game he did say he was thinking about that. But hell he got a 6-1 so it wouldn't have made that big a difference. I do think the T-35 can be a great tank for the Soviets but I'm not sure you need 3 platoons of them, maybe some T28's might be more useful.... Thanks and until next time Ben

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.