Firestorm Bagration Campaign - Games Three and Four

Game 3 Tankovy Vs Panzer Company - Free For All 

For my (Dave) next attack, we headed south to put pressure on the flank.  I attacked the region of Karpilov, which meant I faced 0 firestorm troops, but had access to a Sturmovik and some great big artillery. I again got Free for All, the campaign seems waited to mostly play Free For All so we might have to do something about mixing it up a bit.

Panzer Comapny 2 Panzer IV's 4x Panzer IV's 5x Panzer IV's King Tiger 4x Nebs

Tankovy HQ T-34/85 10x T-34/85 10x T-34/85 4x BA-10 1x 152mm Artillery + Observer (Firestorm Troops) Limited Sturmokiv (Firestorm Troops)

Okay I have photos this time, but you can tell the difference between my camera phone and Ben's :(

My deployment, you can see the big central hill that formed the battleground of mine and Alex's last game.
Guys on the right are going to hold the objectives, whilst left flank pushes hard with Artillery and plane support.

Paul's scary King Tiger and Panzer IVs on my right

Paul's other Panzer platoon, Nebs, CinC and 2ic...this'll be where the action goes down.

A huge platoon of T34/85s is about one thing forward momentum, well that and leaving gaps for your guys to shoot through.  Vets, in cover, plus hean and chicks means i'm on 6's.  The PzIv in flames was the only one within 16".  Arty failed to do anything and I didn't get a plane.

Paul's return fire...unfortunately he repositioned his tanks ever so slightly.  So was on single shots...really needed two dice per tank here.  So only 1 bail for Paul.

King Tiger and PzIVs start to apply pressure on the right.  I aim to be an annoying git and stay hidden as much as possible.  FYI we play hills block LOS despite what you can actually see.

No Hen and Chicks this time, so that was 18 dice I think on 5s.  Plus a squeeze of heavy duty arty and it's smoking panzers...yummy.  On the right Paul continued the advance and I shoot up the panzers and get enough kills to make the platoon rout.

Time to deliver the Coup de Grace.

Only one way to kill a King Tiger...4 tickle his tummy.

I'm being a complete git here, I don't grab the objective...I want the table.

Having firestorm troops when your opponent doesn't have any is a touch unfair...however the plane and arty didn't do a great deal...however I am going to buy some as their power is awesome. There's not an awful lot to say, I wasn't facing Panthers...so that was good.  I think Paul should have been more cautious with the Panzers as they are quite delicate and placed his KT centrally to dominate the battlefield.  As it was I had a clear flank to attack up and a bucket of dice to throw...kaboom!!

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Game 4 Tankovy Vs Grenadiers - Encounter

My (Ben)second game of the first day of the campaign was against Alex. I was attacking Polotsk from Dobryna, this had the added advantage of Alex having no Firestorm Troops to defned with. It would also mean if I won this game and Winner won the previous game we would have 3 breakthroughs and that would mean that in the end phase Alex and Paul would be too streached to defend all three attacks.  We rolled up Encounter, so the first 4 games were all Free for All or Encounter!

Grenadier Company HQ + Shreck Full Grens + Faust Full Grens + Faust 4x Mortars 2x Pak40's 2x Pak40's 5x StuGs 1x T-34/85 (Trained) 3x Nebs 2x Flak 38 1x Falk 38 (Kampfgruppe)

Tankovy HQ T-34/76 10x T-34/76 10x T-34/76 2x Decoy Panthers 4x Su-122 3x M17 AA 4x SU-85M 2x IS-2 (Firestorm Troops) Limited Sturmokiv (Firestorm Troops)

Alex waited for me to attack, so I rushed forward as fast as possible.

Alex had left his Pak 40's Gone To Ground but a few lucky hits wiped out
both platoons in a couple of turns!

With the Pak40's dead the IS-2's go for the assault.

It goes a little wrong but the SU-122's move up to protect them

With the Pak40's gone the T-34's go objective hunting.

See as the Su-122's have no MG's Alex charges at them.

The SU-122's get flanked by as the StuG's arrive from reserve and are
wiped out alone with the IS-2.

The Soviet Panthers take out the German T-34/85!?!

Caught between a rock and a hard place the German infantry fight to the
death

But our wiped out to a man and that gives the game to the Soviets 4-3

Polotsk is now back in Soviet hands.

So 4-3 to the Soviets.  That was close in the end, the StuG's out flanking the IS-2 and SU-122s really hurt me and they also almost took the objective. The lose of the Pak40's so early was a big lose for Alex, it meant I could just move around without having to worry about it. No Firestorm troops died, after the game.  We rolled up the next game and the Germans won the inititive and choose to counter attack Polotsk from Borizov. The Germans need a victory or are in danger of a second pincer surrounding them.

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