Assault on Kiev GAME 2 AAR

From April 9th:

The Germans have once again run headlong into an unmoving slavic wall. I changed my army build a bit and altered my tactics significantly, but to no avail -- once again,
Kritikalfailure prevented my boys from crossing the center line (we're gonna go ahead and call it now, he cheated me out of the centerline by dishonorably placing his minefield forward of his deployment zone. Oh, so so low...) Unlike last time, I made every effort to come to grips with the enemy as quickly as possible -- those tanks would have been assaulting by turn 3, with infantry support available. If only we'd had, ya know, any motivation. At all. All day. The way it played out, I had a strong platoon holding my right side, with another panzergrenadier platoon, a full panzer platoon, and AA support on the left. A MG platoon was pulling slowly up the rear, hopeing to assist either side and exploit which ever got though. A band of scounts in schwimwaggons also hoped in vain to find a way of sneeking around the foot-and-a-half deep soviet formations.

The minefield again became the focal choke point of the game. Those tans just rolled right up to it and sat. For three turns they failed every attempt to get them to just move
forward. Meanwhile, both platoons of panzergrenadiers moved into position on either flank while the MGs set up shop in the center of town. For some reason, those few little schwimwaggons make him all nervous on the other side of the table, but they never really did anything (mostly beause I forgot to use any of their special rules, which would really have helped since he spent all day hiding in his holes). Here's what my left flank looked like:



The way it played out, I had a strong platoon holding my right side, with another panzergrenadier platoon, a full panzer platoon, and AA support on the left. A MG platoon was pulling slowly up the center, hopeing to assist either side and exploit which ever got though. A band of scouts in schwimwaggons also hoped in vain to find a way of sneaking around the foot-and-a-half deep soviet formations. The minefield again became the focal choke point of the game. Those tanks just rolled right up to it and sat. For three turns they failed every attempt to get them to just move forward. Meanwhile, both platoons of panzergrenadiers moved into position on either flank while the MGs set up shop in the center of town. For some reason, those few little schwimwaggons make him all nervous on the other side of the table, but they never really did anything (mostly because I forgot to use any of their special rules, which would really have helped since he spent all day hiding in his holes).

For clarity, I want to make this point explicit -- by turn 3, both platoons of PzG and the panzers were sitting within charging range of the enemy. And there they sat all freakin' afternoon. I spent 4 turns trying to someone, anyone, to just walk forward. Just cross the center line (ok, the scouts did get accross the line, only to be disintegrated by AT fire that I could have disengaged from but forgot to). He'd pinned both platoons of infantry with artillery strikes, and they just never unpinned. Ever. And the tanks just sat there, totally uninterested in crossing the minefield. So for three turns I sat within spitting distance of him, shooting at reduced rates of fire, wishing to all things remotely holey that someone would just grow a pair and go forward.



In an act of courage bordering on insanity, by CiC made a desperate bid to rally his
troopers. Joining the panzer platoon, he lead the assault from his halftrack. That's right, with one tank down to artillery he lead from the front, pulling the Mounted Assault into the teeth of greatly superior numbers. Well, that FINALLY got someone moving. One more tank blew in the mine field, and then we started killing. For a few brief seconds, it was glorious. Then they were torn to pieces; as soon as the CiC died, it was pretty much over. And then time ran out. Like some kind of union gig, as soon as the clock rung Turn 6 my boys (3 platoons at 100%, 2 hurtin' but still ready to contribute) just packed up and went home.

This one really hurt. I don't mind loosing when I do something stupid or the other guy does something brilliant. But I can't stand to loose, to the clock, because I just couldn't make the motivation rolls to unpin. Sticks in my craw. Now, I don't think I could have taken the objective and held it, BUT if I hadn't been cheated out of the center line by the dastardly misplaced minefield I would at least have had something across the center line to keep the clock running long enough to take the victory points at least to a 5-2, if not a 4-3. I don't feel beaten by his army. I feel beaten by the scenario and the dice.