AAR- Tankovy Vs Fallschirmjagers - Break Out

In our final game in the build up to Corrivalry myself and Winner Dave decided to try out the  Break Out mission from Wargames Illustrated as it's one of the possible missions for the weekend. Dave was using his Fallschirmjagers (as his Soviet army for the weekend is still not quite finished) so I would be attacking. The mission itself looks quite interesting with the defenders reserves coming on behind the attacker. So Dave picked a table edge to defend and we got got started.

6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment Von Der Heydte+ 2 Trap Teams HQ + 3 Panzerschrecks Full FJ Platoon + Faust Full FJ Platoon + Faust Short Mortars Short Scouts 3 Pak 40s 3 StuHs 4 Heavy Mortars

Tankovy HQ Matilda 10 Matildas 10 Matildas 10 Stuarts 4 SU 122's 5 SU 100's Short Spetnaz Limited Sturmokiv

Please Note:- In the text for the mission it says that the defender is in Delayed Reserves, but in the special rules it says Reserves. It has been decided for the weekend that the mission will use Reserves and I think thats how it should be played.

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

Dave leaves a few guys pocking out of the woods to shut down any infiltration ideas I had. He keeps both sets of mortars, the scouts and the StuH's in reserve.

My left flank.

The SU-100's next to the Stuarts.

The center of my line

And finally the right flank.

TURN 1

The Matildas spend no time charging towards the FJ's in the woods.

The Spetsnaz hide behind the Church

The Su-100's turn to face any danger from the StuH's in reserves.

The Stuarts zip up the flank.

Dave springs his Tank Teams...

...and take out a Stuart and Bail another one. 

TURN 2

The Matildas enter the wood and 3 bog,,, this would be a recurring theme! 

The middle Matildas find it easier going with no woods in the way.

The Stuarts surround the trap teams.

The SU-122's open up on the one FJ base they can see, killing the base 4 times!

The Stuarts MG up one of the trap teams...

...and assault the other one. (Again two bog)...

...and another one bails on the way out.

Dave's StuH's arrive from reserve.

The StuH's then get revenge on the Stuarts destroying two of them.

TURN 3

The Matildas stay still to open up with their ROF 3 main guns!

The Spetsnaz move up to the buildings near the woods.

The SU's move up to get a shot at the Panzerschecks.

The Matildas in the middle get closer.

The Stuarts finally finish the flanking maneuver 

The MG's from the Matildas take out another FJ base.

The Sturmokiv shows up and bails a StuH's (Man I'm really starting to hate this guy!)

The situation after my turn. 

The bailed StuH remounts and kills another Stuart.

TURN 4

The Spetsnaz jump into the building to lift GTG next turn.

The Matildas AT guns finally get some results with their main guns.

The SU's breakthrough guns take out a panzerscheck 

And the Stuarts add their weight to the casualties.

The firepower ends with the middle Matildas getting two more kills.

In Daves Turn his mortars turn up and dive into a wood to not make an easy kill.

The Heavy Mortars (which turned up the turn before but I forgot to get a photo) dig in and bombard the SU-100's but fail to range in.

The StuH's redeploy to avoid the SU-100's.

Dave gets saucy and looks for an easy kill. 

The Pak40's try to stop the bleeding of Dave's infantry by popping out and having a pop. The one to the right bogs (you can just see the base in the picture)

The StuH's get another Stuart reducing them to below half strength but they Stuarts pass their morale test.

Dave's Panzerschrecks bail a Matilda.

The FJ's assault the Spetsnaz but the defensive fire just pins them and then Dave fails 4 of the 5 saves!

TURN 5 

The Stuarts move up for the assault.

As do the Matildas on the flank, and none of them bog! (yet)

The Spetnaz get ready to assault the observer.

The SU-100's take a few shots at the StuH's but fail o hit anything.

The Stuarts assault (and yes one bogged...) sorry about the picture not matter what I did
to it, it wouldn't rotate around...

Dave counter attacks and drives the Stuarts away, capturing the bogged and bailed tanks. Again the Stuarts pass their morale test.

The Spetsnaz assault the observer.

But the FJ's counter attack... that may have been a mistake on my part.

The Matildas go in one bogs, this wouldn't be the last in this assault.

The Matildas take a toll on the FJ's, Dave gets unlucky with his attacks and two bounce off the Matildas.

But the Matildas counter attack again this time wipe out the platoon.

The it all goes wrong when 3 more tanks bog...  so the platoon is left with 2 active, 1 destroyed, 2 bailed and 5 Bogged!

Dave keeps the objective alive by moving two infantry bases over.

The Pak40 pops out to shot the Stuarts.

The Heavy Mortars range in on the SU-100's but cause no damage.

The StuH's again target the Stuarts destroying two of them...

The last one finally fails it's morale test and routs. On my turn the Spetsnaz pass their man alone test and Dave calls the game.

As always a good fun game with Winner, the game ended 5-2 but could have been 4-3 or even 3-4 with all my bog rolls or "The Battle of the Bogged Wood" as myself and Dave will remember it. Dave did think about going in for an assault when my Matildas bogged the first time they enter the woods, but I would have still had 15 shots and I'm not sure it would have been that good of an idea. We both really liked the mission and want to play it again. I'm thinking of replacing Surrounded with it when we roll for missions at home as that's my least favourite mission. I would recommend that you all give the mission a go.

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